The story of Lanval is unusual for its time. A helpless outcast knight meets a beautiful and magical woman. The only end to their love, set by the anonymous woman, is that Lanval cannot talk to anyone about her. When he breaks this rule and offends Queen Guinevere, he must rely on his lover to save him, and she does. In this poem, the woman is the hero; the woman controls Lanval's fate. Lanval is an example of courtly love, a term used to describe certain values ​​in medieval European literature. With courtly love, the woman traditionally controls the affair; however, I believe that female control goes far beyond this subgenre. The power of women, in Lanval, is not only manifested through the plot. After all, Lanval's final scene from Marie de France uses common poetic conventions, such as word choice and imagery, to explore the power women held in a time when men were often the heroes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Lanval's destiny is entirely in the magical woman's control, an arrangement that shows her ultimate power. Lanval asks for her help when he says, “It matters not who kills me, / if she does not pity me” (599-600). Without this woman's compassion, Lanval is doomed. What's even more surprising is that Lanval doesn't care about his fate if it doesn't include this woman. This state of mind reverses the common theme of the damsel in distress found in literature of the period. Not only is the woman responsible for their love affair, but she is ultimately responsible for Lanval's outcome. Instead of the woman needing Lanval, he needs her. By reversing traditional roles and giving women immense power, Marie de France warns men not to underestimate the power a woman can have; a man's life could one day be in the hands of a woman. Additionally, the woman's first entry into King Arthur's court demonstrates her power over the masses. Several lines indicate that the crowd is smitten with her: "Such beauty had never come" to the palace before, a statement that testifies to the fact that this woman was far more beautiful than Queen Guinevere (602). . Indeed, “All [citizens] honored her / and offered themselves to serve her” (610). The beauty of this woman literally dominated the room; it's as if the citizens took their loyalty to King Arthur and shifted it towards her, so that his stature dwarfed that of the present royalty. Through this aspect of the story, Marie de France says that a woman can be as powerful as a leader or any man. But what is so important is that this woman is not related to any man. Even King Arthur “who was very well brought up, / rose to meet her” (607-8). The king goes to her instead of the other way around, thus indicating how bossy the magical woman is, since even someone as powerful and esteemed as King Arthur "cannot hold her back" (631). Needless to say, if King Arthur can't hold this woman, neither can Lanval. Indeed, she saves Lanval because she loves him, and not because she desperately needs his love (615). Another important aspect of the woman's power is manifested when she demands Lanval's release. Without any objection, King Arthur “grants that it be so”, the “that” here being the freedom of Lanval (625). King Arthur doesn't even ask Queen Guinevere, who is sort of the originator of the dilemma, to recall what happened. He instantly takes the words of, 14(4), 31-48.