Tristan of Lothian, Tristan of Cornwall, Tristan the Minstrel,
Tristan the Defender, Tristan the Avenger, Tristan the
Lover-Tristan is all these things and more in the classic story of
heroism and true love "Tristan and Isolt," as retold by Ian Fraser.
Tristan the Lover takes the reader back 1200 years to the British
Isles in the Dark Ages, when Tristan, the valiant champion and
passionate lover, is supposed to have lived. The story follows
Tristan as he contends with giants and dragons, heroes and cowards,
kings and upstarts. Tristan falls in love with Fair Isolt, the
betrothed bride of his lord and friend, King Mark. Their tragic
love, all-consuming but utterly forbidden, tortures and enraptures
them throughout the second half of this beautiful and moving story.
The medieval stories about Tristan which I have chiefly used in
writing this book are a German poem, Tristan, by Gottfried of
Strasburg, a Norse poem, Tristansaga, by Brother Robert and a
French poem, Tristan, by Thomas of Brittany. I have also consulted
four other French poems about Tristan, one by Beroul, one called
Honeysuckle by Marie of France and two by unknown authors called
Tristan's Madness. All seven poems were written between 1150 and
1230. I have used two episodes from the later French prose Tristan;
but for the most part it tells an inferior story. In English there
are only the rhyming Sir Tristrem, a much later and rougher version
of Thomas' poem, and in Sir Thomas Malory's famous Morte a"Arthur a
poor imitation of the French prose Tristan. I have taken nothing
from those two sources. The love-story of Tristan and Isolt
contrasts so vividly with the sombre simplicity of early medieval
life that it has inspired not only storytellers but many poets and
artists. During the Middle Ages it was constantly retold and
inspired more artists than any other story except those of the
Bible and the Christian saints. In the past one hundred and fifty
years it has inspired several important poems and an opera.
Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde is still performed; and the long
poems of Swinburne, Tennyson and Mathew Arnold are in most
libraries. Some of the original medieval literature which is listed
above can now be read in scholarly translations; but this book
retells the medieval story for the general reader. Ian Fraser.
General
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