The Ring, the Sword, the Fancy Dress, and the Posthumous Child: Background to the Element of Heroic Biography in Marie de France's Yonec.

The article presents the author's criticism on the article by K. Sarah-Jane Murray's "The Ring and the Sword: Reading Marie de France's Yonec in the Light of the Vie de Saint Alexis." It argues on the heroic elements background of the poem which include the ring, the sword, the fancy dress, and the late child. It examines the Celtic origin of the narrative poem "Yonec" based on Tom Peete Cross's arguments about the sources and influences of the language to the poem. It reviews the plot of the poem through the discussion of how various Celtic stories are analogous to it, the unusual pairing of a ring and a sword, and the allusion to the Old French Vie de Saint Alexis.