Chevrefoil

The eleventh poem in the collection is called The Lais of Marie de France and its subject is an episode from the romance of Tristan and Iseult.

[2] The story tells of the love between the knight Tristan and his uncle's wife Iseult, which, according to Marie, was so pure that it eventually caused their deaths on the same day.

After pining away for a year, Tristan hears news that Mark is planning a great feast for Pentecost at Tintagel, and Iseult will be present.

Immediately recognizing the branch as Tristan's, Iseult asks her party to stop and rest and goes out into the woods with only her faithful servant Brangaine.

Lines 68 through 78 compare Tristan and Iseult's love to the intertwining of the honeysuckle with the hazel; the two plants grow so entwined that both will die if they are separated.

Marie says the original author of the lai was none other than Tristan, an accomplished bard who put his thoughts into a song at Iseult's request.

A testament to Marie's popularity appears in Gerbert's Continuation to Chrétien de Troyes's unfinished romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, which contains an episode in which a disguised Tristan plays the lay of "Chevrefoil" to his unsuspecting lover at a tournament.