Laudine, also known as the Lady of the Fountain, is a character from Arthurian legend who appears in Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...

' poem Yvain, the Knight of the Lion

Yvain, the Knight of the Lion

Yvain, the Knight with the Lion is a romance by Chrétien de Troyes. It was probably written in the 1170s simultaneously with Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, and includes several references to the action in that poem...

and all works based on it, such as the Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 tale Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain and the German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 Iwein by Hartmann von Aue

Hartmann von Aue

Hartmann von Aue was a Middle High German poet. He introduced the courtly romance into German literature and, with Wolfram von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strassburg, was one of the three great epic poets of Middle High German literature...

. She marries the hero of the tales (Sir Ywain) after he kills her husband, but spurns him when he neglects her for knightly adventure, only to take him back in the end.

In Chrétien's romance

Romance (genre)

As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...

, Laudine is the ruler of the mystical Castle of Landuc located near a spring in Brocéliande

Brocéliande

Brocéliande is the name of a legendary forest that first appears in literature in 1160, in the Roman de Rou, a verse chronicle written by Wace....

 Forest. Her husband Esclados

Esclados

In Arthurian Legend, Esclados was a knight who defended a magical fountain in the forest of Brocéliande. Esclados was subsequently slain by Ywain who then married his widow, Laudine. In Chretien's The Knight with the Lion, Esclados is referred to as "Esclados the Red"....

 guards the magical spring, which generates a huge storm when its water is poured onto a nearby basin. Yvain's cousin Calogrenant

Calogrenant

Sir Calogrenant, sometimes known in English as Colgrevance, or, in ancient Welsh, Cynan ap Clydno, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is a cousin to Sir Ywain, and his courtesy and eloquence were known throughout the kingdom....

 had been attacked and beaten for generating a storm causing Yvain to avenge him. Yvain mortally wounds Esclados and follows him back to the castle, where he sees Laudine and falls instantly in love

Love at first sight

Love at first sight is a common trope in Western literature, in which a person, character, or speaker feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them...

 with her. Though distraught by her husband's death, her vassals, especially her servant Lunete

Lunete

Lunete, in Arthurian legend, was the handmaiden and advisor to the Lady of the Fountain . She is described in Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain, the Knight of the Lion as being "a charming brunette, prudent, clever and polite..."...

, convince her to marry him so the land won't go unguarded.

When Sir Gawain invites Yvain to seek chivalric adventure with him, Laudine does not want him to go, but relents when he agrees to return after a set number of days. She provides him with a magic ring

Magic ring

A magic ring is a ring, usually a finger ring, that has magical properties. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. Magic rings are found in the folklore of every country where rings are worn, and they endow the wearer with a variety of abilities, including invisibility, the granting of...

 that protects true lovers from bodily harm, and warns him not to be late. Yvain gets caught up in his exploits, and does not come home. Laudine sends a messenger to reclaim her ring and inform her husband he will not be allowed back. After a period of madness, Yvain engages in new adventures, fighting to aid others (such as the Lion that gives him his nickname), rather than to gain glory for himself. Eventually he proves himself to his wife, and she accepts her husband back into her castle.

The Welsh story Owain, one of the Three Welsh Romances

Three Welsh Romances

The Three Welsh Romances are three Middle Welsh tales associated with the Mabinogion. They are versions of Arthurian tales that also appear in the work of Chrétien de Troyes. Critics have debated whether the Welsh Romances are based on Chrétien's poems or if they derive from a shared original...

 associated with the Mabinogion

Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...

, Laudine is not given a name other than her title, Lady or Countess of the Fountain.