Like the Arthur– Lancelot– Guinevere love triangle in the medieval courtly love motif, Tristan, King Mark, and Iseult all love one another. In Béroul's version, the love potion eventually wears off, but the two lovers continue their adulterous relationship. The King's advisors repeatedly try to charge the pair with adultery, but the lovers use trickery to preserve their façade of innocence.

Although Iseult marries Mark, the spell forces her and Tristan to seek each other as lovers.

In others, the potion's maker gives it to Iseult to share with Mark, but she gives it to Tristan instead. In some versions, Tristan and Iseult ingest the potion accidentally. However, in the common branch version, the potion's results end after three years. The potion's effects last a lifetime in the legend's courtly branch. Along the way, Tristan and Iseult ingest a love potion which causes them to fall madly in love. Finally, after the revived interest in the medieval era in the 19th century under the influence of Romantic nationalism, the story has continued to be popular in the modern era, notably Wagner's operatic adaptation.Īfter defeating the Irish knight Morholt, the young prince Tristan travels to Ireland to bring back the fair Iseult (often known as Isolde, Isolt, or Yseult) for his uncle King Mark of Cornwall to marry. A subsequent version emerged in the 13th century in the wake of the greatly expanded Prose Tristan, merging Tristan's romance with the legend of King Arthur. The earliest instances take two primary forms: the courtly and common branches, associated with the 12th-century poems of Thomas of Britain and Béroul, the latter believed to reflect a now-lost original version. Its different versions exist in many European texts in various languages from the Middle Ages. The story has had a lasting impact on Western culture. On the journey, Tristan and Iseult ingest a love potion, instigating a forbidden love affair between them. It depicts Tristan's mission to escort Iseult from Ireland to marry his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illicit love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Tristan and Isolde by Herbert Draper (1901)

Tristan and iseult by rosemary sutcliff