| Ywain | |
|---|---|
 "Sir Ewaine, Knight of the Fountain",Howard Pyle's illustration fromThe Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions (1907) | |
| Based on | Owain mab Urien |
| In-universe information | |
| Title | Prince, Sir |
| Occupation | Knight of the Round Table |
| Family | Urien (father),Modron (mother),Morgan (mother or step-mother),Morfydd (twin sister),Mabon (maternal half-brother) |
| Spouse | Laudine |
| Origin | Kingdom of Gorre [fr] |
| Nationality | Celtic Briton |
Ywain/ɪˈweɪn/, also known asYvain andOwain (among many other spellings),[note 1] is aKnight of the Round Table in theArthurian legend. Tradition often portrays him as the son of KingUrien of Gorre and of either the supernatural figureModron or the sorceressMorgan. The historicalOwain mab Urien, the basis of the literary character, ruled as the king ofRheged in Britain during the late-6th century.
Yvain was one of the earliest characters associated withKing Arthur. He was also one of the most popular, starring as the eponymous hero inChrétien de Troyes' late-12th-centuryYvain, the Knight of the Lion and appearing prominently in many later accounts, often accompanied by his fierce pet lion. He remains Urien's son in virtually all literature in which he appears, whereas other Arthurian-legend characters based on historical figures usually lost their original familial connections in romance literature.
Ywain (Yvain) takes his name fromOwain mab Urien (Owain son ofUrien), a historical figure of the 6th-century Brythonic kingdom ofRheged (in today's northern England and southern Scotland) at the time of theAnglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. His name was recorded in thebardic tradition ofTaliesin and became a legendary character in theWelsh Triads, where his father, sister, horse and personal bard are all acclaimed but his wife Penarwan is named one of the "Three Faithless Wives of Britain", along with her sister,Tristan's loveEsyllt.
InGeoffrey of Monmouth'sHistoria Regum Britanniae c. 1136, appearing as Eventus, he is only mentioned in passing, as succeeding his uncle, Auguselus, King of Albany (northern Scotland). According toHeinrich Zimmer, his name could have been derived from the Latin name Eugenius.[3]
InThe Dream of Rhonabwy, a Welsh tale associated with theMabinogion, Owain is one ofKing Arthur's top warriors who plays a game of chess against him while theSaxons prepare to fight theBattle of Badon. Three times during the game, Owain's men inform him that Arthur's squires have been slaughtering his magical ravens, but when Owain protests, Arthur simply responds, "Your move." Then Owain's ravens retaliate against the squires, and Owain does not stop them until Arthur crushes the chess men. The Saxon leaders arrive and ask for a truce of two weeks, and the armies move on toCornwall. Rhonabwy, the dreamer of theDream, awakens, and the reader is left as confused as he is. TheDream of Rhonabwy has never been satisfactorily interpreted.
The Brythonic settlers ofBrittany brought much of their insular British culture when they came to the continent, and in the 12th century, updated versions ofBreton lais and stories became popular with French audiences. The French poet Chrétien de Troyes wrote the romanceYvain, the Knight of the Lion at the same time he was working onLancelot, the Knight of the Cart during the 1170s. In it, the eponymous hero Yvain seeks to avenge his cousinCalogrenant who had been defeated by anotherworldly knight beside a magical storm-making fountain in the forest ofBrocéliande. Yvain defeats the knight,Esclados, and falls in love with his widowLaudine. With the aid of Laudine's servantLunete, Yvain wins his lady and marries her, but his cousinGawain convinces him to embark on chivalric adventure. Yvain's 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. Yvain goes mad with grief and lives naked in the woods (probably the earliest instance of a hero's mental illness in French literature, which later became a popular motif[4]), but eventually is cured byMorgan and decides to win back his love. A lion he rescues from a dragon proves to be a loyal companion and a symbol of knightly virtue, and helps him complete his quest, which includes defeating the giant Harpins and two demons. In the end, Laudine, rescued from the stake, allows him and his lion to return to her fortress.
Chrétien'sYvain had a large and widespread impact. German poetHartmann von Aue used it as the basis for hisMiddle High German court epicIwein. The author ofOwain, or the Lady of the Fountain, one of theWelsh Romances included in theMabinogion, tells essentially the same story, recasting the work in a Welsh setting (featuring a black lion saved from a serpent[5]). It also exists in several further versions in different languages, including theMiddle EnglishYwain and Gawain.
A mysterious[6] 14th-century so-called ProseYvain is a text largely unrelated text to Chrétien's poem. It contains only oneYvain-based episode, telling of his rescue of the lion, followed by several more unrelated episodes in which Yvain is no longer main character.[7]
Yvain appears also in other romances, having alternative family relations in some of them. For example, his father is named Asoure inSir Perceval of Galles. InClaris et Laris (where Yvain slays the Turkish king Corsabrin), Yvain has sister named Marine.[8]
AsYvain the Great orYvain the Tall (Yvain le Grand), also known asYvain the Valiant (Yvain le Preux), he appears in all the 13th-century prose accounts of theVulgate Cycle and thePost-Vulgate Cycle, and consequently inThomas Malory'sLe Morte d'Arthur. Yvain's mother is often said to beKing Arthur's half-sister, making him Arthur's nephew. This sister is Morgan in the Post-Vulgate Cycle andLe Morte d'Arthur (causing Yvain to be banished from the court ofCamelot after Morgan's attempts on Arthur's life), but other works name another of their siblings, such as Queen Brimesent in the VulgateMerlin. Yvain is nephew ofMorgause andKing Lot, and thus cousin to Gawain,Agravain,Gaheris,Gareth andMordred. He has a half-brother (with whom he is often confused) namedYvain the Bastard, son of Urien and hisseneschal's wife (and also another half-brother named Galeguinant in the ProseLancelot). In his version, Malory merged Yvain the Great with the character ofYvain of the White Hands, previously an unrelated Knight of the Round Table, and also made him father ofYder.[8]
In the cyclical prose tradition, Yvain fights in Arthur's war against the Saxons (Saracens in the English versions),Lucius,Claudas andGalehaut, and undergoes in many various quests and adventures, some of these during his banishment fromCamelot following the conflict between King Arthur and his mother. These include his failed attempt to defeat the evil giant Malduit (eventually slain byBors the Younger), his participation in the liberation of theCastle of Maidens, and saving the life of a younger Mordred injured in a tournament. Yvain's importance is indicated by his close friendship with Gawain and by the passage in theMort Artu section of theLancelot-Grail cycle where he is one of the last to die beforeKing Arthur at theBattle of Camlann (known as the Battle of Salisbury Plain in the romances). There, he personally kills two of Saxon leaders allied to the traitorous King Mordred and rescues the unhorsed Arthur, before Mordred himself charges his half-brother and splits his helmet and head with a two-handed powerful downwards sword blow. The scene's narration declares that, by the time of his death, Yvain "was considered to be one of the best and most valiant men in the world."[9] The chronicleScalacronica uses the cyclical prose narrative but vastly expands of Yvain's roles in the battle, having him replace Arthur as Mordred's slayer as well asGriflet in the final scenes.[10]
Yvain's birth by the fay (fairy) Morgan may have its roots in Welsh legends: two of the Triads claim the goddess-like figure ofModron as his mother. Travelling throughDenbighshire, Urien comes across the Ford of Barking where dogs congregate and bark for some unknown reason. Only Urien is brave enough to go near the place and there he discovers Modron, endlessly washing clothes (a scene common in Celtic legend, seeThe Morrígan). He has his way with her, and she announces she had been destined to remain at the ford until she had conceived a son by a Christian. She tells Urien to return at the end of the year to receive his children and these are the twins Owain (son) andMofvydd (daughter). However, Yvain is not associated with Morgan in the continental literature until the Post-Vulgate cycle. (Morgan does appear in Chrétien'sKnight of the Lion as a healer but the author does not imply she is the protagonist's mother.) A similarly named and possibly related in origin but entirely different character of King Evrain appears in Chrétien's own earlierErec and Enide. There, Evrain is a cousin of the giant Mabonograin, possibly an echo of Modron's sonMabon (Mabon the son of Modron appears separately inErec and Enide).
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