Two Babies, Two Men

One thing I found so interesting in "Le Fresne" by Marie de France was the fact that she conducts a story about a woman who is expecting to give birth to twins. The twist to the story is that when the woman delivers the good news of twins to their good neighbors, the wife proclaims to the room that the only way this is possible is if she had slept with two different men. Now today we know thanks to a great education and scientific studies that a sperm splitting in two forms twins. I found it interesting how this woman could have said this. For, if I were not as educated as I am and had lived during this time, I probably would have believed the woman claiming she had to have slept with two men because I wouldn’t had known any better.

Another thing I found interesting during the lei written by Marie de France is that it is somewhat similar to the lei she wrote, the “Equitan”. In both, the women are seen as betrayers to their husbands. In both they are seen as committing adultery. The difference is that in “Equitan”, she did in fact commit adultery and cheated on her husband. However, in “La Fresne”, she is only accused when she really didn’t sleep with two men. Unfortunately the woman is unable to prove her innocence and is looked at poorly by her community and she gives away one of the two children.