King Arthur's Forest

Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion We now shift from Cliges, what you now should know as my least favorite of Chretien's Arthurian tales, to Yvain, my favorite.  My reasons are admittedly weak and without any real critical merit, but they are my opinions all the same.  I will, however defend my opinions below and you can judge for yourself.  First, though, we should do a quick review of the material. The tale begins in Arthur's court where a knight named Calogrenant is telling a tale of his own defeat that he has kept secret many years.  He tells of a giant that directed him to a spring. When he arrived at this spring he sprinkled some water on a stone using the dipper provided.  As he does this a huge storm crops up and a knight rides out and shamefully defeats him in combat.  Of course when Arthur's court hears of this they all wish to ride out to find this wondrous spring.  Yvain, Calegrenant's own cousin, wants to avenge him and instead sneak...