Blogtober #14 - Fairytales, Tristram & Iseult

     Many of my friends know that I am a die hard for fairytales. From Disney, to Brother's Grimm, to fantasy stories, those are my favorites. I love reading Shakespeare (when I have time because it takes some effort to read his work), and (of course) love stories are my favorites. A friend recently shared the following song with me and the story it is based on. It reminded me that I had heard of the story and knew of the basic plot line, but had never finished it or fully learned the story. And it is the story of Tristram and Iseult (also called Tristan and Isolt, sometimes Tristan and Isolde, depends on translation)

The song and story are beautiful. My friend said this is her new favorite love story, whereas it was Romeo and Juliet (honestly I was never found of Romeo and Juliet, but Tristram and Iseult I am). Granted the following quote is from Wikipedia, it gives a good background to the story:

Tristan and Iseult is a legend made popular during the 12th century through French medieval poetry, and inspired from archetypal Celtic legends. It has become an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan (Tristram) and the Irish princess Iseult (Isolde, Yseult, etc.). The narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a substantial impact on Western art, the idea of romantic love and literature since it first appeared in the 12th century. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.

There are many different renditions of the story (one of the popular ones is by Matthew Arnold). But the one my friend referred me to is from Cornwall's Wonderland by Mabel Quiller Couch. You can find her version of Tristram and Iseult here along with some other stories from her book.

There are also some beautiful paintings of Tristram and Iseult.

like this one painting by Hugues Merle

Tristram and Iseult has been written into songs, poems, movies, and plays. Although I am not familiar with any other versions besides Mabel Couch's, I really prefer this love story to Romeo and Juliet. First, Tristram is a noble knight (at first he was stuck up, but despite the short length of Mabel's version, you can see his character growth fantastically in it), and he tries to do well to all. If he and Iseult hadn't been under the effects of a powerful love potion, I think they could have moved on to other people (since Iseult married Tristram's uncle, because his Uncle knew they had a thing for each other and wanted to hurt Tristram out of envy). I think that is way I find this story more appealing than Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, because this is tragic because no matter how hard they tried to move on from each other, they couldn't through no fault of their own.

This is a beautiful story, and well worth reading more of.
(And as for a rating, I would give it a light PG, it is considered by many as an adulterous relationship, and there is blood, fights, killing, and poison, so I would be comfortable (in regards to Mabel Couch's version) to let 12 + read it)