Paper #4: Final Exam, “All You Need is Love” (?)

The Song of the Volsungs and Marie de France’s Lais

Romantic love is one of the great themes of modern literature. In the ancient past, men loved their wives and vice versa (Odysseus and Penelope, for instance) but it’s more difficult to find stories of romantic love between people who are not already promised to one another, or are merely divine incarnations of married couples (Rama and Sita, for example). What makes Volsungs and Lais so compelling is how romantic love between two consenting adults is not merely a throw-away detail or a side plot, but the very crux of the story itself. Without Brynhild’s love for Sigurd, the Volsungs stops dead in its tracks. And can you imagine a single story of Marie de France without two people who fall madly in love at first sight?

Q: Based on these two books, what is the medieval conception of romantic love? Is it a condition to strive for? Does it make the world go round? Would they agree that “all you need is love”? Or is it a sickness, an infection, a cankerous wound that infects everything it touches? Are they defending a modern notion of the importance of romantic love to medieval society? Or are they critiquing the cults of chivalric love that seek to undermine the civilized world?

Consider, too, that both authors are Christians, in a post-pagan world, so couldn’t simply write down stories verbatim without changing them up (so, for example, the portrayal of love in the stories has to be edited, if not created, by them). Do both authors seem to agree on the role of love in human relationships? Or is one more pragmatic than the other? Also, is romantic love a more “Christian” or “Pagan” concept? Where does it fit better?

REQUIREMENTS

• You must discuss/quote from both books, though you can focus more on one than another
• No secondary sources required, but feel free to use them (Introductions from each book, articles from EBSCO, books from our library, etc.)
• Cite works properly according to MLA format, like so: In Marie de France’s “Lanval,” she writes that, "insert quote here..." (82). This is important because... (introduce quotes, cite properly, and respond to quotations with your own ideas--don't just let a quotation sit there unattended). 
• DUE BEFORE OR NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13^th BY 5pm