Dame Lyonet and Dame Lyonesse

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Dame Lyonet and Dame Lyonesse

Dame Lyonet was first mentioned in the book, Le Morte Darthur, which has many tales about the Arthurian time. Dame Lyonet was mentioned in the tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney.

In this tale Lyonet was sent to find a noble knight to rescue her sister from the Red Knight of the Red Launds.When she came to King Arthur’s court to ask of such a knight to aid her, a man to the name of Sir Beaumains asked to be the one to rescue the sister of Lyonet. At this point of the tale Sir Beaumains was considered to be not as noble as Lyonet had wanted. Beaumains wouldn’t leave her on her journey back to her sister. Lyonet kept referring to Beaumains as a kitchen knave from King Arthur’s court and would give him no respect as a knight. Throughout the journey Beaumains would not reveal his true identity and Lyonet kept wishing him gone. She would tell all of the knights that they came across in their journey what kind of man he was and taunt them to get them to fight. Every time Beaumains would win. Finally Beumains overcame the Red knight of the Red Launds and saved Lyonet’s sister, Dame Lyonesse. Once Lyonesse was freed she fell madly in love with Beaumains and wanted to be with him. Everytime Lyonesse would sneak into the room to “be with” Beaumains Lyonet would send a knight into the room and to do great harm to Beaumains so that they could not do the things they were trying to do. Lyonet never trusted Beaumains to be a truly noble knight until his name was revealed and his lineage was known.

This tale reveals much about who Lyonet was and what she did. Lyonet was a strong-willed woman who went through great deal to save her sister from not only the Red Knight but also from doing things with Beaumains before they were married. She wasn’t very trusting with people she came across and did not believe them to be what they said. Although Beaumains tried in many ways to prove himself it took many trials to prove he was a noble knight to Lyonet. She had strong feelings about what she wanted from men, herself and for her sister. She settled for nothing but the best.

Lyonet was know as the woman who called Sir Gareth the kitchen knave while he was doing her great honor by following her to save her sister.

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