49 pages • 1 hour read
Gottfried von StrassburgTristan
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 1209A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Morold”
When Tristan arrives in Cornwall, he learns that Morold, the brother-in-law of Gurmun, King of Ireland, is there to demand tribute from Cornwall and England under threat of an armed attack. The assembled lords draw straws to see who will have to forfeit their sons to serve Morold. Tristan interrupts the gathering and gives a speech saying that Mark and his lords should instead opt for war; he volunteers to duel Morold to spare others becoming Morold’s serfs. Mark tries to dissuade Tristan, but he persists.
Tristan asks Morold whether he prefers to solve the dispute by single combat or by war, and Morold chooses single combat with Tristan. Three days later, the two of them meet on a small islet close to the shore, with a crowd observing from the mainland. Tristan leaves his boat adrift, telling Morold that since only one of them will survive, the boat that Morold has brought will be enough.
The two charge at each other and shatter their spears on one another’s shields. The narrator says that although Morold has the strength of four men, Tristan also has God, justice, and “Willing Heart” on his side, also giving him the power of four. Morold wounds Tristan on the leg. He tells Tristan that his blade is poisoned and that only his sister Isolde, the queen of Ireland, can cure him. Tristan knocks Morold off his horse, but Morold cuts the leg off Tristan’s horse. When Morold is remounting his horse, Tristan lands a blow through Morold’s skull, killing him. He beheads Morold and goes back to the mainland, where the cheering crowd awaits him. Tristan tells the Irish delegation to take Morold’s remains back with them as tribute.
Gurmun’s court mourns the death of Morold when his body is brought back to Ireland. The queen and her daughter, also named Isolde, remove a fragment left by Tristan’s sword in Morold’s skull and preserve it. Gurmun decrees that any Cornish person coming to Ireland is to be killed.When Tristan arrives in Cornwall, he learns that Morold, the brother-in-law of Gurmun, King of Ireland, is there to demand tribute from Cornwall and England under threat of an armed attack. The assembled lords draw straws to see who will have to forfeit their sons to serve Morold. Tristan interrupts the gathering and gives a speech saying that Mark and his lords should instead opt for war; he volunteers to duel Morold to spare others becoming Morold’s serfs. Mark tries to dissuade Tristan, but he persists.
Tristan asks Morold whether he prefers to solve the dispute by single combat or by war, and Morold chooses single combat with Tristan. Three days later, the two of them meet on a small islet close to the shore, with a crowd observing from the mainland. Tristan leaves his boat adrift, telling Morold that since only one of them will survive, the boat that Morold has brought will be enough.
The two charge at each other and shatter their spears on one another’s shields. The narrator says that although Morold has the strength of four men, Tristan also has God, justice, and “Willing Heart” on his side, also giving him the power of four. Morold wounds Tristan on the leg. He tells Tristan that his blade is poisoned and that only his sister Isolde, the queen of Ireland, can cure him. Tristan knocks Morold off his horse, but Morold cuts the leg off Tristan’s horse. When Morold is remounting his horse, Tristan lands a blow through Morold’s skull, killing him. He beheads Morold and goes back to the mainland, where the cheering crowd awaits him. Tristan tells the Irish delegation to take Morold’s remains back with them as tribute.
Gurmun’s court mourns the death of Morold when his body is brought back to Ireland. The queen and her daughter, also named Isolde, remove a fragment left by Tristan’s sword in Morold’s skull and preserve it. Gurmun decrees that any Cornish person coming to Ireland is to be killed.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Tantris”
As Tristan’s wound worsens, he resolves to seek a cure from Isolde. He asks Mark to tell people at court that he has gone to Salerno to treat his wound but secretly travels to Ireland. When he is outside Dublin, he orders the ship anchored. He tells Curvenal, his old tutor, to go back to Cornwall and tell Mark that he will be back in a year’s time while otherwise spreading word that Tristan has died of his injury.
Tristan is left adrift on a skiff with only his harp and some food. In the morning, a group of Irishmen come to inspect his boat and hear him playing music. He tells them that he is a Spanish minstrel who went into business with a merchant before their goods were stolen and the merchant was killed by pirates. The Irishmen listen to Tristan’s story with pity and take him into the city. Tristan’s musical abilities and his story gain him many admirers, who pay a doctor to treat him. While the doctor’s treatment fails, a priest who tutored both the queen and Isolde learns of Tristan and tells the queen about him.
Tristan tells the queen that his name is Tantris. She agrees to take care of him if he agrees to tutor Isolde. With this agreement, Tristan heals, and Isolde becomes a virtuosic musician and singer. After a period of several months, Tristan wishes to leave Ireland lest someone recognize him. While the queen is reluctant to let him go, she relents after Tristan tells her that he has a wife to whom he must return. Tristan sails back to Cornwall.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Wooing Expedition”
Upon his return to Cornwall, Tristan tells Mark and the court of his adventure and of Isolde’s exceptional beauty. Over time, the court nobles grow envious of Tristan and even spread rumors that he practices witchcraft. Tristan begins to fear for his life. The nobles urge Mark to marry and produce an heir, but he refuses. They suggest that Tristan sail back to Ireland to bring Isolde back as a bride for Mark. Detecting their desire to put Tristan in danger, Mark refuses, but Tristan volunteers to go and demands that some nobles accompany him.
Their delegation anchors off the coast of Ireland, and Tristan goes off on a smaller skiff alone so that he can convince the Irish that they are not from Cornwall. Tristan is brought to shore and questioned. He tells those who question him that he and his men are merchants blown off course and looking for their companions. He offers a gold goblet to the marshal and offers to pay the king in gold for each day they are there. As a result, he is welcomed and allowed to stay.
Chapter 12 Summary: “The Dragon”
Knowing that the king has promised Isolde to whoever can kill a fire-breathing dragon that has been terrorizing the country, Tristan dresses in armor and rides off the next morning. After a hard-fought battle, Tristan eventually prevails, and he cuts out the dragon’s tongue to present as proof. However, the fumes coming from the tongue incapacitate Tristan, who falls unconscious at a nearby pond.
A steward to the queen hears the cry of the dragon and goes to inspect the scene. He determines to take credit for killing the dragon in order to marry Isolde. He travels to the nearest town and invents a story of how he overcame the dragon.
Hearing news of the steward’s exploits, Isolde despairs at the idea of marrying him, and she resolves to die by suicide if it comes to that. Her mother consults her magic and sees in a dream that a stranger killed the dragon. The two of them, along with a couple of attendants, go to the scene of the fight to look for the stranger. They split up upon arrival, and Isolde soon finds Tristan unconscious in the pond. The company of four remove him from the pond and realize that the dragon’s tongue has weakened him. They give him medicine that revives him. Isolde recognizes Tristan as Tantris, and the company brings him back to allow him to recover further.
Tristan tells the queen and Isolde that he came back to Ireland to sell goods but was harassed by brigands. He fought the dragon, he says, in order to be better treated as a foreigner and a merchant in the land. The queen and Isolde tell Tristan of their anxiety about the steward, and Tristan says that he will fight the steward in a duel.
On the day the king appoints, the steward presents his case at an assembly, but the queen says that he is lying and did not kill the dragon. She says that she will present the true killer of the dragon at a duel, and a duel between the steward and Tristan is set for three days after the assembly.
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Splinter”
Isolde and the queen continue to nurse Tristan back to health. Isolde examines Tristan’s weapons and notices a splinter missing from his sword. Comparing this with the splinter she and the queen removed from Morold’s skull, she realizes to her horror that it is a perfect match. She begins to turn over the names Tristan and Tantris in her mind, and she realizes that Tantris is an inversion of Tristan. She takes the sword and threatens to kill Tristan at his bath, but her mother interrupts her. Isolde cannot bring herself to kill him, and Tristan promises good news if he is spared. The queen also considers killing him when he confirms his identity, but Brangane, Isolde’s cousin and lady-in-waiting, arrives and reminds them that they earlier promised him protection.
Brangane also reminds them that Tristan promised them good news, which he delivers after his bath: He tells them that he has come to seek Isolde’s hand in marriage for King Mark. The proposition delights them. After the queen tells Gurmun, he also renounces the feud with Tristan and Mark. Tristan arranges for Curvenal to come from the ship: He tells Curvenal what has happened and instructs Curvenal to return in the morning with the noblemen from the ship. Hearing of Tristan’s success, the noblemen are relieved to no longer be threatened with discovery, but they envy him more than ever before.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Proof”
On the day appointed for the duel, the noblemen of Ireland gather together with the noblemen Tristan brought from Cornwall. The Cornish nobles reunite with their relatives who in previous years were given as tribute to Ireland. Isolde and the queen arrive richly dressed, as does Tristan, whose appearance makes a great impression on the assembly.
The king starts the proceedings, and the steward brings the head of the dragon as proof that he killed the dragon. Tristan says that the steward brought the head without the tongue and himself produces the tongue. The lords side with Tristan, but the steward objects and insists that the matter be decided with a duel.
The steward meets privately with his kinsmen and vassals, who tell him he has disgraced himself. They convince him to quit because he will surely die in a duel, and he follows their advice, becoming a laughingstock.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Love-Potion”
Tristan and Isolde prepare for their journey to Cornwall. The queen gives a love potion for safekeeping to Brangane, who is to accompany Isolde. She tells Brangane to give it to Mark and Isolde to drink and to let nobody else drink from it.
Tristan travels in Isolde’s ship with her attendants, but Isolde still hates Tristan, blaming him for her uncle’s death. Heavy winds cause them to stop briefly on an island, and while Brangane is away, they drink the love potion, believing it to be wine. As they finish it, Brangane enters, horrified.
Tristan and Isolde fall in love immediately, but at first they do not express their feelings. Instead, they struggle against their desires, uncertain of the other’s thoughts and recognizing their responsibilities. Nevertheless, they begin to steal looks at each other.
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Avowal”
The ships leave the island for Cornwall. Tristan and Isolde still struggle against their feelings for each other, but Isolde begins to relent. She leans on Tristan and talks about their time together. He asks why she seems so unhappy. They finally confess their love for one another and kiss.
Noticing the signs of love between Tristan and Isolde, Brangane asks them why they seem so troubled, and Tristan tells her that they are in love. Brangane tells them not to hide their relationship from her but warns them not to tell anybody else.
Tristan visits Isolde at night, and they consummate their love. The two lovers begin to worry about how to hide the fact that Isolde has had sex as they arrive in Cornwall.
Chapters 9-16 Analysis
This section sees the establishment of Tristan as a hero rather than simply a talented and precocious boy. Tristan has previously exhibited some of the qualities that an ideal courtier should have, such as the ability to hunt and skillfully cut up a deer, the ability to speak several languages, and the ability to play music. These activities are prized in the leisurely life of courtly society. In this section, Tristan exemplifies the qualities of an ideal knight, such as a strong sense of justice, bravery, and strength. All three of these qualities are on display in his duel with Morold. The episode embodies some of the tensions that lay beneath feudal society. The ideal—that noble birth brought with it certain virtues—clashes with the reality that martial prowess often ruled supreme. Tristan sides firmly with the ideal: He is unwilling to let others suffer the indignity and humiliation of sending their sons off as servants merely because Morold is a strong and intimidating warrior. He does not hesitate to risk his life because he sees the alternative, dishonorable submission to unjustified authority, as more intolerable. His commitment to a sense of justice and his bravery distinguish him among the other people in Mark’s court, including Mark himself. His strength in actually defeating Morold further proves the worthiness of his cause and his status as the preeminent knight within the story.
However, Mixed Fortunes continue to follow Tristan. While he defeats Morold and cements his status within Mark’s court, Tristan is nevertheless wounded by a poisoned spear. Thus, while Tristan achieves his greatest triumph yet, he is at the same moment threatened with death. The fact that the only person who can cure him is the sister of the knight he has just killed compounds his difficulty: His newly acquired status becomes exactly what he must abandon if he is to survive, as he does when he adopts the identity of Tantris. This intermixing of bad fortune with good continues with Tristan’s healing, after which he arouses the envy and suspicion of Mark’s court, to the point that hostile nobles threaten his life. Fluctuation in fortune continues with Tristan’s slaying of the dragon only to be poisoned by the dragon’s tongue. Tristan recovers from this poisoning only to find his life is once again in jeopardy as Isolde discovers that “Tantris” is in fact the Tristan who killed her uncle. The overall pattern that emerges is one in which moments of apparent triumph or safety immediately give way to renewed danger.
These mixtures of fortune serve as preludes for the ultimate reversal of fortune, which is the drinking of the love potion. While sailing back to Cornwall, Tristan appears to have dodged all of the threats against him and secured a safe position in Mark’s court. However, with the accidental drinking of the love potion, Tristan undergoes a radical upheaval of personality and of fortune. Mark, Tristan’s uncle and adoptive father to whom Tristan is absolutely loyal and devoted, becomes Tristan’s chief threat.
The love potion itself renders literal an idea implicitly present in the affair between Rivalin and Blancheflor: that love is an almost supernatural force that radically alters those whom it affects. Immediately upon drinking the potion, Tristan and Isolde become ensnared in the tragic fate that the story foreshadowed. They are incapable of resisting the effects of the love potion and become captives to love; for example, Gottfried deploys an extended metaphor likening Isolde’s plight to being stuck in lime. Nevertheless, this “captivity” is frequently pleasurable: “During that voyage they were in ecstasy. Now that their shyness was over they gloried and revelled in their intimacy” (204). The Duality of Love will be a major theme going forward.
