Post date: Nov 22, 2016 1:17:23 PM
Raoul de Cambrai and Marie de France both talk about knights and love. In Raoul, one can see knights described as "wise and valiant" (31). They are constantly fighting the good fight, with their "hearts rejoicing for battle" and a good knight was also "well porportioned" (31,51). Similarly, Marie de France in her "Lanval" describes Lanval as having "valor", "beauty", "generosity", and "prowess" (lines 21-22). It is the hero though, and who the hero is, that distinguishes both works. In Raoul de Cambrai, the knights, the men, are the obvious heroes - even when they commit morally dubious acts. The knights, especially Raoul, are fleshed out. The reader knows and sympathizes with the knights' reasoning to go to battle and the idea of duty to lord and duty to family and honor conflict. For Raoul de Cambrai, the obvious choice for the hero is the knight.
This is not so in "Lanval". Even though Lanval himself is a knight, his actions and role in the lais is that of the "damsal in distress". He cannot do anything until "his love" comes and proves that he is telling the truth. He also is relatively helpless throughout the lais, as he tends to fall into the plot rather than drive it. The true role of the hero instead goes to Lanval's love, the mysterious maiden from Avalon. She chooses to love him and she comes in riding on a horse, dressed in finery, and accompanied by hunting animals (201). She symbolically takes the role of the knight in shining armour to rescue her beloved. Lanval joines her and they run away together.
Even though I say this, I do have to point out that misogyny is still prominent throughout both poems, and this influences even Marie de France's hero, the Maiden. The maiden does not have a name. She is defined by her looks above all else and is otherworldly - while the other plot driver is the Queen who demands recompense for a slight to her honor made by Lanval. Neither women have an actual name, and that takes away their power as autonomous humans and makes them objects or characters. In stories, the main character (or hero) has a name, and therefore power. Even though Marie de France redefines the heroic, she still follows conventions by making a man the center of the story.