Lynette

Also known as: noble damsel / the damsel · Family: Arthurian realm · Role: damsel · First appears: Gareth and Lynette 4

At Castle Perilous, Lynette identifies herself as the noble sister of Lyonors and asks Arthur for a knight to defend her, seeking Lancelot against the four knights besieging her sister. When Gareth offers to follow her, she rejects him as a kitchen-knave, but after the Baron gives them harbourage, she permits him to accompany her for an hour: “I fly no more: I allow thee for an hour.” The King gives Gareth to her to guard, and she describes herself as a dog who will worry rather than flee.

By the seventh idyll, Lynette no longer leads Gareth, apologizes for her insults, and calls him the “kingliest of all kitchen-knaves.” She rejoices to discover that he is a knight and noble, speaks of her love smiling on her, and tells Lancelot, “I hate thee and for ever.” In the final account, Gareth is said to have married Lyonors, though a later telling names Lynette instead: “Says that Sir Gareth wedded Lyonors, / But he, that told it later, says Lynette.”

Relationship record

Life events

• Lynette reveals that four knights besiege Lyonors and seeks Lancelot as her champion.(Gareth and Lynette 4 · 📍 Castle Perilous)
  • With: Lyonors Lancelot
  • “‘My name?’ she said— ‘Lynette my name; noble; my need, a knight To combat for my sister, Lyonors, A lady of high lineage, of great lands, And comely, yea, and comelier than myself. She lives in Castle Perilous: a river Runs in three loops about her living-place; And o’er it are three passings, and three knights Defend the passings, brethren, and a fourth And of that four the mightiest, holds her stayed In her own castle, and so besieges her To break her will, and make her wed with him: And but delays his purport till thou send To do the battle with him, thy chief man Sir Lancelot whom he trusts to overthrow, Then wed, with glory: but she will not wed Save whom she loveth, or a holy life. Now therefore have I come for Lancelot.’”
• Lynette refuses Gareth as champion, rejecting him as merely a kitchen-knave.(Gareth and Lynette 4 · 📍 field of tourney)
  • With: Gareth
  • “Damsel, the quest is mine. Lead, and I follow.” She thereat, as one That smells a foul-fleshed agaric in the holt, And deems it carrion of some woodland thing, Or shrew, or weasel, nipt her slender nose With petulant thumb and finger, shrilling, “Hence! Avoid, thou smellest all of kitchen-grease.”
• The Baron grants Gareth and Lynette harbourage at his manor.(Gareth and Lynette 5)
  • With: Baron Gareth
  • “But wilt thou yield this damsel harbourage?” Whereat the Baron saying, “I well believe You be of Arthur’s Table,”
• Lynette stops rejecting Gareth entirely and allows him to accompany her for an hour.(Gareth and Lynette 5)
  • With: Gareth
  • “I fly no more: I allow thee for an hour.”
• Lynette stops leading Gareth, apologizes for her insults, and acknowledges his nobility.(Gareth and Lynette 7)
  • With: Gareth
  • “I lead no longer; ride thou at my side; Thou art the kingliest of all kitchen-knaves.”
• Lynette rejoices after learning Gareth is both a knight and noble prince.(Gareth and Lynette 7)
  • With: Gareth Lancelot
  • “Full merry am I to find my goodly knave Is knight and noble.”
• One account reports that Gareth married Lyonors, while a later account names Lynette.(Gareth and Lynette 8)
  • With: Gareth Lyonors
  • “Says that Sir Gareth wedded Lyonors, But he, that told it later, says Lynette.”

Gareth and Lynette 4

• siblings with Lyonors “My name?” she said— “Lynette my name; noble; my need, a knight To combat for my sister, Lyonors,”
• with Gareth (Gareth undertakes the quest and follows Lynette.) “Damsel, the quest is mine. Lead, and I follow.”
• with Arthur (interaction) “My need, a knight / To combat for my sister, Lyonors,”
• with Gareth (Gareth volunteers to undertake the quest Lynette has brought.) “Damsel, the quest is mine. / Lead, and I follow.”

Gareth and Lynette 5

• with Gareth (Quest companions; Gareth vows to remain with Lynette.) “Then Gareth, ‘Bound am I to right the wronged, But straitlier bound am I to bide with thee.’ And when the damsel spake contemptuously, ‘Lead, and I follow,’ Gareth cried again, ‘Follow, I lead!’”
• with Arthur (Lynette petitions Arthur for a champion.) “this morn I stood in Arthur’s hall, And prayed the King would grant me Lancelot To fight the brotherhood of Day and Night—”
• with Lancelot (Lynette requests Lancelot as her champion.) “this morn I stood in Arthur’s hall, And prayed the King would grant me Lancelot To fight the brotherhood of Day and Night—”

Gareth and Lynette 6

• guardian: Gareth “And such a coat art thou, and thee the King Gave me to guard, and such a dog am I, To worry, and not to flee—and—knight or knave—”

Gareth and Lynette 7

• admired: Gareth (Lynette expresses romantic affection for Gareth.) “‘O trefoil, sparkling on the rainy plain, O rainbow with three colours after rain, Shine sweetly: thrice my love hath smiled on me.’”
• enemies with Lancelot “I hate thee and for ever.”

Gareth and Lynette 8

• married with Gareth “But he, that told it later, says Lynette.”

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Extracted from the original text of Idylls of the King. Made with Rho MD.