What is most remarkable about the texts of The Lais of Marie de France is that they seem representative of the medieval social mind-set and so emblematic of social customs of the period. The portrayal of decorous, though sometimes perilous, experience of romance plainly comes from an aristocratic standpoint, although also from the standpoint of a supposedly socially inferior woman--inferior by sex and inferior in terms of the subservient status of a high-born wife and mother. Yet the very existence of Lais of Marie de France implies that some women were determined to be heard and that the vehicle of poetry and fiction could help them legitimate that voice.
The fact that Lais of Marie de France as a whole portrays the medieval mind-set can be seen in author's dedication to the king. That mind-set was dominated by two concepts: faith and the social requirements of feudalism. In regard to faith, the medieval period has been described as the "age of belief," for the reason that during that time Western Christendom was largely unitary in doctrine and practice; disputes over heresies and texts had been more or less disposed of before the 10th century. By the late 12th century, which appears to have been the period of Marie's literary output, religious and social customs had hardened around the structures of ecclesial and feudal hierarchies. That is reflected in the respectful tone of the dedication: "Sire, I offer you these verses. If you are pleased to receive them, the fairer happiness will be mine, and the more lightly I shall go all the days of my life" (Marie I).
A legendary feature of medieval social organization was the presence of peripatetic troubadours, who sang or told various tales to their audiences and to whom Marie refers in the first paragraph of the first tale. In invoking the minstrels, Marie is also invoking their storytelling authority to reinforce her own, at once accounting for and justifying the fact that a mere ...