''Tristrams saga ok Ísoddar'' ("Saga of Tristram and Isolt") — or ''Saga af Tristram ok Ísodd'' — is a medieval Icelandic

romance saga The ''riddarasögur'' (literally 'sagas of knights', also known in English as 'chivalric sagas', 'romance-sagas', 'knights' sagas', 'sagas of chivalry') are Norse prose sagas of the romance genre. Starting in the thirteenth century with Norse tr ...

of the 14th century.

Origins and evolution

''Tristrams saga ok Ísoddar'' is based on the earlier work of Brother Robert, a cleric working in Norway who adapted several French literary works into Old Norse during the reign of King Haakon IV of Norway (1217–1263). Among these was ''Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar'' which was itself derived from

Thomas of Britain Thomas of Britain (also known as Thomas of England) was a poet of the 12th century. He is known for his Old French poem ''Tristan">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, w ...

's ''Tristan'' of the 12th century. According to Marianne Kalinke and Paul Mitchell, ''Tristrams saga ok Ísoddar'' "deviated sharply in tone from ... ''Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar''. Changes in names, the deletion of some episodes and the conflation or striking modification of others, and the inclusion of new material have radically altered the Tristan legend as known in the Thomas-branch".

Interpretation

In 1921,

Henry Goddard Leach Henry Goddard Leach (July 3, 1880 – November 11, 1970) was an American Scandinavian studies scholar and civic leader. He is best known as President of The American-Scandinavian Foundation and Professor of Scandinavian Civilization at the Univer ...

dismissed ''Tristrams saga ok Ísoddar'' harshly as a "boorish account", but this has since been reevaluated. According to Paul Schach, Leach misunderstood what amounts to a burlesque or parody of the Tristan legend. Still later, Kalinke extended this interpretation to suggest that it is a parody of Arthurian legends in general.Kalinke, Marianne E. (1981), ''King Arthur, North-by-Northwest: the "Matière de Bretagne" in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances'', Copenhagen: Reitzel.

Editions and translations

* 'Saga af Tristram ok Isodd, i Grundtexten med Oversaettelse', ed. by Gísli Brynjúlfsson, ''Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie'' (1851), 3-160 (edition and Danish translation, based on AM 489 4°). * ''Riddarasögur'', ed. by Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, 6 vols (Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan, 1949–1951), VI 85–145 (modernised spelling, based on Gísli's edn) * 'The Icelandic Saga of Tristan and Isolt. (Saga af Tristram ok Isodd.)', trans. by Joyce Hill, in ''The Tristan Legend. Texts from Northern and Eastern Europe in Modern English Translation'', ed. by Joyce Hill, Leeds Medieval Studies, 2 (The University of Leeds: Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies, 1977), pp. 6–28.

References

Chivalric sagas Icelandic literature Old Norse literature {{saga-stub