The French poet Marie de France (active late 12th century) was an accomplished writer of lais and was probably the originator of that form. Marie de France is one of those authors whose work is well known but whose life is largely conjectural. Her status...

A poet, storyteller, and translator who clearly establishes her ambitions and credentials on the side of the moderns, Marie de France is one of the finest writers of the twelfth-century Renaissance and the first woman poet whose name has come down throug...