Ywain and Gawain
Ywain and Gawain,a northern romance from the first half of the 14th cent. of 4,032 lines in short couplets, surviving in a single manuscript. In spite of its title, the poem is principally concerned with Ywain, being a translation (with variations) from the 6,818 lines of Yvain by Chrétien de Troyes . As well as being briefer, the English translation (which is about 150 years later than the original) has some elements in common with other versions of the Ywain story (such as the Welsh Owein), and there has been much discussion of the relation it bears to the original. The English romance is much admired for its narrative life and clarity of diction.
Ywain kills the knight of a castle who seems to have magical connections with the weather, and, aided by her serving-lady Lunet, marries his widow Alundyne (Lunete and Laudine in Chrétien). Gawain persuades him to go, assisted by a lion, in search of adventure, abandoning...
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