Ystorya Trystan

''Ystorya Trystan'', also known as ''Trystan ac Esyllt'' or ''The Welsh Fragment of Tristan'', is an early Welsh tale of uncertain date, though no later than the 16th century, which tells, partly in prose and partly in verse, an episode from the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The ''Ystorya'' relates, somewhat in the manner of a French ''fabliau'', how the lovers Trystan and Esyllt escape from Esyllt's husband, March, and outwit him to obtain from King Arthur a judgement that they should remain together.

Synopsis

The story exists in various recensions. This is a synopsis of the version in Cardiff Central Library MS 6.

Trystan and Esyllt, outlawed, flee to the forest of Cylyddon, while Esyllt's husband March ap Meirchion turns to King Arthur for help. Arthur takes his warband to Cylyddon "to seek either a denial or compensation". Esyllt is fearful at their approach, but Trystan comforts her and then escapes from the forest, walking unmolested through the lines of Arthur's men because he has the gift of invulnerability. Cae Hir, one of Arthur's warriors, tells Esyllt, to her relief, that Trystan is safe. To pacify Trystan, Arthur sends him first musicians and then his nephew Gwalchmai ap Gwyar, an old comrade of Trystan's. The two men greet each other warmly and Gwalchmai persuades Trystan to meet Arthur in the interests of keeping the peace. Trystan does so and, after at first refusing to answer his greetings, submits to his arbitration. Arthur makes peace between March and Trystan, and decrees that Esyllt shall live with one of them when leaves are on the trees and with the other when there are no leaves, the choice being March's. He chooses the second option because then the nights are longer. Esyllt responds, "There are three trees that are good of their kind, holly and ivy and yew, which keep their leaves as long as they live. I am Trystan's as long as he lives."

Manuscripts

The ''Ystorya'' survives in eleven manuscripts, none of which is earlier than c. 1550, and was also published in ''The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales'' from a manuscript which is now lost. Some manuscripts give both the prose and verse parts of the tale, though they differ widely in the precise form the prose takes, while other manuscripts and the ''Myvyrian Archaiology'' contain only the verses and a short prose introduction, and yet others include the verses only.

Date

The tale told in a combination of prose and verse is a very old Welsh literary form, examples of which can be found as early as the 9th century. The verse form employed, the '' englyn milwr'', is likewise evidenced from as early as the 9th century and as late as the 16th. It is therefore not easy to date the ''Ystorya'', but some critics have tentatively assigned it to the 13th, 14th or 15th century. However, there may not be a single date of composition. It has been argued that the prose tale, or rather tales, preserved in the various manuscripts were devised to explain pre-existing verses. In that case the prose could be very late, perhaps even early 16th century, while the verses could be of differing antiquity, the central verses appearing to be older than the first and last. This schema is however complicated by perceived resemblances between Esyllt's final ''englyn'' and the bard Dafydd ap Gwilym's poem "Summer", which suggest that he may have known this ''englyn'' as early as the mid 14th century.

Place in the Tristan tradition

Leaving aside brief mentions and allusions to him, Trystan, or Drystan, figures elsewhere in Middle Welsh literature in no. 26 of the Triads of the Island of Britain (Three Powerful Swineherds of the Island of Britain) and in two somewhat obscure fragments of verse in the Black Book of Carmarthen. The Celticist Rachel Bromwich ultimately came to the conclusion that both of these, as well as the ''Ystorya Trystan'', deal with episodes in the legend in which Trystan and Esyllt contrive to meet without the knowledge of Esyllt's husband, March, and that none of these three Welsh works is independent of the "Tryst beneath the tree" episode in French and other continental Tristan romances. It has also been suggested that the ''Ystorya'' has a distant connection with the episode in the French romance ''Tristan'' by Béroul in which Arthur is summoned to serve as a judge in Iseut's trial.

Editions

* From Cardiff Central Library MS 6.
* From Cardiff Central Library MS 43.
* Based on Cardiff Central Library MS 6 and National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 96.
* Edition of a fragment from Brogyntyn MS 1.
* Editions of Wynnstay MS 1, National Library of Wales MS 5268, Cwrt Mawr MS 5, and Cwrt Mawr MS 376.

Translations

*
* Omits all of the verses apart from the final ''englyn''. Based on Ifor Williams' 1930 edition.
* Based on Cardiff Central Library MS 6.

Citations

References

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External links

The edition and translation
by Tom Peete Cross at the Internet Archive

{{Tristan and Iseult

Arthurian literature in Welsh
Poems in Welsh
Tristan and Iseult