Yonec *** Marie de France

The story starts exploring one of Marie’s main characteristics on her poems: adventure. Yonec is the story about a rich man who was well known as the Lord of the land due the amount of land that he once owned. He was an old and rich man that was looking for a wife that could provide him a sun to pass his inheritance. After finding a beautiful wife, he locks her away because of her beauty allowing only his wife’s older sister to see her. His attitude can be explained with his fear to lose his wife. She is locked for seven years making it impossible for her to procreate a child and as a result she loses her beauty and get really depressed crying all the time and wishes to death . After falling in love with a knight that put a lot of effort to see her while she was locked, the woman recover her beauty and happiness. Her husband unlocks her and Yonic is born as a result of her relationship between the Knight that she fell and her. Yonic was raised by the rich Lord didn’t have acknowledge he wasn’t his own son. The danger of selfish love is one of the main themes that Marie explores this story. I was under the impression while reading the story that the Knight and his world are not real on this world, this also can been seen on Lanval.