Sir Launfal is a late 14th-century ROMANCE in a
southeastern dialect of MIDDLE ENGLISH, generally
categorized (like SIR ORFEO and the LAI LE FREINE)
as a Breton LAI. The poem contains 1,044 lines in
12-line TAIL-RHYME stanzas, and is the best known
of several Middle English retellings of MARIE DE
FRANCE’s well-known 12th-century lai of LANVAL.
Sir Launfal is the only identified production by the
poet who calls himself Thomas Chestre, of whom
nothing else is known. Based on style and language,
some scholars have suggested that Chestre is
also the author of the romance called LIBEAUS DESCONUS,
but this is only conjecture.
Sir Launfal follows the general plot outline of
Marie’s Lanval, but with some alterations that show
the Middle English poem to be less a courtly than a
bourgeois entertainment. It begins by introducing
the protagonist, Launfal, as a very courteous knight
of King ARTHUR’s Round Table. Launfal, however, is
slighted by Queen GUENEVERE, and leaves the court,
taking up lodging with the mayor of the city of
Caerleon. Here, his natural generosity eventually
impoverishes him, so that he does not even have decent
clothing to wear. One day he rides off by himself
into the woods, where he is surprised to be
invited by two beautiful ladies-in-waiting into the
pavilion of a fairy princess named Tryamour. She
promises to be his love, provides him with a purse
with an endless supply of cash, promises to make
him victorious in any knightly battles, and pledges
to come to him whenever he calls to her—but all
on the condition that their love remain completely
secret. Should Launfal reveal her existence to anyone,
he will forfeit her love and all her gifts.
From this point, Launfal regains his noble reputation,
and he returns to Arthur’s court as a prosperous
and respected knight. The queen, however,
becomes attracted to Launfal and makes sexual advances
to him.When he rebuffs her, Guenevere becomes
angry, declares he must not be attracted to
women at all, and accuses him of homosexuality.
The incensed Launfal answers that he has a mistress
whose lowliest maid is more beautiful than the
queen. Stung, the queen goes to King Arthur and accuses
Launfal of treason. She tells the king that
Launfal tried to seduce her and repeats his insulting
words.
Launfal is brought to trial and ordered to produce
his mistress so that the court can judge her
beauty compared with that of the queen. But
Launfal has lost his love. She will no longer appear
to him because he has broken his vow not to boast
of her. But at the last moment, Tryamour appears
at the trial. She reveals the truth of Guenevere’s
guilt, and when she breathes on the queen’s eyes,
Guenevere becomes blind. In the end Tryamour
rides off with Launfal to the fairy land of Olyroun,
where they live happily forever.
Scholars speculate that Sir Launfal was based not
directly on Marie’s Lanval but on a lost intermediary
translation. Some of the changes, such as Guenevere’s
ill treatment of Launfal in the beginning and
her blinding in the end, are intended simply to further
vilify the queen and provide for her a “just”
punishment. Some additions, like the tournament
scene and Launfal’s battle with Sir Valentine, seem
added to appeal to a romance audience expecting
adventure and feats of arms. But the biggest change
from Marie’s courtly lai is the bourgeois sensitivity
displayed in the narrator’s fascination with unlimited
wealth and possessions. Launfal’s lodging with
the wealthy burgesses of Caerleon is just another indication
of the poet’s appropriating a courtly genre
for a middle-class audience.
Bibliography
Anderson, Earl R. “The Structure of Sir Launfal,” Papers
on Language and Literature 13 (1977): 115–124.
Martin, B. K. “Sir Launfal and the Folktale,”Medium
Ævum 35 (1966): 199–210.
Miles, M.“The Composition and Style of the ‘Southern’Octavian,
Sir Launfal, and Libeaus Desconus,”
Medium Ævum 31 (1962): 88–109.
Nappholz, Carol J. “Launfal’s ‘Largesse’:Word-Play in
Thomas Chestre’s Sir Launfal,” English Language
Notes 25 (1988): 4–9.
Spearing, A. C.“Marie de France and Her Middle English
Adapters,” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 12
(1990): 117–156.