Celtic Influence on Three Narrative Poems: A Comparative Study

Introduction

Poetic styles obviously differed greatly among early European writers. The three poems examined here capture not only the ethnicity of their respective authors but also what was thematically common in their worlds. The reader will notice a harshness in the Irish poem, a sense of romanticism in the French poem, and an almost melancholy quality in the English poem. Despite these differences, each work reflects the mindset of its era while also carrying an element of Celtic tradition.

This essay contrasts and compares the stylistic techniques of three poems, all of which share a romantic lament as their central theme: The Wife's Lament, Lanval by Marie de France, and Exile of the Sons of Uisliu (referred to as Exile throughout this paper).

Comparisons and Contrasts

Lanval, by Marie de France, uses the historical present tense in her writing, which is more common in French literature than in English. Both The Wife's Lament and Exile of the Sons of Uisliu also appear to begin in the present tense. All three poems are told by a narrator, though two of them seem to be narrated by the characters themselves.

Lanval is written in Anglo-Norman French — sometimes termed "easy" French — and places the accent on the last syllable of each word. The poem also uses eight-syllable lines arranged in rhyming pairs, a form common to the generation of French writers who invented the French verse romance. Exile, by contrast, is not written in a rhyming style, and the length of its lines varies. The Wife's Lament appears to be almost style-less and is often categorized as a vaguely narrative poem. There is little apparent structure to either the story or the poem itself; instead, it offers a condensation of the speaker's emotional state. As the title suggests, this may have been the poet's intent.

Essentially, The Wife's Lament is the story of a woman who recalls events from her past and interprets them through the lens of her present circumstances. It is not an easy poem to read: without any rhyme scheme, it reads almost like a fragment of a longer work. Critics have tended to view it as unfinished or incomplete. Suffering, separation, and passive endurance appear to be its main themes — not unlike what we find in Lanval. Lanval endures pain and suffers separation but also inflicts pain in return, unlike the speaker in The Wife's Lament.

Exile follows the pattern of many Irish tales and seems structured around sorrow and grief, told in the third person. Much of it follows Irish historical tradition combined with fiction. The language is simple, non-rhyming, and without a set pattern of line lengths. There is a gruffness in the choice of words — almost a barbaric quality — that conjures a vivid image of the characters themselves. Spells and sorcery pervade the plot, and the men and women of Ulster are portrayed as doomed and destroyed. The bloodletting is depicted in stark, unsparing terms.

In Lanval, the verse is softer; even the conflict among the Queen, Lanval's fairy mistress, and Lanval himself is presented in a relatively non-aggressive manner. This tone may be partly explained by the fact that Marie de France is believed to have been an aristocratic nun. Her poem brings to life the era of knights and the Round Table — chivalry and aristocracy. It is also worth noting that the sexual encounter in this poem is presented within a moral context, without the same crudeness found in the other two works.