Eluned, Luned, Lunet, Luneta, Lunette
Nimue’s cousin who taught her magic. Lunette put up a fountain in the Forest of Broceliande, to be defended by her lover.
When Ywaine has chased Laudine’s mortally wounded husband Escades into the castle, has gotten himself trapped in a little hall between two gates, and runs the risk of death if he is discovered, Laudine’s chief handmaid and advisor Lunette remembers that once her lady sent her on an errand to Arthur’s court, and Ywaine alone, of all the knights there, deigned to speak to her. (The unfailingly corteous Gawaine must have been away from court during her visit.)
Perhaps, she supposes, she did not comport herself with as much prudence and courtliness as she should have. Now she repays Ywaine’s courtesy on that occasion by befriending him, bringing him food, and giving him a magic ring of invisibility; the ring is counted in Welsh legend among the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain. As the opportunity ripens, she further repays him by successfully matchmaking for him and Dame Laudine.
Upon Arthur bringing his court to Laudine’s castle, Lunette and Gawaine strike up a lively flirtation and friendship, with him (predictably) swearing to be her knight. Chrétien likens Gawaine to the sun and Lunette to the moon – largely on account of her name, which he only now tells us. Virtually alone among Chrétien’s golden-haired heroes, heroines, and anybody described as handsome or beautiful, Lunette is definitely a brunette.
Gawaine would assuredly have defended her against Laudine’s seneschal’s formal charge of treason; unhappily, he is away just then in Gore, so that the trial by combat falls to Ywaine, who fortunately turns up in the nick of time.
Along with good sense, wit, and a certain store of mischief, Lunette has a strong streak of generosity: when it looks as if she is about to be burned, the other ladies of Laudine’s court mourn,
Now who will advise our lady to give us fine clothes? Nobody els ever makes requests for other people any more.
All in all, even though Ladine is the hero’s romantic interest, Lunette steals the spotlight to such an extent that one might be tempted to call her the true heroine of Chrétien’s Yvain.
A “Lunete” appears in Vulgate VII as a cousin-germain of Niniane (Nimue and/or Viviane). I assume that, like her cousin of the Lake, Lunette is here a magician (cf. the magic ring Chrétien’s Lunette gives Ywaine), but she may be simply a damsel.
It has been suggested that Lunette became Malory’s Dame Linet, the Damsel Savage. While such a metamorphosis is conceivable, I find their tales, posititions, and personalities too different to maintain the identification today.
Sister of Lady Lyonnesse (Lyonors) and Sir Gringamore (Guingomar of Avalon) of the Castle Perilous (Castle Dangerous). She led Sir Gareth on his first quest. Although she later fell in love with Gareth she was given in marriage to his brother Gaheris. In Celtic myths she is the mistress of the Lady of the Fountain.
Sources
Yvain, or Le Chevalier au Lion | Chrétien de Troyes, late 12th century
Le Livre d’Artus | Early 13th century
Ivens Saga | 13th century
Owain | 13th century
Ywain and Gawain | 1310–1340