Lady of Noroison and her damsels

Narison, Norison

The Lady of Noroison and two of her damsels, while out riding in the woods, saw Ywaine asleep during his interval of running mad in the wilderness. One of the damsels approached and dismounted to study him, finally recognizing him by a scar on his face: she had seen it often, so she must have been acquainted with him earlier. She immediately understood that he could assist them in her lady's war with Count Alier.

The three women returned to their nearby castle, where the lady produced a box of Morgan's ointment that Morgan had given her and entrusted it to the damsel abovementioned, with instructions to rub it just into Ywaine's temples, which would suffice to restore his sanity. (The second damsel quietly fades from the story.)

Overeager, the maiden used every bit of ointment to anoint him all over his body, left clothes provided by herself and her mistress, and waited some distance away until after he had awakened in his right mind and dressed himself, when she courteously pretended to find him for the first time. (Of course, finding suitable male garments waiting ready for him in the forest may have caused a knight to suspect something.)

While leading him back to the castle, she threw the empty ointment box into a stream so that she could tell her mistress she had lost it by accident, adding that she almost fell in after it - which would have been an even greater loss. At first enraged, and feeling almost completely sure that she could never get more of the wonderful ointment, the lady soon accepted her loss and said no more about it.

Her investment paid off when Ywaine won her war against the invading Count Alier. Her people would have been glad to see Ywaine wed their lady, but when his work was done he left without explaining that he already had a wife, whose estrangement had caused his madness in the first place.