Legends of Arthur English 205 Spring 2001
The tale of Tristan and Isolde (also spelled Isolt, Iseult, Yseut, etc.) is one of the most famous love stories in the Western World. The story seems to have developed out of Celtic traditions; some plot elements appear in Irish legend as early as the tenth century, and some may be even older.1 Two influential versions of the Tristan story appeared in French in the late twelfth century, one by Thomas of Britain and one by Beroul.2 A German version by Gottfried von Strasbourg was written early in the thirteenth century, and there were also Scandinavian and English retellings.3
The plot of the Tristan story is fairly consistent. Tristan is the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall. Sent to Ireland to bring back a bride for Mark, he falls in love with the beautiful Isolde himself after the two of them drink a love potion by accident. Many adventures ensue and Tristan, rather confusingly, ends up married unhappily to another woman also named Isolde (of Brittany). Beroul's version is unfinished, but Thomas of Britain's text ends with Tristan dying out of despair at the thought that he will never see his beloved Isolde (of Ireland) again. She arrives just too late, and dies out of love for him, asserting the unbreakable nature of the bond between them:
You surrendered your life because of me, And now I'll do the same for my beloved; For you I want to die the very same way.
Marie de France's short and allusive "The Honeysuckle" also emphasizes this mutual bond of love.5
Malory included the Tristan story in his Morte Darthur, where the adulterous love between Tristan and Isolde parallels that between Lancelot and Guenevere. According to Terence MacCarthy, the parallels between the stories work in several ways, most importantly to emphasize Arthur's goodness in contrast with Mark's vileness, and the general superiority of Arthur's court.6
Tristan remained popular in the nineteenth century, when Wagner wrote an opera about him. Alan Lupack's bibliography of Tristan and Isolt in Modern Literature lists a variety of recent retellings of the story, from Cyril Emra's long poem called "The Love Song of Tristan and Iseult" published in 1905 to a story by John Updike.7
1. Norris J. Lacy, The New Arthurian Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 1996) 464.
2. Norris J. Lacy, "Beroul: The Romance of Tristan" in The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation, ed. James J. Wilhelm (New York: Garland, 1994) 225.
3. Lacy, Arthurian Encyclopedia, 464.
4.Thomas of Britain, "Tristan (The 'Death Scene')" trans. James J. Wilhelm, in Romance of Arthur, 293.
5.Marie de France, "The Lay of Chievrefueil (The Honeysuckle), trans. Russell Weingartner, Romance of Arthur 277-81.
6.Terence McCarthy, An Introduction to Malory (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996) 32-33.
7.Camelot Project Bibliography, http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/trisbib.htm. Accesssed November 28, 2000.
Camelot Project Bibliography, <http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/trisbib.htm> (November 28, 2000.)
Lacy, Norris J, ed. The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1994.
McCarthy, Terence. An Introduction to Malory. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996.
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte D'Arthur. New York: Random House, 1999.
Wilhelm, James J., ed. The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation. New York: Garland 1994.