Tristan and Isolde by Gottfried von Strassburg

First transcribed:Tristan und Isolde, c. 1210 (English translation, 1899)

Type of work: Poetry

Type of plot: Romance

Time of plot: Arthurian age

Locale: Northern continental Europe, Ireland, and England

Principal characters

• Rivalin, a lord of Parmenie
• Blanchefleur, his wife
• Tristan, their son
• Rual the Faithful, Tristan’s foster father
• Mark, king of Cornwall, Tristan’s uncle
• Isolde the Fair, King Mark’s bride, loved by Tristan
• Brangene, Isolde’s companion
• Isolde of the White Hands, Tristan’s bride

The Poem:

Rivalin, a lord of Parmenie, tired of baiting Duke Morgan, the wicked ruler, signs a year’s truce and sets off for Britain where King Mark of Cornwall is establishing peace and order. Badly wounded while fighting in the defense of Cornwall, Rivalin is pitied and nursed back to health by Mark’s sister Blanchefleur, whom he takes back to Parmenie as his bride. Later, hearing of Rivalin’s death at Duke Morgan’s hand, Blanchefleur goes into labor and dies during the birth of her son. Rual, Rivalin’s faithful steward, and his wife rear the boy out of loyalty to their dead lord and mistress and to thwart Duke Morgan’s vindictiveness. The boy is named Tristan, in keeping with the sad events preceding his birth and a prophecy of grief to come.

Tristan’s education is courtly, both at home and abroad; it includes music, art, literature, languages, falconry, hunting, riding, knightly prowess with sword and spear, and jousting. He uses these accomplishments to great advantage throughout his short life. He is loved deeply by his foster parents, his stepbrothers, and the people of Parmenie.

Kidnapped by Norwegians, Tristan manages to make his way to Cornwall after an eight-day storm at sea. He immediately attaches himself to King Mark’s court as a hunter, later the master of the hunt. When his royal lineage is revealed, he becomes his uncle’s knight and vassal.

Known far and wide as a doughty knight, Tristan returns to avenge his father’s death by defeating and killing Duke Morgan; his lands he gives to Rual and to his sons. Meanwhile, Duke Morolt of Ireland, who exacted tribute from King Mark, demands further payment or a fight to the death in single combat with the Cornish king. Tristan acts as King Mark’s emissary to the Irish court, where his efforts to have Duke Morolt recall his demand for tribute are unsuccessful. Duke Morolt does agree, however, to let Tristan fight in King Mark’s place. They meet and fight in Cornwall. After wounding Tristan in the hip, Duke Morolt suggests that the young knight yield so that his sister Isolde, queen of Ireland, can nurse him back to health. This offer is refused, and the fight wages fiercely again. Tristan finally slices off Duke Morolt’s head and hand.

Tristan, disguised as a beggar, goes to Ireland to be healed. Calling himself Tantris, he ingratiates himself with Queen Isolde, who cures him of his hurt. Afterward, he becomes the tutor in music and in languages to her daughter, Isolde the Fair. When the young Isolde learns that he is the murderer of her uncle, the queen mother forgives him and allows him to return to Cornwall.

In Cornwall, Tristan sings the praises of the Irish princess. Because King Mark makes the young knight his heir, some jealous noblemen, hoping to have Tristan slain, suggest that he return to Ireland and bring Isolde back as King Mark’s bride. On his arrival in Ireland, Tristan kills a dragon that long ravished the kingdom. In gratitude, Queen Isolde entrusts her beautiful daughter to Tristan’s care.

On the return voyage, Brangene, the faithful companion and cousin of Isolde the Fair, fails to guard carefully the love potion intended by the queen for Isolde and King Mark on their nuptial day. Tristan and the princess drink the potion and are thenceforth enslaved by love for each other. They both experience conflicting duty and desire, turn red and then white, become depressed and exalted, and finally give in to love. To deceive King Mark, Brangene steals into Isolde’s bed so that Tristan and Isolde might meet in secret.

After some time passes, Isolde grows apprehensive lest Brangene betray her, and she orders her companion’s death. Fortunately, the queen relents before Brangene would die, and all goes on as before until the king is at last informed of Tristan’s treachery. King Mark makes many attempts to trap the lovers, vacillating between trust and angry jealousy. Each time a trap is set, Tristan and Isolde prove their false innocence by some cunning ruse.

Finally, the lovers are exiled. The king invites them to return, however, when he discovers them innocently asleep in a cave, a sword between them. Although King Mark urges propriety on their return to court, Tristan and Isolde almost immediately abandon all caution, driven as they are by the caprices of love. Knowing that the king will have them killed if they are discovered, Tristan sets out from Cornwall after accepting a ring from his beloved as a token of fidelity to each other.

During his travels, Tristan performs deeds of knightly valor in Germany, Champagne, and Normandy. In gratitude for his services in Normandy, the duke gives him his daughter Isolde, called Isolde of the White Hands to distinguish her from Isolde the Fair, as his bride. Lovesick and dejected, Tristan accepts his bride in name only—the name Isolde.

(At this point Gottfried’s narrative breaks off abruptly. From his source materials and from related versions, the ending that may be constructed is that Tristan is fatally wounded by a poisoned spear and that Isolde the Fair, summoned from Cornwall, arrives after her lover dies. Shock and grief cause her death also. King Mark, learning of the love potion, forgives them and orders the lovers buried side by side in Cornwall.)

Bibliography

Bromwich, Rachel. “The Tristan of the Welsh.” In The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature, edited by Rachel Bromwich, A. O. H. Jarman, and Brynley F. Roberts. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991. Discusses the Celtic sources of the Tristan legend and argues that they existed mostly in fragments until the fifteenth century.

Chinca, Mark. Gottfried von Strassburg: “Tristan.” New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. An overview of the poem with biographical information about Gottfried, a synopsis of the story, a discussion of the Tristan tradition and how Gottfried adapted it, an examination of Gottfried’s use of religious analogies and language, and analyses of key passages.

Ferrante, Joan M. “’Ez ist ein zunge, dunket mich’: Fiction, Deception, and Self-Deception in Gottfried’s Tristan.” In Gottfried von Strassburg and the Medieval Tristan Legend, edited by Adrian Stevens and Roy Wisbey. Cambridge, England: D. S. Brewer, 1990. Masterful essay discusses how all the characters perpetrate deceit upon others. Argues that Gottfried implies that emulation of the characters would cause one to be destroyed as the characters are.

Hasty, Will, ed. A Companion to Gottfried von Strassburg’s “Tristan.” Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, 2003. Collection of essays analyzing the poem, including discussions of humanism in the high Middle Ages, the city of Strasbourg during Gottfried’s lifetime, the medieval reception of Tristan and Isolde, and the modern conception of Gottfried’s work and the Tristan legend. Analyzes the love potion; god, religion, and ambiguity; female figures; and the Isolde of the White Hands sequence in the poem.

Jackson, W. T. H. “Gottfried von Strassburg.” In Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, edited by R. S. Loomis. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1959. Argues that Tristan’s sensual love of Isolde is a reflection of the spiritual love they have for each other, and this spirituality excuses their actions.

Jaeger, C. Stephen. Medieval Humanism in Gottfried von Strassburg’s “Tristan und Isolde.” Heidelberg, Germany: C. Winter, 1977. Argues that society is at fault because it cannot cope adequately with the love of Tristan and Isolde.

Rougemont, Denis de. Love in the Western World. Translated by Montgomery Belgion. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983. Describes courtly love, focusing on the lovers’ relationship in the Tristan legend; argues the relationship is self-defeating and even masks a death wish.

Sneeringer, Kristine K. Honor, Love, and Isolde in Gottfried’s “Tristan.” New York: Peter Lang, 2002. Analyzes Gottfried’s conception of honor in the poem, examining honor in relation to love, sexuality, the role of the artist, and the character of Isolde. Argues that Gottfried’s highest notion of honor is when Isolde’s sexuality transcends earthly love to join in the mystical union of the soul with Christ.