Why Do Some Stories Keep Returning?

The ending of a story is never truly the end. It continues in the minds of the readers beyond the events of the final page. Arthurian legends have been continued, retold, and reimagined so often that the story—if only a vague outline of it—has engrained itself in our culture. Mary Frances Zambreno, in her article, “Why Do Some Stories Keep Returning?” explores why that particular story has remained in the forefront of our consciousness. Zambreno argues that the inclusion of gaps compels authors to fill them, even when the gaps are less obvious. Marie de France’s Lanval both supplements the Arthurian legend and creates the possibility for further stories. In contrast to Zambreno’s argument, though, modern authors have not taken to Lanval
The key point of Zambreno’s argument that medieval literature invites retellings through gaps is in the ambiguity of Arthur’s death in Malory’s Morte Darthur. In the conclusion of his work, Malory invokes other sources—“some men say”—which hint that Arthur is not dead and may, indeed, return (121). Zambreno writes that Malory, “does not know for certain that Arthur is dead, or that Arthur will return; he has never read the right book to be sure one way or another, and so he must leave the question still open” (121). The open ending, she argues, leaves room for new authors to tell their version of Arthur’s return—how he comes back, why he comes back, when he comes back. They can adjust the story to work within and comment on their own context, and she is right about that. As some of us suggested in class, it is perhaps not an uncontrollable impulse to continue the
Like Malory, Marie distances herself from the source of the narrative in Lanval. She opens the lai saying, “I shall tell you the adventure of another lai, / just as it happened: / it was composed about a very noble vassal” (lines 1-3). She establishes that the story has been passed to her and acts instead as a channel for it, merely repeating the events as they were told to her. The story seems to be already written, indicated in the line “it was composed” (line 3). Yet, Lanval is a figure that, as far as I can discern, was first popularized in Marie’s lai. Marie acts the same way modern authors do, writing the stories of characters who are only tangentially related to Arthur’s story. Lanval was a member of Arthur’s Round Table, and his absence in other stories is explained as, “… Arthur forgot him, / and none of his men favored him either” (lines 19-20). Lanval exists on the furthest edge of the Arthurian legend the same way the lai itself does, untouched by modern authors seeking to adapt Arthurian works, even though it leaves gaps and questions like Malory’s Morte Darthur does. The story also adds to the Arthurian legend in that it further establishes Guinevere as an adulteress. She attempts to seduce Lanval, who refuses her advances (lines 261-274). In the grand scheme of the legend, it creates a precedent for her affair with