NIGHTBRINGER | The Arthurian Encyclopedia

Ornagrine

Two entries with the name Ornagrine.


Ornagrine

Onagrine, Oragrine, Orriagrine

An island in the West Sea, according to the Vulgate I and VII.

Tornoiant (Turnance) was situated between Ornagrine and Port Astriges.


“Ornagrine”


This unnamed damsel first appeared to Lancelot with her hair loose and wreath of roses around her head. She directed him after the knight he was then pursuing, in return for a promise that he would follow her at once whenever she required him to do so. When next she appeared, she looked seventy years old and gave Lancelot barely time to conquer a knight who was threatening to kidnap Guenevere before requiring him to follow her. Lancelot followed “Ornagrine,” with his opponent’s lancehead still in his side.

Since the damsel’s second appearance was in the vicinity of La Fontaine aux Fees, she may have been a fairy. Certainly magic must be involved in her story somehow. She seemed to lead Lancelot, however, only into the type of adventures normally encountered by knights-errant, not into treachery or ambush.