SOURCE: Ditmas, E. M. R. “Béroul the Minstrel.” Reading Medieval Studies 8 (1982): 34-74.

In the essay below, Ditmas outlines the evidence for Béroul's knowledge of contemporary Cornwall, citing details of Cornish history and topography interwoven into the romance.

This study makes no attempt to examine Béroul's Romance of Tristran from the point of view of linguistics, nor is it a detailed consideration of the derivation and development of the plot of the story. Such studies have been published by experts in those particular fields and can be consulted by those for whom they are of special interest.

The present study is an attempt to re-assess the poem in its twelfth-century context so that the reader may be able to visualise the story as the author conceived it and as it would have been received by its contemporary audience, but it must not be considered as a...