In both Yonec and Laustic, Marie de France describes the tombs that host the unfulfilled love of her characters. The tombs have the function of preserving the physical bodies of a love that could not be realized during the characters' lives. In both lais, the tombs are extraordinarily beautiful, decorated and described in astonishing detail, like a work of art. However, the tombs are limited and definitive, making them an incomplete version of the story, insufficient to carry it forward into the future. In contrast, lais are a dynamic form that constantly changes with each retelling. The transformative nature of the lay makes it an animated art form, as opposed to the grave which is a fixed art form. While the tomb preserves the physical remains of the characters' love stories, the act of composing these stories in lais forever preserves the love between these characters. While tombs preserve physical characters, they are limited and thus cannot actively advance their story. However, the secular as a constantly changing and animating form possesses the power to both preserve the past and continue to move history forward. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBoth the tomb and the layman are works of art, although they are very different. The tombs in both lais are described as beautiful works of art. In Laustic the dead nightingale is first wrapped “in a piece of samite, embroidered with gold and writing” (135-136), and then placed in “a small molded vessel without iron or steel in it; it was all pure gold and beautiful stones, very precious and very expensive; the cover was attached very carefully” (149-153). At Yonec the tomb is “covered with a cloth of embroidered silk, a band of precious gold running from side to side. Twenty candles burned at the head, feet and sides. The lamps were of pure gold, the censers of amethyst, which perfumed that tomb during the day, to his great honor” (499-506). Both tombs are beautifully described and are essentially works of art; they are beautifully decorated and adorned with extraordinary materials such as gold and marble. The tomb, therefore, in itself is a work of art. The secular is also an art form that “put[s] [adventures] into words and rhyme” (Prologue 41). In this way the grave and the layman are different. While the tomb is beautifully decorated with pure materials such as gold and marble, the lay is simply composed of words composed in a rhyming sequence. It is not primarily visually appealing, but rather auditory and thoughtful. Secular and grave are also different from each other in terms of purpose. The art of the tomb is finished and complete once its construction is finished, while the layout is continually evolving and can be endlessly revised and transformed through transposition and revisitation. Marie de France's lais are translations from “Latin to Romance” and then again from French to English (Prologue 30). These lais are constantly changing and are not finished like the tomb, making the lais a more animated and dynamic art form. The finished tomb and the dynamic lay function differently in conservation due to their contrasting nature. The tombs preserve the physicality and contain the unfulfilled love in both lais. In Yonec, when the lady is confronted by her lover's grave years after his death, she "faints on the grave, and in the faint she dies... [then] [they take] the lady with great honor and [place] her in the coffin ” (538-548). Although she was unable to be with him during her lifetime, the lady was eventually buried with her lover – a sign of her “great honor” by the people of the city (547). , the grave will preserve both their physical bodiesthat love between them. Similarly, the tomb described in Laustic preserves the body of the nightingale, a symbol of the forbidden relationship. The love represented in Laustic is different; it is never described as a true love, but rather as a superficial love, where "each was pleased at the sight of the other since he could not have more" (77-78). When the lady realizes that she "will not be able to get up at night or stand at the window where [she] saw [her] love," she sends her lover, the dead nightingale, to deliver the message. The knight is "very sad about the adventure but [is] not mean or hesitant" and gives up their relationship as easily as she does (147-148). Neither they sacrifice for each other nor even attempt to continue their relationship, and thus the grave created for their romance is simply the dead nightingale in a coffin, as opposed to Yonec where the lovers are buried Together. The knight “has the casket sealed and always carries it with him” as a small token of their relationship (155-156). The coffin holds the dead nightingale as a symbol of their love: a token of their relationship and the only remnant of their relationship. Both of these graves are restricted and cannot be changed due to the nature of the grave. As a result, their stories in this form are fixed and immutable, and therefore incomplete. At Yonec, lovers buried together may suggest that the two were married and spent their lives together. In Laustic, a dead nightingale wrapped in a coffin does not convey the entire story of the lovers. Although the tomb preserves the physical remains of the story, it is an incomplete version of the tales. The lais suggest that while tombs preserve physical bodies, they are incomplete forms of romance due to their fixed nature. However, lais as a dynamic and animated form are able to both preserve the romance and continue to carry it forward for generations. In Yonec, as the lady, her husband, and her son approach the knight's grave, they ask the people of the town about the knight who lies there. Without the living of the city to explain, the tomb is ineffective in communicating the knight's story. Furthermore, as the knight had predicted to the lady years before, she would listen to his story and explain the adventure to her son. After listening to the people of the city, the lady “calls out to her son” (526) and “reveals for all to hear… the truth” (533-537). The story behind the tomb needed a living component to continue it and move forward. Not only that, but the son proceeds to avenge his father and kills his stepfather to “avenge his mother's grief” (544). The living continuation of the story, the lady, also alters history, because Yonec becomes the lord of the city's people and changes his bloodline. The tomb, as a finite entity, is incapable of change and therefore insufficient as a means to advance true history. While it can preserve physical bodies, by its nature it is only a partial representation of the adventure. Likewise, Laustic's ending suggests that a living component is necessary to pass on the story. Because the knight has “sealed the chest” and “puts the nightingale in,” he hides their story by locking the nightingale in the jar (154-155). However, “the adventure was told, [since] it could not be kept hidden for long,” which suggests that the act of living people telling the story is what allows it to be passed on despite being encased in the finished casket ( 157-158). The lay as a constantly changing dynamic form makes it an animated form, especially when contrasted with the fixed and definitive nature of a tomb. As a result, the lay is a more effective means of moving a story forward as it can change and, in a sense, stay alive. The composition of the layman.