Gauvain

The hero of the French romance verse L'Âtre Périlleux, "The Perilous Cemetery," dating to the mid-thirteenth century. He sets out in search of Arthur's abducted cupbearer, after Keu has unsuccessfully made the attempt. Traveling incognito, he meets three maidens who tell him that they are lamenting his own death at the hands of three wicked knights. He promises to "avenge" the victim's death, eventually forcing one of the killers to restore him to life. In the Perilous Cemetery he beheads a devil who has imprisoned a damsel in a tomb. He then kills the knight Escanor, who had abducted the cupbearer.

For most of the romance he is incognito and is known as cil sans nom ("he without a name").

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