Nightbringer | The Arthurian Online Encyclopedia

Laudine’s Damsel


Not Lunette, but a second capable maiden of Dame Laudine’s.

This damsel arrives alone, mounted on a black palfrey with white feet, to find Ywaine at Chester, where Arthur is holding a mid-August court and tournament. Having taken off her mantle – this may have some significance in courtly protocol – she marches into the tent and up to Arthur, greets him and all his other knights, singles Ywaine out for a tirade of about sixty lines reminding him that he had promised to return to his wife by Saint John’s Day, informs him that he has broken Laudine’s heart by failing to keep his word, and demands Laudine’s ring back.

When he sits stricken dumb, she pulls the ring off his finger and takes her leave, commending the king and everyone else except the guilty party to God. In her tirade, she lays and all but formal accusation of treachery against that person who brought about Ywaine’s marriage to Laudine. It sounds as if she means Lunette and may have some connection with Laudine’s seneschal, who later makes the accusation formal.