The Romance of Tristan: The Tale of Tristan's Madness (Classics) (9 page)

‘Exiles, what great suffering love forces on you! How long will this madness last? You have been leading this life for too long, and I beg you to repent.’

Tristan said to him: ‘Now listen: if we have led this life for a long time, such was our destiny. For three full years now, if I do not err, we have never been free of suffering. If we can find a way to reconcile the queen and King Mark I shall never again seek to be in the king’s household. Instead I shall go away within a month to Brittany or Lyoness. But if my uncle will allow me to serve him at his court then I shall serve him loyally. Sir, my uncle is a great king. [We are seeking his forgiveness.] Tell us what you think will be best to do from what you have heard and we shall do as you say.’

My lords, hear of the queen. She fell at the hermit’s feet and was not slow to beg his help in reconciling them with the king. She said sorrowfully: ‘Never for the rest of my life shall I have any thoughts of wickedness. You understand that I am not saying I repent on Tristan’s account nor that I do not love him honourably and without shame as a friend. But our physical intercourse is now at an end.’

The hermit wept as she spoke and gave thanks to God for what he had heard: ‘God, Almighty King, I thank you from my heart that you have let me live long enough for these two people to come to seek my counsel about their sins. I am deeply thankful to You. By my faith and my religion, I swear that you shall have good advice from me. Tristan, listen to me for a while now that you have come here to my dwelling. And you, queen, hear my words and mark them well. When a man and woman sin, if they have first loved each other and then given up their sin, and if they become penitent and make true repentance, God will pardon their misdeed, however horrible or ugly it is. Tristan, queen, listen to me carefully: to escape the shame and to cover up the wrong we shall have to think of some suitable falsehoods. You have asked for my advice and you shall have it now. I can cut up some parchment to make a letter which we shall send. At the head it will bear greetings from you. Send it to Lantyan with your greetings to the king and say that you are in the wood with the queen and that if he would forgo his anger and take the queen back you would do as much for him and would go to his court. Tell the king that you would let him hang you if there was anyone at his court, a wise man or a fool, who was so hardy that you could not defend yourself against him if he accused you of loving the queen dishonourably. Tristan, I make bold to give you that advice because you will never find a knight there who would dare take up your challenge. I give you this advice in good faith. The king cannot gainsay that when he wanted to put you to death by burning because of the dwarf he would not hear your defence – both the
barons and the people are witness. It was the mercy of God that allowed you to escape, it is well known, for had it not been for God’s might you would have been shamefully killed when you made a leap that would frighten any man from Costentin to Rome. Then you fled in fear. You rescued the queen and since then you have been together in the forest. You took her from her own land to give to him in marriage. All that was done, he well knows. He was married in Lantyan. You could not have failed her and you preferred to flee with her. If he is willing to accept your defence in the presence of his barons and his people, you will offer to make your defence at his court. When your loyalty to him is re-affirmed let him take back his noble wife, if it is his wish and if his vassals consent. And if you knew that it would not displease him, you would gladly be a warrior in his service. But if he will not accept that, you will cross the sea to Dumfries and go to serve another king. Such will the letter be.’

‘I agree. But, with your permission, Father Ogrin, let it be added to the parchment that I dare not trust him. He offered a reward for my head. But I beg him, as a lord I truly love, to write a letter in answer containing all his wishes. I wish his letter to be affixed to the Croiz Rouge on the heath. I dare not tell him where I am; I fear he would try to capture me. But I will trust his letter. I will do whatever he wishes. Master, let my letter be sealed. At the end write
Vale
. I have nothing more to add.’

The hermit Ogrin took pen, ink and parchment and wrote all the words down. When he had done this he took a ring and pressed its stone into the wax. The letter was sealed and the hermit handed it to Tristan.

‘Who will carry it?’ said the hermit.

‘I shall.’

‘Tristan, do not say so!’

‘Certainly Father, I shall take it. I know Lantyan well. If you are agreeable, Father Ogrin, the queen will remain here. Soon, when it is dark and the king is sound asleep, I shall go with my squire on horseback. There is a hill outside the town. I shall dismount there and go forward on foot. My squire will guard my horse – no priest or layman ever saw a better.’

After sunset that night, when it had grown quite dark, Tristan set off with his squire. He knew the lie of the land well. They rode to Lantyan. He dismounted and went into the town. The watchmen were giving loud blasts on their horns. Tristan slipped into a ditch and went along it until he reached the hall of the castle. He was in great danger. He came to the window of the king’s chamber and called him, taking care not to speak too loud. The king awoke and said:

‘Who are you, coming at this time? What do you want? Tell me your name.’

‘Sire, I am Tristan. I am bringing a letter for you which I will leave on this window ledge. I dare not talk to you for long. I am leaving the letter behind, I dare not stay.’

Tristan turned to leave. The king sprang out of bed and called out three times: ‘For God’s sake, fair nephew, wait for your uncle!’

The king picked up the letter. Tristan had gone. He dared not remain and slipped away quickly back to his waiting squire and jumped on his horse.

Governal said: ‘Madman, hurry up! Let us go along the side roads.’

They went through the wood and at daybreak they reached the hermitage. Ogrin was praying with all his strength to the Heavenly King to watch over Tristan and Governal. When he saw them, how happy he was! He gave thanks to his Creator. There was no need to ask if Yseut had feared for them. Her eyes had been full of tears from the time they left the previous evening until she and the hermit saw them again. It had seemed to her a very long time. When she saw them coming she begged them to tell her where they had been. [Tristan said they had been to Lantyan but] nothing was said of what he did there.

‘Tristan, tell me, as God loves you, have you been to the king’s court?’

And Tristan recounted everything: how he had been to the city and spoken to the king, how the king had called him back, and how he had left the letter and the king had found it.

‘God,’ said Ogrin, ‘I give You thanks. Tristan, you may be sure that you will shortly have a letter from King Mark.’

Tristan laid down his bow. They all stayed in the hermitage.

The king awoke his household. First he sent for his chaplain and handed him the letter. The chaplain broke the seal and looked at it. At the head of the letter he read Tristan’s greetings to the king. The chaplain soon finished reading the letter and told the king its contents. The king listened and was greatly pleased, for
he loved his wife very much. The king awoke all his barons and sent especially for those who were most worthy. When they were all assembled the king spoke and they fell silent.

‘My lords, a letter has been delivered to me here. I am your king and you are my marquises. Let the letter be read and listened to. When it has been read, I beg you to give me your counsel. You must advise me well.’

Dinas was the first to rise, and he addressed his peers: ‘Hear me, my lords! If you do not hear me speak well now, never believe anything I say. If anyone has better things to say, let him do so, and may his words be wise. We do not know where the letter has been sent from. Let it be read first of all, and then according to its contents let anyone who can give good advice do so. I declare that anyone who gives his rightful lord bad advice can do no greater wrong.’

The Cornish barons said to the king: ‘Dinas has spoken like a true vassal. Sir chaplain, read the letter from beginning to end in the presence of us all.’

The chaplain opened out the letter and stood before the king: ‘Now listen carefully, my lords. Tristan, the king’s nephew, first sends greetings and love to the king and all his barons. “Sire, remember well your marriage with the king of Ireland’s daughter. I crossed the sea to Ireland and I won her by my prowess. I killed the huge, crested dragon, for which she was given to me. I brought her to your country, sire, where you took her to wife, as all your knights saw. You had not long been together before the evil tongues in your kingdom began to make you believe their lies. I am quite ready to give
this challenge to anyone who would accuse her: I will defend her, fair sire, against any man on foot or on horseback – each one to have weapons and a horse. I say that she never had a wrongful love for me nor I for her. If I cannot defend her and exculpate myself at your court, then I will make my defence in front of your army. I make exception of none of your barons who would seek to harm me and have me condemned to be burnt. You know, sire, fair uncle, that you wanted in your wrath to burn us. But God had pity on us and we worship Him for this. By good fortune the queen escaped. This was just, may God save me, for you were very wrong in wanting to put her to death. I escaped by leaping over a high cliff. Then the queen was given to the lepers as her punishment. I rescued her from them and carried her off. Since then I have always been with her. I could not fail her when she had been condemned to death for my sake. Since then we have stayed in the wood for I was not rash enough to show myself in the open [after you had issued a proclamation that anyone who could should] capture us and hand us over to you. You would have had us burned or hanged. Because of that we had to flee. But if it were now your pleasure to take back Yseut the Fair, no baron in this land would serve you better than I. But if you are advised differently and will not accept my service, I shall go to the King of Dumfries. I shall go overseas and you will never hear of me again. Think carefully, king, over what you have heard. I can no longer suffer this torment: either I shall be reconciled with you or I shall take the king’s daughter back to Ireland where I brought her from. She shall be queen in her own country.”’ The
chaplain said to the king: ‘Sire, that is the end of the letter.’

The barons heard this request and Tristan’s offer to do battle with them for the sake of the king of Ireland’s daughter. There was not a baron of Cornwall who did not say:

‘King, take back your wife. The men whose accusations of the queen we have just been reminded of acted unwisely. But we cannot advise you to allow Tristan to remain on this side of the sea. Let him go to the rich king of Galway who is at war with the Scots king. He can remain there and you will hear news of him and you can send for him later. Otherwise we shall not know where he has gone. Send him a letter saying he is to bring the queen here soon.’

The king called his chaplain and said: ‘Let this letter be written quickly. You have heard what to put in it. Hurry with the letter. I am very anxious, I have not seen Yseut the Fair for a long time. She has suffered greatly in her youth. When the letter is sealed, take it and affix it to the Croiz Rouge. Let it be taken there this very night. Send greetings from me.’

When the chaplain had written the letter, he took it and affixed it to the Croiz Rouge. Tristan did not sleep that night. Before midnight came he had crossed the Blanche Lande and taken the sealed letter; he knew that part of Cornwall well. He came back with the letter and gave it to Ogrin, who read the generous words of the king, who was willing to forgo all his anger towards Yseut and would gladly take her back; and he read when the reconciliation was to take place.

‘The king will speak to you then as he must do, like a man who truly believes in God. Tristan, what joy for you! Your request that the king should take back the queen has been given a speedy hearing. All his people have advised him to do this. But they dared not advise him to retain you in his service; instead you should go to another land to serve a king who is engaged in war and remain there a year or two. If the king then so wishes, you may return to him and Yseut. In three days from now the king will be ready to receive her, without any treachery on his part. The meeting between you and them will be at the Gué Aventurous, where you will hand Yseut over and she will be received. There is nothing more in the letter.’

‘God,’ said Tristan, ‘what sorrow it is to part! How unhappy is the man who loses his beloved! But it must be done to make up for all the suffering you have endured on my account; you need suffer no longer. When the time comes to take leave of each other I will pledge my love to you and you shall pledge yours to me. Whatever land I am in, neither peace nor war will prevent me from sending my news to you. And send me your greetings, my love.’

Yseut sighed deeply and spoke: ‘Tristan, listen a moment: leave me Husdant, your dog. No hunter ever looked after his dog with such care as I shall, my fair friend. When I see the dog, I think I shall often remember you; I shall never be so unhappy that seeing him will not make me cheerful again. Never, since the time when God’s Law was first given to man, was any animal so well tended or given such a fine bed as he shall have. Tristan,
my love, I have a ring with a green jasper mounted: fair friend, for my sake wear the ring on your finger. And if you wish to send a messenger to me, I assure you I shall believe nothing unless I see this ring. No king will forbid me, once I see this ring, from doing whatever I am asked to, whether it be wisdom or folly, by the man who bears this ring; provided only that it is to our honour. This I promise you in true love. My love, will you let me have Husdant over there as a gift?’

He replied: ‘I will give you Husdant for love.’

‘You are very kind. Now that you have given me the dog, take the ring as your reward.’