Gottfried Von Strassburg’s Tristan is a courtly romance that tells the story of a tragic and forbidden love affair between the legendary star-crossed lovers Tristan and Isolde. The couple falls in love after accidentally drinking a love potion, but Isolde is supposed to marry King Mark, Tristan’s uncle. The story primarily follows Tristan, a young and noble knight, who is himself the product of a tragic love affair. Tristan participates in various adventures and receives the love and admiration of Mark before he is exiled because of his affair with Isolde. Gottfried’s version of this popular legend remains the classic telling, although it was left unfinished upon Gottfried’s death around the year 1210. The remaining fragments of Thomas of Britain’s earlier version, which Gottfried used as his source, take off where Gottfried’s ends and bring the story to its conclusion. Perhaps the most popular version of the story is Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, which is largely based on Gottfried’s poem.

This study guide refers to the 2004 Penguin Edition of the poem, which includes both Gottfried’s and Thomas’s versions. Although they are both poems, they are rendered in prose in this first English translation by Arthur Thomas Hatto.

Content Warning: The source material references suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

Rivalin, a noble knight, goes to the court of Mark, the king of England and of Cornwall, to learn the customs there. He befriends Mark and fights in a battle when Mark’s kingdom is invaded. When Rivalin is injured by a lance, Mark’s sister, Blancheflor, disguises herself to visit him, and the two confess their love for each other. Blancheflor conceives a child, and when Rivalin receives news that his old enemy, Morgan, has invaded his lands, he and Blancheflor leave Mark. After Rivalin dies in battle, Blancheflor dies of grief as she gives birth.

Rivalin’s marshal, Rual li Foitenant, raises the child, Tristan, as his own to shield the boy from Morgan. Tristan grows up to be an exceptionally talented and well-educated boy. One day pirates kidnap him, but when a storm lasts for several days, they drop him off at Cornwall out of fear of God’s wrath. Tristan soon meets a hunting party and teaches them how to cut up and present a deer in a manner that deeply impresses them. They take him to King Mark, who is equally impressed by Tristan and makes him an attendant.

After a few years of unending search, Rual finally finds Tristan in Cornwall. He tells Mark that Tristan is his nephew and tells Tristan of his biological father and mother’s fates. Tristan returns to Parmenie, where Rivalin was lord, to see the lands he now knows belong to him. He fights and kills Morgan, avenging his father, and returns to Cornwall, where Mark has made him his heir.

Once in Cornwall, Tristan learns that a powerful knight from Ireland, Morold, is there to demand tribute from Mark and his court. While Mark and the others are prepared to suffer this humiliation, Tristan instead challenges Morold to a duel. Tristan kills Morold in the duel but receives a wound from a poisoned spear during the fight. He learns that the only person who can cure him is Morold’s sister, Queen Isolde of Ireland.

Tristan goes to Ireland disguised as a minstrel by the name of Tantris, and his musical abilities soon give him access to the queen. In exchange for her treatment, he agrees to tutor her daughter, also named Isolde. After he is healthy and back in Cornwall, Tristan arouses the envy of other nobles in Mark’s court, and he encourages Mark to marry and sire an heir so that Tristan will no longer provoke resentment. Tristan volunteers to go to Ireland to woo the princess Isolde on Mark’s behalf.

Tristan goes back to Ireland disguised as a merchant and slays a dragon. The king of Ireland has promised the killer of the dragon Isolde’s hand in marriage. When a steward demands Isolde in return for killing the dragon, Isolde and her mother do not believe his claims and investigate. They find Tristan unconscious in a pond, poisoned by the dragon tongue he cut out as proof of the killing. They heal him, but Isolde discovers that Tantris is in fact Tristan, the man who killed her uncle, and threatens to kill Tristan. However, she is persuaded to spare him and to sail to Cornwall to marry Mark.

On the way to Cornwall, Tristan and Isolde accidentally drink a love potion that Isolde’s mother entrusted to Brangane, Isolde’s lady-in-waiting, to give to Isolde and Mark. They immediately fall in love and begin an affair. After they arrive and it is time for Mark and Isolde to consummate their marriage, Brangane, who helps Tristan and Isolde conduct their affair, takes Isolde’s place in Mark’s bed without his knowing.

Tristan and Isolde continue their affair in Mark’s court, and he gets suspicious. Others try to help him catch Tristan and Isolde in the act, but Tristan and Isolde continually outwit everyone. However, Tristan and Isolde’s recklessness finally costs them when Mark discovers them sleeping together in bed in a garden. Tristan gets away before Mark can come back with witnesses, so Isolde is spared execution, but Tristan is exiled from Mark’s kingdom.

Tristan and Isolde long for each other continuously after they are separated. Tristan travels and participates in various adventures to try to distract himself but continues to be miserable without Isolde. He marries another Isolde, named Isolde of the White Hands, but he does not love her and does not consummate his marriage with her. After he suffers another wound in battle and is poisoned, he sends his friend Kaedin, who is also the brother of Isolde of the White Hands, to bring Isolde to heal him, as she is the only one capable of curing him.

Kaedin is to return with a white sail if Isolde is on the ship with him and a black one if she is not. Out of spite, Isolde of the White Hands tells Tristan that she sees Kaedin’s ship returning with a black sail. Tristan dies, and Kaedin arrives with Isolde on the ship bearing a white sail. Isolde dies of grief as she holds Tristan’s dead body.