What are the themes of Yvain by Chrétien de Troyes?

The so-called "matter of Britain" stories, revolving around King Arthur, his court, and the knights that comprised it, was a subject of fascination to medieval writers much further afield than Britain itself. Chrétien de Troyes was an extremely prolific author writing in Middle French during the twelfth century, but his romances, such as this one, share key themes with the work of English poets such as The Pearl Poet (see "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight").  Yvain is the French form of Ywain, and "the knight of the lion" also appears in the text "Ywain and Gawain," a Northern English dialect poem that survives from the fifteenth century.

Like Gawain, the character of Yvain allows authors to focus on themes surrounding morality, purity, and what makes a good knight. In this text, all of these themes are examined in the context of courtly love and Yvain's approach to women and marriage. Initially in the story, Yvain's wife Laudine banishes him for being "untrue" and failing to keep his promise to return to her within a year of leaving to go adventuring with Gawain. It is notable that, at this stage, Yvain is already performing chivalric deeds and heroic adventures, but for his wife, that is not enough: he is not behaving as a knight should in his heart.

Yvain's adventures early in the poem are simply youthful enjoyments to him, and he is privileging his own entertainment and time with his friends over his devotion and promises to his wife. Subsequently, Yvain must then find a way to win back his wife, which he does by befriending a lion. With the lion by his side, he is accordingly lion-hearted, and is able to defeat a giant, among other foes. Finally, he rescues Laudine's maid servant from being burned to death, and she, seeing that he has redeemed himself, helps convince Laudine to take him back.

Yvain's speech towards the end of the story underlines the moral and key theme: "one ought to have mercy on a sinner. I have had to pay, and dearly to pay, for my mad act . . . if you will deign to keep me now, I never again shall do you any wrong." To be a true knight, then, it is important to remember one's promises, and real chivalry means honoring one's wife as well as one's king. The youthful adventures of Yvain early in the text made him a knight in his own mind, but in his heart, he had not yet learned the importance of truth as a knightly quality.