Day Three The Knight with the Lion

1) The name Yvain is scorned in the second bit of the novel, he needs to remake his name because he has completely reworked his personality. We, the audience, get to watch as this man regains honor and makes a place for himself in the storybooks. We watch as he brings himself up from the unknown character who had been insulted and basically defeated to a well known, and well respected, nobleman. If the people knew who Yvain truly was i don't believe that they would have acted the same as they had, most people around the area only knew him as the knight who had been insulted and gone mad in part of his own wife. I believe that this is a highly effective way of regaining honor, it's the kind of lie that is accepted and is allowed for a knight. We see this kind of lie in parts of "Erec and Enide" when Erec lied about his identity to King Arther's knight, in that case it was simply to be able to avoid the companionship that he was trying to avoid. In both cases no wickedness was meant and the lie only really bettered society.

3) Yvain and Laudine meet in a very forced reconciliation sparked by a very familiar character who has managed to manipulate practically everyone she has encountered. Lunete was the matchmaker in the very opening of this tale who first created the relationship between Yvain and Laudine, it is only fitting that she be the one to glue it back together. The entire book is what has really made this possible, however, in that Yvain's reputation is what got him into the castle and convinced Laudine to make a deal before she even knew what she was making a deal about. This is much like what Chretien does in "Erec and Enide" where he has Erec's continuous fighting with Enide looking on build up to a final battle, in that case we watch as the great knight defeats giant's and win's many great fight's. In the end we see him finally defeat the cursed knight, but in this tale we see a build up of Yvain's honor from nothing to finally regain his place in society with the reinstatement of his marriage through the tricks of speech. In both cases Chretien gives the hero the advantage of a specific and powerful literary device, with Erec the outcome is foreshadowed and almost known by the reader for the whole tale while Yvain gains the advantage of anonymity.