Matrix

Eleanor of Aquitaine was also a real-life personage. She was born a duchess and was Queen of both France and England. She was a powerful figure, but also—like Marie in the novel—an often embattled one. Her marriage to King Louis IV of France was annulled, and her marriage to King Henry II of England was contentious. He ultimately kidnapped her, and she was not freed until his death; this kidnapping is an event that Groff draws on in her novel (Pernoud, Regine. “Eleanor of Aquitaine.” Encyclopedia Britannica)

In the novel, the character of Eleanor serves as a foil for Marie. The two characters are opposites in many ways, and Marie’s character is delineated by Eleanor’s. Eleanor is a worldlier and more conventional character than Marie, adept at navigating power systems and manipulating people. While Marie is only partially an insider, as a relative of nobility, Eleanor is a complete insider. At the same time, there are latent similarities between the two women, giving them an uneasy bond. Both women are powerful, during a time when power in women is unusual; both women must, therefore, constantly defend their position.

While Marie grows into her role over the course of the novel, however, Eleanor shrinks behind hers. She maintains her imperious demeanor and all the prerogatives of her royal position, but she is diminished as a person. Because she lacks a spiritual life and takes consolation only in worldly things, old age and hardship take more of a toll on her than they do on Marie. Her communications to Marie remain high-handed, but Marie senses an increasing neediness and loneliness behind them.

Although Marie is disillusioned by Eleanor, she, nevertheless, mourns her when she dies. Eleanor’s life and her own have been intricately bound together, even while Eleanor has kept Marie at a distance. Were it not for Eleanor’s dictate, Marie would never have reached the abbey and found her religious vocation. Marie is also increasingly sympathetic to human frailty as she gets older and her spirituality evolves. She is less interested in displays of religious might, such as the crusades, and more interested in the softness and vulnerability that Eleanor finally reveals.

Tilde is prioress at the abbey and eventually succeeds Marie as abbess. Although a minor character, she effectively has the last word in the novel. Not only does she become the abbess, but she also decides to burn the notebook in which Marie recorded her religious visions. She does so because she fears that the notebook might be viewed as heretical were it to become public. Yet, there is also a suggestion that she takes a pleasure in the burning that is itself heretical, as well as a further suggestion that destructive actions like hers will ultimately lead to the destruction of the planet: “Such fires, so small in themselves, will heat the world imperceptibly until after centuries it will be too hot to bear humanity” (256).

Like Eleanor, Tilde is a frequent foil for Marie, although she plays a smaller role in Marie’s life than Eleanor does. She has a different vision of religiousness and piety than Marie does, one that is more obedient and conventional. As prioress, she often objects to Marie’s more ambitious plans for the abbey and rebels against the traditionally male roles that Marie claims for herself. At the same time—unlike Eleanor—she is self-aware and thoughtful enough to question her own actions and reactions, including that of throwing the notebook into the fireplace. She cannot deny Marie’s power as an abbess, even if she finds her methods unorthodox. (See also Heresy and Saintliness in the Themes section of the guide.)

Wulfhild is a confidante of Marie’s and part of her inner circle at the abbey. She remains so even after she leaves the abbey to marry and have children. Marie is despondent about losing her and about what she sees as the waste of Wulfhild’s potential. Wulfhild is unusually gifted and bright, and Marie believes that she is squandering her intellectual gifts in marrying and becoming a mother. She believes that Wulfhild has more of a chance to remain an individual in the cloistered, strict environment of the abbey than she does out in the world.

Wulfhild dies as an indirect result of one of Marie’s projects, that of constructing a water reservoir. She was already weakened by mourning the death of her husband and voiced her opposition to the reservoir project before being overridden by Marie. Her death serves to check Marie, causing her to question her ambitions and see the destructiveness that her greatness sometimes entails.