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Gottfried von Strassburg (died c. 1210) is the author of theMiddle High Germancourtly romanceTristan, an adaptation of the 12th-centuryTristan and Iseult legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside theNibelungenlied andWolfram von Eschenbach'sParzival, as one of the great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages. He is probably also the composer of a small number of surviving lyrics.[1] His work became a source of inspiration forRichard Wagner's operaTristan und Isolde (1865).
Other than an origin in or close association withStrasbourg, nothing is known of his life. It would seem, however, that he was a man of good birth and position, who filled an important municipal office in his native city of Strasbourg, but since he is always referred to in German asMeister (master) and notHerr (sir), it seems safe to assume he was not a knight, a conclusion supported by the rather dismissive attitude toward knightly exploits shown inTristan.[2]
Tristan ends abruptly, and according to the testimony ofUlrich von Türheim andHeinrich von Freiberg, two people who provided endings forTristan, Gottfried died before finishing the work. References in the work suggest it was written during the first decade of the 13th century, and 1210 is taken, conventionally, as the date of Gottfried's death.
His thorough familiarity with Latin literature and rhetorical theory suggest someone who had enjoyed a high level of monastic education. He also shows detailed technical knowledge of music and hunting, far beyond anything found in the works of his contemporaries. Gottfried draws more on the learned tradition of medievalhumanism than on thechivalric ethos shared by his major literary contemporaries. He also appears to have been influenced by the writings of contemporaryChristian mystics, in particularBernard of Clairvaux.
That his home was in Strasbourg is supported by the fact that the earliest manuscripts ofTristan, dating from the first half of the 13th century, show features ofAlemannic and specificallyAlsatian dialect.[3]
Gottfried's rhetorical style is very distinct among his contemporaries. It is incredibly complex, marked by the extensive use ofsymmetrical structure in his organization ofTristan as a whole, as well as in the structure of individual passages. Gottfried also uses detailed word and sound patterns, playing with such things as rhyme, alliteration, and assonance. SeeBatts (1971) for a detailed analysis.
One of the greatest hallmarks of Gottfried's style is his skillful use ofirony, to both humorous and tragic effects. He may also have relied on irony to disguise his criticisms of contemporary society in order to avoid censure.
Gottfried states that theTristan ofThomas of Britain, an Anglo-French work of around 1160, was the source of his work. He explains that he bases himself on Thomas because he "told the tale correctly", distancing himself from the less courtly versions of the story represented byBéroul inOld French andEilhart von Oberge inMiddle High German.
Unfortunately, Thomas's work, too, is fragmentary and there is little overlap with Gottfried's poem, making it difficult to evaluate Gottfried's originality directly. However, Thomas'sTristan was the source of a number of other versions, which makes it possible to get some idea of style and content. It is clear that while Gottfried's statement of his reliance on and debt to Thomas is correct, he both expanded on his source and refined the story psychologically. The discovery in 1995 of the Carlisle Fragment of Thomas'sTristan, which includes material from one of the central parts of the story, the Love Grotto episode, promises a better understanding of Gottfried's use of his source.[4]
Thomas's source, in turn, is a now lostOld French Tristan story, reconstructed byJoseph Bédier, which derives ultimately from Celtic legend.
The text ofTristan is 19,548 lines long, and is written, like allcourtly romances, inrhymingcouplets.
The first section (ll. 1-44) of theprologue is written inquatrains and is referred to as the "strophic prologue", while pairs of quatrains, of sententious content, mark the main divisions of the story. The initial letters of the quatrains, indicated by large initials in somemanuscripts, form anacrostic with the namesGotefrid-Tristan-Isolde, which runs throughout the poem. In addition, the initial letters of the quatrains in the prologue give the nameDieterich, which is assumed to have been the name of Gottfried'spatron.
If Gottfried had completedTristan it would probably have been around 24,000 lines long.
The story starts with the courtship of Tristan's parents. Riwalin, King ofParmenie, travels to the court of King Marke inCornwall, where he and Marke's sister, Blanschefleur, fall in love. Blanschefleur becomes pregnant and the couple steal back to Parmenie, but Riwalin is killed in battle. When she hears the news, Blanschefleur dies, but the baby is delivered and survives. He is named Tristan because of the sorrowful circumstances of his birth.
Tristan grows up in Parmenie, passed off as the son of Riwalin's marshal Rual li Fointeant, becoming the perfect courtier. While on board a merchant ship which has docked in Parmenie, Tristan is abducted by the Norwegian crew. Once at sea, the ship is struck by a tempest, the crew conclude that they are being punished by God for abducting Tristan, so they set him ashore in a country that turns out to be Cornwall.
Tristan encounters a hunting party, whom he astonishes with his skill, and he accompanies them to Marke's court, where his many accomplishments make him popular, particularly with Marke. Eventually, after years of searching, Rual comes to Cornwall and finds Tristan, who is now revealed as Marke's nephew. Tristan is knighted.
Cornwall is being forced to pay tribute to the King ofIreland, Gurmun, collected by his brother, the monstrous Morold. Tristan challenges Morold to a duel and defeats him, though in the process he is wounded by Morold's poisoned sword. In order to seek a cure Tristan travels to Ireland incognito (under the name Tantris), and contrives to get himself cured by Gurmun's Queen Isolde (Isolde the Wise). He is struck by the beauty and accomplishments of her daughter, Isolde the Fair, and returns to Cornwall singing her praises.
Jealous of Tristan, Marke's councillors press him to marry, so that Tristan can be ousted as heir. Hoping that he will be killed in the process, they suggest Tristan be sent to Ireland to woo Isolde for Marke. Tristan travels to Ireland (as Tantris) and kills a dragon which has been threatening the countryside, thus winning Isolde's hand. However, observing that the splinter previously found in Morold's skull matches Tantris's sword, Isolde realises Tantris is in fact Tristan, and threatens to kill him as he sits in the bath. Her mother and her kinswoman Brangaene intervene and Tristan explains the purpose of his journey, which leads to a reconciliation between Ireland and Cornwall. Tristan leaves for Cornwall with Isolde as a bride for Marke.
Isolde the Wise has given Brangaene a magic potion to be drunk by Marke and Isolde on their wedding night to ensure their love. On the voyage, however, it is drunk by Tristan and Isolde by mistake. They avow their love for each other, but know that it cannot be made public, and they enjoy a brief idyll on board before arriving in Cornwall. This is followed by a series of intrigues in which the lovers attempt to dupe Marke, starting with the wedding night, when the virgin Brangaene substitutes for Isolde in the marriage bed. Marke is suspicious but is constantly outwitted by the lovers' guile.
Eventually, Marke resigns himself to their love and banishes them from court. They go off into the wilderness, to a Love Grotto, where they enjoy an idyllic life away from society. By accident, Marke discovers the grotto and sees them lying side by side. However, aware of his approach, Tristan has placed his sword between himself and Isolde, duping Marke into believing that perhaps they are not lovers after all.
With their secret hideaway discovered, the lovers return to court. However, Marke's suspicions return and finally he finds them together and can no longer doubt their adultery. Tristan flees toNormandy, where he encounters Isolde of the White Hands, daughter of the Duke of Arundel. Gottfried's poem ends with Tristan expressing his emotional confusion over the two Isoldes.
In Thomas's poem, which is preserved from around this point, Tristan marries Isolde of the White Hands, though the marriage is never consummated. Tristan creates a hall of statues, with statues of Isolde and Brangaene. Tristan is wounded with a poisoned spear by Estult li Orgillus, and sends for Isolde the Fair, who is the only one who can cure him. It is agreed that the ship sent for her will bear a white sail if it returns with her on board, but a black sail if not. However, the jealous Isolde of the White Hands lies about the colour of the sail, and Isolde the Fair arrives to find Tristan dead of grief. She kisses him and dies.
Gottfried'sTristan has proved problematic to interpret, probably in part because it was arguably left unfinished. Much of critics' difficulty in interpreting the work was entirely intentional on the part of Gottfried; his extensive use of irony in the text is clearly the greatest cause of disagreement over the meaning of his poem.
"Tristan" contrasts significantly with the works of Gottfried's contemporaries in three ways:
This "exaltation of love" has led some critics to seeTristan as effectively heretical, with Tristan and Isolde as "saints" of a religion of love, though how such a work could have been repeatedly read and copied at 13th century courts remains puzzling. Does the use of religious language imagery for the lovers mean that they represent an alternative religion, or is this simply a technique to communicate their exemplary role and the sublime nature of their love?
Alternatively, some critics see the work not as a pure exaltation of love, but rather as an exploration of the conflict between passionate love and courtly social order. That Tristan is not knightly represents a rejection of the norms of feudal society; he allows himself to be guided by love and physical passion rather than chivalry. The deaths of Tristan and Isolde would then seem inevitable, in that their love could not overcome the contemporary social order.
The role of the potion remains contentious - is it:
The story itself also raises problems. If the power of the love potion is irresistible, how can Tristan's marriage to Isolde of the White Hands be explained? If love is the supreme value, why do Tristan and Isolde leave their idyllic life in the Love Grotto, to return to a life of occasional secret trysts? Some have even argued that Gottfried abandoned the work, unable to solve these contradictions.
One of the most important passages inTristan, one which owes nothing to Thomas, is the so-calledliterary excursus, in which Gottfried names and discusses the merits of a number of contemporary lyric and narrative poets. This is the first piece of literary criticism in German.
Gottfried praises theMinnesängerReinmar von Hagenau andWalther von der Vogelweide, and the narrative poetsHartmann von Aue,Heinrich von Veldeke andBligger von Steinach, the former for their musicality, the latter for their clarity, both features which mark Gottfried's own style. Conversely, he criticises, without naming him directly,Wolfram von Eschenbach for the obscurity of his style and the uncouthness of his vocabulary.
The unfinishedTristan was completed by two later poets,Ulrich von Türheim around 1235 andHeinrich von Freiberg around 1290, but their source for the latter part of the story is not Thomas'sTristan, and is generally thought to be the earlier and less courtly version of the story byEilhart von Oberge, written around 1175. All but two of the complete manuscripts of Gottfried's work include a continuation by Ulrich or Heinrich; one uses the final part of Eilhart's work. Only one has no continuation at all.
Gottfried's work is praised by a number of later 13th-century writers, includingRudolf von Ems andKonrad von Würzburg, and was used, together withEilhart von Oberge's version andHeinrich von Freiberg's continuation as a source for theOld CzechTristram a lzalda, written in the latter half of the 14th century.[5]
While Gottfried's poem was still being copied in the 15th century, it wasEilhart von Oberge's less sophisticated narrative of the Tristan story that was the source of the first printed version, the 1484Tristrant und Isalde, a work in prose which is not to be confused with the FrenchProseTristan, also known as theRoman de Tristan en Prose.
Gottfried's work was rediscovered in the late 18th century, and is the source ofRichard Wagner'soperaTristan und Isolde (1865).
Tristan survives in 11 complete manuscripts and fragments of a further 18,[6][7] making it one of the most popular MHG romances, eclipsed only byWolfram von Eschenbach'sParzival andWillehalm.[8]
Establishing a definitive text ofTristan is problematic. In particular, many manuscripts show signs of "contamination", that is, a manuscript based on one source shows evidence that the scribe consulted additional versions, whether to supply missing text or for alternative wording.[9] This has been inevitable in the case of manuscripts based on the Munich manuscript as this lost several leaves at an early date — the missing 2,000 lines of verse have had to be made good from other sources.[10][11]
The most recent studies conclude that three distinct versions of the text derived from Gottfied's original were in circulation by 1240 and form the ultimate source of all surviving manuscripts.[12][13]
In addition to a few fragments, two complete manuscripts date from the 13th century:
The geographical origin of theTristan manuscripts is unusual in its concentration in two regions. Most of the 13th century MSS come from theSouth West of Germany and along theRhine, the areas closest toStrassburg. A smaller later group were produced in theEast Central German area, reflecting the literary interests of theLuxembourg dynasty[19][20] and theBohemian nobleman Raimund von Lichtenburg, who commissionedHeinrich von Freiberg's continuation of Gottfried's poem.[21]
The first modern edition of Gottfried'sTristan was that of Christian Heinrich Myller in 1785, and there have been many since. Until recently, however, there had been no satisfactory critical edition, but that has now been remedied by:[22]
MostTristan scholarship for the last century has relied on:
Modern editions based on Ranke's text:
Two older editions have been reprinted:
A complete list of editions will be found at theGottfried-Portal.
English translations:
Modern German translations:
There are many older translations. However, any made before 1930, when Ranke's edition was first published, will be based on an outdated edition of the text.
Texts on Wikisource: