The Romance Of Tristran

The Romance of Tristan tells one of the most moving and influential love stories of world literature: the doomed, uncontrollable, and enthralling passion of Tristan and Iseut, who fall in love after drinking the love potion meant for Iseut and her husband Mark. The prose version, which concentrates particularly on Tristan's life and character, was one of the most widely acclaimed works in medieval Europe, and for a long time the legend of Tristan was known primarily through it, rather than through the poetic versions. The book had considerable influence on European culture; Malory, for example, based Books VIII to XII of his Morte d'Arthur on it. This is the first translation from the Old French of the whole of this important romance. It emphasizes those parts which link the prose romance with the Tristan legend; the sections not concerned with the traditional story are included in synoptic form. The introduction examines the Prose Tristan in the context of the many other versions of the legend and explanatory notes clarify medieval practice, institutions, names, and places, as well as linguistic ambiguities.

Published in 1989: A translation of Beroul's twelfth century Tristran from the Old French. Discussion of the author is included, but since nothing is known of him (or them) the biography is limited. His literary style and historical (or legendary) influence are well surveyed.

The minstrels’ story of Tristan and Isolt was written down in French and German in the 11th century. It was later incorporated, with many other stories, into ‘The Arthurian legend’ – the adventures of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. Mallory’s ‘Morte d’Arthur’ was one of the first books in English which was printed instead of copied by hand. Mallory’s book both popularised the Arthurian legend and buried the 11th century manuscripts of the Tristan tale. TRISTAN the LOVER” retells the 11th century version.

Rosemary Sutcliff's starkly simple retelling of the uniquely tragic and romantic story of the warrior Tristan and his love for the fair Iseult of Ireland, his uncle's chosen bride.

I was a forever-bachelor kind of guy. I never planned on settling down. I never wanted a family of my own. Until a phone call came, the one woman I'd secretly loved my entire life needed my help. I went from bars and hook-ups to late nights on the couch. When her daughter is born, I find myself captivated by both of them, and falling deeper in love. What happened to my forever-bachelor life, and is that the life I want?

A contemporary requiem--an earthy yet elegant reconsideration of the Tristan and Iseult story, from the former poet laureate of Brooklyn. In D. Nurkse's wood of Morois, the Forest of Love, there's a fine line between the real and the imaginary, the archaic and the actual, poetry and news. The poems feature the voices of the lovers and all parties around them, including the servant Brangien; Tristan's horse, Beau Joueur; even the living spring that flows through the tale ("in my breathing shadow / the lovers hear their voices / confused with mine / promising a slate roof, / a gate, a child . . . "). Nurkse brings us an Iseult who has more power than she wants over Tristan's imagination, and a Tristan who understands his fate early on: "That charm was so strong, no luck could free us." For these lovers, time closes like a book, but it remains open for us as we hear both new tones and familiar voices, eerily like our own, in this age-old story made new again.