Tristan Study Guide

In his forward, C. Stephen Jaeger describes the ways in which Gottfried's Tristan and Isolde defies modern, and even medieval, conceptions of chivalric ideals. Describing first the idea that the age of chivalry was an age of faith, Jaeger points to Gottfried's description of Isolde's ordeal. In that episode, Isolde is asked to carry a hot iron, so that if she is innocent of the crime of adultery against the king with Tristan, she will not be burned. Because she composes a vow to swear that is not technically false but does not technically answer the question she was asked, Gottfried calls God "as pliant as a windblown sleeve." He also points to Gottfried's drawing a parallel to the Catholic Eucharist, or Holy Communion, in which the love of Tristan and Isolde is said to give life to pe... (read more)