THE TRISTAN TREE
(by Albrecht Classen)
The scope of Tristan texts from the Middle Ages to the present seems almost infinite, below you will find a selection of the most important ones from almost all major European language areas. The subject also found its way into the world of the visual arts.
Celtic and Welsh Sources: 6th Century: Drustan. Son of Talorc, and: Drystan/Trystan
Possible: Arabic and Persian sources, such as the Persian Wîs and Rânîn
French Tradition
Brut, ca. 1155, Chrétien de Troyes: Cligès, ca. 1170/80
Marie de France: “Chèvrefeuille”: ca. 1160/1170 or around 1200
Béroul: Roman de Tristan. ca. 1160-ca. 1220 (?)
Thomas de Bretagne (Brittany) : Anglo-Norman fragments of the Tristan material, ca. 1150
Folie de Berne, Folie d’Oxford
Donnei des amants, ca. 1200 (episode with Tristan Rossignol, or Tristan imitating the nightingale)
Gerbert de Montreuil: Tristan episode in his continuation of the Perceval romance, 1st half of the 13th century
Prose Tristan, Tristan en prose (medieval “bestseller” far into the 16th century)
Joseph Bédier: Roman de Tristan et Iseut, 1900
Michel Cazenave: Tristan et Iseut, 1985
German Tradition
Eilhart von Oberg: Tristrant, ca. 1170/80
Gottfried von Strassburg: Tristan, ca. 1210
Tristan als Mönch, ca. 1220-1230
Ulrich von Türheim: Tristan, ca. 1235
Heinrich von Freiberg: Tristan, ca. 1285-90
[Czech version: Tristram. ca. 1390-1400]
Prose Tristan: Tristrant und Isalde, printed in 1484
Hans Sachs: “Meisterlieder” [master songs – some with references to Tristan], 1551
Hans Sachs: Tragedia, mit 23 Personen, “von der strengen lieb herr Tristrant mit der schönen königin Isalden,” 1553
Popular Songs with references to Tristan: 16th century
Many new versions, translations, and paraphrases in the Romantic period, late 18th and early 19th centuries
Richard Wagner: Tristan and Isolde, 1859 (opera)
Many new versions since the 1960s, including films and pictures
Nordic Tradition
Brother Robert: Saga af Tristram ok îsönd, 1226 (Iceland)
Strengleikar eda Liodabók, ca. 1250, collection of translated songs (cf. Marie de France)
Saga af Trîstram ok Isodd, Icelandic, 15th century
Tristrams Kvaedi (Iceland), ca. middle of the 15th c., mss. until the 17th c.
Tristrams Táttur, Faero Islands, copied in 1847/48 after the oral presentation of a woman Anna Hamsdotter
English Tradition
Sir Tristrem, ca. 1330
Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte Darthu. (Boke of Syr Trystrrams de Lyones), ca. 1470
Matthew Arnold: Tristram and Iseult, 185 2
Alfred Lord Tennyson: Idylls of the King
Algernon Charles Swinburne: Tristram of Lyoness, 1882
Italian Tradition
Tristano Riccardiano (end of the 13th century)
Tristano Panciatichiano (end of the 13th century)
Tristano Veneto (13th c.?)
Tristano Corsiniano (13th c.?)
Tristano Palatino (15th c.)
Zibaldone da Canal, end of the 14th century
Conto di Brunor e di Galeotto suo figlio (in: Conti di antichi cavalieri), end of 13th century
Tavola Ritonda, 14th-17th centuries
Straparola, The Facetious Nights (early 16th c.)
Novellino, 1572 (contains a Tristan episode)
Many balladesque cantari from the 14th century onwards
Ibero-Portuguese Tradition
Cancioneiro de Ajuda (de Lisboa), 13th and 14th centuries
Tristan fragment, Galician-Portuguese version, 14th century
Juan Ruiz: Libro de buen amor, 1343 (v. 1703b)
Cancioneiro de Baena, ça. 1445 (collection of popular songs)
Several Tristan romances, 15th century
Ballads, such as Heriod está don Tristán, 15th and 16th centuries
Coronica nueuamente emendada y anadida del buen cauallero don Tristán de Leonís y del rey don Tristan de Leonís, el joven, su hijo, 1534
Greek Tradition
Manuscript from the 14th century with a Greek version
Serborussian Tradition
Povest o Tristanu o Izoti, end of the l6th century
Czech Tradition
Old Czech Tristan epic
Bjelorussian Tradition
Il Tristano Biancorusso (this is an edition by Emanuela Sgambati and an Italian trans.)
Middle Latin Tradition
Romanus de Tristan, 12th c.
Many references to the Tristan material in textiles (tapestry), ivory carving, paintings, and sculptures from the 12th through the 16th centuries.
e.g. Convent Wienhausen near Celle, Germany
wall paintings in castle Runkelstein, South Tyrol, Italy
Chertsey Tiles, England
for further information, see Alain Deighton, “Visual Representations of the Tristan Legend and Their Written Sources: a Re-Evaluation,” Tristania XX (2000).
Roger Sherman Loomis and Laura Hibbard Loomis, Arthurian Legens in Medieval Art (London-New York 1938, 1965).
Germany
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