Tristan

Legendary nephew of King Mark of Cornwall and lover of Mark’s wife, Isolde. His life is defined by the tragedy of the love triangle, which eventually caused the lovers’ deaths. Though his legend likely originated outside the Arthurian saga, his story was soon grafted onto the Arthurian cycle, and he is often given as a Knight of the Round Table.
We have two possible origins of his name. A sixth century stone in Cornwall marks the grave of a certain Drustanus, son of Cunomorous. In Wrmonoc’s Life of St. Paul Aurelian, Cunomorous is identified with King Mark of Cornwall. Nothing else is stated on the tombstone, and if this Drustanus is truly the origin of Tristan, then it is unknown how much of the Tristan story may be related to Drustanus’s actual life. Certainly, the transference of Mark from Tristan’s father to his uncle represents a major variation from fact. It is interesting to note, however, that in a Welsh Triad (in which Tristan stops Arthur from stealing one of Mark’s swine), Drystan is called the son of March, a variation that occurs nowhere else.
The second possible historical origin concerns a certain Drust, son of King Talorc of the Picts, who ruled in Scotland in the late eighth century. In early Welsh Arthurian texts, Tristan is known as Drystan, son of Tallwch. “Drust” appears in a tenth-century (non-Arthurian) Irish tale called The Wooing of Emer, in which Drust’s adventures at the court of the king of the Hebrides parallel Tristan’s deeds in Ireland in the early Tristan tales.
Whether we are to find Tristan’s origins in Drust or Drustanus, neither the Cornish stone nor the early Welsh tales mention the tragic love affair which defines Tristan’s life in his saga. This theme may originate in the ninth century Irish tale of Diarmaid and Grainne: Diarmaid, the nephew of the Irish chief Finn, falls in love with Grainne, Finn’s wife, due to the effects of a spell. Diarmaid and Grainne flee Finn’s court and soon become lovers. Whether this story had a direct influence on the Tristan legend, or whether they both sprang from a common source, is uncertain.
The Tristan legend shows its development throughout Britain and Brittany, becoming a mélange of themes found in Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Arabian, and even Oriental folklore. Sometime during the early twelfth century, it appears that a French writer produced an archetypal verse Tristan romance that has since been lost. This Tristan prototype became the basis for the French verse Tristans of Thomas of England and Béroul, and the Middle High German Tristrant of Eilhart von Oberge, all of which were written in the late twelfth or very early thirteenth century. Chrétien de Troyes apparently also produced a Tristan tale which no longer exists. The early collection of Tristan tales can be divided into two branches: the realistic, courtly version written by Thomas and followed by Gottfried von Strassburg, the Norse Tristrams Saga Ok Ísöndar, and the Middle-English Sir Tristrem; and the violent, supernatural version represented by Béroul and Eilhart von Oberge. Though stylistic differences separate each of these tales, the text itself follows a relatively consistent story:
Tristan was born to King Rivalin or Rouland of Parmenie and to Blancheflor, the sister of King Mark. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father died in his infancy or youth. He was raised by Rual, his father’s steward, but was kidnapped by merchants as a child. He eventually made his way to Cornwall, where he dazzled King Mark’s court with his skill at hunting and music. Rual, who had been searching for Tristan since his abduction, came to Mark’s court and was joyously reunited with his ward. Mark (presented in the early tales as a noble king) learned that Tristan was his nephew.
Mark was bound to pay an annual tribute to a giant named Morholt from Ireland. Tristan offered to duel Morholt as Mark’s champion, and Mark reluctantly agreed. Tristan killed Morholt, leaving a piece of his sword in Morholt’s skull. Having received a poisoned wound himself, Tristan fell ill and eventually departed Cornwall to seek a cure. Arriving in Ireland, he called himself “Tantrist” to disguise his identity as Morholt’s killer. Isolde, the daughter of the king of Ireland, cured him. In return, Tristan killed a dragon that had been plaguing the king. Isolde soon discovered Tristan’s true identity when the piece of the sword from Morholt’s skull was matched with the broken segment on Tristan’s sword. The king spared Tristan’s life and Tristan returned to Cornwall.
Some time later, Mark was engaged to Isolde, and Tristan went to Ireland to escort her to Cornwall. On the return voyage, they accidentally drank a love potion intended for Mark and Isolde and fell hopelessly in love. Mark suspected their affair, having been informed by various vassals, but he gave them ever benefit of the doubt. Though Tristan and Isolde were, at various times, tried, exiled, or sentenced to death, they always managed to convince Mark of their innocence and return to his favor. Finally, however, Mark banished Tristan from court.
Tristan went to Brittany, where he assisted the king or duke against an attacker. Tristan then married Isolde of the White Hands, daughter of the king. Remembering his true lover on his wedding night, he declined to consummate his marriage.
Tristan was eventually mortally wounded by a poisoned spear (either while assisting Tristan the Dwarf reclaim his kingdom or while helping his brother-in-law, Kahedins, sleep with a married woman). He sent for Mark’s wife to heal his wound, telling the ship’s captain to fly white sails on the return trip if Isolde was aboard, and to fly black sails if she was not. When the ship returned, Tristan asked Isolde of the White Hands the color of the sails. Jealous of his love for the other Isolde, she told him they were black when in fact they were white. Tristan died of sorrow and Isolde, finding her lover dead, perished on top of his body. They were buried side by side. A vine grew from Tristan’s grave and a rose sprung from Isolde’s. The plants intertwined, symbolizing the eternal love of Tristan and Isolde.
Sprinkled between these early tales are a collection of lays that describe brief encounters between Tristan and Isolde, often with Tristan in disguise. These include Marie de France’s Chevrefueil (Tristan and Isolde meet in secret under a tree, where a vision of an intertwined honeysuckle and hazel parallels their own love), the Folie Tristans of Oxford and Berne (an exiled Tristan visits Marks’s court in the guise of a fool to see Isolde), and the German Tristan als Mönch (Tristan switches identities with a dead knight and, disguised as a monk, attends his own funeral and meets with Isolde). Arthurian elements are slim in these early tales; in the branch of Thomas of England, in fact, his story is set a generation after Arthur’s reign.
These early romances were eclipsed in the second quarter of the thirteenth century by the French Prose Tristan, which sought to fully integrate the Tristan legend with the Arthurian cycle. Tristan formed the basis of most later Tristan romances, including Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. Tristan changes the name of Tristan’s parents to Meliadus, King of Lyonesse, and Elyabel. As in the early version, his mother died in childbirth, and his father was slain. His tutor, Governal, spirited him to the court of King Faramon of France to hide him from Meliadus’s enemies. After an unfortunate episode in which Faramon’s daughter, Belide, fell in love with Tristan and committed suicide when he did not reciprocate, Tristan returned to Cornwall. His adventures at Mark’s court—including his duel against Morholt, his voyage to Ireland, his love for Isolde, and his marriage to Isolde of the White Hands—proceed much as in the early Tristan romances, only they are interspersed with innumerable adventures in Arthur’s Britain. Notable new elements include his friendship with knights such as Lancelot, Dinadan, and Lamorat, his appointment to the Round Table, his love-hate relationship with Sir Palamedes (who also loved Isolde), his adventures at the Castle of Tears, his period of insanity (caused by his false belief that Kahedins and Isolde were having an affair), and his affair with the wife of Sir Seguarades. The most notable variation from the original legend involves his death which, in most manuscripts of the Prose Tristan, occurs at the hands of King Mark, who has been given a poisoned lance by Morgan le Fay. (Morgan hated Tristan because Tristan had killed Huneson, Morgan’s lover.)
The Prose Tristan influenced a number of Italian works, including a several cantares, the Tristano Riccardiano (late thirteenth century), the Tristano Panciaticchiano (early fourteenth century), the Tristano Veneto (fourteenth century), La Tavola Ritonda (early fourteenth century), and I Due Tristani (mid-sixteenth century). Adaptations also followed in Slavic (Povest’ o Tryshchane, c. 1580), and Icelandic (Saga ** Tristram ok Ísodd, fourteenth century, and Tristrams Kvædi, fifteenth century). While relatively faithful to their sources, we find some notable variations among these texts. In the Icelandic Saga, Tristan, the son of Kalegras and Blezinbly, becomes the king of Spain, and in the Italian I Due Tristani, Tristan and Isolde have two children named Tristan the Younger and Isolde. In the fifteenth century French Ysaïe le Triste, his son is called Ysaie.