Monday, November 23, 2009
Sir Trystrams
I expected the tale of Sir Trystrams to be a little different, especially in reference to Professor Grimbert's (excuse the spelling from memory!) presentation. Here Mark is an unpleasant character and envious of the nephew who saved him and Cornwall from the demands of the Irish king. In Malory Trystrams does not fight the dragon but is wounded by Isolde's uncle. Another difference is that Trystrams does not hate Isolde which is what I was expecting. I am also a little amazed by the messages the two queens are sending each other and the open avowal of their extramarital relationships. In the light of which it does not make sence that a drinking horn was being sent to Arthur to betray Gwenyvere to him. This suggests that Arthur was the only person who was ignorant of the affair. Since Morgan does not love Arthur, why does she want him to know? So that he will be humiliated as well as hurt?
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Nasreen, I'm glad you pointed the difference in treatment of Mark's character -- I suspect the change was, as Dr Tasker Grimbert said, a way to make the story more moralistic. I wonder who wrote the first villanous Mark. You also reminded me of Isode of White Hands 'disappearance'in Malory. Tristram leaves her in Gaul, to go back to Britain secretly, and one supposes he's going to meet up with Isode (Irish) but he goes adventuring instead. He hooks up with her (Irish Isode) much later, and they seem to find the Joyous Guard living arrangement agreeable. But Isode of White Hands is never mentioned again. She's not even involved in T&I's deaths.
ReplyDeleteJust a clarification: Prose Tristan is a poem. I mistakenly thought it was a cycle.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Prose Tristan is in, well, prose, not verse; as to its cyclicality, it's a very long text that in its longest versions includes a Grail Quest, which is associated with (and derived from) the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, but it lacks the deep history of the Grail that anchors its predecessor.
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