Introduction

Manuscript, Editions, Translations

The lay of Trot is preserved only in MS C, f. 344v, col. 1 – 345v, col. 4. It is not found in the Norse Strengleikar collection. The lay was edited in 1832 by L.-J. -N. Monmerqué and Francisque Michel, then again in 1935 by E. Margaret Grimes and also in 1976 by Prudence M. O’H. Tobin in Les Lais anonymes des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (pp. 339–46). Tobin's edition of Trot was reprinted in 1984 by Walter Pagani with a facing Italian translation (pp. 276–93) and again in 1992 by Alexandre Micha with a facing Modern French translation (pp. 314–31). The poem has also been translated into English by Andrew Joynes (pp. 138–41), into Modern French by Danielle Régnier-Bohler (1979, pp. 161–67) and Nathalie Desgrugillers (2003, pp. 101–05), into Dutch by Ludo Jongen and Paul Verhuyck (1985, pp. 37–39), into Spanish by Isabel de Riquer (1987, pp. 125–30) and into Japanese by Ryôko Ito in Lais bretons féeriques au Moyen Age (1998).

Date, Author

There is no clear indication of a date for this poem. Following earlier scholars, Tobin (p. 336) inclines towards assigning it to the years 1200–1220, but acknowledges that it could have been composed any time between 1184 and 1267. She suggests that the author may have come from Picardy, because of traces of Picard dialect in the poem; in her view the author was probably influenced by the De Amore of Andreas Capellanus (see ‘Possible Source’ below). Tobin points out, too, that the poem is characterised by colourful description and that the emphasis of the poem reveals in its author ‘un côté moralisant et didactique’ (ibid).

Outline of the Story

One April morning, a knight from Arthur's Round Table named Lorois sets out to hear the song of the nightingale. Just as he is getting close to the forest, he sees eighty beautiful young maidens approaching, each accompanied by an elegantly dressed man; everyone seems to be very happy. Then another group of eighty ladies appears, each one with her beloved.