Spiritual Transformation in the Medieval Poem ‘Yvain’

An illuminated manuscript illustrating Yvain fighting a serpent, between 1380 and 1385. Public Domain

One moment Yvain has it all: a kingdom, a beautiful wife, wealth, physical prowess—even a magical spring of water. The next moment, he has lost everything, including his sanity, and he runs naked through the forest, oblivious to everything except his grief. How did this knight of King Arthur’s court fall so catastrophically?

A Self-Centered Knight

"The Knight and the Lady," mid-15th century, by Master ES. Engraving. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

Yvain is the protagonist of French poet Chrétien de  Troyes’s 12th-century narrative poem “Yvain, The Knight of the Lion,” which is set in the world of Arthurian legend. De Troyes, in fact, helped develop the genre of the Arthurian romance that has been passed down to our own day. He provided, or at least popularized, several distinctive features of the Arthurian legends that have since become canonical, solidly settled in the great structure of these stories, like cornerstones in a castle wall. These elements include the appearance of the Holy Grail, the name “Camelot” for Arthur’s court, and the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, which might be the most famous illicit liaison in all of literature.

Like the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, the tale of Yvain examines questions of fidelity and infidelity, though Yvain is not unfaithful to his wife, Laudine, in the usual manner. Rather, it is Yvain’s fatal flaw of rashness and egocentricity that leads him to break a promise he made to his wife, deeply wounding her. The promise was simple: Return home from your adventuring after one year. But Yvain gets caught up in his expeditions as a knight errant and time slips unnoticed from his grasp.

Before his departure, Laudine gave him a magic ring with these words: “Put on your finger now this ring of mine, which I lend to you. And I will tell you all about the stone: No true and loyal lover can be imprisoned or lose any blood, nor can any harm befall him, provided he carry it and hold it dear, and keep his sweetheart in mind.” The ring is a symbol of the fidelity a man ought to have toward his wife, in deed and thought, and how that love and fidelity will preserve him in danger. If Yvain had kept his lady and her love ever at the top of his mind, he never would have missed the deadline for his homecoming. But he allowed other cares, pursuits, and desires to efface his attention to his marriage.

Portrait of a woman holding a gold ring, circa 1490–1500, by Lorenzo di Credi. Oil on wood. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

Yvain is jolted back to reality when one of his wife’s maidservants comes to court to tell Yvain he has missed his deadline and to chide him for his negligence. She announces, too, that Yvain has lost his lady’s favor forever and she will not accept him back. The shock of this realization, of facing the reality of his colossal mistake and failure, so devastates Yvain that he loses his mind, quite literally. His sense of self as the confident, in-control hero who never fails, is shattered.

Yvain runs naked into the wild, the abandoning of his clothes symbolic of the stripping away of his old identity as well as his mad, irrational, animal-like state, brought on by grief and humiliation. This marks a key transitional moment in the poem.

How the Tale Starts

King Arthur's knights, gathered at the Round Table to celebrate the Pentecost, see a vision of the Holy Grail. This scene is depicted in a 15th-century manuscript of “Lancelot and the Holy Grail.” Wikimedia Commons

For the entire first half of the poem, Yvain acts on impulse, without reflection or consideration, without thinking of others. This rashness leads him to seek a magical spring out of mere curiosity and the desire to display his prowess as a knight. He defeats the knight who guards the spring, then impetuously falls in love with the dead man’s widow, Laudine. Through an odd and unexpected courtship, he wins this lady’s affection and marries her, inheriting her lands as well as her love.

So far, so good. But such an impetuous and self-centered approach to life cannot work for long. One day it may bring good fortune—a wife and lands—but the next it will snatch those treasures away, which is precisely what happens to Yvain when he thoughtlessly leaves the woman he has just married and forgets to return to her.

Now, in his state of absolute destitution, having lost all that he had gained, Yvain must either change or perish. Yvain lives for a time like an animal in the wild, away from human civilization, which is a just punishment for the unthinking, instinctive, and animalistic manner in which he has lived until now. But slowly—partly through the charity and kindness of strangers who minister to his needs—Yvain begins to regain his senses and reflect on the mistakes of his past life.

The seeds of spiritual transformation have been sown. Through the wake-up call of facing the catastrophic consequences of his egocentricity and the destruction of his old sense of self, Yvain begins to change.

The Knight With the Lion

An illuminated manuscript illustrating Yvain rescuing a lion from a serpent, between 1380 and 1385. Public Domain

With wits restored, Yvain determines to win back his wife, though he hardly knows how to begin. A much-chastened, humbled, and more outward-looking knight rides forth for adventure once more in the poem’s second half. He carries the flickering hope within that through true acts of valor, unshakable fidelity, and a more noble life, he might become worthy of his wife’s forgiveness.

It’s no accident that one of his first adventures post-madness is to rescue a lion from a serpent. Grateful to him for his kindness, the lion refuses to leave Yvain’s side and becomes his faithful companion and helper. The lion represents true knighthood, chivalry, and honor, which are based on seeking to help others rather than merely aiming to prove one’s own greatness.

From this point forward, Yvain begins to demonstrate these qualities, and the lion becomes a fitting emblem for his noble spirit. This new round of adventures are marked by a distinctive difference from the first round: whereas before losing his wife and going mad he sought adventures out of curiosity and to win glory, afterwards he seeks adventures solely in order to help those in need, including a group of maidens captured by two demons, a lord who is harassed by a cruel giant, and a town persecuted by an unjust count—and all this not with a demeanor of haughtiness or self-congratulation, but with a newfound humility. When a lady, upon hearing his name, “The Knight with the Lion,” says she has never heard of him, he replies, modestly, “My lady, you may from that infer that my fame is not widespread.” All this is the role and the spirit of a true knight.

In spite of his humility, Yvain’s reputation begins to spread, and rumors of “the knight with the lion” whisper through the countryside. Paradoxically, he earns true glory and admiration only once he ceases to pursue them.

A final test remains for Yvain, however. After Yvain defeats some villains, the lord whom he has helped offers his beautiful daughter in marriage to Yvain, who admits that “she is so fair and so elegant that the Emperor of Germany would be fortunate to win her as his wife.”

But Yvain has learned his lesson about fidelity. He is already married, and he knows he is bound to the woman he pledged himself to. He has eyes only for Laudine and resists the importunate lord when he tries to force Yvain to take his daughter’s hand. “I restore her to you,” says Yvain. “Let him who has her keep her. I have no concern with her, though I say it not in disparagement. Take it not amiss if I do not accept her, for I cannot and must not do so.” Yvain proves, at last, his commitment to his marriage.

Yvain departing from Laudine, 19th century, by Edward Burne-Jones. Oil on canvas. Public Domain

Yvain’s story reminds us of what true masculinity looks like: Not brashness, overboldness, or self-centered displays of power and self-aggrandizement, but a self-sacrificing spirit that uses its strength to serve those in need. The tale also tells us about fidelity, human weakness, and how failure is often the beginning of wisdom.

So, does Yvain’s newfound wisdom pay off? Does he win back his wife in the end? To answer that, dear reader, you’ll need to read the poem.

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