Involution of meaning in the Harley Cheuerefoil

Involution of meaning in the Harley Cheuerefoil* The lai of Cheuerefoil, as told in Harley MS 978 in the British Library, narrates, in no more than 118 verses, a version of the myth of the woodland lovers, Tristan and Yseut. Like any myth, this lai is based on a spiral structure. It follows the hero as he shifts from court, the central node of the Active universe he inhabits, first down into exile in the dark night of the soul, in the forests of his native South Wales, then out to an episode set in the woods of Cornwall, and finally back up to court, which, as w e only now learn, is situated in Wales. In this scenario, the Cornish woods act as the point of juncture between the two geographic, social, and psychological poles of his experience, lying midway between the harmony and joy of his life at court, and the 'death and destruction' to which he had earlier abandoned himself in regressing into his native forest. For its part, the court itself has moved out to meet him partway,first,in the news of the king's intention to spend Pentecost at Tintagel, which he learns through his nocturnal contacts with the nearby peasant population, and second, through his encounter with the queen and her attendants as they pass, by day, along an established path through the woods. It is because of this encounter, in which are combined court and not-court, forest and not-forest, harmony and not-harmony, and ultimately communication and not-communication, that he is able to return to court and await his reconciliation with the king. At these four major nodes in the narrative, the queen, as the feminine face of the court, acts as the motive force behind the unfolding events. First, she is said to be the cause of the rift, as it is because of his nephew's love for her that Mark in his anger sends him into exile. Second, it is again this love, and his desire to see her, which entice Tristram to emerge from the state of 'death and destruction' to which he has abandoned himself, and to place himself by the path along which she must travel. Third, he enters into a silent yet eloquent dialogue with her, by 'writing' a message to her, with his knife, on a carefully fashioned hazel switch. And fourth, it is * This essay is based in part on a paper read at the 27th International Co on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 6-9 May, 1993. Formulation of the theory elaborated below, as of the present paper, has been made possible by the generosity of the Australian Research Council. P A R E R G O N ns 13.1, July 1995 82 B. A. Masters because he has been prepared to submit to her instructions—specifically in writing what she has told him to write—that he is able to return to court to await the king's pleasure. O f these four stages in the tale's development, it is the third—the writing episode set in the Comish woods—which has attracted the most sustained critical attention. O n the face of it, nothing could be more puzzling than this scene. For here w e see a man, totally destitute and deprived of all the trappings of social existence bar his knife, who settles down in the woods to carve a message into a wooden stick. Through this unlikely set of writing implements, he narrates the lengthy tale of the hazel and the honeysuckle: such is their love for each other that they will live forever as long as the bond remains unbroken, but as soon as they are wrenched apart, both will die. In the same inscription, he tells the queen, as she passes by, that this story is an exemplum illustrating the undying nature of their own love for one another. The message, already puzzling in its length and complexity, strains credulity even further when w e learn that it is communicated in such a way that only the queen, of all the party of courtiers passing along the path, is capable both of...