The German poet and romancer Gottfried von Strassburg (ca. 1165-ca. 1215) wrote "Tristan und Isolt," the best-known version of that famous love story.

There is little information about the life of Gottfried von Strassburg. He was not of noble lineage but a freeman, had a good education, moved in higher society, and was well versed in literature, German and French, and theology. He was municipal secretary in his native Strassburg. Except for Tristan und Isolt, some lost minnesongs, and a few gnomic poems (Sprüche), no other works are known. He completed about 20,000 lines of Tristan. Fortunately the later portion of his source, the French romance of Thomas of Brittany, is extant.

The tale that Gottfried tells only for "noble hearts," a select spiritual community in the courtly world, recounts the mission of Tristan to win a bride, the fair Isolt of Ireland, for his aging uncle Mark...