Note 17 — A TWELFTH-CENTURY ROMANCE-WRITER, MARIE DE FRANCE
Reading edition
M. Gaston Paris (Poésie du Moyen Age, vol. ii.), in recalling various legends of “Le Mari aux deux femmes,” suggests that the present story, borrowed by Marie from Celtic tradition, is probably of Occidental, and not Oriental, origin, since in the polygamous East the story of two wives would not have furnished a sufficient motive for a special narration.