The Temptress

Chapter 3

There are many versions of the story of Tristan and Iseult—here spelled Tristran and Iseut—each of which has its characteristic elements. I have chosen to use Béroul as a source for Bayard’s song, as Béroul is believed to have written his version in the late twelfth century and thus would be contemporary with this story. Béroul’s version is considered to be an example of the “primitive” strain of the story, and thus more closely echoing its probable original Celtic roots. I have also echoed Béroul’s verse structure of octosyllabic couplets in my composition—as a favored format for romances in Old French, it gives a period flavor even in modern English.

Sadly, only a fragment of Béroul’s work is preserved, and that in a thirteenth-century manuscript with many apparent errors on the part of the copyist. Some 4,400 lines of Béroul’s poem survive, but beginning only with King Mark eavesdropping on the lovers and ending with the death of the villains. For the remainder of the story recounted here, I have consulted the retelling of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bédier, translated by Hilaire Belloc and completed by Paul Rosenfeld for Pantheon Books in 1945.