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About The Myth of Tristan and Yseult
The myth of Tristan and Yseult (and yes, there are many spelling variations for both names) is an ancient medieval Celtic legend dating back to the 12th century BCE that later became a part of Arthurian lore. It spread across Europe, inspiring endless variations, including Richard Wagner's famous German opera Tristan und Isolde (1865).
There are many different versions of the story, but here is the basic story:
Also, SPOILER ALERT
King Mark of Cornwall wants to marry the Irish princess Yseult. In some versions, she is kidnapped as the spoils of war. In many, King Mark falls in love with a strand of her red hair. However, marrying the king is never her choice.
Tristan, who is sometimes a Cornish knight, raised as an orphan by his Uncle King Mark and sometimes a loyal stranger. Other versions set him in French, German, or English folklore. He is always an attractive young hero sent to retrieve Yseult for the King to marry.
In many versions, Tristan is gravely wounded from battle against the Irish when King Mark decides he's fine and to go ahead and sail back to Irleand to get Yseult. Yseult happens to be a healer and saves him.
On the ship, whether from a mix-up, an accident, or boredom, Tristan and Yseult drink a love potion meant to help Yseult tolerate marrying the king. They fall madly in love and spend the voyage banging.
Yseult marries the king, but she keeps hooking up with Tristan. They're caught and run away into the woods, in some versions escaping a torturous execution.
One day, King Mark goes hunting and finds the couple asleep and naked in the woods. Sometimes there is already a blade between them, and sometimes the king leaves a blade between them as a message.
Tristan and Yseult feel guilty, so she goes back to the king, and Tristan leaves for Bretagne, each promising to come running if the other called for them.
Like a weirdo, Tristan focuses his sadness into finding another noblewoman to marry who is also named Yseult. Of course, Yseult of the White Hands isn't the original Yseult, so Tristan never loves her. Yseult #2 is understandably pissed about this situation.
Years later, Tristan is dying again, either from the same wound that Yseult #1 once healed that has opened up again, or in some versions of a new wound from a poison-tipped sword. Tristan wants to see Yseult #1 again before he kicks it.
Tristan sends his people to fetch Yseult #1 and to hoist white sails if she agrees and black sails if she doesn't. Yseult #2, carrying years of spite from a husband who wasted her life by only loving her name, sees the white sails but tells Tristan they're black.
Since the real Yseult isn't coming, Tristan decides to go ahead and die. But Yseult shows up a second too late, so she decides to go ahead and lay down and die too. They're buried next to each other, and two trees grow out of their graves and intertwine so they are together forever.
Variations on The Myth of Tristan and Yseult
For more information, here are some videos on the different versions of the myth throughout art and history!
Tristan & Yseult: The Myth
Animated Version
The Welsh Tristan
Welsh Version
Tales of Tristan and Isolde
How the Tale Changes
A Forbidden Romance
Themes in the Legend that Recur in Mythology
About Wagner's Opera
with Stephen Fry
A Similar Old Irish Myth
Diarmuid and Gráinne
History: As Explained by King Mark
King Mark:
Now picture this country etched on a map.
Frocin produces a map.
Then regard what you see as nothing but crap.
Forget what you've been taught or think you know:
The centre of everything's here - Kernow.
We don't look inland, there's not much point.
Let Rome rule the Anglos, their foreheads anoint.
No, outward lies the way!Inland there's little to write home about and much less to say.
To my left, our sister nation, Brittany,
A place quite akin to this vicinity.
But to my right howls Ireland, hell-bent on war.
And this is a threat I cannot ignore.
First, there are actually no detailed maps of this region in the. medieval era that are known to exist. To the right is a section of the Anglo-Saxon Mappa Mundi (c. 1025-1050), which includes the British Isles as part of a larger world map. This gives you a sense of the region in the play and of Tristan and Yseult's sea voyages. There is a shared Celtic heritage across these countries.
Hibernia
(Ireland)
Brittania
(England/Great Britain)
Cornish
Peninsula
Kernow, meaning "Horn of Britain," is the Cornish name for Cornwall. In early conceptions of geography, people thought outward, meaning that their section of the world was the center and everything else was peripheral. Kernow was part of the Kingdom of England but with a strong sense of identity, a Cornish language, and a distinct culture. The English named the area Cornwall, which means "horn of strangers."
"Inland" refers to the rest of Europe, which was the stomping ground for the Holy Roman Empire. During the centuries that Rome occupied Britain (43-410 CE), evidence suggests that the remoteness of Cornwall prevented a heavy presence.
Medieval Brittany (now France), shared a lot of Celtic history, ancestry, and culture, which is why King Mark calls it Cornwall's "sister nation." But King Morholt of Ireland, according to Arthurian legend, was a beefy warrior who demanded tribute from Cornwall. In almost every version of the Tristan and Yseult story, Morholt appears and is slain by Tristan.
Act I, Scene Two (25):
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