Beautiful legends of love have always touched the soul, especially if their end is sad. Joseph Bedier’s work “Tristan and Isolde” was no exception. A summary of this romantic and tragic story is read on.
It all started with the fact that Tristan, whose mother was Queen Loonoit, died immediately after his birth, was sent to the education of King Gaul Pharamon.
Having become a knight, he went to the service of his uncle, King of Cornwall, Mark. To rid Cornwall of the annual tribute paid to Ireland, Tristan kills Morhult, the brother of the Irish queen, who came for another payout, but Morhult manages to wound Tristan with a poisoned spear. Only Isolde, the daughter of the Queen of Ireland and the niece of the murdered Morhult, can heal him. Under another name, Tristan arrives at the royal castle, where Isolda heals him. He notices her beauty.
Further, a brief summary of "Tristan and Isolde" tells that a young man kills a snake who has attacked the kingdom. In gratitude, they want to give him half the kingdom to Isolde, but then they find out that it was he who killed Morhult, and they expel him. Tristan returns to Cornwall. Uncle Mark makes him the ruler of all his possessions, but then begins to hate him. Desiring to get rid of his nephew, he sent him to the place where he had been kicked out so that he would bring Isolde to his wife. Tristan goes and again saves the Irish kingdom, for which he is forgiven for the death of Morhult and given to Isolde for Mark.
Tristan and Isolda (a brief summary allows you to tell a story without going into details) sail on a ship to Cornwall. With them is the servant of Bragnien. When it got very hot, Tristan asked for a drink for himself and Isolde, but Brigiena mistakenly gave them a jug with a love potion, which should have been consumed by Isolde and Mark. So the young man and the girl kindled with each other all-consuming and destructive love.
Isolda marries Mark, but continues to love Tristan, who is also tormented by separation. Borgien helps them arrange secret dates, but one day Mark finds out about it. He tells Tristan to be burned at the stake, and Isolde to throw the lepers for joy. However, lovers escape, flee into the forest. But there, Mark finds them. He takes Isolde away, and again wounded by a poisoned arrow Tristan goes to Brittany, where he is cured by the king’s daughter, who is also called Isolde. The young man marries her, but still can not forget his beloved, who almost died of grief after learning about the wedding of Tristan.
Next, Tristan and Isolde, a summary of the legend about which you are reading now, met again. But once the young man was again wounded, and, this time, no one could help him. Therefore, in order to see his beloved one last time, he sent one of his shipbuilders after her, telling him to raise white sails if the girl on the way back was with him, and black if he would sail without her. At the same time, he himself wrote a note addressed to Mark, and tied it to his sword. The shipman managed to kidnap Isolde, but Tristan's jealous wife found out about everything and informed her husband that the ship was returning under a black sail. The heart of a lover could not stand it, and he died.
Isolde, going ashore, discovers the beloved dead, and dies herself, hugging him. Their bodies were taken to Cornwalls. Mark discovers the note and learns from it that the accidentally drunk love potion is to blame. He is heartbroken and regrets that he learned about it so late, otherwise he would not have prevented the lovers. Isolda and Tristan, at the behest of Mark, were buried in the same chapel. Soon, a beautiful bush of blackthorn grew from the grave of a young man and grew into the grave of the blond Isolde, spreading across the entire chapel. Mark commanded three times to cut the bush, but this did not help: the next day the blackthorn grew again. Here she is, the legend of “Tristan and Isolda”, the summary of which, of course, is not able to convey all its beauty and drama.