Les Deus Amanz (or The Two Lovers) is a lai written by Marie de France. It is one of the shortest of her lais and tells of the titular lovers.
Characters[]
- The princess
- The suitor
- The king
Plot[]
In the land of Normandy (specifically in the city of Pitre), the King began to dote and obsess over his daughter after his wife died. His subjects became suspicious that he was in an incestuous relationship with his daughter, and the king devised a plan to throw off suspicions. He offered his daughter up for marriage to anyone who could scale a tall mountain with the princess in their arms and without stopping for rest.
The plot keeps every suitor at bay (with most only reaching halfway up the mountain). One lover, the son of a local baron, falls in love with the princess and the two begin dating. They hide this relationship from the king - with the suitor planning to elope. The princess refuses to allow this, but sends the young man to an aunt in Salerno who can craft a potion to increase the suitor's strength.
After gaining the potion, the suitor returns to Pitre and proposes to his lover. The princess starves herself to become as light as possible before the challenge. During the challenge, the suitor refuses to take the potion and dies of exhaustion once reaching the summit. Despondent, the princess throws the potion away (blessing the mountain with lush foliage) before dying of grief. The king finds the two lovers and buries them together inside of the mountain (which is dubbed "The Mountain of the Two Lovers").