'Secunda'

Having decided that only the Knight with the Lion could champion her cause against her greedy elder sister, and being given the customary forty days to find him, the younger daughter of the late Lord of Noire Espine (Lord of the Black Thorn) began her quest.

Pausing at a friend's home, she fell sick of grief and worry. So another damsel set out to find the knight for her. This is the maiden whom is here arbitrarily called "Secunda". Though Chrétien does not give her a name, he shows her as plucky and resourceful as any knight on quest; she succeeds in locating Ywaine and his lion, visits Pesme Avanture with him, and brings him back in time for the recovered younger daughter of Noire Espine to get him to Arthur's court on the appointed day.

Considering that "Secunda" appears to be, not so much herself the friend of the damsel who needs help, as the friend or handmaid of a friend, her role in this story, though comparatively short, speaks volumes to me of the solidarity of sisterhood (using modern feminist terminology) in Chrétien's world. "Secunda" alone would be enough to give the lie to our curiously distorted idea of passive feminity in Arthurian romance.