Tristan et Iseut

Dr Helen Swift
St Hilda’s College
MT 11, Wks 1-8.
 Tristan I: in search of an identity
• transitional figure:
– astride moral and cultural codes;
– across literary genres.
• instability of identity politics:
– critique of feudal organization?
• thematization of judgment:
– moral viewpoints: God vs. man
– reading characters as aesthetic puzzle.
 Moments of generic instability
• ‘Melodramatic’ moments = dramatic tension
raised and defused
– e.g. discovery in hideaway;
– e.g. fragment’s final scene.

• Serious drama / comic effect

– e.g. flour on floor episode: suspenseful
(ekphrasis), but ridiculous (risk-taking, snoring).
The lovers discovered…
 Tristan: ambiguous heroism
• Tristan’s legendary heritage:
– chivalric romance vs. Celtic folklore.

• Béroul’s presentation of professional and

social identities:
– warrior, huntsman, insider/outsider status.

• Illustrative episodes.
 Who was Tristan?
• Name: range of Celtic influences
– Drust (Pictish) > D/Trystan (Welsh);
– anagram Tantris (Welsh) denoting his fate.
• Genealogy: Eilhart
– illegitimate son of king of Léonois (kingdom
neighbouring Cornwall) by Marc’s sister.
• Family position: Eilhart / Béroul
– benighted question of inheritance.
 Professional and social status
• Professional status: Béroul
– landless knight ( ≠ barons);
– worthy warrior = sword for hire (soudoier).

• Status at Cornish court:

– primarily result of military accomplishments;
– hero of Cornwall;
– nuanced by personal connection with Marc.
 Ambiguous knight in action
1. Fight with lepers over Iseut:
– burlesque battle: ‘to crutches!’
– Tristan’s courtesy: preux et cortois;
– acts of violence displaced onto Gouvernal.
2. Execution of Denouil and Godoine:
– Tristan scalps Denouil and shoots at
Godoine;
– legitimate rough justice or chivalric violation?
– details of dress and equipment.
 Tristan’s liminal position
• Outsider:
– socially = illegitimate offspring;
– professionally = wandering mercenary;
– narratively = acting on margins of courtliness.
• Insider:
– socially = Marc’s nephew;
– professionally = champion of Cornwall;
– narratively = not irreconcilable with courtliness
 Illustrating ambivalence
• as knight = adapts espee to chop wood:
– re-working of chivalric skill in different domain.
• as huntsman = Husdent’s symbolic role:
– represents acculturation to new climate;
– displacement self cf. Gouvernal.
• as liminal = disguises at Blanche Lande:
– leper: social marginalization;
– strange knight: uncanny resemblance
 Tristan’s plurality
• Shifts between zones of cultural definition;
• Shifts between generic / narrative codes;
• Shifts between rational and inexplicable.

• Next Week: Tristan’s ‘otherness’