"The Wolf and the Sow"- Marie de France

I. Authoritative Text and Annotations

1 The Fables do not have titles in their original form. "Del lu et de la troie" is the title provided by the editor (Spiegel 14, 82). Another title which is sometimes used is "De lupo et sue" (Martin 79). Both translate to "the Wolf and the Sow."

2 Erra means "to stroll, wander or stray" in the original Anglo-Norman (Cotgrove). Cotgrove's Dictionary of the French and English Tongues does not have page numbers.

3 The word "strolled" may not mirror the original connotation of the verb "erra." It may have originally been intended to mean "to stray," which suggests that the wolf is somewhere where he should not be. This translation would also be closer to the cognate Latin verb "erro," which means "to err or wander" (Cotgrove).

4 Chemin means "a path" in Anglo-Norman (Cotgrove).

5 Saveir appears to be related to savant, a modern French word for learned (Cotgrove).

6 Sire is an Anglo-Norman appellation meaning "sir" or "master." Without an addition, such as a name or occupation, this title may only refer to a king (Cotgrove).

7 Hastereie is a form of the Anglo-Norman word meaning "to hasten" (Cotgrove).

8 Deliverer means "to deliver" in Anglo-Norman (Cotgrove).

9 This sentence translates to "Don't you know what this shows?" (Pensec).

10 Femeles is a form of the Anglo-Norman word for "female." Paired with tutes, meaning "all," it is a plural (Cotgrove).

11 Here the Anglo-Norman word hunte is translated as "degradation." This is much stronger than its previous, and more accurate, translation as "shame" (Pensec).

12 Mains is the Anglo-Norman word for "hand," in this case plural "hands" (Cotgrove).

13 Mucier is a form of the Anglo-Norman verb for "to hide" (Cotgrove).

14 Manger is a form of the Anglo-Norman verb for "to eat" (Cotgrove).

15 Engira is Anglo-Norman for "wit" or "subtlety" (Cotgrove).

16 Delivree is similar to the verb deliverer, but it is in the passive voice. Therefore, it means "to be delivered" (Cotgrove).

17 Femmes is related to femeles, but more specifically refers to wives when saying "women" (Cotgrove).

18 Retentir is translated "to ring again" in Anglo-Norman (Cotgrove).

19 The word "remember" is not precisely what the original verb says. A closer translation might be "to hear again" or "to hear often" (Cotgrove).

20 The Anglo-Norman verb mentir is translated "to lie or fib" (Cotgrove).

21 Enfanz is an Anglo-Norman word meaning "babies or children" (Cotgrove).

22 Perir means "to perish or to be lost" in Anglo-Norman (Cotgrove).

II. Differences Between the Texts

"The Wolf and the Sow" is one of Marie de France's Fables, written in the late 12 `h century. The Anglo-Norman text reproduced above is adapted from the Harley 978 manuscript, one of twenty-three manuscripts containing either incomplete or complete texts of the Fables (Spiegel 13).

The first and most obvious difference between the Norton Anthology text and the most authoritative text is that the most authoritative text is written in Anglo-Norman French. The Norton Anthology text is, therefore, merely an English translation from the original language. For this reason, there are as many interpretations of this poem as there are translators.

This is seen mainly in the differences of meaning between the Norton Anthology text and the Anglo-Norman text. Several sentences have been interpreted in a way that does not necessarily illustrate the original connotation. For example, the verb "erra" in line 1, translated "to stroll," can also mean "to stray," which implies that the wolf is somewhere that he should not be. A few other alternative translations for certain verbs are listed in the annotations. This translation appears to be quite accurate and true to the original, according to Professor Pensec, who translated the Anglo-Norman for me.

Although the Norton Anthology text and the Anglo-Norman text contain a similar translation of the moral, some other texts do not include the line "Merely to avoid a lie" (line 23). The inclusion or omission of this line creates a critical discrepancy between the texts. Without this line, the moral simply means that mothers should protect their children. With this line, the moral takes on a deeper meaning: a mother must sacrifice anything, from her dignity to her life, to protect her children from harm. This second version of the moral displays Marie's concern for women (Marechal 49-50).

The final difference I noted between the two texts dealt with punctuation. Commas were added (lines 10 and 23), omitted (lines 14 and 17) or changed (line 4) to reflect syntax differences between English and Anglo-Norman French. These changes made no noticeable difference in the meaning of the poem.

III. Biographical Sketch of the Poet

Me numeral pur remembrance: Marie ai num, si sui de France [I'll give my name for memory: Marie is my name and I am from France] (Spiegel 256).

In this manner, the Fables of the twelfth-century French poet Marie de France draw to a close. In her own words she provides the reader with the only positive biographical information the modern scholar has in reference to her. It is generally accepted that although she was from France, she was writing in England, and that she flourished in the late 12th century (Spiegel 5). Beyond this snippet there is no other extant work that identifies her with more accuracy.

One possible identity for Marie is that of Marie de Champagne, daughter of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This, however, is quite unlikely since then the appellation "de France" would be unnecessary. Another possible identity, which is much more likely, is Marie, Abbess of Shaftesbury. This Marie is identified as the daughter of Geoffrey Plantagenet, and half-sister of Henry II. There are a number of factors that contribute to the believability of this identity. First, the Abbey was founded by a certain King Alfred, who could be the "King Alfred" to whom Marie attributes the original Fables. This Marie also would have had a nephew named William (Longsword) who could be the William she refers to in the Prologue (Mickel 20-21). This lineage and position would also explain her easy access to the highest courts of England, likely including even those of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Even though scholars argue about her true identity, all agree that she was of aristocratic birth and had been well educated. Her grasp of Latin was excellent, as is evidenced by her translation of the Purgatory of St. Patrick, and it is likely that she spoke English as well as her native French. She was apparently well versed in current vernacular literature, for example Wace's Brut, Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, and the popular romance literature of the day. There is also evidence in her writing, especially the Lais, that Marie was well versed in the classical writers, most notably the works of Ovid (Mickel 21-22).

Throughout her works, Marie claims that she has only translated these works from other sources, rather than writing them herself. While this may be true, it is also true that Marie's "translated" fables take on an aspect of Marie's character that makes them something completely different from the originals. Her fables are "medievalised," and the messages they contain are Marie's adaptation of Roman literature into the medieval mindset.

The Works of Marie de France

The Lais²³

The Fables

The Purgatorv of St. Patrick

23 No exact dates are know. All of Marie's works are thought to be written in the late 12 `h century.

IV. Annotated Bibliography

Anderson, Bonnie S. and Zinsser, Judith P. A History of Their Own. Vol. 1. Is` ed. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. "Marie de France." Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 208. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.

Burgess, Glyn S. "The Fables of Marie de France: Some Recent Scholarship." French Studies Bulletin: A Quarterly Supplement . 61 (1996): 8-13.

Cotgrove, Randle. A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues, 1611. 2°d ed. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1968.
I have no idea what I would have done without this book. It was the closest thing Rolvaag had to an Anglo-Norman dictionary. Even though it wasn't always complete, and even though I still had to find a French professor to help me with the translation, the definitions in this book gave me a place to start. They tended to be a bit archaic since it was written in the early 17th century, but I think that it presented a more accurate picture of the original language than any other book I had access to.

De France, Marie. Marie de France Fables. Trans. Harriet Spiegel. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations No. 5. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987
This book provided the most authoritative text of "The Wolf and the Sow" that I was able to find. This translation was based on the Harley 978 text which is generally accepted to be the most accurate surviving manuscript. The text provided both the original Anglo-Norman text and an English translation.

Lees, Clare A., ed. Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ayes. Medieval Cultures, No. 7. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Marechal, Chantal E., ed. In Quest of Marie de France: A Twelfth-Century Poet. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
In this book I found a critical examination of "The Wolf and the Sow" which helped me to come to a better understanding of what the poem actually means. The author examined the differences between this poem and the same fable taken from the Rbmulus Nilantii and pointed out some important changes that mark Marie's version. The moral of the fable, which has at least two different forms among the surviving manuscripts, was also examined.

Martin, Mary Lou. The Fables of Marie de France. Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, Inc., 1984.

Mickel, Emanuel J. Marie de France. Twayne's World Authors Series, [No. 306]. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1974.

Pensec, Herve. Personal Interview. 6 March, 2000.

Wilson, Katharina M. Medieval Women Writers. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984.

V. Research Process

I began my research process by going on SAGE and referencing Marie de France, first by her name, and then by anything that might have been remotely associated with her. These more random topics included things like "old French," "fables" and "medieval women." I next searched Carleton, using the same search subjects. After this I went through the bibliographies in the books I had found made a list of the books and articles listed there. Armed with my list, I went back to the library and looked up the books on SAGE and MUSE. After striking out there, I looked for the articles on the MLA Bibliography. I found lots of really great articles there, but out of hundreds of journals St. Olaf and Carleton only owned five of them. This was rather discouraging, because there were so many really interesting articles there that I didn't have access to. I did find one useful article here at St. Olaf.

The next big step in my research process came when I found out I had to annotate my poem in the original language, Anglo-Norman. This presented a rather large problem, since I know German and Latin, but not French. So, it was back to the library for an Anglo-Norman dictionary. Unfortunately, neither St. Olaf nor Carleton has a good Anglo-Norman dictionary. I finally found a rather incomplete dictionary, a reprint of the 1611 Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. After I had translated as much as I possibly could on my own, I asked a friend who speaks French to help me. She took one look at the poem and informed me that the language had changed so much that she could barely read it. Nevertheless, we were able to translate some of the words that had remained similar over time.

The final step in my research process was getting in contact with a professor of French, Professor Pensec. He read the Anglo-Norman text and compared it to the English translation, and told me that they were remarkably similar. And thus my research process came to an end.

I found that SAGE and MUSE were really the best reference tools, although I never would have found the journal article without the MLA Bibliography. Neither St. Olaf nor Carleton has extensive information about Marie de France or her works, and about half of what is available is in French. They also do not get many of the journals that contained interesting-sounding articles on this topic. I was, however, able to find all my information here in Northfield.