Introduction

Preserved in just one manuscript, S, Tydorel is set in Brittany. After ten years of marriage, the King of Brittany and his wife remain childless. One summer's day, while they are residing in Nantes, the king leaves his wife and goes hunting. Taking her companions to a garden for some relaxation, she falls asleep, but wakes to find that she is all alone. She sees a knight approaching and he offers her his love, saying that she will never know joy if she refuses him. She accepts his love with the proviso that he tells her who he is and where he comes from. He takes her to the edge of a magical lake and, leaving her, enters the water on horseback. After some time, he reappears on the opposite bank, then returns to her, forbidding her to ask further questions. He predicts that she will have a son by him. She will call him Tydorel and he will never sleep. It will be necessary for him to be entertained each night with stories and songs. She will also have a daughter, who will be the ancestor of the Breton counts Alan and Conan. He takes her back to the garden, where they become lovers. The predictions are fulfilled and she and the king, who was delighted by her pregnancy, bring up Tydorel lovingly. He is entertained throughout the night, until a few years later a wounded and impoverished knight, seeking an audience with the queen, sees the lovers together. He soon dies as a result of what he has seen, and the knight never returns. Shortly afterwards, the king dies and Tydorel reigns with great success for ten years. But when the king's messengers go to fetch a young goldsmith's apprentice, whose turn it is to keep the king entertained, he claims he does not know any stories. His widowed mother has told him to say to the king that he who does not sleep is not born of a mortal. Hearing this, Tydorel goes to his mother and demands an explanation. She tells him the whole story and he puts on his armour, rides to the lake and plunges into its deepest part, never to be seen again.