Prose Tristan

The Prose ''Tristan'' ( French: '' oman de' ''Tristan en prose''), also known as ''Tristan de Léonois,'' is a 13th-century Old French adaptation of the Tristan and Iseult story into a lengthy prose romance (heroic literature), romance. It was the first to tie the subject entirely into the arc of the Arthurian legend, making the hero Tristan a member of the Round Table. It was also the first major Arthurian prose cycle commenced after the widely popular ''Lancelot-Grail'' (Vulgate Cycle), which influenced especially the later portions of the Prose ''Tristan''. It exists in multiple distinct variants, notably the "short" and the "long" versions.

Versions

According to the traditional, but since long and much debated theory, there have been the original "short version" also known as the First Version or Version I (V.I, sometimes written V2) that was then expanded and reworked sometime after 1240 to create the more popular "long version" also known as the Second Version or Version II (V.II, sometimes written V2). There are also other so-called "main" and "unique" versions, including the Versions III (a composite of V1 and V2 plus some material from ''Lancelot'') and IV (V2 plus ''Alixandre d'Orphelin''). The four main versions altogether survived in over 80 manuscripts, along with several single-manuscript versions.

According to its prologue, the first part of the Prose ''Tristan'' (i.e., everything before the Grail material) is called ''L'Estoire monseignor Tristan'' and attributed to the certain English knight named Luce de Gast, who supposedly translated it from Latin. The claim that they had been translating the work from a Latin original is doubted by scholars. In the V2 manuscripts containing the epilogue, which calls the work ''Li Livres dou Bret'' (or ''li Bret''), its author names himself as Hélie de Boron, asserting that he is the nephew of the first author of the Arthurian Grail cycles, poet Robert de Boron. "Hélie" claims to have picked up the story where Luce left off, and also to have drawn material from Robert and Walter Map. In the prologue of some manuscripts, Hélie and Luce are credited jointly. Hélie alone is also credited as the author of ''Meliadus'' and ''Guiron''''.''

The dating of the work remains unclear. Traditional scholarship considers the shorter version to be the work's original version, or at least close to it, posit it variably between 1215 and 1235. The First Version was estimated as written between 1225—1230 by Danni Bogdanow, and between 1225—1235 by Carol J. Clover. Following Eugène Vinaver, both Bogdanow and Clover posit the Second Version probably in the latter half of the 13th century. In the dissenting theory first postulated by Emmanuèle Baumgartner, however, the shorter version is a relatively late work that has been already influenced by the Post-Vulgate Cycle; he dated it to between 1235—1240, and the rest to after 1940.

Synopsis

The prose narrative presents a broader view of the history of Tristan and his ancestors, connecting it to the time of Christ: Tristan descends from a lineage descended from Bron, brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea. After a long account of the successive unions of his ancestors, the text evokes the moment when Mark becomes King of Cornwall and his sister Helyabel marries the king of Lyonesse (Leonois), Meliadus. When the latter disappears, bewitched by a fairy, Helyabel dies of grief while giving birth to a son who is named Tristan.

With the help of Merlin, Tristan is entrusted to a young nobleman, Governal, who becomes his tutor. Tristan's guardian takes him from Cornwall to Gaul, where he grows up at the court of King Pharamond. The returning Meliadus remarries the daughter of King Hoel of Brittany, who, jealous of Tristan, tries to poison him and forces him to take refuge in Cornwall at the court of Mark, where he completes his knightly training after his father is murdered. His non-martial gifts include playing harp and singing.

As part of King Mark's court, Tristan defends his country against the Irish warrior Morholt. Wounded in the fight, he travels to Ireland where he is healed by Iseult, a renowned doctor and Morholt's niece, but he must flee when the Irish discover he has killed their champion. He later returns, in disguise, to seek Iseult as a bride for his uncle. When they accidentally drink the love potion prepared for Iseult and Mark, they engage in a tragic affair that ends with Tristan being banished to the court of King Hoel. There, he marries Hoel's younger daughter, also named Iseult.

Eventually, Tristan takes refuge at King Arthur's court. Especially from this point on, the traditional narrative is continually interrupted for side adventures by the various characters and episodes serving to "Arthurianize" the story. Notably, Tristan's rivalry with Palamedes is given substantial attention. Additionally, in the long version, Tristan leaves Brittany and returns to his first love, and never sees his wife (Iseult of Brittany) again, though her brother Kahedin remains his close companion. Tristan is compared frequently to his enemy-turned-friend Lancelot in both arms and love, and at times even unknowingly engages him in battles. He becomes a Knight of the Round Table (taking Morholt's old seat) and embarks on the Quest for the Holy Grail before abandoning the idea to stay with Iseult at Lancelot's castle. Other knights too love the two Iseults: Palamedes, but also Kahedin, who dies of this love that Iseult of Ireland refuses to share. Tristan, for his part, believes himself betrayed by Iseult to Kahedin and goes raving mad, wandering the woods for a long time.

Manuscripts which do not include the Grail material preserve the earlier version of the lovers' deaths, while the longer versions have Tristan killed by Mark when he plays the harp for Iseult of Ireland, only to see her die immediately afterwards. In the long version, when the lovers meet again, Tristan is wounded by a lance poisoned by Morgan. He bids farewell to chivalry and his fellow adventurers, Lancelot, Palamedes, and Dinadan, and presses Iseult to his chest with such force that she dies at the same time as he does. The lovers then "lie mouth to mouth" and are reunited in death, as in earlier versions. King Mark, overwhelmed by this spectacle, orders their bodies to be buried together at Tintagel.

Analysis

The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' defines it as "fundamentally an adaptation of the Tristan story to an Arthurian setting hatcomplicates the love theme of the original with the theme of a love rivalry between Tristan and the converted Saracen Palamède and represents the action as a conflict between the treacherous villain King Mark and the 'good' knight Tristan." The Bibliothèque nationale de France description calls it "an immense fresco based on the fusion of the two main sources of inspiration for the Matter of Britain: the story of the Cornish lovers, and the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The novel then becomes a tale of chivalry and Tristan is integrated into the Arthurian world, now one of the best knights of the court and a participant in the Quest for the Grail (...) As for the couple formed by Tristan and Isolde, it is comparable to that formed by Lancelot and Guinevere in the '' Lancelot en prose''."

The first part of the work stays closer to the traditional Tristan story as told by the verse authors like Béroul and Thomas of Britain, but many episodes are reworked or altered entirely to fit in the world and sometimes also the timeline of the Vulgate Cycle. The hero Tristan's parents are given new names and backstories, and the overall tone has been called "more realistic" than the verse material though there are moments where characters sing.

Episodes from the earlier Tristan stories where the lovers loved each other in secret are preserved, in particular that of the love potion. The lovers have to separate, and new and multiple adventures are inserted. The separated lovers write letters and lais of love to each other that give this novel a lyrical tone. Iseult, facing dangers threatening her at the court of King Mark, joins Tristan at the castle of the Joyous Gard, lent to them by Lancelot, but continues to suffer from the repeated absences of Tristan who lingers in search of exploits and (in the long version) participates in the quest for the Grail.

Though part of the larger prose cycles, which dominated all things Arthurian after the early 13th century, the originality of the ''Tristan en prose'' is found in the author's use of lyrical poems to express characters' hopes, despair or anger. Various books and articles have studied the lyrical content of the Prose ''Tristan'' whether expressed as riddles in verse, letters in verse, songs of mockery or love songs. In this way, the Prose ''Tristan'' functions like a musical. Characters placed in extreme situations actually "break into song." All of this is appropriate considering the Tristan story's traditional link to poetry.

The Grail Quest has been a source of controversy regarding the ''Tristan en prose''. Instead of writing new material, the author chose to insert (or interpolate) the entire ''Queste del Saint Graal'' from the Vulgate Cycle into the Tristan story, thus undermining the sanctity of the Vulgate ''Queste'' itself.

Legacy

The Prose ''Tristan'' enjoyed great success until the end of the 15th century and found a place in the most prestigious medieval libraries. It had a far-reaching effect on subsequent medieval literature and treatments of the Arthurian legend. Characters like Palamedes, Dinadan, and Lamorak, all of whom first appear in the ''Tristan'', achieved popularity in later works. The pagan knight Palamedes even lent his name to the '' Romance of Palamedes'', a later work that expands on episodes from the ''Tristan''. This material is also preserved in the ''Compilation'' of Rustichello da Pisa and numerous later redactions in several languages, including Italian ''Tristano Riccardiano'', ''Tristano Panciatichiano'', and '' La Tavola Ritonda''.

The Prose ''Tristan'' also seems to have influenced the Post-Vulgate Cycle, the next major prose treatment of the Arthurian mythos around the same time in the early to late 13th century, although exact manner of the relationship between these cycles is debated. Eventually, the Versions II and IV served, in a combined and highly abridged form, as the main source for the Tristan section of Thomas Malory's 15th-century Arthurian summary ''Le Morte d'Arthur''.

Modern editions

Before any modern editions of the Prose ''Tristan'' were attempted, scholars were dependent on an extended summary and analysis of all the manuscripts by Eilert Löseth in 1890 (republished in 1974).

Of the modern editions, the Long Version (V.II) is made up of two editions: one edited by Renée L. Curtis and the other by Philippe Ménard.Ménard, Philippe exec. ed. ''Le Roman de Tristan en Prose'', vols. 1-9 (Geneva: Droz, 1987-1997). Curtis' edition of a simple manuscript (Carpentras 404) covers Tristan's ancestry and the traditional legend up to Tristan's madness. However, the massive amount of manuscripts in existence dissuaded other scholars from attempting what Curtis had done until Ménard hit upon the idea of using multiple teams of scholars to tackle the manuscript Vienna 2542. His edition follows from Curtis', includes Tristan's participation in the Quest for the Holy Grail and ends with Tristan and Iseult's death and the first signs of Arthur's fall.

The Short Version (V.I), which contains no Grail Quest, survived whole in only one manuscript (B.N. fr. 757). It was published by Joël Blanchard and Michel Quéril under the direction of Ménard in five volumes.

Explanatory notes

References

;Citations

;Bibliography

*Curtis, Renée L. (Ed.) (1963–1985). ''Le Roman de Tristan en prose'', vols. 1–3. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.
* .
* Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1991). ''The New Arthurian Encyclopedia''. New York: Garland. .
*Ménard, Philippe (Ed.) (1987–1997). ''Le Roman de Tristan en Prose'', vols. 1–9. Geneva: Droz.

{{Authority control

French poems
Epic poems in French
Tristan and Iseult
1230s books
1240s books
Arthurian literature in French
Tristan
Courtly love