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TRISTAN, or TRISTRAM

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 294 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TRISTAN, or TRISTRAM , one of the most famous heroes of See also:medieval See also:romance. In the earlier versions of his See also:story he is the son of Rivalin, a See also:prince of See also:North See also:West See also:Britain, and Blancheflor, See also:sister to See also:King See also:Mark of See also:Cornwall. Rivalin is killed in See also:battle, and Blancheflor, after giving See also:birth to a son, See also:dies of grief. The boy is brought up as his own by Roald, or Rual, See also:seneschal of the See also:kingdom, who has him carefully trained in all chivalric and courtly arts. With the possible exception of See also:Horn, Tristan is by far the most accomplished See also:hero in the whole range of knightly 1 romance; a finished musician, linguist and See also:chess-player, no one can See also:rival him in more knightly arts, in See also:horsemanship or See also:fencing. He has, besides, the whole See also:science of " venerie " at his See also:finger-tips; in fact Tristan is the " Admirable See also:Crichton " of medieval romance, there is nothing he cannot do, and that superlatively well—it must be regretfully admitted that he is also a most accomplished liar! Attracted by his gifts, pirates from the North See also:Sea kidnap the boy, but terrified by the storms which subsequently beset them, put him ashore on the See also:coast of Cornwall, whence he finds his way to the See also:court of his See also:uncle King Mark. Here we have a first See also:proof of his See also:talent for romancing; for alike, to two pilgrims who show him the road and to the huntsmen of Mark's court (whom he instructs in the rightful method of cutting up and disposing the See also:quarry), Tristan invents different, and most detailed, See also:fictions of his See also:land and parentage. He becomes a See also:great favourite at court, and when Roald, who has sought his See also:young See also:lord far and wide, at last reaches See also:Tintagel, Mark welcomes the See also:revelation of Tristan's identity with joy. Cornwall is at this See also:time in subjection to the king of See also:Ireland, Gormond, and every third See also:year must pay See also:tribute; the Irish See also:champion, Mor6lt, See also:brother to the See also:queen, arrives to claim his See also:toll of See also:thirty youths and as many maidens. The Cornish knights (who in Arthurian romance are always represented as hopeless cowards), dare not contest his claim but Tristan challenges him to single combat, slays him and frees Cornwall from tribute. Unfortunately he himself has been wounded in the fight, and that by a poisoned weapon; and none Lut the queen of Ireland, Isolt, or Iseult, possessed the See also:secret of healing.

Tristan causes himself to be placed in a See also:

boat with his See also:harp, and•committed to the waves, which carry him to the shores of Ireland. There he gives himself out for a See also:minstrel, Tantris, and as such is tended and healed by Queen Iseult and her daughter of the same name. When recovered he makes a plausible excuse for leaving Ireland (pretending he has See also:left a wife in his native land) and returns to Cornwall. His uncle receives him with joy, but the barons of the court are bitterly jealous and See also:plot his destruction. They persuade Mark that he should marry, and Tristan, who has sung the praises of the princess Iseult, is despatched to Ireland to demand her See also:hand, a most dangerous errand, as Gormond, incensed at the See also:death of Mor8lt, has sworn to slay any Cornish See also:knight who sets See also:foot in Ireland. Tristan undertakes the See also:mission, though he stipulates that he shall be accompanied by twenty of the barons, greatly to their disgust. His See also:good See also:fortune, however, does not forsake him; he lands in Ireland just as a fierce See also:dragon is devastating the See also:country, and the king has promised the hand of the princess to the slayer of the See also:monster. Tristan achieves this feat, but, overcome by the venom exhaled from the dragon's See also:tongue, which he has cut out, falls in a swoon. The seneschal of the court, a See also:coward who has been watching for such an opportunity, cuts off the dragon's See also:head, and, presenting it to the king, claims the See also:reward, much to the dismay of Iseult and her See also:mother. Suspecting that the seneschal is not really the slayer of the dragon, mother and daughter go secretly to the See also:scene of the combat, find Tristan, whom they recognize as the minstrel, Tantris, and bring him back to the See also:palace. They tend him in secret, but one See also:day, through the See also:medium of a splinter from his See also:sword, which had remained fixed in MorSlt's See also:skull, and been preserved by the queen, the identity of Tantris and Tristan is made clear. The princess would slay him, but is withheld by her mother, who See also:sees they have need of Tristan's aid to unmask the seneschal.

This is done in the presence of the court; Tristan is pardoned, formally declares his errand, and receives the hand of Iseult for his uncle King Mark. Tristan and Iseult set See also:

sail for Cornwall, Iseult accompanied by her waiting-woman, Brangaene (who, in some versions, is also a kinswoman), to whose care the queen, skilled in magic arts, confides a love-potion. This is intended to be drunk by king and queen on their bridal See also:night and will ensure their undying love for each other. Unhappily, on the voyage, by some See also:mistake (accounted for in different ways), Tristan and Iseult drink the love drink, and are forthwith seized with a fatal See also:passion each for the other. From this moment begins a See also:long-See also:drawn-out See also:series of tricks and subterfuges, undertaken with the view of deceiving Mark, whose suspicions, excited by sundry of his courtiers, from time to time get beyond his See also:control, and are as often laid to See also:rest by some See also:clever ruse on the See also:part of his See also:nephew, or his wife, ably seconded by Brangaene. In the poems, Mark is, as a See also:rule, represented in a favourable See also:light, a See also:gentle, kindly See also:man, deeply attached to both Tristan and Iseult, and only too ready to allow his suspicions to be dispelled by any plausible explanation they may choose to offer: At the same time the fact that the lovers are the helpless victims of the fatal force of a magic spell is insisted upon, in See also:order that their career of falsehood and deception may not deprive them of sympathy. One See also:episode, in especial, has been most charmingly treated by the poets. Mark, in one of his fits of See also:jealousy, banishes Tristan and Iseult from the court; the two See also:fly to the See also:woods, where they See also:lead an idyllic See also:life, blissfully happy in each other's See also:company. Mark, See also:hunting in the See also:forest, comes upon them sleeping in a See also:cave, and as Tristan, who knows that the king is in the neighbourhood, has placed his sword between them, is convinced of their innocence. Through a cleft in the See also:rock a See also:ray of light falls upon Iseult's See also:face, Mark stops up the crevice with his See also:glove (or with grass and See also:flowers), aid goes his way, determined to recall his wife and nephew. He does so, and the same See also:drama of plot and See also:counter-plot is resumed. Eventually Mark surprises the two under circumstances which leave no possible See also:room for doubt as to their mutual relation; Tristan flies for his life and takes See also:refuge with Hoel, See also:duke of Britanny.

After some time, See also:

hearing nothing of Queen Iseult, and believing himself forgotten, he weds the duke's daughter, Iseult of the See also:white hand, but weds her only in name, remaining otherwise faithful to Iseult of Ireland. Later on he returns to Cornwall in disguise, and has more than one interview with his See also:mistress. Ultimately, while assisting his brother-in-See also:law in an intrigue with the wife of a neighbouring knight, Tristan is wounded by a poisoned arrow; unable to find healing, and being near to death, he sends a messenger to bring Queen Iseult to his aid; if successful the See also:ship which brings her is to have a whitesail, if she refuses to come, a See also:black. Iseult of the white hand overhears this, and when the ship returns, bringing Iseult to her See also:lover's aid, either through jealousy or by pure inadvertence (both versions are given), she tells Tristan that the sail is black, whereon, despairing of seeing his love again, the hero turns his face to the See also:wall and dies. Iseult of Ireland lands to find the See also:city in See also:mourning for its lord; hastening to the bier, she See also:lays herself down beside Tristan, and with one last embrace expires. (One dramatic version represents her as finding the wife seated by the bier, and ordering her away, " Why sit ye there, ye who have slain him ? Arise, and begone!") The bodies are sent to Cornwall, and Mark, learning the truth, has a See also:fair See also:chapel erected and lays them in tombs, one at each See also:side of the See also:building, when a sapling springs from the See also:heart of Tristan, and reaching its boughs across the chapel, makes its way into the See also:grave of Iseult. However often the See also:tree may be cut down it never fails to grow again. (In some versions it is respectively a See also:vine and a See also:rose which grow from either See also:tomb and interlace midway.) We need have little wonder that this beautiful love-story was extremely popular throughout the See also:middle ages. Medieval literature abounds in references to Tristan and Iseult, and their adventures were translated into many See also:tongues and are found depicted in carvings and tapestries. Probably the story was first told in the See also:form of See also:short lais, each recounting some See also:special episode, such as the lai known as the cheevrefeuille; how old these may be it is impossible to say. See also:Professor Zimmer, in his examination of the story, sees See also:reason to believe that the See also:main incidents may repose on a genuine historic, tradition, dating back to the 9th or loth See also:century, the See also:period of See also:Viking rule in Ireland.

The name of Iseult's See also:

father, Gormond, is distinctly Scandinavian; she, herself, is always noted for her See also:golden See also:hair, and it is quite a misrendering of the tradition to speak of her as a dark-haired Irish princess. In the See also:German tradition she is See also:die lichte, Iseult of Britanny die schwarze IsSlt; it is this latter who is the See also:Celtic princess. The name Tristan is now generally admitted to be the See also:equivalent of the Pictish Drostan, and on the whole, the story is now very generally allowed to be of insular, probably of See also:British, origin. Some time in the See also:lath century the story was wrought into consecutive poems. The latest theory, championed with great skill by M. Bedier, is that there was one poem, and one only, at the See also:root of the various versions preserved to us, and that that poem, composed in See also:England, probably by an Anglo-See also:Norman, was a See also:work of such force and See also:genius that it determined for all time the form of the Tristan story. The obvious objection to this view is that a work of such importance, composed at so comparatively See also:late a date, is scarcely likely to have perished so completely as to leave no trace; if there were one poet held as an authority, the name of that poet would surely have been mentioned. Moreover the See also:evidence of the author of the See also:principal Tristan poem preserved to us points in another direction. This poet was an Anglo-Norman named See also:Thomas; and, although little over 3000 lines of his poem have been preserved, we have three See also:translations; a German, by Gottfried von See also:Strassburg; a Scandinavian, by a certain Brother See also:Robert; and an See also:English, by Thomas, sometimes identified with Thomas of Ercildoune, though this is doubtful. With the help of the extant fragments and these translations we can form a very good See also:idea of the See also:character and content of Thomas's work, a task now rendered far more easy by M. Bedier's skilful reconstruction (cf. vol. i. of his edition of Thomas). It was certainly a work of great merit and See also:charm.

As authority Thomas cites a certain Breri, who has now been identified with the Bleheris quoted as authority for the See also:

Grail and See also:Gawain stories, and the Bledhericus referred to by Giraldus Cambrensis as famosus ille fabulator. This is what Thomas says: " Seignurs, cest cunte est molt See also:divers, E pur go 1'uni See also:par See also:mes vers E di en tant cum est mester E le surplus voil relesser. Ne vol pas trop en uni dire! See also:Ici diverse la matyre. Entre ceus qui See also:solent cunter E del cunte Tristran parler, Il en cuntent diversement : Oi en ai de plusur gent. Asez sai que chescun en dit E co qu'il unt mis en escrit, Mes sulun 90 que j'ai of Nel dient pas sulun Breri Ky solt See also:les gestes e les cuntes De tuz les reis, de tuz les cuntes, Ki orent See also:este en Bretaingne." (THOMAS, i, 377). These are not the words of a man who is following a See also:complete and authoritative poem; judging from the context of the other references to Bleheris he was rather a See also:collector and versifier of short episodic tales, and it seems far more natural to under-stand Thomas as having wrought into one complete and consecutive form the various poems with which the name of Breri was associated, than to hold that that, or a similar, work had already been achieved by another. Thomas's work, fortunately, See also:fell into the hands of a true poet in the See also:person of Gottfried von Strassburg, whose Tristan and Isolde is, from a See also:literary point of view, the See also:gem of medieval German literature. Gottfried is a far greater See also:master of See also:style than Wolfram von Eschenbach, and his treatment of some of the episodes, notably the sojourn in the woods, is most exquisite. He did not live to complete his poem, but happily he carried it up to the point where the See also:original fragments I .See also:gin, so that we can See also:judge very fairly what must have been the effect of the whole, the style of the two poets being very similar. Inspiring as the Tristan story is, it seems improbable that it should have been handled, and that within a comparatively short period, by three writers of genius, and that of these three the first, and greatest, should have utterly disappeared! The translators of Thomas do not fail to quote him as their source, why then has no one quoted the original poet?

Besides the version of Thomas, we have a fragment by a certain Beroul, also an Anglo-Norman, and a German poem by Eilhart von Oberge, both of which derive from a See also:

common source. There also exists in two See also:manuscripts a short poem, La Folie Tristan, See also:relating how Tristan, disguised as a See also:fool, visits the court of King Mark. This poem is valuable, as, presuming upon the sufficiency of his disguise, Tristan audaciously gives a resume of his feats and of his relations with Iseult, in this agreeing with the version of Thomas. The "See also:Gerbert" continuation of the See also:Perceval contains the working over of one of two short Tristan poems, called by him the Luite Tristran; the latter part, probably a distinct poem, shows Tristan, in the disguise of a minstrel, visiting the court of Mark. Here the tradition is more in accordance with Beroul. Besides the poems, we possess the See also:prose Tristan, an enormous compilation, akin to the prose See also:Lancelot, where the original story, though still to be traced, is obscured by a See also:mass of later Arthurian adventures. The See also:interest here centres in the rivalry between Tristan and Lancelot, alike as knights and lovers, and in the later redaction, ascribed to Helie de Borron, the story is spun out to an interminable length. Certain points of difference between the poetical and the prose versions should be noted. Tristan is here the son of Meliadus, king of Loonois; his father does not die, but is decoyed away by an enchantress, and the mother, searching for her See also:husband, gives birth to her See also:child in the forest and dies. Meliadus marries again, and the second wife, jealous of Tristan, tries to kill him. Mark has another nephew, Andret, who is Tristan's enemy throughout the romance. Mark himself is a cowardly, treacherous and vindictive character.

Some of the See also:

early printed See also:editions follow the original version of Tristan's death, now found in one See also:manuscript only (B.N. 103), the See also:majority represent him as having been stabbed in the back by Mark in the presence of the queen, as we find in See also:Malory, who See also:drew the larger portion of his compilation from the prose Tristan. It should be noted that Tristan is never more than superficially connected with See also:Arthur, an occasional visitor at his court; though in its later form ranked among the Arthurian romances, the Tristan is really an See also:independent story, and does not form a part of the See also:ordinary cyclic redaction. The See also:Italian prose See also:text, La Travola ritonda differs from the See also:French in adhering to the original version, and is classed by N. Bedier among the derivatives from Thomas. Like the story of Perceval that of Tristan has been made See also:familiar to the See also:present See also:generation by See also:Richard See also:Wagner's See also:noble See also:music drama, Tristan and Isolde, founded upon the poem of Gottfried von Strassburg; though, being a drama of feeling rather than of See also:action, the story is reduced to its See also:simple elements; the drinking of the love-potion, the passion of the lovers, their See also:discovery by Mark and finally their death.

End of Article: TRISTAN, or TRISTRAM

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