Yvain in the context of "Knight of the Round Table"

As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. It developed further from the epics as time went on; in particular, "the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the chanson de geste and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates."

Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric, or burlesque intent. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but by c. 1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel Don Quixote. Still, the modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, damsels in distress, dragons, and other romantic tropes.

The Knights of the Round Table (French: Chevaliers de la Table Ronde) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the French-language Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace of Arthur's kingdom following an early warring period, entrusted in later years to undergo a mystical quest for the Holy Grail. The Round Table at which they meet is a symbol of the equality of its members, who range from sovereign royals to minor nobles.

The various Round Table stories present an assortment of knights from all over Great Britain and abroad, some of whom are even from outside of Europe. Their ranks often include Arthur's close and distant relatives, such as Agravain, Gaheris and Yvain, as well as his reconciled former enemies, like Galehaut, Pellinore and Lot. Several of the most notable Knights of the Round Table, among them Bedivere, Gawain and Kay, are based on older characters from a host of great warriors associated with Arthur in the early Welsh tales. Some, such as Lancelot, Perceval and Tristan, feature in the roles of a protagonist or eponymous hero in various works of chivalric romance. Other well-known members of the Round Table include the holy knight Galahad, replacing Perceval as the main Grail Knight in the later stories, and Arthur's traitorous son and nemesis Mordred.

Laudine is a character in Chrétien de Troyes's 12th-century romance Yvain, or, The Knight with the Lion. The character is unnamed in the Welsh version of the tale, Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, but is named as Laudine in both Chrétien's romance and the German adaptation, Iwein by Hartmann von Aue. Known as the Lady of the Fountain, she becomes the wife of the poem's protagonist, Yvain, one of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table, after he kills her husband, but later spurns the knight-errant when he neglects her for heroic adventure, only to take him back in the end.

Chrétien calls her "la dame de Landuc", i.e. the noblewoman in command of the territory and castle of "Landuc", located near a supernatural fountain within the enchanted forest of Brocéliande. The lady Laudine's fountain, which magically generated a powerful storm when its water was poured into a nearby basin, was guarded by her husband, Esclados the Red, until his defeat by Yvain. After learning about his cousin Calogrenant's encounter with Esclados, in which the former was attacked and beaten for using the well to create a storm, Yvain took revenge on behalf of his kinsman by slaying Esclados in single combat. He then followed the mortally wounded warrior back to the castle, where he fell instantly in love with his victim's widow. Though distraught over her husband's death, Laudine was convinced by her vassals (especially her servant and confidante Lunete) to marry Yvain to ensure the protection of her lands.

Iwein is a Middle High German verse romance by the poet Hartmann von Aue, written around 1200. An Arthurian tale freely adapted from Chrétien de Troyes' Old French Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, it tells the story of Iwein (Yvain), a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. It was written after Hartmann's Erec, and is generally taken to be his last work.

The poem tells how Iwein embarks on an adventure which culminates in marriage to the lady Laudine. But he is then persuaded to leave her for a year to pursue success in tournaments. After he misses the deadline to return to her, he is rejected by Laudine in front of the Arthurian court. Dishonoured, he descends into madness and goes off into the wilderness. There he is healed by a lady with a magic ointment and has further encounters which allow him to show true heroism. These include helping a lion which is being attacked by a dragon, the lion then becoming his companion. Eventually, his honour restored, he regains Laudine's favour.