This lively damsel obeyed her brother’s command to welcome their unknown guest with great spirit if not quite to the letter – her brother’s instructions were “do as much for him as you would for me”, but she soon entered into a flirtation with Gawaine that must have been anything but sisterly. On learning who he was – allegedly her father’s murderer – she fell into a long swoon but, upon recovering, immediately set about arming him and otherwise preparing their joint defense against the mob she shrewdly guessed would come.
When it came, she helped fight it off by hurling their huge chessmen – ten times larger than ordinary ones – down upon the rabble, meanwhile shouting that in making the man welcome she had simply obeyed her kingly brother.
Anyone who might still imagine the maids of medieval romance to be pallid and timit creatures chiefly useful at waiting to be rescued ought to consider this one’s fighting spirit, fired by a rage that continued to burn within her after her brother had come home and dispelled the mob; she trembled and whitened on his entrance, but I suspect that Chrétien, like us, could recognize that as a natural physical reaction after stress.
See also
Gawaine’s Chessboard Shield and Ivory Pieces | The Legend of King Arthur
Escavalon | The Legend of King Arthur
King of Escavalon | The Legend of King Arthur
Alderman of Escavalon | The Legend of King Arthur
Vavasour(s) of the King of Escavalon | The Legend of King Arthur