The beginning of the thirteenth century can be viewed as the threshold which ushered in a new type of literature: the French prose narrative intended to entertain, instruct, and record. The arrival of the vernacular prose form on center stage is associated with a concern on the part of medieval writers that their compositions be accepted as truthful, and it is generally understood that it was in pursuit of that goal that translators and authors began to prefer prose to verse.

The gravitational pull of the thirteenth century's great prose cycles--the prose Tristan and the Lancelot-Grail--is intense, and they rightfully enjoy the spotlight of scholarly attention. However, outside the combined domains of Arthur, Tristan, and the grail, other prose works offer insights relating to the literary conceptions governing the new preference for prose.

This essay is a discussion of vernacular literary form, specifically the ways in which truth-telling plays itself out in texts: on the one hand, it does so by the investment of authority in prose in various ways, and on the other, by the structural juxtaposition of different narrative perspectives, voices, or forms.