Arthurian Name Dictionary

Yblé

A valley named after the lady Iblis, who married Lancelot. Before her marriage, she made frequent trips to the valley. [UlrichZ]

Ydain¹

A lady at Arthur’s court who married Sir Cador of Cornwall. She was the sister of Sir Kahedins and a cousin of Gawain. [Contin1]

Ydain² [Ydeine]

A maiden that Gawain rescued from Sir Licoridon. She flirted unabashedly with Gawain, and Gawain fell in love with her. Later, however, she decided to abandon Gawain for a knight with what she perceived to be greater sexual prowess. Gawain defeated this rival knight and then turned Ydain over to a loathsome little hunchback in punishment. Appearing in La Vengeance Raguidel, she is identical to an unnamed character in Le Chevalier a L’Épée. [Vengeance, Wrake]

Yder¹ [*Edern, Edyrn, Hider(us), Hudos, Ide(r)(s), Idres, Idr(o)us, Isder, Itiers, Ridek, Ydes, Ydet, Ydier, Ydras, Ydrus]

A king and Knight of the Round Table who first appears in Culhwch and Olwen. Evidence suggests a widespread popularity of this hero in the before the early thirteenth century, after which his character lost importance. The appearance of Yder on the Modena Archivolt (in the early twelfth century in Italy) testifies as to his early fame. In Welsh texts, we learn only that he was the son of Nudd (probably from Nodens, an Celtic divinity), that he had two brothers named Owain and Gwynn, and that he was the leader of Arthur’s Danish warriors. In Geoffrey of Monmouth, he fights, wins honor, and perishes in Arthur’s war against Rome. Geoffrey gives him a son named Her.
   A passage—almost certainly an interpolation—in William of Malmesbury’s Historia Rerum Anglicarum has a young Yder fight three giants on the mountain called Ranae or Brent Knoll. Arthur had embarked with a troop to take care of the ravaging monsters, but Yder went on ahead of the company and encountered them alone. He managed to slay all three giants, but was seriously wounded in the process. Arthur assumed he was dead and made an endowment at Glastonbury for two dozen monks to pray for Yder’s soul.
   We next meet Yder in Chrétien de Troyes’s Erec. During a hunt, Guinevere and Erec come across Yder and his dwarf. Yder’s dwarf insults Guinevere and Yder does nothing about it. Intent on avenging the insult, Erec follows Yder to the town of Laluth, where Yder is the annual victor in a Sparrowhawk Tournament. Erec enters the tournament, defeats Yder, and sends him to Arthur’s court. This story is also related in the Welsh Geraint with identical circumstances. In the Norse Erex Saga, his character is replaced by Malpirant.
   In the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, a romance of Yder was written in French. In this anti-Arthurian tale, a young Yder sets off on a quest for his vanished father, Nut. During the quest, he visits Queen Guenloie of Carvain and falls in love with her, but is dismissed from her court until he has proven himself. He eventually joins Arthur’s court after saving the king from two knights, but is disillusioned with Arthur’s behavior and soon departs. He is knighted by a king named Ivenant, and he receives a squire named Luguain from another nobleman. His further adventures again bring him into contact with Arthur, who, along with Kay, tries to murder him. He eventually finds his father, saves Guinevere from a bear, and slays two giants, thus proving himself to Queen Guenloie. Yder and the queen are married at Arthur’s court, and Yder becomes a king himself. We must note that “Guenloie” is a variation of “Guinevere,” and that Yder is one of Guinevere’s rescuers on the Modena Archivolt. It has been suggested that in an early Breton story, Yder was Guinevere’s lover, occupying roughly the same role filled by Lancelot in French romance. There is an allusion to this romance in the Folie Tristan of Berne.
   In the Vulgate Merlin and in Arthour and Merlin, “Yder of the Dolorous Mount” takes a different role (this Yder is perhaps a different character). Named as the king of Cornwall in the former and the king of Nantes in the latter, he is one of the kings to rebel against Arthur at the beginning of Arthur’s reign. After the battle of Bedegraine, in which Yder and his allies are defeated, Yder’s land is invaded, ravaged, and plundered by the Saxons. Several defeats against the Saxons lead Yder to swear fealty to Arthur. The Saxons are soon crushed at the battle of Clarence. As in Geoffrey, Yder goes on to serve Arthur in the Roman War and in the war against Galehaut of Sorelois.
   We find Yder in a collection of other texts. In the First Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval, he has a son named Yonet. In La Vengeance Raguidel, he helps Gawain avenge the death of Sir Raguidel against Sir Guengasoain. While Gawain duels Guengasoain, Yder fights and slays Guengasoain’s bear, which recalls his similar deed in Yder. Yder marries Guengasoain’s daughter, Trevilonete. The Alliterative Morte Arthure and Malory, oddly, name him as the son of Yvain, perhaps confusing his relationship to Owain in Welsh texts. He is only an incidental character in Malory, with no hint as to his popularity three to four hundred years earlier. Tennyson returns him to his role as Geraint’s Sparrowhawk Tournament opponent, adding that he was Enide’s cousin and that he forced Enide’s father into poverty when he refused to let Yder wed Enide. Tennyson places his death at the battle of Camlann. [Culhwch, Modena, WilliamM, GeoffHR, Wace, ChretienE, FolieB, Contin1, Vengeance, VulgLanc, VulgMer, Dream, Geraint, Allit, Malory, TennIK]

Yder²

Count of Meliolant. He lodged Arthur and some Knights of the Round Table during their adventures. [Contin1]

Yder³

King of the “Land of Northmen” who served Arthur. He led a battalion of Arthur’s soldiers against King Rions at the battle of Aneblayse. [VulgMer, Arthour]

Yder⁴ of Lis

Named as the father of Brandelis, Meliant, and Guilorete in some manuscripts of the First Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval. Gawain killed him in combat. In most manuscripts, his character is called Norroiz. [Contin1]

Ydonas¹

An early Knight of the Round Table wounded by Gawain in a bloody tournament between the Round Table and the Queen’s Knights. [VulgMer]

Ydonas²

A proud Saxon warrior slain by Gawain at the battle of Cambenic. [VulgMer]

Ydone

A lady met by Gawain in a forest pavilion. At her behest, he battled an unidentified knight, and later discovered that his opponent was his brother Gaheris. [Hunbaut]

Ydor

A king who found an infant named Tristouse on his shores. When she came of age, he married her and they had a son named Torec, who later defeated Arthur’s knights. [Maerlant]

Yellow Pale-White Ox

An ox owned by Gwlwlwyd Chestnut Hair. As one of his tasks, Culhwch had to obtain this ox and yoke it together with another of Gwlwlwyd’s oxen, the Spotted Ox. The tale, however, does not mention Culhwch completing this task. A Welsh Triad calls it one of the “three prominent oxen” of Britain. [Culhwch, Triads]

Yglais

Perceval’s mother in Perlesvaus. When her husband, Alain, died from a combat wound, she became known as the Widowed Lady. Perceval had left home as a youth, so her castle of Camelot was poorly defended when it was attacked by Cahot the Red and the Lord of the Fens. She sent her daughter, Dandrane, to find Perceval, who eventually returned and saved his mother’s land. Yglais and Dandrane lived out their days together. Her brothers were Pelles, the Fisher King, and the King of the Castle Mortal. [Perlesvaus]

Yniol

A variation of Niwl, Enide’s father. [TennIK]

Ynyr

Either of two people or places who fought some kind of contest or battle in the time of Arthur. In Culhwch and Olwen, Arthur’s chief gatekeeper, Glewlwyd, remarks to Arthur that he was “in the contest between the two Ynyrs, when the twelve hostages were brought from Llychlyn.” The larger legend, to which this remark must refer, is lost to us. [Culhwch]

Yon [Iom]

The King of Lesser Ireland, named in the Prose Lancelot as one of the rulers who joined the early rebellion against Arthur. He joined forces with the Angusel of Scotland and the King from Land Beyond the Borders of Galone, but Arthur defeated and subjugated him. He later fought for Arthur in the wars against Galehaut and Claudas. Arthur appointed him head of the tribunal which judged and condemned Guinevere after her affair with Lancelot was exposed. Yon later advocated Arthur’s war against Lancelot in Benoic, in which his son was killed by Bors. He led a battalion in the final battle against Mordred at Salisbury, where he was killed by a knight from Ireland. [LancLac, VulgLanc, VulgMort, PostMort]

Yonés the Noveliers

A knight in Arthur’s service. [Merveil]

Yonet

A knight who served Lady Andrivete as the castellan of Banborc. When she was besieged by Lord Ayglin, Yonet fought for her until Kay lifted the siege. [Girart]

York [Euerwyck, Everwic, Evrevic, Evroïc, Evruïch, Ewrevic, Guevrevic]

A city in Yorkshire, north central England. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, it was the site of the first battle between Ambrosius Aurelius and the Saxons, led by Octa and Eosa. Ambrosius was victorious, and he later appointed Samson the archbishop of the city. York was the site of Uther Pendragon’s defeat by Octa and Eosa. When Arthur ascended the throne, he fought Colgrim’s army at York, but he had to abandon the siege when Saxon reinforcements, led by Cheldric, arrived from Germany. When Arthur eventually reclaimed the city, he appointed Pryamus the new archbishop. [GeoffHR]

Yrlande

A lady in the history of the Brown Family. She was the daughter of Brun and his wife Pamphille. Her sister was named Gialle. [Palamedes]

Ysabel

Sovereigness of the Castle of Maidens. Related to Perceval, she was a member of Joseph of Arimathea’s fellowship. [Contin4]

Ysabele

Maiden daughter of King Assentin. In a series of interlocking quests, Gawain needed to bring her to the court of King Amoraen so he that Amoraen would let him keep the magic Sword with Two Rings, which he needed to trade with King Wonder for a magic chessboard. Arriving at Assentin’s court, Assentin imprisoned him but gave him to Ysabele for care. Gawain exerted his traditional charm, and Assentin eventually caught them in flagrante and threw them in prison. They were freed by the spirit of a dead knight who Gawain had previously given a burial. On the journey to King Wonder’s court, Ysabele was abducted by Sir Estor (Hector), but Gawain saved her. Gawain may have later married her. [Penninc]

Ysaie the Sad

The son of Tristan and Isolde in the French romance bearing his name. He lived in a post-Arthurian Britain characterized by chaos and anarchy, in which Ysaie struggled to promote law and virtue. Raised by a hermit, Ysaie married Martha, the daughter of King Irion. He was assisted in his endeavors by his companion, a dwarf named Oberon, and later by his son Marc. [Ysaie]

Ysave of Carahes

A niece of King Arthur who married King Caradoc of Nantes, but committed adultery with a sorcerer named Elïavrés. This affair produced a son, Caradoc, who was recognized by King Caradoc as his legitimate heir. After winning fame as one of Arthur’s knights, Caradoc returned to Nantes and locked Ysave in a tower to punish her for her sins. Ysave and Elïavrés conspired to kill Caradoc with a poisonous serpent, but were unsuccessful. [Contin1]

Ysbaddaden

“Chief giant” in Culhwch and Olwen. He was the father of Olwen, and he owned a fortress in Cornwall. His eyelids were so heavy that they had to be propped up with spears. The warrior Culhwch, who was destined to marry Olwen, came to Ysbaddaden’s fortress with Arthur’s warriors to ask for the maiden. As Ysbaddaden was fated to die as soon as Olwen was married, the giant refused to relinquish her. After failing to slay the warriors with poisoned spears, which they kept catching and throwing back at the giant, Ysbaddaden laid out a list of about forty nigh impossible tasks for Culhwch to perform as a condition of the marriage. Arthur, who had promised to assist Culhwch, completed all the necessary tasks. Ysbaddaden, as he had promised, bitterly turned over Olwen, and Goreu, the son of one of Ysbaddaden’s servants, killed the giant. [Culhwch]

Ysberin [Sberin]

A warrior in the service of King Arthur who was the son of King Fflergant of Brittany. [Culhwch]

Ysberyr Cat Claw

One of Arthur’s warriors. [Culhwch]

Ysgawd

Father of Arthur’s warrior Glew. [Culhwch]

Ysgawyn

One of Arthur’s warriors who was the son of Panon. He was killed at the battle of Cwm Cerwyn by the boar Twrch Trwyth. [Culhwch]

Ysgeir Gulhwch Govyncawn

An Arthurian warrior mentioned in the long list of the members of Arthur’s court in Culhwch and Olwen. His name translates as “Ridge of Culhwch the Reed-cutter,” which makes little sense as a personal name. [Culhwch]

Ysgeir Oervel

A ridge in Ireland where Menw, Arthur’s warrior and sorcerer, was wounded by the boar Twrch Trwyth. Arthur’s epic hunt for Twrch Trwyth began at Ysgeir Oervel. [Culhwch]

Ysgithyrwyn (“White Tusk”)

The “chief boar” in Culhwch and Olwen. As one of his forty tasks, the warrior Culhwch had to obtain one of Ysgithyrwyn’s tusks for Ysbaddaden, the “chief giant,” to use as a razor. Furthermore, the tusk had to be pulled it out while the boar was still alive, and it could only be drawn by Odgar, son of Aedd. It then had to be entrusted to King Caw of Scotland for delivery to Ysbaddaden. Arthur hunted the boar with his warriors and hounds, and it was Arthur’s dog Cabal and Caw who killed the boar. Caw then brought the tusk to Ysbaddaden and personally shaved the giant with it. [Culhwch]

Ysgonan the Generous

One of Arthur’s warriors. He was killed at Cwm Cerwyn by the boar Twrch Trwyth. [Culhwch]

Ysgudydd

A servant of Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere). [Culhwch]

Ysgyrdaf

A servant of Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere). [Culhwch]

Ysile

A woman in the Brown Family. She was the daughter of King Brun of the Savage Realm and his wife Lye. She was the sister of Hector, Galhaut, Brun, and Lore. [Palamedes]

Ysmaine¹

Niece of Brun of Branlant, a vassal who rebelled against Arthur. [Contin1]

Ysmaine²

Perceval’s cousin. She slept with the knight Faradien after receiving his promise to marry her. When Faradien deserted her, Perceval defeated him in combat and forced him to keep his promise. [Contin4]

Ysope

A queen attacked by a heathen king named Marroch. She was saved through the intervention of Arthur and Sir Wigamur. ]Wigamur]

Ystafngwn

An early Welsh poem notes that “In the uplands of Ystafngwn, Cei pierced nine witches.” Nothing more is said about the incident. [WelshPG]

Ystrad Yw

A country in south Wales where Arthur’s warriors fought a battle against the ferocious piglets of the boar Twrch Trwyth. On Arthur’s side, the warriors Peissawg the Tall, Llygadrudd Emys, and Gwrfoddw were killed, but the warriors managed to kill the piglet Llwydawg the Killer. [Culhwch]

Yttra

An uncle of Arthur in the German romance of Wigamur. He tutored the young hero of the story. [Wigamur]

Yvain¹ [Evrains, Evayn, Evein(s), Eventus, Ewa(i)n, Ewayne, Ewe(i)n, Ewin, Ivan(o), Iven, Iwa(i)n(et), Iwe(i)n, Ovan, *Owain, Owein, Uwayne, Yoain, Yov(a)in, Yvains, Yvein, Ywa(i)n(e)(s), Ywons]

A Knight of the Round Table who was the son of King Urien. The earliest form of his name is Owain. Urien and Owain are historical figures—opponents of the Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century. He probably succeeded his father as the king of Rheged, just south of Scotland. A number of poems in The Book of Taliesin glorify his many victories and lament his death, but do not connect him to Arthur. We learn in the Triads that his wife, Penarwan, was one of the “Three Faithless Wives of the Isle of Britain,” that he rode a horse named Cloven-Hoof, and that his mother was Modron, a Celtic goddess who probably became Morgan le Fay. In another poem, we find a mention of his square grave at Llanforfael.
   The early twelfth-century chronicles of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace are the first texts to mention Yvain as Arthur’s contemporary. A thirteenth-century Welsh text called The Dream of Rhonabwy, however, shows no influence of the chronicles or the French romances and may suggest an earlier Welsh tradition of Owain as one of Arthur’s companions. In this satirical tale, Owain is not only “Emperor” Arthur’s contemporary, but seems to be his equal. Owain commands a flock of warrior-ravens. Arthur and Owain play a game of gwyddbwyll (a chess-like board game), during which a servant rushes in and reports that Arthur’s warriors are slaughtering Owain’s chained ravens. When Arthur refuses to stop the murder, Owain orders his ravens released, and the birds begin killing the warriors. Owain refuses to call off the ravens until they have killed a fair number of Arthur’s nobles and Arthur, infuriated, crushes the gwyddbwyll figures to dust.
   Geoffrey of Monmouth says that Yvain succeeded King Angusel of Scotland after Angusel died at the battle of Camlann and that he won many battles afterwards. Wace, however, says that Arthur personally appointed Yvain to the throne of Scotland. In the chronicles, then, he appears late in the Arthurian saga, even as Arthur is fighting his last battles. Contemporary to the chronicles, the Life of St. Kentigern names “Ewen” as the father of St. Kentigern, the patron saint of Glasgow.
   In the second half of the twelfth century, Chrétien de Troyes wrote the quintessential Yvain romance, called Yvain, or Le Chevalier au Lion. The Welsh Owain is almost identical, and either Owain derives from Yvain or they both derive from a common source. A Middle English author followed up with Ywain and Gawain. Each of these three romances tell essentially the same story: intrigued by Calogrenant’s or Cynon’s tale of an enchanted fountain in the forest of Broceliande, Yvain, a member of Arthur’s court, decides to try the adventure himself. Arriving at the fountain, he pours a basin of water on a stone, which causes a hailstorm to pelt the area. The lord of the fountain, called Esclados, arrives and challenges Yvain, and Yvain kills him. Yvain travels to Esclados’s fortress, where he is trapped between two portcullises but is rescued by Lunete, a servant of Esclados’s widow, Laudine. Lunete gives him an invisibility ring which allows him to escape. Yvain falls in love with Laudine, and Lunete convinces Laudine to marry him, pointing out that some knight must protect the fountain from Arthur’s forces, who are rumored to be on the march. Yvain and Laudine are wed, and Yvain takes his place as the fountain’s guardian. When Arthur and his company arrive, Yvain fights with Kay before revealing himself. Desiring to return to court, he asks Laudine for leave, and she allows him to go provided he returns in one year. At court, however, Yvain loses track of time and overstays the year. Laudine sends a messenger to rebuke and renounce him. Yvain goes mad and roams the hills until servants of the Lady of Norison cure him with a magic ointment made by Morgan le Fay. In return for the healing, Yvain helps the countess defend her lands against the Earl Alier. Yvain then makes his way back to his wife. Along the way, he rescues a lion from a serpent. The lion becomes his faithful guardian and refuses to leave his side. Yvain earns the nickname “the Knight with the Lion.” With his lion, he defeats a giant named Harpin, rescues the denizens of the Castle of Most Ill Adventure, and settles a land dispute between the daughters of the Lord of the Black Thorn. He also rescues the lady Lunete, who has been imprisoned by Laudine’s chamberlains as a punishment for Lunete’s initial suggestion that Laudine marry Yvain. Yvain eventually reunites and reconciles with Laudine.
   In the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles, he is called “Yvain the Tall” or “Yvain the Great” to distinguish him from the other Yvains, one of whom is Yvain the Bastard, his brother. Descended from Joseph of Arimathea, Yvain is the son of King Urien of Gorre and Arthur’s sister, either Brimesent or Morgan le Fay (though the earliest mention of Morgan as Yvain’s mother is in the French romance of Tyolet). Even as his father participates in a rebellion against Arthur, Yvain follows his cousin Gawain’s example and leaves home with his brother to join Arthur’s service. On the way to Logres, they defeat armies of Saxons at the battles of Diana Bridge and Arundel. Yvain is knighted by Arthur and he joins Arthur’s wars against King Claudas, the Saxons, Rome, and Lord Galehaut. In his many subsequent adventures, he stops Morgan from killing his father, saves the Lady of the Rock from two oppressors, witnesses the Grail marvels at the Rock of the Stag, slays a giant named Malduit, saves Lancelot from drowning, and, with Gawain, kills the seven evil brothers who rule the Castle of Maidens. Some of his adventures occur during a temporary banishment from Arthur’s court, brought on by his mother’s attempted murder of Arthur. Yvain leads a battalion at the battle of Salisbury (the final battle between Arthur and Mordred), where he kills a Saxon lord named Arcan and the Saxon king who had allied with Mordred. Mordred eventually cleaves him through he brain. Witnessing this slaying, Arthur cries, “Ah! God, why did you allow me to see the worst traitor in the world kill one of the noblest of men?”
   Interspersed among the central Yvain romances are a number of tales that offer variations or additions to his story. In Claris et Laris, Yvain has a sister named Marine. In Sir Perceval of Galles, Yvain’s father is called Asoure. La Tavola Ritonda says that he died fighting Mordred’s army at the siege of Urbano. Malory makes him the father of Yder and equates him with Yvain of the White Hands, a separate character in the Vulgate Cycle. [WelshSG, GeoffHR, Wace, ChretienY, Tyolet, VulgLanc, VulgQuest, VulgMort, VulgMer, PostMer, PostQuest, PostMort, Triads, Dream, Owain, Claris, SirPerc, Ywain, Tavola, Arthour, Allit, Malory]

Yvain²

King of Lindsey who participated in Arthur’s tournament at the Castle of Maidens. [Renaut]

Yvain³

A Knight of the Round Table who was the son of King Hervi. Found in the romance of Yder, he may be identical to the original Yvain, with “Hervi” being a corruption of “Urien.” [Yder]

Yvain⁴ [Yvonet]

Yet another of Arthur’s knights, variously called “the Crooked,” “the Buck,” “the Deer,” and “the Shining.” He fought in the Saxon wars and joined one of Gawain’s quests to find Lancelot. [LancLac, VulgLanc, VulgMer, Arthour]

Yvain⁵ [*Owain]

An Arthurian warrior in Welsh legend who is the son of Nudd, which would make him the brother of Yder, Gwynn, and Dryon. [Geraint]

Yvain⁶

A knight in Arthur’s service who was the son of the Soumière. [Merveil]

Yvain⁷ of Canelones

A Knight of the Round Table from Germany. He was a cousin to the sons of Urien. He fought in Arthur’s forces during the Saxon Wars. During the Grail Quest, while adventuring with Gawain, Yvain ignored a warning and brashly entered a castle, where he was burned alive to avenge the death of Lamorat, who had been killed by Gawain. Yvain’s sister, who blamed Gawain for Yvain’s death, tried to have Gawain killed but failed. [VulgMer, Livre, PostQuest]

Yvain⁸ of Cavaliot

One of Arthur’s knights mentioned in Chrétien de Troyes’s Erec. R. S. Loomis notes a twelfth century Welsh chieftain named Owein of Cyveilioc. [ChretienE]

Yvain⁹ of Leonel [Iwan of Nonel]

Another of Arthur’s warriors who was knighted by Arthur for his service in the Saxon wars. His father was named Grandalis. Yvain was one of the knights imprisoned in the Dolorous Prison until freed by Lancelot. His other credits include a quest to learn the fate of Merlin and participation in one of Gawain’s quests to find Lancelot. Chrétien de Troyes is the first to mention him. His surname may be a variation of Loeneis, or Lothian, or it may indicate a “Lionel,” or a small lion. As the original Yvain was also called “The Knight with the Lion,” this Yvain may have once been the same character. [ChretienE, Wolfram, LancLac, VulgMer, Arthour]

Yvain¹⁰ of Revel

A youth knighted by Arthur for his service in the Saxon Wars. [VulgMer]

Yvain¹¹ of the White Hands [Yvonet]

Another Knight of the Round Table who appears in the French prose romance. He is distinct from Yvain son of Urien, but Malory merges the two characters. He was the son of Daire. Arthur knighted him in reward for his service in the Saxon Wars. Later, he participated in quests to learn the fate of Merlin and to find Lancelot. He was badly wounded in a fight with King Mark of Cornwall, but was healed at the abbey of the Black Cross. During the Grail Quest, he was slain by Erec, who did not recognize him, for which Erec was later killed by Gawain. His former Round Table seat was taken by Arthur the Less. [Didot, VulgLanc, VulgMer, Arthour, PostMer, PostQuest, ProsTris, Malory]

Yvain¹² the Bastard [*Yvain les Avoutres, Yvain of Lafultere, Yvain the Adulterer, Yvonet]

The illegitimate son of King Urien and the wife of Urien’s seneschal, and the half-brother of the first Yvain. He left home with his brother to join Arthur’s service, even though his father was involved in a rebellion against Arthur. He fought in the Saxon wars and was knighted by Arthur for his service. He further participated in the wars against Rome, Claudas, and Galehaut. He had a son named Cahus, who died as Arthur’s squire. During the Grail Quest, Yvain the Bastard adventured with Gawain and Galahad, and he helped Gawain and Gareth, his cousins, liberate the Castle of Maidens by killing the seven knights that ruled there. Late in the Grail Quest, Yvain was killed by Gawain when they jousted together, unaware of each others’ identity. Malory, in an obvious mistake, states that Yvain the Bastard appeared at the healing of Sir Urry, which occurs after his reported death. In the Scottish Lancelot of the Laik, Yvain the Bastard and Yvain les Avoutres are two separate characters. [ChretienE, HartmannE, Perlesvaus, VulgLanc, VulgQuest, VulgMer, PostQuest, Arthour, Malory, Laik]

Yvain¹³ the Black

A knight who wanted to marry the lady of the Red Castle against her will. He besieged the Red Castle, but Guiron the Courteous championed the lady, defeated Yvain, and ended the siege. [Palamedes]

Yvonet [Iwanet, Yonet]

A servant at King Arthur’s court. He was the son of Yder and was related to Guinevere. He appears in Chrétien’s Perceval and Wolfram’s Parzival. Yonet greeted the innocent Perceval when Perceval first came to the court to be knighted. He supervised Perceval’s fight with the Red Knight, and—after Perceval won—he showed the young knight how to don the dead knight’s armor. His name is a diminutive form of Yvain and is used to describe the various Yvains in the Vulgate Merlin. [ChretienP, Contin1, Wolfram]

Copyright Christopher Bruce. All Rights Reserved. Provided here by his kind permission. Layout of book modified to fit the Celtic Twilight format.