Lunette: the trickster hero of Yvain

An essay in which I argue that the handmaiden Lunette is the true hero of  Chrétien de Troyes' 12th century Arthurian romance Yvain: The Knight of the Lion

Lunette, the True Hero of Yvain?

One gets the distinct impression that Lunette, like Dolly Levi, has “always been a woman who arranges things.” If you want your lady wedded, ring retrieved, escape abetted just leave everything to her. She leads Laudine by the nose and Yvain usually obeys her like an obedient Spaniel (or loyal lion.) “Now come and do as I say,” this servant girl tells the knight. And he obeys, because it is clear she knows what she’s doing. Her machinations and manipulations are the central plot device in the romance. Yet, unlike many other characters who operate with tricks and fast-talk, Lunette’s intentions are benevolent. It may be argued that she is working more for Yvain than her mistress, and ultimately she seems to have reasons of her own for what she does. However, there is never reason to doubt that she honestly believes that Yvain’s good, Laudine’s good, and her own success and well-being are intertwined and not at all contradictory. Yvain may do the fighting. Laudine may be the key to happily-ever-after. It is Lunette, though, who decides what should happen and how to push the story in that direction. In the end it is Lunette whose will is done; it is she who triumphs. An astute reader can glimpse just under the surface, like a palimpsest that Chretien de Troye’s work wrote over, a story in which Lunette, not Yvain, is the hero.

    Lunette has many qualities typical of the trickster hero archetype embodied in characters like Odysseus in Greek epic or Loki in the Norse eddas.  These characters use cleverness, evasions, and deception (along with a willingness to exploit the honesty and trust of others) to achieve their goals. Lunette doesn’t just take a page out of their book; she could write the manual. She herself is inscrutable and shows perfect self possession.

Never showing in her face

The happiness she felt in her heart.

While she never unintentionally betrays her own emotions, she is skilled at drawing out confessions from others of their true thoughts and feelings. She reads others intentions and motivations easily. Yvain does not have to tell her outright that he has become smitten with her lady; she quickly understands what he wants.

“We can leave that subject alone,”

She said, “for I see quite well

What those words are meant to mean.”

Her discretion and perspicacity have earned her the role of confidante,

...The lady told her

Everything and she kept things to herself.

It is an excellent position from which to work her will with her words.

She uses truth and lies like tools, making use of whichever the situation calls for. Of course she professes her total honesty, like any good liar:

“and I’ll tell you no lies,

For that would be disloyal”

But in fact she is perfectly willing to mislead and make things up. For example, even though Yvain is hidden in the castle, Lunette tells Laudine that she must go on a journey to seek him and fetch him back. Lunette knows that Laudine needs some time to reconcile herself to the idea. She also knows that it would look bad if Laudine knew how involved she was in Yvain’s escape. The lie perfectly overcomes these obstacles to the outcome Lunette believes is best. Therefore it is justified. And it works. Being a good liar is not so much about always being believed as getting people to go along the path you are making smooth with a few strategic falsehoods. Laudine seems to know that Lunette has a tenuous relationship with the truth. Like other trickster characters, Lunette sometimes has to contend with her own reputation for guile.

“You’ve never spoken so huge a lie,” Laudine says during one conversation, suggesting that she is comparing this lie to the ones she is accustomed to from Lunette. Laudine knows that Lunette lies, but she still trusts her. She doesn’t trust that Lunette is telling the truth. She trusts that Lunette has her back. She trusts that Lunette is right. Laudine accuses her at one point:

“I think you’re trying to trick me,

Trying to trap me with my words.”

Lunette doesn’t bother to deny it. Her defense is

“Well you can be sure I’m right.”

Laudine is willing to be manipulated, because she believes that Lunette’s intention are good and her plans will work out for the best. This trust waivers when Lunette’s advice seems to have been bad, not when she is caught in a lie.

In the middle of the story, there is a false happy ending. Yvain and Laudine are married.                And so the girl has done

Everything she wanted to do.

Mission accomplished! This temporary resolution and the accompanying revelry are for Lunette as much as Yvain and Laudine. Yvain gives Lunette top billing in the all-important recounting of the adventure, being sure to tell

All the goodwill and the help

The girl had given him, steering

His way through the entire story,

Forgetting nothing.

And Lunette is not without some romance in her ending.

I shall only mention a friendship struck,

Entirely in private, no one

To see or hear, between

The moon and the sun.

The very fact that Chretien calls this only a “mention” leaves the reader with the impression that there is much more to tell. But a curtain is drawn over the details, making it all the more suggestive and erotic. The most intimate moment in a book that purports to be about love involves Lunette.

    It is also interesting to note that as part of this false ending, Lunette, who has up until this point been called simply “the girl”, finally is named by the poet. Lunette, like Yvain, has succeeded in making a name for herself.

    This happy ending, however, is more of an interlude. It is like the end of act one of Into the Woods, in which all the characters sing a song about living happily ever after, but the song ends with an ominous “to be continued”. Yvain goes out adventuring and screws everything up by not keeping his promise to Laudine. Instead of returning to his lady and his lordly duties at the appointed time, he completely forgets, forfeiting his lady’s love and the ring she gave him. He makes Lunette a liar in the only way that really matters: she was wrong. Her assurances that Yvaine would be a good protector and husband have been proven false. She has been betrayed as much, if not more, than Laudine. And it is she who actually has the opportunity to express her anger in the poem.

But the girl came forward, and pulled

The ring from his finger, and then

Commended the king to God,

And all the others, except him

Whom she left in deep distress.

Lunette, characteristically, does not indulge in wild rage or grieving. She opts for a pointed snub

As for Yvain, the darkest part of Lunette’s story is just beginning. His faithlessness has called Lunette’s own loyalty into question, leaving her vulnerable to those jealous of her power. When we next see her, Lunette has been imprisoned in a chapel in the forest and awaits a fiery death at the stake. Yvaine, not even recognizing that it is her, complains of his own hard times. He, of course, is under the mistaken impression that he is the sole protagonist, and therefore the only one whose suffering demands attention. Lunette politely sets him straight.

“I quite

Understand how truly you’ve spoken,

But I hardly believes it gives you

The right to say your misfortune

Is greater than mine.

And it’s not.”

Lunette then skillfully ensures that Yvain will be completely committed to helping her. First she reminds him of his debt to her, appealing to his honor. Then she suggests that maybe he’d better not help her, because he might not be up to it, playing on his insecurity. Thus he is not only obligated by duty and friendship, but also compelled by chivalric pride. There follows the most suspenseful episode of the poem. Lunette is just about to be consigned to the flames. It is very clear that she is undeserving of this fate. The other women in the household confirm that she is a force for good, arranging matters in a way that is just. “There will be no one left to speak for us!” they lament. Yvain arrives just in the knick of time to save her from death He proves her worthiness by defeating her accusers. They may have a point when they call her a “miser of truth and spendthrift of lies”, but Yvain’s victory confirms, according to the principles of chivalry, that she never did anything to betray her lady’s trust.

So Lunette is saved, but she and Yvain each still have an important task ahead of them. Appropriately, Yvaine, the martial hero, must win his happy ending with fighting. Meanwhile Lunette, the trickster hero, must win hers with deception. She brings all her powers of persuasion and manipulation to bear, crafting an oath to trick Laudine for her own good.

Lunette accepted that deceptive

Oath. She was careful, administering it,

To omit nothing that might

Turn out to be useful.

Laudine knows what kind of character Lunette is. She realizes very quickly that she’s been had. “You’ve hooked me beautifully, haven’t you?”she says. “You’ve served me remarkably well!” How sarcastic is Laudine being when she says this? Maybe it is a rueful and reluctant admission that Lunette was right all along. This final affirmation that she was right is the last thing Lunette needs to restore her integrity, just as Yvain gets back his integrity along with his lady’s favor and lands.

“And Lunette was vastly relieved.” In literature the plot builds tension and the resolution relieves that tension. The final sigh of relief in the tale is Lunette’s. Was the tension really hers all along? She is without a doubt the character I was most concerned for, the one who kept me turning pages.

The best argument for the story belonging to Lunette is that the happy ending is really hers. “Nothing she’d wanted was denied her,” The one person we know was completely happy with the outcome is Lunette.

Now that she’d fashioned an unbreakable

Peace between generous lord

Yvain and his one true love.

Yvain and Laudine are the objects of this happy ending pronouncement, but Lunette is the subject. In the end, the story is about what she brought to pass.

    Is Lunette the true hero of Yvain? In the story as we have it, penned by Chretien de Troyes, we can at least say that she is the secondary protagonist. But I posit that a story, or maybe many stories, existed in which Lunette was indisputably the hero. The beginning of Yvain describes the ladies of the court coming together and telling stories. Perhaps the ladies and servants at the court where Chetien resided liked to tell stories about a character they identified with, a girl like them who, through her own skillful cunning and after many thrilling tribulations, “got everything that she wanted”. Maybe Chretien de Troyes borrowed some elements from these stories. Lunette’s story lives on as a strong current running through the narrative of Yvain.

Works Cited

Chrétien de Troyes, and Burton Raffel. Yvain, the Knight of the Lion. New Haven: Yale UP:

1987. E-book.