Tristan and Iseult Timeline

Tristan and Iseult The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan (Tristram) and the Irish princess Iseult (Isolde, Yseult, etc.). The narrative predates and most likely influenced the Arthurian romance of Lancelot and Guinevere, and has had a substantial impact on Western art and literature since it first appeared in the 12th century. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.

Association with King Arthur

In its early stages, the tale was probably unrelated to contemporary Arthurian literature, but the earliest surviving versions already incorporate references to Arthur and his court. The connection between Tristan and Iseult and the Arthurian legend was expanded over time, and sometime shortly after the completion of the Vulgate Cycle (or Lancelot-Grail Cycle) in the first quarter of the 13th century, two authors created the vast Prose Tristan, which fully establishes Tristan as a Knight of the Round Table who even participates in the Quest for the Holy Grail.

Common source?

The French medievalist Joseph Bédier thought all the Tristan legends could be traced to a single original poem, adapted by Thomas of Brittany into French from an original Cornish or Breton source. He dubbed this hypothetical original the "Ur-Tristan", and wrote his still-popular Romance of Tristan and Iseult as an attempt to reconstruct what this might have been like. In all likelihood, Common Branch versions reflect an earlier form of the story; accordingly, Bédier relied heavily on Eilhart, Béroul and Gottfried von Strassburg, and incorporated material from other versions to make a cohesive whole. Some scholars still consider Bédier's argument convincing. (wikipedia.com)

1185 version written by Thomas of Britain in Anglo-Norman French verse. 1210 Gottfried von Strassburg wrote a German verse of the story based on that of Thomas. 1469 Sir Thomas Malory included Tristram and Isolde in his Morte d’ Arthur.

Mainly Irish in origin. There are many versions of the chief characters’ names: Tristran, Tristrem, or Tristan and Isolt, Yseult, or Iseult. Modern versions of the story include Matthew Arnold, Tristram and Iseult; A. C. Swinburne, Tristram of Lyonesse; Joseph Bédier, Tristan and Iseult; and E. A. Robinson, Tristram. Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde is based on the version of Gottfried von Strassburg. For translation of the version by Thomas of Britain, see R. S. Loomis, The Romance of Tristram & Ysolt (rev. ed. 1951); for translation of the version by Gottfried von Strassburg, see A. T. Hatto, Tristan (1960). (inforplease.com)