Yvain rescues the lion

Yvain, the Knight of the Lion (French: Yvain, le Chevalier au Lion) is a romance by Chrétien de Troyes. It was probably written in the 1170s simultaneously with Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, and includes several references to the action in that poem. The main character, Yvain, is derived from the historical Owain mab Urien. Image File history File links Yvainlion. ... Image File history File links Yvainlion. ... As a literary genre, romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... Chrétien de Troyes wrote in Champagne, France, during the last half of the twelfth century. ... Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (French: Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charrette) is an Old French poem by Chrétien de Troyes. ... Sir Yvain is the name of several of King Arthurs knights of the Round Table, the most famous of which are the brothers: Sir Yvain, and Sir Yvain the Bastard There is also Chrétien de Troyes romance Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, about the first of the two. ... Owain mab Urien (or Owein) (d. ...

In the poem, Yvain seeks to avenge his cousin Calogrenant who had been defeated by an otherwordly knight beside a magical storm-making fountain in the forest of Broceliande. Yvain defeats this knight, Esclados and falls in love with his widow Laudine. With the aid of Laudine's servant Lunette, Yvain wins his lady and marries her, but Gawain convinces him to embark on chivalric adventure. His wife assents but demands he return after a set period of time, but he becomes so enthralled in his knightly exploits that he forgets his lady, and she bars him from returning. Sir Calogrenant, sometimes known in English as Colgrevance, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. ... A forest which is the setting for a number of adventures in Arthurian romance. ... In Arthurian Legend, Esclados was a knight who defended a magical fountain in the Forest of Broceliande. ... Laudine, also known as the Lady of the Fountain, is a character from Arthurian legend who appears in Chrétien de Troyes poem Yvain, the Knight of the Lion and all works based on it, such as the Welsh tale Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain and the German... In architecture, a lunette (diminutive of French lune, moon) is a half-moon shaped space, either masonry or void. ... Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In Arthurian legend, Sir Gawain (Gawan, Gauvain, Walewein etc. ...

Yvain goes mad with grief, but eventually decides to win back his love. A lion he rescues from a serpent proves to be a loyal companion and a symbol of knightly virtue, and helps him complete his altruistic ventures. In the end, Laudine allows him and his lion to return to her fortress.

Chrétien's source for the poem is unknown, but the story bears a number of similarities to the hagiographical Life of Saint Mungo (also known as Saint Kentigern), which claims Owain mab Urien as the father of the saint by the daughter of Lot of Lothian. The similarities suggest the works had a common Latin or Celtic source. Hagiography is the study of saints. ... Saint Mungo, also known as Saint Kentigern, is by tradition an apostle to Strathclyde and patron saint and legendary founder of the city of Glasgow. ... In Arthurian Legend, Lot (or Loth) is king of Lothian, Orkney, and sometimes Norway. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... This article is about the European people. ...

Yvain had a huge impact on the literary world; German poet Hartmann von Aue used it as the basis for his masterpiece Iwein, and the author of Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, one of the Welsh Romances included in the Mabinogion, recast the work back into its Welsh setting. The poem exists in a several versions in different languages, including the Middle English Ywain and Gawain. Portrait of Hartmann von Aue from the Codex Manesse (folio 184v). ... Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain is one of the Three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion. ... The Three Welsh Romances are three tales associated with the Mabinogion. ... The Mabinogion is a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion in 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the...

References

• Chrétien de Troyes, D.D.R. Owen (translator) (1988) Arthurian Romances, Tuttle Publishing, reprinted by Everyman's Library. ISBN 046087389X
• Chrétien de Troyes, Burton Raffel (translator) (1987) Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, Yale University Press. ISBN: 0300038372