Silence (book)

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Silence is a thirteenth-century post-Arthurian romance written in Old French by Heldris of Cornwall. The text was rediscovered in 1911 as part of an anthology in the dusty crates of a British manor in a crate marked unimportant documents, which also contained a letter written by Henry VIII. It tells the story of Silence, the only daughter of a noble family who is raised as a boy because the King of England denies women the right to inherit property. Nature and Nurture appear as two allegorical characters fighting for the mind and body of Silence. Nurture urges Silence to continue life as a man, while Nature tells her to pursue her true identity as a woman.