Merlin

Marie's merlin is a symbol of her hopes to return to Westminster in the days following her arrival at the abbey. She kept the bird while living at court, and when she sends the collection of lais to Eleanor, she also sends the merlin out into the land surrounding the abbey looking for a royal messenger that might call her back to Westminster. No messenger comes, and the merlin is killed by a hawk, "the little bird's blood scattered like wheat upon the ground" (41), a symbol of Marie's dashed hopes.

Enslaved woman

Marie's memory of the enslaved woman being forced into a box and stuck with swords in Thrace is a symbol of her own life as a woman. She feels she has been confined (as though in a box) all her life by the societal constraints placed upon her related to her gender. She is...