Chapter Triple Alliance to Triumvirate of T by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Isond, however, was quite as culpable as the knight, for she herself told him, “My measure of hate for Mark is as the measure of my love for thee;” and when she found that her husband would not allow sir Tristram to remain at Tintagel Castle, she eloped with him, and lived three years at Joyous Guard, near Carlisle. At length she returned home, and sir Tristram followed her. His death is variously related. Thus the History of Prince Arthur says—

When by means of a treaty sir Tristram brought again La Beale Isond unto king Mark from Joyous Guard, the false traitor king Mark slew the noble knight as he sat harping before his lady, La Beale Isond, with a sharp-ground glaive, which he thrust into him from behind his back.—Pt. iii. 147 (1470).

N.B.—Tennyson gives the tale thus: He says that sir Tristram, dallying with his aunt, hung a ruby carcanet round her throat; and, as he kissed her neck—

Out of the dark, just as the lips had touched,
Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek—
“Mark’s way!” said Mark, and clove him thro’ the brain.
   —Tennyson: Idylls (“The Last Tournament”).

Another tale is this: Sir Tristram was severely wounded in Brittany, and sent a dying request to his aunt to come and see him. If she consented, a white flag was to be hoisted on the mast-head of her ship; if not, a black one. His wife told him the ship was in sight, displayed a black flag, at which words the strong man bowed his head and died. When his aunt came ashore and heard of his death, she flung herself on the body, and died also.The two were buried in one grave, and Mark planted over it a rose and a vine, which became so interwoven it was not possible to separate them.

(Sir Launcelot, sir Tristram, and sir Lamorake were the three bravest and best of the 150 knights of the Round Table, but were all equally guilty in their amours: sir Launcelot with the queen; sir Tristram with his aunt, king Mark’s wife; and sir Lamorake with his aunt, king Lot’s wife.)

The story of the white and black f lags is borrowed from the tale of Theseus. After he had slain the minotaur, and was returning to Athens, the pilot neglected to hoist the white flag as the signal of success, in place of the black flag, usually carried by the ship which bore the melancholy tribute to Crete (consisting of seven youths and seven maidens) every nine years, to be devoured by the minotaur. Ægeus was king of Athens at the time, and anxiously looked out for the sign, for his own son was one of the victims. Thinking his beloved boy was devoured by the monster, he threw himself into the sea which bears his name, and perished there.

Tristram and Iseult, an idyll in three parts. Part i., a dialogue between Tristram and a page. Part ii., “Iseult in Ireland,” a dialogue between Tristram and Iseult. Part iii., “Iseult in Brittany,” is when Iseult is a widow, and tells her three children the tale of Merlin and Vivian.

Tristram’s Book (Sir). Any book of venery, hunting, or hawking is so called.

Tristram began good measures of blowing good blasts of venery, and of chace, and of all manner of vermin. All these terms have we still of hawking and hunting, and therefore a book of venery…is called The Book of Sir Tristram—.Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, ii. 3 (1470).

Sir Tristram’s Horse, Passetreûl or Passe Brewell. It is called both, but one seems to be a clerical error.

(Passe Brewell is in sir T. Malory’s History of Prince Arthur, ii. 68.)

History of Sir Tristram or Tristan. The oldest story is by Gotfrit of Strasbourg, a minnesinger (twelfth century), entitled Tristan and Isolde. It was continued by Ulrich of Turheim, by Heinrich of Freyburg, and others, to the extent of many thousand verses. The tale of sir Tristram, derived from Welsh traditions, was versified by Thomas the Rhymer of Erceldoune.