ABSTRACT
YDER, a French romance of 6,769 lines, extant in one manuscript; it was composed probably in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. The illegitimate Yder attempts to win the love of Queen Guenloie by deeds of arms. He rescues an ungrateful Arthur, then joins Arthur's enemy, Talac de Rougemont, and is treacherously wounded by Kay. Cured by Guenloie and reconciled to Arthur, he joins the Round Table and rescues Guenievre from a bear. When Guenievre claims that she would have preferred Y der to Arthur if she had had the choice, Arthur tries in vain to kill the hero. Yder fulfills all of Guenloie's conditions, marries her, and then legitimizes his own birth with the wedding of his mother and his father, Nuc. The romance is noteworthy for its portrayal of an odious Arthur and Kay and for its links with an old tradition according to which Yder was the lover of Guenievre, for whose sake he kills a bear.
