Tristan
Statement of intent
While the story of Romeo and Juliet is well known, that of Tristan and Isolde is much less so. While we do have Wagner's work, his approach is reserved for the few who frequent concert halls or opera houses.
In theatre there is nothing comparable to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Then there is literature! The work written between the 12th and 13th centuries is contained in multiple incomplete manuscripts. None of these manuscripts contains the entire story. At the end of the 19th century, in the wake of the Pre-Raphaelites, in the attraction aroused by the Middle Ages (even Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris), in the frenzy of restoration of historical monuments (Notre-Dame de Paris, the city of Carcassonne, etc.), medievalists reconstructed the complete story. Joseph Bédier is one of them. His "Romance of Tristan and Isolde," written in an archaic style, was a definite success. It is in this work that I came to know and love the story of love and death of the unfortunate Tristan and Isolde.
Act I
From Tristan's birth to the magic filter that binds
of an irrepressible love Tristan & Isolde the Blonde
Blanchefleur, queen of the lands of Loonois, gives birth to a boy whom, in the grief of having lost her husband in the war, she names Tristan. Soon after giving birth, she dies of grief.
Tristan is raised by a loyal squire named Gorvenal.
Kidnapped by sailors who no doubt hoped to profit from him, he is saved by a miraculous storm. He washes up in Cornwall where his uncle King Mark, brother of the unfortunate Blanchefleur, reigns. Tristan is recognized and raised by Mark, who takes a liking to his nephew.
Now, the kingdom of Cornwall owed a heavy tribute to the kingdom of Ireland, a tribute that could only be levied after a battle against a kind of giant, the Morholt. Tristan took up the challenge and killed the Morholt.
Mortally wounded, he asked to be put on a boat without sails or oars.
Sailing with the waves and currents, he landed in Ireland where the queen and her daughter Isolde the Blonde managed to heal his wound. As a sign of peace between the two kingdoms, Isolde married King Mark.
Alas, Isolde feels a deep love for Tristan and cannot bring herself to marry and love an elderly king for whom she has no feelings. On the ship that takes them to Cornwall, she violently expresses her anger at being only a pledge of peace between two kingdoms.
Isolde learns from Brangien, her lady-in-waiting, that her mother has prepared a love potion intended to be drunk by Marc and Isolde on their wedding night, a potion which will bind them to each other with an irrepressible love.
Iseult then decides, to force fate, that Tristan, without her knowing, will drink with her the filter that will bind them forever.
Act II
From the clandestine love of Tristan and Isolde to their separation
Tristan and Isolde experience a forbidden love that leads them to furtive encounters.
The barons, jealous of Marc's affection for Tristan, reveal his misfortune to the king.
Tristan and Isolde are surprised and Marc, furious, decides to put them to death.
Tristan manages to escape and, with the help of Gorneval, succeeds in taking Iseult from the hands of her executioners.
The three of them went deep into the Morois forest where they would endure months and years of wandering and deprivation.
Tristan, no longer wanting to impose these trials on Isolde, resolves to a painful separation. Isolde will join Marc ready to forgive and Tristan will leave for distant lands.
Act III
From the meeting of Iseult with the white hands to the death of
Tristan & Isolde the Blonde
During his distant wanderings, Tristan comes to help Duke Hoel in Brittany. There, he meets his son Kaherdin and his daughter Isolde of the White Hands.
Thinking that during all the past years Isolde the Blonde had surely forgotten him, he resolves to marry Isolde with the white hands who secretly loved him. But on the evening of their wedding the thought of Isolde the Blonde obsesses him and he will not consummate his marriage, pretending a vow of chastity which bound him for a year.
Tristan, sinking into melancholy, decides to see Isolde the Blonde one last time.
Disguised as a leper, imitating his voice, he goes to Cornwall to the court of King Mark. During the banquet given by Mark, like a jester, he tells the story of Tristan and Isolde, the filter that chained them, and the Morois forest. Isolde refuses to see in this wretch, Tristan the valiant, whom she still loved with all her soul. Finally recognized, Tristan leaves Isolde the Blonde one last time, whom he will never see again.
Alongside Kaherdin, he will fight the enemies of Duke Hoel until the day he is mortally wounded. Only Isolde the Blonde can heal him. Kaherdin leaves for Cornwall with the aim of returning with Isolde the Blonde. The ship arrives in Brittany, but Isolde the White Hands, out of jealousy, tells Tristan that according to the agreed signal, Isolde the Blonde is not on the ship. Tristan dies of grief. Isolde the Blonde arrives, lies down beside him, and joins him where the lovers are no longer separated.