Glamour Girls:
Explorations of Women, Magic and Sexual Power
in Yvain and Le Morte D'Arthur
1,2,3,4
Part the First: A Pair of Magic Rings and A Curious Box of Faery Ointment, or, Secrets of a Lady's Coffer - Necessity, Female Sexuality and Magic in Chrétien's Yvain
Chrétien De Troyes' Yvain is full of magic occurrences, faery charms, ancient pagan customs, and survivals of forgotten or waning native deities. The story of a knight who comes to a magical spring to fight its guardian and then take his place finds its origins in the rite of Nemi, in which a challenger can fight a priest of the goddess Diana for a chance to take his place as the consort to the goddess and Rex Nemorensis - literally King of the Glade - and be considered the consort of the goddess Diana herself (until such time, of course, as he himself was supplanted). Chrétien made his story more textual and more sophisticated than its source material, but did not lose the magic and enchantment of the oral faery legend, or the importance of magic in the fates and fortunes of the women in the story.
In the case of Yvain, he enters a beautiful and magical realm and initiates the contest with the spring's guardian. Once Yvain had vanquished his opponent, he is taken as the new protector of the sacred site, and as consort to the lady of the fountain just as the Nemian priest was consort to the goddess Diana. Rather than a huntress goddess, however, Yvain wins the beautiful Laudine, who is helped and advised by her maid Lunete, "a charming brunette, very sensible, shrewd and intelligent." Laudine is full of apprehension at her position of weakness when she believes herself to be without a champion, and is torn between the memory of her husband and the need for a new protector for her lands and her fountain; Lunete swiftly arranges matters so that Yvain has the chance to court the woman he has so recently widowed, and so that her mistress will accept Yvain even though he killed her husband.
Lunete's scheme would have failed before it had even begun if not for the aid of magic - when Yvain tries to elude the people of the castle who would punish the murderer of their lord, she gives him a magic ring:
She then handed him the small ring, telling him that it had the same property as the bark on wood[...]. [...] but it must be held so that the stone is enclosed in the palm: then whoever wears it on his finger has no fear of anything, since nobody, however wide he opens his eyes, will ever be able to see him[...].
Later, when Yvain asks his wife's leave to join Arthur and Gawain for a year, she gives him a second magic ring, this time for protection:
"No true, loyal lover can be held prisoner or lose any blood or suffer any harm provided that he wears and cherishes it and bears his love in mind: instead he becomes harder than iron... Never before have I been prepared to lend or give it to any knight; but I give it to you because you are dear to me."
Yvain, of course, fails in his promise to return to Laudine; when she sends an envoy (curiously, not Lunete) to retrieve her ring and to denounce Yvain in front of all his fellows, this causes Yvain to wander from the knights' company in a delerium of despair. In a sense, he has been cursed, but not in any supernatural fashion; Laudine has effectively done to Yvain what he did to her, which is take away his identity and position by the withdrawing of her love. While control of Laudine's lands begins to become endangered, Yvain's control of himself disappears, leaving him naked, tormented and mad.
His restoration to sanity and to civilization comes once again by magic and at the hands of women - this time literally. When he is found naked in the woods by "two damsels, along with a lady, their mistress," who, as it turns out, are in need of the same kind of protection as Yvain's deserted consort, they too use magical means to succor their would-be champion. The Lady of Noroison, under attack by Count Alier, directs one of her damsels to rub a small amount of faery ointment made by "Morgan the Wise" on his temples to drive out his madness so he can be her champion against the count; the daring damsel, however, in her eagerness to heal Yvain and help her mistress (and herself), anoints not only the knight's temples but his entire naked, sleeping body with all of the mysterious balm. Any purely medicinal connotation in this passage is driven out of the reader's mind by the picture Chrétien paints:
And she is exceedingly bold, going right up to the madman so that she can touch and handle him. Taking the ointment, she rubs him with the entire contents of the box, being so anxious to cure him that she proceeds to anoint him all over [...]. She rubs it into his temples and forehead and his whole body down to his toes. In the warm sunshine she rubbed his temples and entire body until the madness and depression left his brain.
Yvain comes to his senses and once again finds himself richly accoutered and tended to by beautiful women who need his assistance. In a microcosmic re-enactment of the story's chief event, he repels the attackers and restores order to the lady's estates. Apparently Morgan's ointment has restored his sense of obligation as well (or strengthened it where before it had faltered), for he leaves the lady of Noroison to begin the journey home to Laudine.
In the end, Yvain is reunited with his wife, fighting successfully on behalf of several other women during his journey to her. According to Yvain's own plea, it is in Laudine's power for him to be restored to his place beside her. Although the ultimate power she wields over him may not be of an occult nature, she, at least, felt the need to make use of supernatural objects in order to maintain her position and keep Yvain as her champion.
Perhaps an obvious question at this point in the story is, where did these women get these magical items - items that are also commonly used as either love-gifts or potential aids to sexual pleasure? We know that the lady of Noroison was given her ointment by Morgan the Wise (i.e., Le Fay), but we do not know what her association with that queen might be, or if she has any other peculiar salves or potions in her collection. As for the wife of Yvain and her maidservant, if Laudine and Lunete are survivals of earlier lunar goddesses and fountain Fays, as many scholars suggest, it might explain the supernatural character of the challenge at the fountain and of Laudine's domain in general. Yet even if the pair are magical faery sisters playing at living in the mortal world, they are still essaying the roles of women in the Middle Ages, and must be viewed within this story as at least partially human in nature.
They are not sorceresses (although Lunete's later imprisonment and sentencing to burning at the stake is suspicious, Chrétien does not elaborate on this possibility), and they do not seem to be Fays. Did they consult with witches to acquire these trinkets for such an eventuality? Can Laudine's phenomenal beauty and Lunete's acute intelligence be attributed to a mystical or uncanny origin? Why do they have magic rings, and not, say, enchanted swords? These women have secrets, and their secrets are tied up with magical love gifts. One can almost picture them being hidden away with their most intimate goods and possessions, among the scented scarlet linens of Laudine's bedchamber.
Presumably Lunete aids whom she will, or whom her lady instructs her, but Laudine was married to the preceding fountain guardian - someone who could well have used such a ring as the one she gives Yvain when he leaves her. Why did she not employ it before this? Perhaps she has realized that champions are hard to come by, and that she had better ensure the safe return of this one. Perhaps she did not truly love her first (we at least presume he is the first) husband, and, when faced with the possible loss of a man she does love, is willing to resort to supernatural assistance.
Yvain is bound to Laudine through his marriage vows, through his duty as ward of the lands, and through his love for her. In her realm he is happy and well cared for, with every sensual pleasure a man could want, from fine clothes and good food to the love and affection of "one of the most beautiful ladies seen by mortal eye." Yet Laudine rightfully fears that one year away from her will turn him from the pleasures of her hearth and her chamber, back to the homosocial circle of his comrades; his absence will not only leave her romantically bereft but without anyone to protect her or her lands. Is the ring a symbol of her heart? Or is it insurance to protect her lands, holdings and status? For a woman in the courtly environment, is there a difference? Can there be a difference?
In this world, a woman cannot afford to take chances. In Chrétien's Yvain, we witness the heroine bolstering her romantic power over the hero with both magical and romantic devices, mingling sex, love and magic in a binding charm that eventually does the trick.
Next... Battle of the Ladies of the Lake
1,2,3,4
Copyright © 2005 Sukipot.com