Tale of tristan and isolde

Tristan and Isolt

The Other Arthurian Love Triangle

Max Harshberger, “The Death of Tristan.” 1927.

Introduction

Tristan and Isolt's conflict of love and loyalty is one of the classic tales of Western literature; in the Arthurian tradition, their tragic trajectory rivals and complements that of Lancelot and Guinevere, making Tristan and Isolt’s affair the “other love triangle” of Arthurian literature.

The basic story is one of mis-directed love: Tristan, the heroic nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, is sent to Ireland to escort the Irish king's daughter, the beautiful Isolt, to Cornwall to become his uncle's bride. In most versions, it is during the return voyage that Tristan and Isolt accidentally consume a love potion (meant to ensure Isolt's happiness with Mark) together, and fall in love. Because Isolt's engagement to Mark cannot be broken, she marries the king despite her love for Tristan, and the two lovers spend the rest of their lives attempting to satisfy their desire for each other without revealing that desire to Mark and the Cornish court.

The tale of potion-induced passion has proved irresistible to artists in all media, and versions of the story have survived and been re-written for at least 1000 years.

Tristan and Isolt Globally

The Tristan legend is a fixture of western literature, and versions have been written in French, German, Norse, and English, as well as references being found in Welsh literature. There are also similar stories, or analogues, found in medieval Irish literature. Scholars speculate that the ultimate source of the legend could be Persian, but since no definitive links have been proven, that remains a speculation (Heckel).

Major Versions of the Legend: Medieval

Two major medieval versions of the legend were known as the version commune (common version) and version courtoise (courtly version, the first being supposedly more “primitive,” and the second more “refined” (Heckel). Differences between the two versions include:

More focus on love and emotion in the version courtoise, versus a crisis-driven plot in the version commune (Heckel)

Differences in the workings of the love potion; in the version courtoise, the potion is permanent, but in the version commune, the potion’s effects are temporary (though this is questioned by Norris Lacy in his Early French Tristan Poems; Heckel)

There was also a prose version, known as the Prose Tristan, which gives yet another angle on the story, and was the main source for Sir Thomas Malory’s version of the Tristan legend that he included in his Morte D’Arthur (Heckel).

See the Appendix for a full list of the medieval Tristan and Isolt texts.

Major Versions of the Legend: to 1899

After Thomas Malory's translation and adaptation of the Prose Tristan, English versions of the Tristan and Isolde love story undergo a nearly four-hundred year hiatus, during which the only references to the pair can be found in discussions of hunting terminology and passing uses of the name "Tristan," sometimes in reference to the Tristan of the famous lovers, and sometimes merely as a semi-Arthurian name.

There only seem to have been two exceptions to this silence. One is a play by Thomas Downton, now lost, called The Booke of Trystram, the only record of which is found in Philip Henslowe's diary (Nastali and Boardman 26). The other is a 1780 translation and abridgement of the Prose Tristan called Tristan, Son to King Melianus of Leonois by Lewis Porney, a Frenchman teaching in England. This work survives in a few copies, but has not had much attention from modern critics. In 1802, Tristan and Isolde again surface in a poem written by Sir Walter Scott which is attached to his discussion of Thomas the Rhymer in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Scott says that he wrote the poem in an "attempt to commemorate [Thomas] the Rhymer's poetical fame," and he sets his poetic summary of Tristan and Isolt's doomed love within a frame of Thomas of Ercildoune entertaining the Scottish court after a feast (Heckel).

Major Versions of the Legend: to 1899

Following Scott's poem, the Tristan and Isolt legend had, like Arthurian material in general, a significant resurgence during the nineteenth century. Many of the new versions followed the main medieval model, telling the tale in poetic form rather than prose. These recastings, while they cannot be divided into the version courtoise and version commune of the medieval texts, do present widely varying interpretations of the lovers and their actions.

Some retellings, such as Tristram and Iseult by Matthew Arnold and Tristram of Lyonesse by Algernon Swinburne, present the lovers and poor deceived Mark in a sympathetic light. Arnold's poem is also notable for its kind portrayal of the often-overlooked Iseult of Brittany, the woman whom Tristan marries and subsequently neglects, because he feels that his marriage is a betrayal of Iseult of Ireland.

Others, such as Tennyson in his idyll The Last Tournament, are thematically darker. Tennyson's Tristram is callous and cruelly mirthful to everyone except Isolt, and she characterizes in many ways the appalling depths to which Arthur's court has fallen. His Isolt, although not accorded her own Idyll, can definitely be regarded as one of the wicked women exemplified in the series of poems. She is petulant and demanding, disdainful of Mark, and prideful towards Tristram, loving and hating irrationally and unevenly.

Major Versions of the Legend: to 1899

Significant 19th century versions of the legend were also created in other media, and the most notable of these is Ricard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, composed in the late 1850s. Wagner based the opera on Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan, adding in philosophical elements from Arthur Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation (Weinstock and Heistermann). Wagner’s opera heavily influenced 20th century perceptions of the Tristan legend, and has a particularly famous musical theme, the “Liebestod” or “love-death” theme, that pops up throughout the opera in small pieces, and is finally sung in its full form by Isolde after Tristan’s death.

Major Versions of the Legend: to 1899

“Mild und Leise” (the Liebestod) from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, perf. Nina Stemme

Major Versions of the Legend: 20th Century and On

The 20th century continued the resurgence of the Tristan legend, adding not only poems and prose (see Alan Lupack’s bibliography “Tristan and Isolt in Modern Literature in English” for a list and links to some texts), but also films to the mix. A notable, but “disturbingly Aryan” film version is Jean Delannoy and Jean Cocteau’s 1943 L’Eternel Retour (Heckel). More recently, in 2006, Kevin Reynolds directed a historicized version of the legend, Tristan + Isolde starring James Franco as Tristan and Sophia Myles as Isolde, but unfortunately, the film’s grasp of both history and the legend itself is rather shaky. A whiny Tristan, sympathetic Mark (played by Rufus Sewell), and some significant anachronisms (one in the form of a John Donne poem) distract from the story’s impact, and render the film mediocre.

Conclusion

The Tristan legend is long-lived, and seems to return continually due to our fascination with the idea of true love, and the question of what it means to be faithful to one’s love in the face of adversity. While romantic, however, it can also showcase the cruelties perpetrated by illicit love and by spurned spouses, dramatic elements that can show a darker side of love and relationships. Despite the general lack of happy endings in the various versions, the story still captivates audiences enough that it will probably never be lost.

Appendix: Medieval Tristan Texts

The Welsh Triads (see Triad 23, which refers to “Trystan son of Tallwch”)

Le Roman de Tristan (The Romance of Tristan) by Béroul, circa 1100 CE

Tristan by Thomas of Britain, circa 1155 CE

Chevrefoil by Marie de France, circa 1180 CE

The Folies Tristan, author unknown, 1100s CE

Tristant by Eilhart von Oberge, late 1100s CE

Appendix, continued

Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg, early 1200s CE

Prose Tristan, attr. Luce de Gat and Helie de Boron, circa 1230-1240 CE

Tristrams saga ok Isöndar, a Norse translation by “Brother Robert” of Thomas of Britain’s text, circa 1210 CE

Sir Tristrem, author unknown, before circa 1330 CE

The Book of Sir Tristrams de Lione, by Sir Thomas Malory, circa 1450 CE (part of Malory’s Morte D’Arthur)

Works Cited

Max Harshberger, “The Death of Tristan.” 1927. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014.

Heckel, N. M. “Tristan and Isolt.” The Camelot Project. n. d. Web. 16 October 2014.

Nastali, Daniel P. and Philip C. Boardman. The Arthurian Annals: the Tradition in English from 1250 to 2000. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

Wagner, Ricard. “Mild und Leise.” Tristan und Isolde. Perf. Nina Stemme. Youtube. n. d. Web. 16 October 2016.

Weinstock, John and Matthew Heisterman. “Wagner and Schopenhauer.” Tristan und Isolde. 2007. Web. 16 October 2014.

“The Welsh Triads.” Celtic Literature Collective. 1 April 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.

Background Images

Beardsley, Aubrey. “How Sir Tristram Drank of the Love-Drink.” 1893-1894. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Tristan and Isolt Globally]

Dixon, Arthur. “Sir Tristram Gave Her a Ring.” The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Major Versions of the Legend: Medieval]

Flint, W. Russell. “They fought for the love of one lady, and ever she lay on the walls and beheld them.” c. 1927. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Major Versions of the Legend: 20th Century and On]

Harshberger , Max. “The Death of Tristan.” 1927. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Title slide, Introduction]

Background Images

Mackenzie, Thomas. “Sir Tristram Carried His Love Away.” c. 1920. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Major Versions of the Legend: to 1899]

Pyle, Howard. “The Queen of Ireland Seeks to Slay Sir Tristram .” 1905. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Works Cited, Background Images, Works Consulted]

Rackham, Arthur. “How Tristram was known by the little brachet in the garden of King Mark’s castle.” 1917. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Appendix]

Wyeth, N. C. “King Mark slew the noble knight Sir Tristram as he sat harping before his lady la Belle Isolde.” 1917. The Camelot Project. Web. 16 October 2014. [Conclusion]

Works Consulted

Lupack, Alan. “Sir Tristrem: Introduction.” TEAMS Middle English Texts Series. 1994. Web. 16 October 2014.

“Eilhart von Oberge.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 10 October 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.

“Gottfried von Strassburg.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 10 October 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.

“Marie de France.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 15 October 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.

“Le Morte D’Arthur.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 15 October 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.

Works Consulted

“Prose Tristan.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 29 May 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.

“Thomas of Britain.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 13 December 2013. Web. 16 October 2014.

“Tristan and Iseult.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 7 October 2014. Web. 16 October 2014.