by Mike Ashley
There is one other place in the pedigrees where a similar conjunction of names appears, and this is amongst the descendants of Coel Hen (see Table 3.3). Urien of Rheged’s father was Cinmarc, and his father was Merchiaun. The name March appears as Cinmarc, easily corruptible to Conmor. Cinmarc was known as “the Dismal”, an epithet that may be appropriate to the Mark of legend, who had no wife and, until his courtiers forced him to, had no intention of marrying. This Cinmarc is exactly contemporary with Drest mac Giromt of the Picts, the uncle, as mentioned earlier, of Brude mac Maelchion. The name Maelchion could have been a corruption of Meirchion. If so, Brude’s mother (Drest’s sister) might have married Meirchion the Lean of Rheged, and Cinmarc would have been their son, and brother of Brude. This would make Drest the uncle of March, the exact reversal of the legend. Nevertheless, placing Mark/Cinmarc in the north does increase the chances of a Pictish union, and of him having had a son named Drust. If this were true, it would make him half-brother to Urien and Lot, a relationship not otherwise revealed in the legends.
There are few Celtic legends about March, and they are of no historical value. In one, March is imprisoned and, like the Birdman of Alcatraz, passes the time by teaching birds to fly. This legend is also associated with Alexander the Great, and was probably brought to Britain by the Romans, or may date to the time of the Crusades. The same legend says that he has the ears of a horse, but only his barber knows it, a story that probably arose because the name March means “horse”.
The opening of The Wooing of Emer in the Ulster Cycle bears some similarity with Mark’s story. Cú Chulainn is beloved by all, but has no wife. His friends implore him to marry, so Cú Chulainn sets out to woo Emer. Her father, Forgall the Wily, places a condition on any marriage, and Cú Chulainn has to complete a quest. A companion for part of his journey is Durst mac Serp (surely the Pict king, Drust mac Erp), but there any comparison ends.
As for Iseult, the name Esyllt Fynwen (“fair-neck”) appears in Culhwch and Olwen as one of the ladies at Arthur’s court, and reappears in the Welsh Triads as one of the “Three Faithless Wives” of Prydain. She is not remembered separately, however, and does not appear in any pedigree, so we may imagine her inclusion in Culhwch and Olwen is because her connection with Tristan was already an established legend.
A few independent Welsh legends survive about Tristan which depict him as a swineherd, and a particularly difficult one at that. He was minding the pigs of March when Arthur, Cei and Bedwyr came to him, and no matter what they tried, could not obtain a pig from him. Another tale tells how Tristan and Essyllt elope into the forest of Coed Celyddon, and Arthur has to seek them out. Tristan has a magical protection that kills anyone who draws his blood, and thus escapes unharmed. It needs the cunning of Gwalchmai (Gawain) to find Tristan and lure him back. Arthur gives Mark and Tristan a choice, saying that Esyllt can stay with one while the leaves are on the trees, and with the other when they are not. Mark chooses when the trees have no leaves, because of the long winter nights. But Esyllt argues that the holly, ivy and yew plants have leaves all year round, so she should be forever with Tristan.
These seem to be the few fragments that survive of a longstanding Tristan and Iseult legend, but there is insufficient evidence to show which Tristan or Mark they relate to, or when. Tristan, in any case, seems to be remembered in legend not just for his love of Iseult, but for the many disguises and schemes he employed to be with her. He may well be part of a much older “trickster” character common in most countries’ folktales, and have nothing to do with a historical Mark and Iseult. The legendary King Mark may be a distortion of the Breton Conmor, who forcibly married the former king’s widow, Leonore. The bare bones of that story could have evolved over time with other tales of tricksters and doomed love to develop into the legend.
In 1869, the German folklorist Karl Heinrich Graf noticed the similarity between the Tristan and Iseult story and the Persian story Vîs u Râmîn, written by Fakhr ud-Din Gurgâni around the year 1050. This was in turn derived from Parthian and Kurdish folklore, and the story could easily have been brought back from the Crusades around 1100, merging with a similar Welsh or Breton folktale. In Vîs u Râmîn, it is two brothers (Môbad and Râmîn) who love the same girl (Vîs), and there is even a talisman which binds Môbad to Vîs but renders him impotent. Râmîn tries all kinds of schemes to be with Vîs and is eventually banished. He asks for forgiveness, and is taken back by Môbad, who marries Vîs. This story has a happy ending, but otherwise there are parallels, which may have found resonances amongst the French troubadours, with the Celtic tale.
Whatever the circumstances, the evidence suggests that a basic story about Tristan and Iseult had evolved by the early 1100s. The Welsh interpreter Bledri is even credited with telling such a story, and that tale seems to have been picked up by a French troubadour living in London, known as Thomas d’Angleterre. Below I set out the original story in more detail, and then follow through the later versions to show how the tale became part of the Arthurian cycle of romances.
2. The original story
The original French story had nothing to do with King Arthur. It starts with Rivalin, king of Lyonesse, who falls in love with Blancheflor, the sister of Mark, king of Cornwall. Rivalin is killed in battle, and Blancheflor dies giving birth, naming her child Tristan. She leaves a ring by which Tristan will be recognised. He is at first raised by Rivalin’s trusty marshal Roald, and his tutor Governal. He becomes well educated, and a good swordsman and harpist. After several youthful adventures, he is brought to the court of King Mark, where, because of the ring, he is recognised and made a knight. Tristan kills the Irish warrior Morholt, who has come to exact an annual tribute from Mark, but receives a poisoned wound himself. Believing he will die, he casts himself adrift in a boat but is washed up on the shores of Ireland, where he is cured by the queen (Morholt’s sister) and her daughter Iseult, who believes he is a minstrel called Tantris. He returns to Britain, to his uncle’s court. Mark is relieved that Tristan has survived. He wishes his nephew to succeed him, so determines not to marry. His court insists that he should, so Mark sets an impossible challenge. He says that he will marry the woman whose threads of hair two swallows have been fighting over. Tristran leads the quest, and although he does not want to go back to Ireland, a storm drives him there. He fights and defeats a dragon, but is overcome by the poisonous fumes. He is again revived by Iseult, who recognizes him and realizes that he had killed her uncle Morholt. She overcomes her desire to kill Mark because she wants to marry him, rather than her father’s steward who is seeking her hand. Tristan and Iseult travel back to Cornwall together with Iseult’s maid Brangwen, along with a love potion. However, Tristan and Iseult drink the potion by mistake and fall passionately in love. In some versions, the potion lasts forever whilst in others it wears off.
Although Iseult is married to Mark, she and Tristan meet secretly, though the dwarf Frocin forever tries to catch the couple out. Eventually Frocin succeeds when blood from an old wound of Tristan’s stains Iseult’s bed. They are condemned to death, but Tristan escapes and rescues Iseult who has been sent to die in a leper colony. They live frugally in the forest but Mark finds them, though he is again convinced of their innocence. They eventually return to court. Mark takes back his wife, although she must swear an oath of innocence and loyalty which, in different versions, becomes intriguingly contrived. Tristan is exiled, finally settling in Brittany in the service of Duke Hoel. He marries Hoel’s daughter, Iseult of the White Hands, but in most versions promptly regrets it and rejects her. Tristan visits Iseult of Cornwall in disguise, but is wounded and poisoned. He sends for Queen Iseult with the message that if she is coming, the boat is to bear a white sail and, if not, a black one. Although she does come, Tristan’s wife tells him it’s a black sail, and he dies believing that Iseult has abandoned him. When Iseult arrives and finds he has died, she also dies immediately. Mark buries them together and from their tomb grow two intertwined vines.
/> 3. The Romances
The foregoing version, with minor changes, was the one used in the following early romances. They differ more in the mode of telling than in the content. Thomas d’Angleterre, for instance, retained a more direct mood, concentrating on the love story and the impact on the individuals. His version has become known as the version courtoise (courtly version). Others focus on a story of adventure and daring, and are known as the versions commune (common versions). Until the time of the prose Tristan, the Arthurian references are minor, although Chrétien includes a reference to Tristan in Erec et Enide, drawing the name from Culhwch and Olwen. In this chapter and the next five I note available translations at the end of each work. No boxed entry signifies that there are no known translations or modern editions.
TRISTAN, Thomas d’Angleterre (French, c1160s) 2,755 lines survive.
The oldest surviving verse romance of the Tristan legend, probably originally drawing upon an older ur-Tristan document, now lost. Chrétien may have also drawn upon the same original for his romance, Mark and Iseult. Only about one-sixth of Thomas’s poem survives, the main fragments telling how Mark discovers Tristan and Iseult together in an orchard and how Tristan is banished; it also covers Tristan’s marriage to Iseult of the White Hands. Episodes dealing with Tristan’s early life and how he met Iseult are lost. In this version, the effects of the love philtre are not limited to a specific period of time. Thomas omits Mark’s forgiveness at the end, and any reference to the intertwining vines. Thomas’s work served as the main source for the Tristan of Gottfried von Strassburg.
Reconstructed by Joseph Bédier as Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult (Paris, 1902) and that version freely adapted into English by Hilaire Belloc as The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (George Allen, 1903). It was further developed by Paul Rosenfeld under the same title (Vintage, 1994). A prose translation by A.T. Hatto is included in Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg (Penguin, 1967).
TRISTRANT, Eilhart von Oberge (German, between 1170–1190) fewer than 1,000 lines survive.
The oldest surviving Tristan romance for which we have anything approaching a full version. It differs in various respects from the traditional story. Here the love potion is potent at the outset and the lovers cannot bear to separate, but after four years its power wanes and they part amicably. Tristan becomes happily married to Iseult of the White Hands, although the philtre retains enough power to make him seek out Queen Iseult. Eilhart’s is the ‘common’ version, as he places emphasis upon the more lurid aspects of the tale, such as when Iseult is banished to the leper colony and the lepers have their evil way with her. Also at the end, although they are buried in one grave, Mark plants a rosebush for Iseult and a grapevine for Tristan.
→ A prose version exists as Historij von Herrn Tristrant und der schönen Isalden, printed in Germany in 1483, somewhat toned down, but which enabled the original text of the poem to be reconstructed.
A translation by J.W. Thomas is Eilhart von Oberge’s Tristrant (University of Nebraska Press, 1978).
LE CHÈVREFEUIL, Marie de France (French, 1170s) 118 lines
In this lai Marie recounts an episode in which the banished Tristan attempts to see the queen at a council the king has called. They are able to meet briefly in the forest. Marie likens them to the honeysuckle that clings to the tree – inseparable. She also remarks that she has known this tale for some time and has seen it written down.
Included in The Lais of Marie de France by Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby (Penguin, 1986) and The Lais of Marie de France by Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante (Dutton, 1978). It is also in the new edition of The Romance of Arthur edited by James J. Wilhelm (Garland, 1994).
TRISTAN, Béroul (French, 1190s) 4,485 lines survive
A lengthy fragment survives, perhaps about half the original. Béroul favours the common version of Eilhart, though his use of humour at certain delicate moments suggests recognition of a more courtly mode. He has the philtre potent for only three years. King Arthur features in this version, and Iseult insists that he be present when she swears her oath of innocence and loyalty to Mark. Béroul emphasises the duplicitous nature of their relationship and emphasises the moral message of love, trickery and deception.
Available as The Romance of Tristran edited by Norris J. Lacy (Garland, 1989), which is also in the new edition of The Romance of Arthur edited by James J. Wilhelm (Garland, 1994).
LA FOLIE TRISTAN (The Madness of Tristan), anon. (French, 1190s) 998 lines
A poem set after Tristan’s banishment, which has him disguised as a court fool in order to meet Iseult. He is so well disguised that even Iseult is unsure until Tristan is recognised by a hound.
A narrative version is included in The Unknown Arthur by John Matthews (Blandford, 1995).
TRISTAN, Gottfried von Strassburg (German, 1200s) 19,500 lines
This established the courtly version, championed by Gottfried. It emphasises the chivalrous nature of the story and concentrates on Tristan’s upbringing and early adventures. However, Gottfried demonstrates that even though lovers may act falsely, God may still favour them if they are the victims of fate. The last section of Gottfried’s poem, from the point when Tristan marries Iseult of the White Hands, was unfinished when he died. It was completed by Ulrich von Türheim c1235.
A prose translation by A.T. Hatto is Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg (Penguin, 1967).
TRISTAMS SAGA OK ÍSÖNDAR, Brother Robert (Norwegian, 1226)
Although translated for the Scandinavian court (at the behest of King Haakon), and slightly reworked, this is the only surviving complete document of the courtly version. Brother Robert edited it for an audience not used to the courtly romances of Normandy and Germany, but otherwise it follows what is known of Thomas’s version.
TRISTAN MÉNESTREL (Tristan as Minstrel), Gerbert de Montreuil (French, 1230s) and TRISTAN ALS MÖNCH (Tristan as Monk), anon (German, 1230s) 2,705 lines
Two similar poems featuring the ‘disguise’ motif in which Tristan adopts different disguises in order to see Iseult. Gerbert’s version was inserted into his continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval.
PROSE TRISTAN, anon. (French, first version 1240s, second version 1250s)
This is the first version to fully integrate the Tristan and Arthurian stories. It is clearly heavily influenced by the Vulgate Cycle, but also draws upon both the courtly and common strains of the Tristan story. Here, Tristan’s father is Meliadus. His mother dies in childbirth, and Meliadus’s new wife takes on the wicked stepmother role. She tries to poison Tristan but accidentally kills her own son. Tristan nevertheless asks that she not be punished. Meliadus is later murdered, and the young Tristan is raised by his tutor Governal at the court of King Pharamont of Gaul, before moving on to King Mark in Cornwall. The story then follows the traditional thread until after Tristan marries Iseult of the White Hands. When Mark discovers Tristan and Iseult’s affair he determines to murder them. Tristan escapes, rescues Iseult from the lepers, and flees to Logres where he becomes involved with Lancelot, staying for a while at Joyeus Gard. He proves his worth as a knight, even besting King Arthur at a tourney, while his joust with Lancelot is declared a draw. He becomes a member of the Round Table, taking the seat previously occupied by Morholt, whom he had killed. This version is the first to introduce Dinadan and Palamedes as Tristan’s companions. The Tristan > Iseult > Mark triangle serves as a parallel to the Lancelot > Guenevere > Arthur triangle, and Dinadan becomes the conscience that questions what is right or wrong in the Arthurian world.
Translation by Renee L. Curtis is The Romance of Tristan (OUP World Classics, 1994).
PALAMEDES, anon. though attributed to [the fictitious] Elie de Borron (French, 1240s)
Written between the two versions of the prose Tristan, this story begins at the time of Arthur’s coronation, but otherwise the Arthurian world simply provides a background to a series of rambling adventures of the fathers of Arthurian heroes, including Esclabor (father of Palamedes), Meliadus (
father of Tristan), and Lac (father of Erec). Although written as a whole, and probably intended to develop an “elder” version of Tristan and Lancelot, the story is episodic and uncontrolled. It was usually printed in two halves. The first half, Meliadus, concerns the war between Meliadus and the king of Scotland, whose queen Meliadus has abducted. The second half, Guiron le Courtois, tells of the adventures of Meliadus in his search for Guiron, who had helped him win the war, and the various fortunes and misfortunes of Gurion.
→ A subsequent French version, known as the Compilation or Roman de Roi Artus, was made by Rusticiano da Pisa, friend and amanuensis of Marco Polo, sometime in the 1270s. Rusticiano’s miscellany is like an anthology of Arthurian episodes, interpolated between and around the stories of Meliadus and Guiron, and including various stories of Tristan and Lancelot and a truncated story of Erec and Enide.
No modern version of Palamedes survives. The 1501 French edition of Gyron le Courtoys was reprinted in facsimile by Scolar Press (London, 1980) with an introduction by Cedric E. Pickford.
SIR TRISTREM, possibly by either Thomas of Erceldoune or Thomas of Kendal (English, c1290s) 3,344 lines.
The original Tristan story rendered in English. Although several names are changed it otherwise follows the traditional story and ignores the Arthurian embellishments.
The only surviving manuscript copy was reprinted in facsimile as The Auchinleck Manuscript by Scolar Press (London, 1977) with an introduction by Derek Pearsall and I.C. Conningham.
14
GAWAIN – THE FIRST HERO
Of all the warriors closely associated with Arthur, Gawain is the only one to appear in every story and legend, yet unlike Lancelot or Tristan, he has no separate story cycle of his own. He was always depicted as the most heroic until his career was eclipsed by Lancelot’s and his reputation suffered. Curiously, Gawain’s origins show just why that may have happened.