LLT 180 Lecture 23 1 We're Doing -- I Meant to Apologize Last Time, and I

LLT 180 Lecture 23 1 We're doing -- I meant to apologize last time, and I'm sure you can't blow this up adequately, to have you buy an obscene book like this with a cover that's so explicit.

But, you know, I thought about going over to the bookstore with a marker and marking

'em all out, or getting some Liquid Paper that was kind of goldenrod. But I decided that, you know, you're all big boys and girls and so I'd let it go.

Actually, you don't need to read this book. One of the nice things about reading this is it's like reading something of White's: you can just read the titles of the chapters and say, "Okay. I have the summary." And so as we go from chapter to chapter, it's like, "Okay, The Abduction. Obviously, somebody's gonna be abducted."

This is a very different style than what we're used to. And it's kind of interesting that Gottfried makes the point a lot of times that he's not gonna just talk about stuff immediately. So we don't get some of these descriptions of what people are wearing that goes on for 19 pages. He says, "Let's get on with the story."

And so we're gonna have to set up what's gonna happen later. And to set this all up, we're gonna have to get -- we're gonna have to get -- my brain's dead. We're gonna have to get Tristan away from where he is and get to Mark's court. And so everybody who meets Tristan is very impressed by his excellence, his excellence in all ways. And what really puts him at danger here first is not just his great looks, but he has excellent manners.

Actually, as I read this, I thought, "God," you know, "I'm a lot like Tristan." But then they talk about Rual later, about how great he looks for somebody his age, and I go, "No, no. I'm like Rual." So, you know, maybe that's why I like to read this book because I can think -- I can fantasize that these people are actually me. Or I am them. LLT 180 Lecture 23 2 But anyway, he has fine manners, probably my only positive quality, but this is attractive to people. And Curvenal, C-u-r-v-e-n-a-l, is gonna be a character that keeps coming back up, so a name you should pick up on. He's kind of his tutor and yet his pal at the same time.

One of the amazing things -- and remember, Tristan was sent away. He was sent away to be educated. And he's gonna have great skill in languages. And even later it's gonna come up that he even knows more languages than you can imagine. He can basically converse with anybody in almost any language that you associate with northern Europe.

So these guys, these merchants who come up to Rual's castle, think, "Well, you know, these Norwegians. They're gonna steal this kid and make some money off him."

So evidently, they figure they can sell him someplace -- on the Internet. Not really funny. So they steal -- they take him and Curvenal away with them, and a tempest arose.

And so one of the things we're gonna deal with here a lot -- if you read as far as I fantasized I'm gonna get today, where they have the battle on the island -- we keep calling on God in here. And so God represents right, justice, fairness, and God would certainly not let anything happen that is not right, fair and just.

And so as they're stealing him, this great tempest comes up and it lasts for eight days. Eight's an okay number, nothing particularly significant. And they're so scared, they'll say they'll set 'em free.

It's kind of interesting. When I was working out the other day -- we think, "Well, a tempest came up. How bad can that be?" -- and I had the Weather channel on. I don't LLT 180 Lecture 23 3 know whether I was on my idiot-treadmill. Actually, I kind of like it. It's kind of mind- numbing as opposed to running on the streets and having to dodge cars and stuff.

But they were talking about a winter storm in the northeast in 1991 and a fishing boat that sank. They said that when they were headed back in -- they heard a storm was coming and they were headed back in, and they had 8 to 10-foot waves. Be a fairly typical, standard swell in the North Atlantic. And within three hours they had 80-foot waves.

So these guys, you know, this is what they were up against, you know. It's not good, so they say, "We'll let 'em free, we'll let 'em free." And they set 'em free in

Cornwall. Just put 'em on shore. And we know -- I think it's already been mentioned that Mark of Cornwall -- you know, back to the beginning of the story -- is his uncle. And that's why Rivalin, this king, is very famous and gone to his court before.

So we now know he's in the country of his uncle. And the kid is -- you know, the kid's young. You know, he's just been dumped on this place. He's been kidnapped away from his family. But he's wearing good clothes, which is always important. It's always my theory. It's my theory in teaching this course. If you lack in substance, you have to dress nicely. So if I'm not dressing nicely, I'm really in big doo-doo, as former

President Bush would say. Because if you don't have any good clothes and no substance, you lack everything.

But here he has good clothes. He has good substance, too. We read, "He was wearing a cloak and robe of magnificent brocade." And, you know, ermine seems real popular at this time, and it's lined with ermine.

He sets off -- he comes to a road, meets some pilgrims. These pilgrims will be LLT 180 Lecture 23 4 important. Because later, Rual is gonna be looking for him. Rual this loyal person treats him like a son, perhaps treats him better than his son, is gonna be looking for him and the way he finds him is encountering these pilgrims.

For some reason -- and I don't know if it's just to set us up later that he's a big story-teller. Each group he meets, he invents stories about who he is. He doesn't tell them the truth. And the only reason that becomes important is perhaps later when he goes to be cured after he gets poisoned by the wound by Morold, and he goes to be cured by Isolde, he makes up this story. And so maybe what we're doing -- the author's setting us up here, that Tristan is the great prevaricator. He is the great liar, making up stories about himself. So all of a sudden it's not like he's out of character.

They -- the pilgrims, those other people at the very end of that chapter on The

Abduction, are impressed by what? His manners. His manners. We read at the very end of that chapter,

His clothes held their attention, for they were very splendid and of marvellous

texture. "Good God," they mused, "who is this boy and where is he from, that

has such beautiful manners?"

And so something that sets him apart. They're going to Tentagal, which we know also from before, if we remember, is where Mark holds court. So he's gonna go to where

Mark is.

They're going along -- and some of this we're gonna be able to skip over, a bunch of pages, unless you're particularly big into hunting and you want to know how to cut up a deer as an optional way. But this next chapter entitled The Hunt, they come upon Mark's people out hunting. And Tristan, for some reason, says, "Oh" -- you know, LLT 180 Lecture 23 5 he said before he'd been out hunting with friends and he got separated, and now he tells the pilgrim, "These are my people."

And so they leave him and he joins up with this group, and basically takes over.

He has the manner of taking over the action, Tristan does, of inserting himself into the action, and shows them how to cut up a hart properly, how to cut up a deer properly, and they're all impressed.

And so, you know, he basically -- you know, manners. He knows about hunting.

He's gonna be able to sing. And he also can do knightly stuff. And when he finds out the truth about himself, he's gonna emphasize this part which has not been emphasized. So he knows the whole culture. He knows how to do everything about court, what's involved in courtly life, exceedingly well.

He again -- they ask him who he is, and he again makes up a story. Yet another story. And this time he says his father's a merchant. And all this does is delay -- well, he doesn't really know who he is, you know. He hasn't been told who he is. Rual will do that later to protect himself because Morgan the bad guy is still out there.

So we get this theme repeated quite a little bit, about going away to study and learning stuff. And he does get his true name. Now, I don't know why, if he's making up stories, he gives his true name. And how do people react to his true name?

He says, "Tristan," he answered, "Tristan is my name."

And one of them cries out,

"Heaven help us! Why in Heaven did he call you that?"

So why would someone name you Tristan, and we know this is appropriate.

So they come to the castle. The king, Mark, is instinctively -- they use the word LLT 180 Lecture 23 6 instinctively -- drawn to him as if blood will out. He asks the head huntsman, "Who is this kid, you know? He seems really great." He says -- well, he says he's the son of a merchant. But what's the huntsman's reaction to that? He says, "I do not believe it."

And so they think he's telling a story. In other words, he's just too versatile. They use the word versatile in the translation. He's too versatile, he can do all these things -- you know, it doesn't make sense that a merchant would have enough time to produce this outstanding child.

And then they describe Tristan. And this, I guess, is where, you know, especially

I started thinking of myself. It starts -- well, you know, I used to have hair. In fact, when

I was a little kid my hair was naturally curly. I didn't get a haircut until I was two. My mother loved -- that explains why I'm partially screwed up. My mother loved my curls.

And I was the youngest of four, and the story goes in the family, one time she had to go someplace and left me in keeping with my father one Saturday. And when she came back, I had a haircut. And she said, "All your curls were gone." And they're gone now, for sure.

Anyway, the paragraph starts "Master-Huntsman Tristan":

His form, moreover, was shaped as Love would have it. His mouth was as red

as a rose, his colour radiant, his eyes clear; his hair fell in brown locks, crimped

at the ends; his arms and hands were shapely and dazzling white; his figure was

tall to the right degree . . .

Whatever the crud that would be. What does that mean? Standard height of male models, regular height of male models? Average height of female models? Yeah, tall, you know. Somewhere between 5'10" and 6'. Average height of male models? LLT 180 Lecture 23 7 Actually, like about 6'1". And so, you know, proportionately, you'd have to think, "Well, if tall is good, why aren't they 6'9"? But they're not.

. . . tall to the right degree; his feet and legs (in which his beauty most appeared)

You know, feet? How many times has somebody said, "You have great feet. Your toes are" -- you're in your dreams. Walking down the beach -- "Look at his feet." You know, that's not a compliment if you're walking down the beach. If they say, "Look at his feet," that's like "Don't look at the rest of him." Yeah. Sides, you know? Whatever. Toes.

You have great toenails. Good thing the semester's almost over. This class is going downhill. We'll have to start thinking of other body parts that we can talk about.

. . . his feet and legs (in which his beauty most appeared) deserved such praise

as a man may give a man.

I guess he means he's gonna stop talking about this, lest people think he's a little strange.

So he wants him to stay. Mark wants him to stay at court. And yet he thinks he's the son of a merchant, so, you know, he's not gonna make him a knight or something.

He thinks he's the son of a merchant so he's gonna make him head huntsman.

We're gonna see another of his attributes. And again, we're gonna have the truly

Renaissance knight, if you will. In other words, all these other qualities -- you know, the fact that he has manners, he can sing, he can tell stories -- all these characteristics come out before we turn around to what a great knight he'll be. And it's only after he finds out that he's the son of Rivalin, and that he is by birth a knight, that he's really gonna turn his attention to that kind of stuff. And so it's not knight and then other, it's other and then knighthood. LLT 180 Lecture 23 8 And so now we're gonna see him as a musician. So he's become a popular figure at court and he's versed in various arts. We talk about playing music. Tristan plays the harp and he can sing in different languages. Several pages into the chapter, in this edition over on page 90, the paragraph starting "And now this lay was ended," six lines into that paragraph, "He sang the notes of his lay so beautifully in Breton, Welsh,

Latin, and French." And so he's multi-talented. He's poly lingual. If you put an instrument in front of him, if it's a stringed instrument, he can play it.

It says on a couple of more paragraphs, top of 91, paragraph starts "My lord."

He says, "I have applied myself to stringed instruments of every description." And how many languages does he know? People start testing him. He knows Welsh; he knows

Latin; he knows French; he knows Norwegian, Irish, German, Scots, Danes. He talks to all of these people. And so this kid is how old? Fourteen. We read, "A fourteen-year- old child has learned all the arts there are!" "Tristan, listen to me," said the King, "you can do everything I want--hunting, languages, music." So what's important at court?

You know, he didn't mention knighthood, you know. Hunting, languages, music. "To crown it let us be companions." And so again, he is drawn instinctively to him.

So at least the boy, this homeless boy, has a good temporary home in Mark's court. But we're gonna have to turn -- and one of the things I like about reading this book, as far as just you can kind of read it in pieces is, you're always clear where you're going. And I think Gottfried has a reaction to how Wolfram wrote in German, goes overboard in trying to write clearly and directing you.

So it's the end of the chapter and he tells you where we're going at the end of this chapter. He says, "And with that enough of this matter." In other words, we've LLT 180 Lecture 23 9 brought Tristan to a certain point. We've got to pick up the other thread of our story.

"We must lay this theme aside and take up the other again to narrate what steps his father [well, his adoptive father], the Marshal loyal Don Rual li Foitenant, having lost him, took to find him."

So Rual has been searching for him. He searches for him into the fourth year, and he finally encounters these same pilgrims that Tristan encountered when he first arrived in Cornwall in Denmark. I don't know what the heck they're doing in Denmark.

But anyway. He encounters them there and they give him advice on where to find

Tristan, who this guy must be, and so he sets off for Cornwall.

When he arrives at the court -- again, Rual's been underway for almost four years. He's evidently not bathed, not changed clothes, not gotten a haircut, not shaved

-- the boy is nasty. Well, I guess he's an old man. This older man, middle-aged man, is kind of nasty. He comes to court. And Tristan, even though they think he's the son of a merchant, is about to be knighted by Mark himself. His qualities are so outstanding that he comes to the top of the pile.

Rual -- we keep reading stuff about what a great guy Rual is, but he's totally messed up as far as how he looks. He does find Tristan and Tristan introduces him to

Mark. We read about how bad he looks in here, how poorly dressed he is. But we do read this paragraph -- again, which made me think of myself -- on the bottom of page

96, the paragraph that starts "Now":

Now you must know that however unpresentable Rual was so far as clothes were

concerned, he was truly magnificent and faultless in both physique and bearing.

[I mean, you know, it's just hard not to see myself in this.] His form was princely. LLT 180 Lecture 23 10 His limbs and stature were huge, like those of a hero of old, his arms and legs

were of generous length, his gait was fine and stately, his whole frame well-

proportioned. He was neither too young nor old but in his prime, when youth and

years give life its best vitality.

Whatever. So anyway, they go clean him up. And when he's cleaned up, he really looks good.

And now, once they're at dinner with Mark, over on page 98, we're gonna get the true story of who Tristan is. This is all information we know because we've been reading the book, but that Tristan doesn't know, Mark doesn't know. And so all of a sudden the truth comes out to Tristan for the first time about who he is: that Rivalin was his father, Rual is not, that Mark is his uncle. And so obviously everybody is very moved by this story. It's a sad story. I mean, after all, his name is Tristan.

But, you know, Tristan is especially struck by it. Because he thought he had a father and now he finds out that his real father is dead, and the person he thought was his father is not, and so he feels he's lost two fathers in one swoop: one he never knew he had and the one who is his father he no longer has. And so rather than being happy that Mark's his uncle and what this might mean, he is really struck negatively for this.

We've been doing all this other stuff. He's been being educated. Remember, he was sent away when he was seven. He comes back when he's fourteen. He's learned all this stuff, why the Norwegians stole him because they thought they could sell him.

Not because they thought he was a great knight, but because he was so gifted. He had such great manners. He could sing. He could play chess. He could do all these things.

And now Tristan is saying, "Well, hey, you know. If my birthright is to be a knight, I'm LLT 180 Lecture 23 11 now gonna emphasize those things." And he is supposed to be one of Arthur's three great knights: Gawain, Tristan and Lamorak, who gets his head chopped off because he's in bed with Morgause. Might've been a great knight; stupid boy, though.

But we read here, on page 101, paragraph starts "My dear lord": "I would love to be a knight, to train my idle youth and wean it to worldly honours. For chivalry, they say, must make its start in childhood or else it will never grow hardy."

I might've mentioned this earlier in the course, something which is history to you all, but in the old days I used to watch Johnny Carson fairly often. And Johnny Carson, the comedian, who had the night show before Leno, was a very good tennis player and everybody always complimented him on what a great tennis player he was.

And I remember watching one night and he said, "You know, I started playing tennis as an adult and I've decided that anything like that you don't start doing by about the time you're 12 or 13, you just never feel natural at doing." And it really struck me,

'cause I grew up playing basketball and I cannot have a basketball in my hand for five years. And, you know, you end up somewhere where you're gonna play basketball, and you dribble it -- it's just something that feels natural.

Both my daughters played tennis and I used to go over and serve as a backboard and hit balls back at 'em. And people always said, "You should play tennis.

You have such great court sense." I hated playing tennis. Because I always thought,

"Okay, put your feet -- move your arm" -- it was always so mechanical for me 'cause it wasn't something I grew up doing.

I could do it, but, you know, it's kind of like if you start skiing as an adult, you know? It's like, "Bend your knees. Ahh, a tree." No, I think I'll sit in the lodge and drink LLT 180 Lecture 23 12 Blue-vine, a much better activity. Other people can go out and break body parts.

Thank you.

So anyway, you know -- but he's only fourteen so there's still hope. But he's thinking, you know, you should start really young. And so he says at the end -- again, you know, he is not without vanity. He wants to -- he says here, at the very end of that paragraph, bottom of page 101, "so that I achieve my aspirations." And again, you know, he's gonna have his father's territories, but also Mark is interested in making him his successor.

This next chapter, for most of you -- you're thinking I should have told you ahead of time don't read a lot of this. It's more interesting for me or for somebody studying medieval literature than it would be for you all. Because he starts talking about other people who are writing who are his contemporaries, and who's good and who's bad.

And Hartmann of Aue, who wrote German versions of the same things we read, like Erec and Yvain by Chrétien, was another contemporary noted for clarity of style.

Heinrich of Veldeke, relatively important. The person they mention on 107 might win you a thousand dollars on "Million Dollar Pyramid," or something: the Nightingale of

Vogelweide was another contemporary of these guys, probably one of the most important if not the most important medieval poet, wrote some really, really great stuff.

But these people, you know, have nothing particularly to do with the course, but are kind of interesting giving us insight about what one author at this time thinks about these other people. But anyway, he even says this is indulgence to talk about these things, which is kind of an insert here.

Tristan -- the other thing that happens in this chapter is that Tristan becomes a LLT 180 Lecture 23 13 knight and he gets advice. And we -- later when we read Percival, what we think about the advice Percival gets from his mother on how to behave, which gets him in trouble.

Partly, Percival doesn't listen real well.

But here, what kind -- is this good advice he gets from Mark? He says, in that paragraph on 110, next to the last paragraph in the chapter. He says,

Let your birth and nobility be ever present in your mind. Be modest and

straightforward [that sounds good]; be truthful and well-bred. Always be kind to

the lowly: to the mighty always be proud. Cultivate your appearance. Honour

and love all women [sounds like good advice] Be generous and loyal and never

tire of it. For I stake my honour that gold and sable never sat better on shield

and spear than loyalty and generosity.

So, you know, it seems here that this is pretty much great advice, all right?

Modest, straightforward, truthful, well-bred, kind to the lowly. You know, cultivate your appearance. Be generous and loyal, and those two things are more important. Those are the most important, all right? Loyalty and generosity.

Next chapter, Return and Revenge. If we were just guessing, if we were reading carefully and thinking back about what we're reading, "return" would obviously be what?

Going back to Parmenie, you know, where Rual is from, where Rivalin was before he was killed? And revenge has to be revenge on Morgan, the guy that's caused so many of these problems.

We get this little introductory piece and again we get back to this pairing of good and bad. It says, "If any living man suffered constant woe with lasting good fortune," and so again, we have that combination of woe and good fortune, "Tristan always did LLT 180 Lecture 23 14 so, as I shall explain to you." And so we get this constant repeating of opposites.

Again, immediately in the next paragraph, he even says, "Thus these two opposites, constant success and abiding misfortune, were paired together in one man." And so this is the theme that's gonna be repeated again and again and again.

So the fact it's bugging him is that his father he now knows is dead, and Morgan, who killed him, is alive. But all things can be fixed and that can certainly be adjusted.

So he goes back. He goes through great ceremony to have everyone swear fealty to him and then he sets off to see Morgan.

He encounters Morgan in the woods, I believe, and tells Morgan that he's come to accept his land as a fee from Morgan. In other words, he's not challenging Morgan's position on the feudal ladder above him, but just saying, you know, "I've returned and, you know, it's now time for me -- for you to recognize that I am the holder of these lands." And he says, on the top of page 115, "I am of the House of Parmenie," in that little paragraph, and he says who his father is and so he identifies himself.

Morgan says, "Well, not the way I see it. The way I see it, you're a bastard.

Tough toenails. You don't get anything." And Tristan obviously is little hacked -- more than a little. He says, "You killed my father, now you're insulting me. All these people took fealty -- pledged fealty to me. It can be attested that my parents were married.

And so, you know, I'm not gonna take this from you."

And so what does he do? He just kills the guy. Bottom of page 115, paragraphs starts "That we shall see":

"That we shall see!" said Tristan. He whipped out his sword and ran at

him. With a downward sweep he struck through skull and brain . . . LLT 180 Lecture 23 15 You know, we don't see brains flying in here like we do consistently in Chrétien. But again, you know, it seems like if they want to indicate people are dead, something's happened to your brain. Whether it's sliced in two or whether it's flying across the room.

They were just 'way ahead of their time, 'way ahead of their time.

. . . ending only at the tongue [I think this would be a serious injury, if they're

starting at the top of your head and only stopping at your tongue], then at once

plunged the sword into his heart. [Is this really necessary? It's like okay, double-

dead is better than single-dead.] Thus the truth of the proverb was evident which

says that debts lie, yet do not rot.

I don't think I've ever heard that. It's kind of a cool proverb, you know? "When do you forget?" "Never. Debts lie, yet do not rot."

So then there's this big battle afterwards. And, you know, remember idiot

Tristan. He's only taking a limited number of guys with him and he's going to another country. And so he hates being hard-pressed. But, of course, who comes to the rescue? Foster Daddy-O, Adopted Daddy-O, Rual. I just have this bad feeling. So he shows up and there's a big victory by the two of them. And so Tristan is back in

Parmenie, everything's surely wonderful, but he really wants to go back to Mark's court.

And we use this word -- you know, it's a little bit vain. He talks about his aspirations. Aspirations. Some things can be fixed if I misspell 'em on the board. I don't know want The Potato Man following me. I don't want to be known as Potato Man professor. What he's gonna do is, he's gonna divide himself as best he can, if you read this far. So he wants to go back to Mark's court. He wants to be part of that world. And so he leaves his lands, he pledges them to Rual and his sons, and he goes to Mark's LLT 180 Lecture 23 16 court. He knights a bunch of people.

And when he returns -- we haven't been told about this before, but a very important part of the action, which is gonna carry forward, is this next chapter which has to do with Morold. And Morold is the champion for -- what is it, Gurmun? Whatever this guy's name is. Gurmun. How do you pronounce that? Anyway, the Gay. G the Gay.

This king who has come when Mark is a young guy and has subjugated Mark and made

Mark pledge fealty. There's a story he came from Africa 'cause he wanted his own kingdom, and he subdued the Irish and made them make him king, and then he went out and subdued where Mark is.

And what Mark has to do from Cornwall and also from England, they have to send 30 boys each year, good-looking, promising kids, drawn by lot from the nobility, as part of a pledge to G the G, King G the G, each year. And Morold is his enforcer. He's like this big-time bad dude knight, and he's the enforcer of King G the G.

So Tristan, when he gets back to Mark's court, this activity is going on for the year. This has been going on for a couple of years and they're drawing lots. Tristan just can't believe what's going on, just can't believe that these guys are all such pansies that they're letting their own offspring go into serfdom while they remain free.

So he says somebody should challenge him. They can get over needing to do this by single combat, either warfare or single combat. And, to make a long story short, obviously Tristan, even though he is young and inexperienced, he's gonna offer himself up. And he has -- they talk in here about how Morold has the strength of four, and they talk about this island fight.

And actually, I was looking through some of my German material and I came LLT 180 Lecture 23 17 across some copies of woodcuts -- maybe I can blow this up and make it better on TV -- which show us this island fight that we're gonna get to, which was a standard kind of fight in northern Europe. In other words, you take two knights and you put 'em on the island, and whoever came back was obviously the winner. You didn't care exactly what happened.

So this is out of a manuscript, one of the early manuscripts we have on Tristan by Gottfried. And here we see 'em going to the island; here we see the combat; here we see Tristan cutting Morold's head off. 'Cause remember at the end he's in three pieces. He chops off his hand at one point. And then he like kills him and then chops off his head anyway. And so they take back Morold's pieces and place them together as if his body was intact -- as if his body were intact.

So anyway, he challenges him. Morold can't really believe this. Over on page

128, paragraph starting at the top, "With God's help." Kind of interesting here. Even though we've been talking about a challenge, it's like we have to have a formal challenge. And we talked of the phase about casting down a gauntlet. And when I have the armor in here -- you know, I told you the glove is referred to as a gauntlet. And so here -- this is what Tristan does. He says, "Tristan drew off his glove and offered it to

Morold." So he kind of formally challenges him and then explains why he's challenging him.

They arm themselves for combat on this island. And again, to show that -- what I told you about what armor is right when or what's on the documentaries. It's interesting to read, if you read this, about how Tristan is harmed. It says, on 129, "Tristan, as yet untried in desperate encounters, armed himself in chain-mail" -- and so they talk about LLT 180 Lecture 23 18 the other pieces but they go into fairly elaborate detail about where he has plate armor and where he has chain-mail. And remember, this is being written -- you know, they said this was sometime in the past, but this is being written around 1200.

Again, the sword's important. And so these guys go off to the island. It's gonna be an island battle, a fairly common activity, but an island close enough that everybody can see. Tristan entrusts himself to God, you know. Morold entrusts himself to what?

That he's super-person. In other words, "I'm a major stud. I don't need anybody. I work out at Gold's Gym. You know, forget all this stuff. I take 45 desiccated liver pills a day. I'm big and strong and mean."

Actually, most body-builders -- you know, male human beings are strange creatures. I used to work out in the weight room at Michigan State when I was in grad school. And, you know, guys, if they read someplace that one desiccated liver pill is good for you, they'll be taking 400 within a week. "One's good. Why don't we take a jar?"

Moreover, however -- well, what kind of guy is he? Noble soul and fine nature.

So everything else about Tristan aside, you know. The inside of Tristan, you know, we cannot escape. He has a noble soul and fine nature. But the power of God -- on the bottom of page 131, the paragraph starting with "When Tristan," it says, "Our victory and good fortune would be due not to skill in arms [this is Tristan's position] but to the power of God alone." So he's entrusting himself to God.

So you get out on the island and basically Morold says, "Look, you know. You're a nice guy and I really like you. I don't have to kill you. We can make peace here."

And Tristan will say, "Well, you know, okay. But no more tribute. No more 30 boys a LLT 180 Lecture 23 19 year." And Morold says, you know, "No, we're not gonna do that." So they have this battle and of course it's a standard sequence of lances and swords.

And Morold has the strength of four, all right? Big, bad dude. On page 133, the paragraph starting "Now I have heard," it says, "Morold had the strength of four, making a force of four men [duh]. Such was the one side [so that's his side; he's like four guys].

On the other it comprised: first God; second Right; the third was Tristan himself." So he says, "You don't need the third part of this." God, Right, Tristan -- "their vassal and servitor, loyal Tristan [just read my punctuation]; the fourth was Willing Heart." And so this may set an equal battle.

Unfortunately, God and Right aren't there at first. And so Tristan's getting his butt whipped. He gets a big, nasty cut on his thigh and, in good keeping with medieval material, blood's spurting around. The blood, nearing the end, spurted out. Cool. How can blood fall in a cloud, though? I've not seen that, even on late-night horror movies.

They should read this, "blood into a cloud.

The big thing in here is that you don't need -- you shouldn't blink and miss, because a critical, critical, critical element is what? His sword has poison on it. Morold used a sword with poison. And who can cure it? Nobody but Queen Isolde. And just to confuse you, there are gonna be three Isoldes in this story. There's gonna be Queen

Isolde, her daughter Isolde, and then at the end, when we talk about it -- it doesn't make it in where yet Gottfried's work breaks off. But at the end, there's also gonna be another

Isolde, Isolde of the White Hands. So there are three Isoldes: Queenie, daughter, and

Isolde of the White Hands.

So anyway, the only person that can cure him is Queen Isolde of Ireland. And if LLT 180 Lecture 23 20 he wants to still give up, you know, he'll take him there, get him cured and be friends.

Tristan is not willing to break his oath. In other words, your word. Your word, your oath, is of utmost importance, and he is not going to break that. So he attacks him anew --

Tristan attacks Morold anew, and this time God and Right showed up.

We read there -- the paragraph starts "God and Right": "God and Right rode in with a just verdict to the salvation of their company and the destruction of their enemies." And he, first of all, bowls him over -- end of that paragraph: "He thrust his horse's chest against his enemy with a mighty clash and so bowled him over, charger and all."

And it's kind of funny, the effect -- I've probably said before, I have one 100% St.

Bernard puppy -- these have both adopted from shelters -- and I have another dog that -

- both puppies, really. The other dog, her mother was a St. Bernard and her father was a Husky. And when I got the purebred St. Bernard puppy, adopted her, the bigger dog was always beating her up and it really bugged me. And the vet kept saying, "You know, don't worry. This is all gonna get straightened out." LLT 180 Lecture 23 21

And one day I saw 'em playing in the yard, and the puppy had gotten pretty big, and the bigger -- the older dog was picking on her. And the puppy came running at her, ran right over her. Well, I mean, just crumpled the bigger dog -- the older dog, you know. And the older dog kind of stumbled away, like,

"Oh, crap. What was that?"

Well, this is kind of Morold. He's gonna kill Morold, and the important thing is what? He leaves a splinter of his sword in his hat. Middle of page 135,

"a fragment embedded in Morold's skull." That's gonna be critically important for the plot. It's God's will. So we get back again to God and Right. It's God's will.

And then he totally cuts off his head. Here at the end of that paragraph on 135 on the bottom, "He then strode up to Morold and taking his sword and laying it in both hands, struck off his enemy's head, together with the coif."

He goes back, everybody's happy -- except the Irish. The Irish take the pieces of Morold and head back to Ireland. And so they get there. The queen does what? At the top of that last page, she sees in her misery, looking closely at the body so she can be more miserable, she sees this little piece of sword.

And so she takes tweezers, pulls it out, puts it in a jar and saves it. And this is going to be almost Tristan's undoing. It tells you at the end of the paragraph, "it brought Tristan into jeopardy." Not to death, but into jeopardy.

So everyone is forbade -- this is important, too. The king puts out orders,

King G the G puts out orders that anybody from Cornwall who shows up here should be instantly killed. And so that's an important fact, too.

We'll pick up there next time. Let's try to stay on pace. I'll try to be a little LLT 180 Lecture 23 22 more focused. And if we stay on pace, why don't you try to read through Chapter

14. That's through page 190.