Fair Unknown
Le Bel Inconnu is a French Arthurian romance written by Renaut de Beaujeu c. 1200, referring to the young knight who is the protagonist of the tale. The knight, initially without a name, who eventually discovers his identity or his parentage is revealed during the course of the story.
Le Bel Inconnu is Gingalain, son of Gawain and the fay Blanchemal. As a nameless youth, he arrives in King Arthur's court and granted a to be knighted. He earns the nickname "Fair Unknown", then accepts his main quest, to save the Princess/Queen of Gales, a mission heralded to the Court by the queen's maidservant Hélie. The Fair Unknown undergoes a number of side-quests, including his succoring of the Maid of the White Hands upon a serpent to dispel the transformation of the princess of Wales, after which a voice reveals to him his name and his parentage. The princess discloses her name as Blonde Esmeree; she is Princess/Queen of Wales, and wishes to marry the hero. The Fair Unknown has a chance of reunion with White Hands, but when Arthur calls a tournament to entice him back, she helps by magically sending him to the joust, and he takes this to be a rejection. He then marries Blonde Esmeree.
There are later French reworkings such as the Beausdous by Robert de Blois and the reconstructed Gliglois, as well as a modern prose rendition . There are also cognate tales in other languages: the Middle English Libeaus Desconus, German Wigalois, and Italian Carduino.
The term "The Fair Unknown" might be applied more generically to any similar character assuming the same motif of anonymity.
Nomenclature
The Old French form is actually Li Biaus Descouneüs, rendered in Middle English as the Libeaus Desconus. While "The Fair Unknown" may be the modern English translation of Li Biaus Descouneüs, this designation had already been used in the Middle English work, which appends the literal translated meaning of "Libeaus Desconus" as "Þe faire unknowe".Plotline
Guinglain is the eventually-revealed Baptism name of the title character in Le Bel Inconnu, a 6266 line French poem by Renaut de Beaujeu, completed some time after 1191 and before 1212/13, which survive in the unique Chantilly, Bibliothèque du Château/Musée Condé, MS. 472.The name is withheld until midpoint into the poem after he completes the quest of the kiss, this delay being a deliberate ploy by the author to enhance the dramatic effect.
Knighthood and main adventure
In the Bel Inconnu, a youth appears at Arthur's court in Caerleon, and the nameless youth abruptly asks King Arthur for an unspecified boon, which is granted. The king sends out to discover the youth's name, but the youth cannot provide what he does not know, and he is given the nickname "Fair Unknown".A maidservant named Helie from Wales then arrives at court, seeking a knight to take up an adventure to rescue her master, the Princess/Queen. The adventure is that of the Fearsome Kiss. No knight seems willing, when the youth requests that his promised bonn be permission to accept this adventure. Arthur at first tries to dissuade, fearing it may be too dangerous, but relents, after enlisting the youth as a knights of his court. Helie however is unhappy with the choice of an unproven knight, "the worst rather than best". In the Middle English version, the messenger named Elene also complains that a child has been assigned to the task.
Side-adventures
But the youth will have the chance to prove himself in a number of adversarial encounters and adventures before arriving at the main quest in Wales. In the journey, he will be accompanied by Helie, her dwarf, and the squire named Robert assigned to the Bel Inconnu by the king.In his first enemy encounter, the Bel Inconnu defeats the knight Blioblïeris who defends the Perillous Ford, after which he is challenged by Blioblïeris's two cronies, including "Willaume de Salebrant". The LD sets the hero's first fight against William of Salebraunche at "Castle Adventurous upon the Vale Perilous".
Maiden Blanches Mains at Ile d'Or
The most significant of the side-quests is his aiding The Maiden of the White Hands, foiling the plans of her unwanted suitor Malgier le Gris by defeating and killing him. The victory earns him the title to this kingdom and claim to wed the Maid himself, and they are enamored of each other. The Bel Inconnu overspends his time here in leisurely amorous idleness, but leaves abruptly upon remembering his main quest/adventure, to complete his obligation to the Welsh princess.The Maiden of the White Hands is also called at one point "Lady of the White Hands", whom he had succored earlier. She is also referred to as a veritable "Fay" or "Fairy" of Ile d'Or by commentators as she was an enchantress manifesting magical powers. After completing his main quest, he will have a chance to revisit the Pucelle to apologise for his abrupt departure after their initial acquaintance, and she will then reveal she had been aiding him all along using her magical powers.
Serpent's kiss
Arriving in Wales, Bel Inconnu accomplishes the "Fearsome Kiss" namely, the ordeal of breaking an evil enchanter's spell by exchanging a "kiss" with a serpent and causing it to transform back into a woman's form. This dispelling of the snake-woman's curse is common to the BI and the LD, and also occurs in Carduino.In Le Bel Inconnu, the serpent or rather guivre draws near and kisses him. The enchanted and transformed woman introduces herself as Blonde Esmerée of Gales, claiming to be the acknowledged queen of Wales, whose city is Snowdon. In the LD, she is the Lady of Snowdon, given in text as the Queen of Sinadoune, who had been transformed by two magicians into the shape of a serpent with a woman's face. In Carduino, the chained serpent becomes the beautiful Beatrice upon a kiss.
Revelation
In Le Bel Inconnu, the accomplishment of the "Fearsome Kiss" is followed by a revelation in the form of a voice in his head which told him his baptismal name was Guinglain, his mother was Blanchemal the Fay, and his father Gawain. Although the hero begins by addressing "Dear God", the hero's amour, Lady of the White Hands, or the Fairy of the Ile d'Or, later reveals it was actually her own voice that informed him of his name, after he despatched the enchanter Mabon.Messenger and enchanters
The names of the female messengers and the enchanters imprisoning the ladies are similar in the Old French and Middle English versions. The acceptance of the ordeal of the "Fearsome Kiss" is beseeched at the beginning of the tale by a female messenger arriving at Arthur's court, namely Hélie, the lady-in-waiting serving the princess Blonde Esmerée in the BI. The female messenger is named Elene in the LD, and in both works she is accompanied by a dwarf.There are two men with power to cast and remove the serpent enchantment; in the BI, an elder brother named Mabon, and the younger, a knight named Evrain the Cruel. In the LD, the captors are named Mabon and Irain.
Wedding of Bel Inconnu
When the Bel Inconnu rescues the princess and out of gratitude, she offers herself to him in marriage. However, had already been proposed marriage by the Maiden of the White Hands.The Bel Inconnu is having his reunion with the Pucelle à Blanches Mains when King Arthur holds a tournament with the intent to lure Gingalain back to court—and to steer his decision of marriage more towards the newly crowned Queen of Wales. In joining the tournament, Gingalain would have to forfeit his love for Pucelle and never see her again. He decides to join the tournament regardless of the sacrifices he would have to make. Pucelle altruistically offers to aid him with her powers; she transports him out of her castle with a horse, a squire, and armour to be able to join the tournament. This magical send-off by the Blanches Mains is regarded by Bel Inconnu to be a gesture of final break-up and rejection, and he winds up marrying the Blonde Esmeree, as was arranged for him to do.
Dilemma or no
Although both women are enamored with the hero, the Fair Unknown's heart lies with the Blanches Mains and he is only tepidly interested in the Blonde Esmerée. But circumstances conspire otherwise. The Fair Unknown, having abruptly left the Blanches Mains's company to tackle his main quest rescuing the Blond Esmerée, is later reunited with the Blanches Mains and is forgiven; but when the Blanches Mains helps him with her magic to attend Arthur's tournament, he interprets this as her jilting him, and accepts Arthur's design to keep him at his court, relenting to his matchmaking with Esmerée the Queen of Gales as wife. Yet the readership's expectation to grant Fair Unknown his requited love for the enchantress is addressed by the poet in the very end, in a tantalizing and frustrating manner, for he quips that he would be willing to compose such a sequel, if only his Fair Lady were to grant him with a "favorable glance ". This "naughty ending" has disappointed modern critics, who even accused him of flippancy on a sober romantic theme.As for the Middle English Libeaus Desconus, Schofield categorically pronounced the hero "marries the disenchanted lady gladly. He has no desire for anyone else. Contrarily, however, modern commentating explains that Chestre's hero also dilly-dallies for a long while at the Ile d'Ore and "experiences the interrelations of knightly prowess and love" with the enchantress, there named the Dame Amoure.