Brangwain

Loyal companion of Isolde the Fair. Brangwain was sometimes seen as the cousin of Isolde. She was also Isolde's maidservant.

When Isolde went to Cornwall with Tristan to marry King Mark, Queen Isolde had entrusted Brangwain with the love potion which she had prepared for her daughter (Princess Isolde) and King Mark. However by misadventure, Tristan and Isolde drank the love potion and fell in love with one another.

To hide Isolde's loss of virginity, Brangwain took her mistress' place in bed with Mark on the first night after the wedding.

Through Brangwain's cunning and resourcefulness, she arranged many meetings between Tristan and Isolde, as well as foiling Mark's and their enemies' attempts to entrap the lovers.

In most of the legends, Brangwain's lover was Kaherdin, sister of the Breton Isolde (Isolde of the White Hands).

According to the Prose Tristan, Brangwain was more than just a servant and companion of Isolde. She was of royal birth. Her brothers, Perynin and Mathael, became squires of Tristan during the hero's first visit to Ireland; when Tristan left Ireland, her brothers went with him.