Tristan et Iseut

Dr Helen Swift
St Hilda’s College
MT 11, Wks 1-8.
 How to read Béroul? Contexts

1. Béroul’s version: what does he do?

2. Other texts in Paper IX: recollection and
prefiguration;
3. Modern readers of medieval literature;
4. Contemporary literary context: the
genesis of the Tristan legend.
 Context 1: Béroul’s version
• Béroul the writer:
– presumed author from mentions in text.
• Béroul’s text:
– almost oldest surviving witness to legend;
– codex unicus = BnF, MS fr 2171;
– 1150-1190 (c. 1180);
– incomplete = ‘fragment’;
– relatively brief period of Tristan’s life.
 Context 1: Béroul + ?

• disputed point of juncture = v. 2765

(Iseut’s restoration to Marc)
• case for change in authorship:
– scene of adieu occurs twice;
– number of barons: 3 – 1 = 3?
– linguistic variation;
– ‘Béroul’ only named in first part.
 Context 2: Paper IX
• Common features:
– relationship between oralité and écriture;
– awareness of working within a tradition.
• Roland : features shared/developed:
– epic style: structure and content.
• Villon: features anticipated/adumbrated:
– personality of narrator;
– character psychology;
– narrative ambivalence and flexibility.
 Context 3: reading the love ▲
• Tristan et Iseut ?
– vs. Eilhart von Oberg: l’histoire de hardi, du
valeureux Tristrant.
– focus of extant fragment of Béroul’s version;
– nineteenth-century reception, esp. Wagner.
• nature of love?
– influence of late-Romantic mythicization:
mythe de l’adultère.
 Love in Béroul: specificities

• love = suffering:
– passion < passio (Latin) = ‘suffer’.
• lovers’ responsibility absolved:
– potion overrides volonté : no active agency.
• lovers’ awareness of social context:
– seek to avoid social and political upheaval;
– attempt to re-integrate to court life.
 Context 4: contemporaries
• Awareness of pre-existing materials:
– Béroul: references to l’estoire
– Thomas: cest cunte est mult divers

• ‘version commune’ vs. ‘version courtoise’:

– Thomas and Gottfried: presentation of love
– Béroul and Eilhart: politics and adventure
 All a bit ambivalent…

Next Week:
Tristan in search of an identity