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Guildeluëc and the Virgin Mary: Legitimizing the Abbess as Holy Mother

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Abstract

While Eliduc has been interpreted according to the salvation Guildeluëc provides through her intervention in Guilliadun’s death, we read her character specifically against the backdrop of the Cult of the Virgin Mary, which was enjoying popular and ecclesiastical participation in the twelfth century. In her tripartite embodiment of virgin, widow, and wife, her non-corporeal “birth” of Guilliadun, and her capacity for healing, Guildeluëc, in her role as abbess, parallels the virtues of the Virgin Mary. Marie de France uses the cultural reverence for Mary as mother of God to authorize Guildeluëc’s authority, and her rhetorical omission of the paternalistic power structure of the Church enables her readers to consider the spiritual authority of female leadership in the high Middle Ages.

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Notes

  1. See B. Fitz (1974), The Storm Episode and the Weasel Episode: Sacrificial Casuistry in Marie de France’s Eliduc, D. Nelson (1978), The Implications of Love and Sacrifice in ‘Fresne’ and ‘Eliduc’, and (1981) Eliduc’s Salvation, M. Oancă (2015), Marie de France’s Eliduc – A Repentant Sinner: Guildeluëc’s Cultural Memory as a Means of Spiritual Progress, and U. Vishnuvajjala, (2017) Adventure, Lealté, and Sympathy in Marie de France’s Eliduc.

  2. We use the word ‘revival’ here because the ruling on Mary as theotokos, or ‘mother of God’ at the Council of Ephesus in 381 appears to be the first major institutional recognition of Mary’s role in human salvation, later followed by a ninth century reappearance in France, especially among the royal family. The adoration of Mary in the twelfth century was another pinnacle in the history of Mariology. For more on the development of Christian devotion to Mary, see C. Leyser (2011), C. Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages, and R. Gilchrist (2012), Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course, p. 155.

  3. ‘Eliduc’ fu primes nomez, / mes ore est li nuns remuёz, / kar des dames est avenu / l’aventure dunt lais fu. (ll. 23–6) All citations of the Old French are from Warnke (1990), and all translations in modern English are from Burgess and Busby (1999).

  4. Usha Vishnuvajjala’s work, mentioned in the first footnote, explicates the strategy Eliduc uses to pursue Guilliadun while maintaining, in letter if not in spirit, fidelity to his wife Guildeluëc.

  5. Uns des eschipres haltement / s’est escriëz: ‘Que faimes nus? / sire, ça enz avez od vus / cele par qui nus perissuns. / Ja mes a terre ne vendruns! / Femme leial espuse avez / e sur celi alter en menez / cuntre Deu e cuntre la lei, / cuntre dreiture e cuntre fei. (ll. 830–38).

  6. Desur sun vis cheï pasmee, / tute pale, desculuree. / En la pasmeisun demura, / qu’el ne revint ne suspira. / Cil ki ensemble od lui l’en porte / quidot pur veir qu’ele fust morte. (ll. 855–8).

  7. In 431 at the Council of Ephesus, the doctrine of Christ’s total humanity and divinity was solidified, and Mary was entitled Theotokos or Dei genetrix, Mother of God (Leyser 2011, p. 26). Although debates about Christ’s essence and parentage occurred after this ruling, the Catholic Church’s stance has held that Mary, indeed, was a virgin when she gave birth to a child fathered by God. But her role in theology and even her physical status fueled discussion for centuries.

  8. Also see Sermons 7.2, 8.1, 8.6, and 8.7.

  9. [K]ar a sa feme aveit premis, / ainz qu’il turnast de sun païs, / que il n’amereit se li nun (ll. 463–465).

  10. [D]e li veeir e de parler / e de basier e d’acoler (ll. 471–472).

  11. With the exceptions of Yonec and Milun, none of the other lovers of the lays in BL Harley 978 produce children. However, the romantic love and sexual desire between lovers is made clear.

  12. [S]un seignur a a raisun mis; / cungié li a rové e quis / qu’ele puisse de lui partir, / nune vuelt ester, Deu servir; / de sa terre li doint partie / u ele face une abeïe. (ll.1120–1126).

  13. Pres del chastel enz el boscage / a la chapele a l’ermitage, / la a fet faire sun mustier / e ses maisuns edifiër (ll.1131–1134). Emphasis ours.

  14. Grant terre i met e grant aveir: / bien i avra sun estuveir. / Quant tut a fet bien aturner, / la dame i fet sun chief veler, / trente nuneins ensemble od li; / sa vie e sun ordre establi (ll. 1135–1144).

  15. Bynum notes that Bernard of Clairvaux, who conceived of his position of abbot as maternal, understood his role as providing the education and care for the brothers in his order, (1982, p. 115).

  16. Ensemble od sa femme premiere / mist sa femme que tant ot chiere. / El la receut cum sa serur / e mult li porta grant honur (ll. 1165–1169).

  17. E sa femme le cuneiva. / Forment demeine grant dolor / al departir de sun seignur; / mes il l’aseüra de sei / qu’il li portera bone fei (ll. 80–84).

  18. Mult se teneit a malbailli, / kar a sa femme aveit premis, / ainz qu’il turnast de sun païs, / que il n’amereit se li nun. / Ore est sis quers en grant prisun. / Sa leialté voleit guarder; / mes ne s’en puet niënt oster / que il nen eint la dameisele, / Guilliadun (ll. 462–470).

  19. Mult ai pur vus mun quer dolent. / Le jur que jeo vus enforrai, / ordre de moigne recevrai (ll. 946–948).

  20. Ensemble vesquirent meint jur, / mult ot entre els parfite amur. / Granz almosnes e granz biens firent, / tant que a Deu se cunvertirent (ll. 1149–1152).

  21. In her Prologue, Marie writes that obscure texts encourage readers to search for meaning and write glosses, implying that her texts should also be read with an eye to interpretation: “It was customary for the ancients, in the books which they wrote (Priscian testifies to this), to express themselves very obscurely so that those in later generations, who had to learn them, could provide a gloss for the text and put finishing touches to their meaning.” (Custume fu as anciëns, / ceo testimonie Preciëns, / es livres que jadis faiseient / assez oscurement diseient / pur cels ki a venir esteient / e ki aprendre les deveient, / que peüssent gloser la letre / e de lur sen le surplus metre (ll. 9–16).).

  22. For example, the abbess at Fontevrault held complete authority not just of the double monastery, but all dependent priories. In addition to administrator, she was considered their spiritual mother. The house, apparently, held “no ties of obedience to the local bishop” (Ranft 1996, pp. 46–47).

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  1. Virginia Military Institute, Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies, Lexington, VA, USA

    Kimberly Tate Anderson

  2. Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, USA

    Danielle Gilbert

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Kimberly Tate Anderson as first author, Danielle Gilbert as second.

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Anderson, K.T., Gilbert, D. Guildeluëc and the Virgin Mary: Legitimizing the Abbess as Holy Mother. Neophilologus 106, 25–37 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-021-09701-w

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