Laustic

Marie de France’s Laustic can be interpreted in different ways. The story is about two knights that live next door to each other. The one knight has a wife who he loves, and the other does not have a wife but is a very eligible bachelor, however, the wife of the knight is in love with the chivalrous knight next door. There is clearly a lot of symbolism when it comes to the nightingale. Some people may see the nightingale as symbol of doom, while others see it as a symbol of love. When I think of a nightingale I think of beauty and peace, but personally in this lai, I saw the nightingale as a symbol of doom. I feel as though the nightingale sent a message to the lady about how this adultery was going to end: in death.

The lady at the end of the lai sends the dead nightingale to her lover as a message. The message being that they could never be together and if they continue doing what they are doing, it will end in tragedy. The knight realizes this immediately and puts the dead bird in a reliquary. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, reliquary is “a container that is used to hold holy objects”. The knight, wanting to hold on to his love for as long as he can, puts the dead nightingale in a reliquary to preserve their love as they can no longer be together.