Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 13409
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Whittaker , Eve M.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Marie de France's "Eliduc": The Play of "Aventure"
  • Source: Medieval Encounters: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue 6, 40181 ( 2000): Pages 3 - 57.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Chess in Literature Guildeluec (Literary Figure) Guilliadun (Literary Figure) Literature- Verse Marie de France, Poet- Lais- Eliduc Women in Literature
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles;France
  • Century: 12
  • Primary Evidence:
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  • Abstract: This work proposes that for "Eliduc," the culminating statement of her "Lais," Marie de France selected a metaphor which was then new to Christianity: the game of chess. Eliduc is a "chess morality," marking the transition between the Muslim game and its varieties in Western Europe. Like its Muslim ancestor, but explicating a central Christian text, it teaches philosophical consideration of human life in this world. This paper demonstrates the correspondences between the story of "Eliduc" and the twelfth century game of chess: its ancestry, objectives, strategies, and equipment, and then describes the game, as it proceeds, of the adult lives of three people. [Reproduced by permission of Brill Academic Publishers.]
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  • Author's Affiliation:
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2000.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 13807854