Ywain (Yvain) takes his name from
Owain mab Urien (Owain son of
Urien), a historical figure of the 6th-century Brythonic kingdom of
Rheged (in today's northern England and southern Scotland) at the time of the
Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. His name was recorded in the
bardic tradition of
Taliesin and became a legendary character in the
Welsh 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 love
Esyllt. In
Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Historia Regum Britanniae c. 1136, appearing as Eventus, he is only mentioned in passing, as succeeding his uncle, Auguselus, King of Albany (northern Scotland). According to
Heinrich Zimmer, his name could have been derived from the Latin name Eugenius. In
The Dream of Rhonabwy, a Welsh tale associated with the
Mabinogion, Owain is one of
King Arthur's top warriors who plays a game of chess against him while the
Saxons prepare to fight the
Battle 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 to
Cornwall. Rhonabwy, the dreamer of the
Dream, awakens, and the reader is left as confused as he is. The
Dream of Rhonabwy has never been satisfactorily interpreted. The Brythonic settlers of
Brittany brought much of their insular British culture when they came to the continent, and in the 12th century, updated versions of
Breton lais and stories became popular with French audiences. The French poet Chrétien de Troyes wrote the romance
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion at the same time he was working on
Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart during the 1170s. In it, the eponymous hero Yvain seeks to avenge his cousin
Calogrenant who had been defeated by an
otherworldly knight beside a magical storm-making fountain in the forest of
Brocéliande. Yvain defeats the knight,
Esclados, and falls in love with his widow
Laudine. With the aid of Laudine's servant
Lunete, Yvain wins his lady and marries her, but his cousin
Gawain 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), but eventually is cured by
Morgan 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's
Yvain had a large and widespread impact, being reworked into several romances in different languages and with various changes to the story and to his character.). It also exists in further versions, including the
Old Norse Ivens Saga and the
Middle English late romance
Ywain and Gawain. A mysterious 14th-century so-called Prose
Yvain is a text largely unrelated text to Chrétien's poem. It contains only one
Yvain-based episode, telling of his rescue of the lion, followed by several more unrelated episodes in which Yvain is no longer main character. Yvain appears also in other romances, having alternative family relations in some of them. For example, his father is named Asoure in
Sir Perceval of Galles. In
Claris et Laris (where Yvain slays the Turkish king Corsabrin), Yvain has sister named Marine. In the cyclical prose tradition, Yvain fights in Arthur's war against the Saxons (
Saracens in the English versions),
Lucius,
Claudas and
Galehaut, and undergoes in many various quests and adventures, some of these during his banishment from
Camelot following the conflict between King Arthur and his mother. These include his failed attempt to defeat the evil giant Malduit (eventually slain by
Bors the Younger), his participation in the liberation of the
Castle 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 the
Mort Artu section of the
Lancelot-Grail cycle where he is one of the last to die before
King Arthur at the
Battle 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." The chronicle
Scalacronica 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 as
Griflet in the final scenes. Yvain's birth by the fay (
fairy) Morgan may have its roots in Welsh legends: two of the Triads claim the goddess-like figure of
Modron as his mother. Travelling through
Denbighshire, 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, see
The 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) and
Mofvydd (daughter). However, Yvain is not associated with Morgan in the continental literature until the Post-Vulgate cycle. (Morgan does appear in Chrétien's
Knight 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 earlier
Erec and Enide. There, Evrain is a cousin of the giant Mabonograin, possibly an echo of Modron's son
Mabon (Mabon the son of Modron appears separately in
Erec and Enide). ==Later Arthuriana==