1 The Middle English equivalent comes in multiple forms, the most current of which is false, strikingly recurrent in The Erle of Tolous. The epithet provides an opposition to the term ‘fel’, applied to the wicked and duplicitous queen: ‘Than seyde Quene Guenore, was fel.’ The word fel comes from the Old French fels, which means both treacherous and rebellious. The first term is seen when to the mortal who has sworn service to her, the fairy Tryamour gives her loyal white steed, Blaunchard, as a token of faithful love and magic assistance: ‘I yeve the Blaunchard, my stede lel.’ The reliable mount will appear, she guarantees, whenever the worthy knight needs it. 1 Jacques Chocheyras, ‘Le sens du terme “félon” dans la Chanson de Roland et le Tristan de Béroul’, i (.)ġThe text of Sir Launfal contains two monosyllabic adjectives almost identical in sound except for the initial consonant: ‘lel’ (326) and ‘fel’ (157).The study of the Breton lays and the Franklin’s Tale focuses on a multi-faceted key notion in the Middle Ages: pledging and keeping one’s word and its opposite, breaking one’s promise or betraying one’s pledge. Though a secondary figure in the plot, the villain actually fulfils a significant dramatic role, that of the blocking agent bent on impeding the main protagonist’s progress to successful recognition by the community and/or the beloved. The severance of close political, familial, marital and amorous ties at the hands of a traitor brings about a crisis that needs to be resolved. The stability and order of a group and the lovers’ unbreakable vow of fidelity are always jeopardised by a felonious character that acts as a treacherous opponent in thwarting the designs of the hero or heroine in their quest for self-fulfilment. Be it at court, in a family or simply a married couple, the harmonious unity of a social group depends on the loyalty of its members to its representative, values and beliefs. Middle English Breton lays often depict a feudal world that rests on mutual trust and fealty between a lord and his vassals, and in which love relations are conceived in terms of a covenant that binds the knight to his beloved, whether mortal or fairy.

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