Yonec - Marie de France

How would you like to be locked up in tower for SEVEN years of your life, slowly becoming more and more miserable and suicidal? I don't think ANYONE would wish them upon themselves or anyone else. But, sure enough, the Lord, a rich man, locked up his wife. As this poor woman is stuck in this tower throughout the years, she loses her beauty as she becomes more suicidal.

"She lost her beauty, as a lady would who didn't care if she looked good."

One day, while her husband was hunting, she prayed to God that a knight would find her locked up and take her out of her misery. Sure enough, a bird flew into her room and suddenly turned into a knight. They began talking while laying in bed and expressed their true love for each other. They promise to keep this a secret from anyone. If anyone finds out, he may never be able to fly again, which would lead him to his death. While the Lord is out hunting, they planned to have the knight visit her.

Soon enough, her husband was catching on to a change in her behavior. He noticed her happier and dressing more beautifully, which she was not doing in the past. He sets up a plan, a trap to catch his wife with the elderly woman.

"'By faith,' he says, 'I believe you! Now here's something you must do: in the morning, I'll rise early, and when you've shut the door behind me, you must pretend to go outside; leave her lying in bed by herself. But really, secretly, you'll hide some place you can see by stealth where this comes from, what it might be, that's making my lady so happy.'"

Unfortunately so, the elderly woman, who hides behind a curtain in the wife's bedroom, see's and is frighten by the hawk that turns into a knight. She witnesses them and the love they have for each other and passes it on to the king. The king then has iron spits placed on the windows so the next time the knight comes to see his wife, he will be injured.

"'My sweet love, my friend, your love's brought my life to its end. I told you it would happen thus; your form and face have slain us."

Unfortunately he ends up dying, but before that he impregnants the woman. He gives her a ring that will wipe the memory of all of this from her husbands head. She goes on to raise her son, Yonec, who the knight insisted he be named. He gives her a sword to pass on to Yonec.

Yonec grew up to be a well known and loved man throughout their people. His mother broke the news to her husband, as they stood by the tomb of her lover, the knight, that he was the father to Yonec. Sure enough, Yonec takes the sword passed down from his father and beheads his stepfather. His mother ends up dying, but thankfully so right next to her lover. Yonec lives on to be an honor of their city.