The Mammoth Book of King Arthur (57 page)

There are two other cases in which the names Drust and Talorg come together. Drest mac Munait succeeded Talorg mac Mordeleg in 552. Though not apparently related, the names appear together in
the Pictish king lists, and recorders may have presumed a father-son relationship. The second example is a Drust mac Talorcen, who ruled for one year from 781–782 and whose father went by the
name of
Dubthalorc
, or Black Talorc. Although this is outside the Arthurian period, it is within a generation of the time when the Celtic oral legends started to
come
together during the reign of Merfyn Frych in the 820s.

The name Drust does have a Cornish connection, through the famous Tristan Stone just north of Fowey. Its worn inscription reads:
DRUSTANS HIC IACET CUNOMORI FILIUS
(“Here lies Drustan, the son of Cunomorus.”) None of the Pictish Drusts had a father called Cunomorus. In fact, the one well-known Cunomorus, or Conmor, didn’t even live in
Britain, but in Brittany, in the 550s, and is remembered in the lives of various saints as a tyrant. He was a
Comes
(count), of Léon, who seized power over Domnonée, murdering
the king, Ionas, or Jonas, and throwing the heir Iudwal into prison. He then married the king’s widow, Leonore. There was considerable opposition to Conmor, including from Armel (one of the
suggested manifestations of Arthur). Iudwal eventually recovered the throne, and Conmor was killed in battle. Gregory of Tours, the one reliable historian in all of this, makes him less of a tyrant
and records that he gave sanctuary to Macliau, a neighbouring chieftain fleeing from his own brother. We also know that the usurped son Iudwal succeeded to the throne and that his grandson
Judicaël flourished from about 610–640, thus dating Iudwal’s youth to the 550s.

The hagiographer Wrmonoc, in the
Life of St. Paul Aurelian
(880s), refers to a King Marcus, also called
Quonomorius
, who might seem to be the same man as Conmor, but there is no
evidence to support this. It is probable that Wrmonoc connected two contemporary rulers, one of Domnonée in Armorica, and one of Dumnonia in south-west Britain. The Dumnonian ruler is always
referred to as March ap Meirchion, who lived in the 550s and 560s (
see
Table 3.10
), certainly close enough to Conmor to suggest that they were contemporaries.

Conmor
is the abbreviated Latin version of the Welsh
Cynfor
, and Cynfor ap Tudwal was March ap Meirchion’s great-grandfather. It may be that, if Wrmonoc was working from a
corrupt pedigree, he may have seen the names “March Cynfor” run together and made the wrong conclusion. Rachel Bromwich has suggested, in “The Tristan of the Welsh”,
included in
The Arthur of the Welsh
, that Cynfor may be the same man as the Cunomor on the Fowey stone. Cynfor is a generation earlier than Arthur of Badon, and if he were the father of an
otherwise unrecorded Drust, that Drust could have been associated with
Arthur’s warriors. However, he certainly would not be of the same generation as March’s
nephew.

There is one other place in the pedigrees where a similar conjunction of names appears, and this is amongst the descendants of Coel Hen (
see
Table 3.3
). Urien of Rheged’s father was
Cinmarc, and his father was Merchiaun. The name March appears as Cinmarc, easily corruptible to Conmor. Cinmarc was known as “the Dismal”, an epithet that may be appropriate to the Mark
of legend, who had no wife and, until his courtiers forced him to, had no intention of marrying. This Cinmarc is exactly contemporary with Drest mac Giromt of the Picts, the uncle, as mentioned
earlier, of Brude mac Maelchion. The name
Maelchion
could have been a corruption of Meirchion. If so, Brude’s mother (Drest’s sister) might have married Meirchion the Lean of
Rheged, and Cinmarc would have been their son, and brother of Brude. This would make Drest the uncle of March, the exact reversal of the legend. Nevertheless, placing Mark/Cinmarc in the north does
increase the chances of a Pictish union, and of him having had a son named Drust. If this were true, it would make him half-brother to Urien and Lot, a relationship not otherwise revealed in the
legends.

There are few Celtic legends about March, and they are of no historical value. In one, March is imprisoned and, like the Birdman of Alcatraz, passes the time by teaching birds to fly. This
legend is also associated with Alexander the Great, and was probably brought to Britain by the Romans, or may date to the time of the Crusades. The same legend says that he has the ears of a horse,
but only his barber knows it, a story that probably arose because the name March means “horse”.

The opening of
The Wooing of Emer
in the Ulster Cycle bears some similarity with Mark’s story. Cú Chulainn is beloved by all, but has no wife. His friends implore him to
marry, so Cú Chulainn sets out to woo Emer. Her father, Forgall the Wily, places a condition on any marriage, and Cú Chulainn has to complete a quest. A companion for part of his
journey is Durst mac Serp (surely the Pict king, Drust mac Erp), but there any comparison ends.

As for Iseult, the name
Esyllt Fynwen
(“fair-neck”) appears in
Culhwch and Olwen
as one of the ladies at Arthur’s court, and
reappears in
the Welsh Triads as one of the “Three Faithless Wives” of Prydain. She is not remembered separately, however, and does not appear in any pedigree, so we may imagine her inclusion in
Culhwch and Olwen
is because her connection with Tristan was already an established legend.

A few independent Welsh legends survive about Tristan which depict him as a swineherd, and a particularly difficult one at that. He was minding the pigs of March when Arthur, Cei and Bedwyr came
to him, and no matter what they tried, could not obtain a pig from him. Another tale tells how Tristan and Essyllt elope into the forest of Coed Celyddon, and Arthur has to seek them out. Tristan
has a magical protection that kills anyone who draws his blood, and thus escapes unharmed. It needs the cunning of Gwalchmai (Gawain) to find Tristan and lure him back. Arthur gives Mark and
Tristan a choice, saying that Esyllt can stay with one while the leaves are on the trees, and with the other when they are not. Mark chooses when the trees have no leaves, because of the long
winter nights. But Esyllt argues that the holly, ivy and yew plants have leaves all year round, so she should be forever with Tristan.

These seem to be the few fragments that survive of a longstanding Tristan and Iseult legend, but there is insufficient evidence to show which Tristan or Mark they relate to, or when. Tristan, in
any case, seems to be remembered in legend not just for his love of Iseult, but for the many disguises and schemes he employed to be with her. He may well be part of a much older
“trickster” character common in most countries’ folktales, and have nothing to do with a historical Mark and Iseult. The legendary King Mark may be a distortion of the Breton
Conmor, who forcibly married the former king’s widow, Leonore. The bare bones of that story could have evolved over time with other tales of tricksters and doomed love to develop into the
legend.

In 1869, the German folklorist Karl Heinrich Graf noticed the similarity between the Tristan and Iseult story and the Persian story
Vîs u Râmîn
, written by Fakhr ud-Din
Gurgâni around the year 1050. This was in turn derived from Parthian and Kurdish folklore, and the story could easily have been brought back from the Crusades around 1100, merging with a
similar Welsh or Breton folktale. In
Vîs u Râmîn
, it is two brothers (Môbad
and Râmîn) who love the same girl (Vîs), and there
is even a talisman which binds Môbad to Vîs but renders him impotent. Râmîn tries all kinds of schemes to be with Vîs and is eventually banished. He asks for
forgiveness, and is taken back by Môbad, who marries Vîs. This story has a happy ending, but otherwise there are parallels, which may have found resonances amongst the French
troubadours, with the Celtic tale.

Whatever the circumstances, the evidence suggests that a basic story about Tristan and Iseult had evolved by the early 1100s. The Welsh interpreter Bledri is even credited with telling such a
story, and that tale seems to have been picked up by a French troubadour living in London, known as Thomas d’Angleterre. Below I set out the original story in more detail, and then follow
through the later versions to show how the tale became part of the Arthurian cycle of romances.

2. The original story

The original French story had nothing to do with King Arthur. It starts with Rivalin, king of Lyonesse, who falls in love with Blancheflor, the sister of Mark, king of Cornwall.
Rivalin is killed in battle, and Blancheflor dies giving birth, naming her child Tristan. She leaves a ring by which Tristan will be recognised. He is at first raised by Rivalin’s trusty
marshal Roald, and his tutor Governal. He becomes well educated, and a good swordsman and harpist. After several youthful adventures, he is brought to the court of King Mark, where, because of the
ring, he is recognised and made a knight. Tristan kills the Irish warrior Morholt, who has come to exact an annual tribute from Mark, but receives a poisoned wound himself. Believing he will die,
he casts himself adrift in a boat but is washed up on the shores of Ireland, where he is cured by the queen (Morholt’s sister) and her daughter Iseult, who believes he is a minstrel called
Tantris. He returns to Britain, to his uncle’s court. Mark is relieved that Tristan has survived. He wishes his nephew to succeed him, so determines not to marry. His court insists that he
should, so Mark sets an impossible challenge. He says that he will marry the woman whose threads of hair two swallows have been fighting over. Tristran leads the quest, and although he does not
want to
go back to Ireland, a storm drives him there. He fights and defeats a dragon, but is overcome by the poisonous fumes. He is again revived by Iseult, who recognizes him
and realizes that he had killed her uncle Morholt. She overcomes her desire to kill Mark because she wants to marry him, rather than her father’s steward who is seeking her hand. Tristan and
Iseult travel back to Cornwall together with Iseult’s maid Brangwen, along with a love potion. However, Tristan and Iseult drink the potion by mistake and fall passionately in love. In some
versions, the potion lasts forever whilst in others it wears off.

Although Iseult is married to Mark, she and Tristan meet secretly, though the dwarf Frocin forever tries to catch the couple out. Eventually Frocin succeeds when blood from an old wound of
Tristan’s stains Iseult’s bed. They are condemned to death, but Tristan escapes and rescues Iseult who has been sent to die in a leper colony. They live frugally in the forest but Mark
finds them, though he is again convinced of their innocence. They eventually return to court. Mark takes back his wife, although she must swear an oath of innocence and loyalty which, in different
versions, becomes intriguingly contrived. Tristan is exiled, finally settling in Brittany in the service of Duke Hoel. He marries Hoel’s daughter, Iseult of the White Hands, but in most
versions promptly regrets it and rejects her. Tristan visits Iseult of Cornwall in disguise, but is wounded and poisoned. He sends for Queen Iseult with the message that if she is coming, the boat
is to bear a white sail and, if not, a black one. Although she does come, Tristan’s wife tells him it’s a black sail, and he dies believing that Iseult has abandoned him. When Iseult
arrives and finds he has died, she also dies immediately. Mark buries them together and from their tomb grow two intertwined vines.

3. The Romances

The foregoing version, with minor changes, was the one used in the following early romances. They differ more in the mode of telling than in the content. Thomas
d’Angleterre, for instance, retained a more direct mood, concentrating on the love story and the impact on the individuals. His version has become known as the
version courtoise
(courtly version). Others focus on a story of
adventure and daring, and are known as the
versions commune
(common versions). Until the time of the prose
Tristan
,
the Arthurian references are minor, although Chrétien includes a reference to Tristan in
Erec et Enide
, drawing the name from
Culhwch and Olwen.
In this chapter and the next
five I note available translations at the end of each work. No boxed entry signifies that there are no known translations or modern editions.

TRISTAN,
Thomas d’Angleterre (French,
c
1160s) 2,755 lines survive.

The oldest surviving verse romance of the Tristan legend, probably originally drawing upon an older ur-
Tristan
document, now lost. Chrétien may have also drawn
upon the same original for his romance,
Mark and Iseult.
Only about one-sixth of Thomas’s poem survives, the main fragments telling how Mark discovers Tristan and Iseult together in an
orchard and how Tristan is banished; it also covers Tristan’s marriage to Iseult of the White Hands. Episodes dealing with Tristan’s early life and how he met Iseult are lost. In this
version, the effects of the love philtre are not limited to a specific period of time. Thomas omits Mark’s forgiveness at the end, and any reference to the intertwining vines. Thomas’s
work served as the main source for the
Tristan
of Gottfried von Strassburg.

TRISTRANT,
Eilhart von Oberge (German, between 1170–1190) fewer than 1,000 lines survive.

The oldest surviving Tristan romance for which we have anything approaching a full version. It differs in various respects from the traditional story. Here the love potion is
potent at the outset and the lovers cannot bear to separate, but after four years its power wanes and they part amicably. Tristan becomes happily
married to Iseult of the
White Hands, although the philtre retains enough power to make him seek out Queen Iseult. Eilhart’s is the ‘common’ version, as he places emphasis upon the more lurid aspects of
the tale, such as when Iseult is banished to the leper colony and the lepers have their evil way with her. Also at the end, although they are buried in one grave, Mark plants a rosebush for Iseult
and a grapevine for Tristan.