Tristan and Iseult Part 2

Edited, abridged, modernized and translated by

Joseph Bédier

Tristan and Iseult

Tristan, Iseult and Brangien & the Bed-Trick

• “Brangien to conceal the Queen’s dishonor and save her from death, took her place in the nuptial couch… The darkness of the night hid her trick from the king.”

Brangien reminds her Lady:

• “When we left Ireland, each of us took with her, as the chief of her ornaments, a snow-white shift, a shift for her wedding night. On the sea it happened that Iseult tore her white shift, and for the wedding night I loaned her mine.”

Tristan/IsoldeIsolde/Tristan

• Gottfried von Strassburg: Prologue• “ir liebez leben, ir leiden tôt,

ir lieben tôt, ir leidez leben…

ein man ein wîp, ein wîp ein man, Tristan Isolt, Isolt Tristan”

• chiasmus = a rhetorical “crossing”• Contemplating this is a mystical

experience: through the language of the poem, the lovers become one

lieb = dear, love; leid = pain, sorrow;

leben= life; tôt = death; wîb = woman.

Iseult becomes more dominantin her relationship with Tristan

Frocin

Tristan and Iseult are observed

The Ruse of the Tall Pine Tree

• “My lord believes I love you with a guilty love. God nonetheless knows, and if I lie may He cover my body with disgrace, that I have never given my love to any man saving only him who first took me, a maiden, into his arms.”

The dwarf Frocin strews flour on the floor

• Tristan has undergone a bleeding

• His wound opens as he leaps to Iseult’s bed

• The flour shows the blood

• Color symbolism: – red on white = proof of

love

Mark gives his wife over to Lepers

• Leprosy: disease that set the sick person outside of society

• German “Aussatz” = what sets one out

• What kind of lover or King would do this to his wife?

The Chantry Leap

• In the meantime… Tristan effects an escape by leaping off a cliff

• That he survives and releases Iseult indicates once again that God is on the side of the lovers

The Forest of Morois (Béroul)• The lovers go out and

live in the forest• Forest = wild, not the

court• Psychological space• “They ate but the flesh

of wild animals, and missed the taste of salt.”

The Minnegrotte (Gottfried von Strassburg)

French Versions: Tristan kills his enemies

Ogrin the Hermit

• “And of what should I repent, Ogrin, my lord? Or of what crime? You that sit in judgment upon us here, do you know what cup it was we drank upon the high sea? That good, great draught inebriates us both.”

Mark finds Tristan & Iseult

• “So she lay down, and he, and between them Tristan put his naked sword.”

Tristan and Iseult return to court

• Why not stay in the forest?

• the medieval person needs civilization

• you can’t be separated from society forever, one needs other people.

Ordeal by Hot Iron

• “I swear that no man born of woman has held me in his arms saving King Mark, my lord, and that poor pilgrim who only now took a fall, as you saw. King Mark, will that oath stand?”

The Lovers are Discovered

Tristan is exiled

The lovers part…

Mark and Isolde

Alone, Iseult pines for her Tristan

Pticru

• “’Tristan, while you suffer, so long will I suffer also.’ And she took the magic bell and shook it just a little and then by the open window threw it into the sea.”

Tristan marries Iseult of the White Hands

But he refuses to consummate the marriage

• “It was a thought that came to me, fair brother. When that water splashed me, I said to it, ‘Water, you are bolder than ever was the bold Sir Tristan.’”

Tristan the Insane

Iseult recognizes Tristan

A ship with black/white sails

Tristan asks IWH about the sails

• “…tell me what is the manner of sail?” “I saw it plain and well. They have shaken it out and hoisted it very high, for they have little wind. For its color, why, it is black.”

The Lovers lie together in Death