Courtly Love Stories TRISTAN AND ISEULT --This story is the basis for our notions of romantic love. --World's first great love stories, retold in many versions. --It derives from Celtic tales. --It begins with the young knight Tristran being assigned by his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, to fetch his bride from Ireland. --Reluctantly Tristran goes to pick up the beautiful Iseult. --She is nervous about this assigned marriage and her mother secretly mixes up a love potion for her and packs it in her bags telling her to drink for the wedding celebration. --On the ship back both Iseult and Mark become ill from "la mer" or "l'amour. " --To calm them Iseult fetches the wine from her bags. --They drink and fall hopelessly, deliriously in love. --Iseult marries King Mark --From this point forth the story varies by author. (Mallory, Tennyson, E.A. Robinson, and Updike) CHATALAJN DE COUCY --The Chatalain of the Castle at Renult fell in love with the Dame de Fayell. --The Chatalain writes 8,266 lines of love verse to his love. --He is sent by the jealous husband of the Dame de Fayell to the crusades where he (the chatalain and poet) is killed by a poison a"ow. --Before the Chatalain dies he writes a final song of love and sends it with his embalmed heart to his lady. --The husband intercepts the heart and it is served to his wife for dinner. --After realizing what she has eaten, the Dame de Fayell swears she will never eat again as she can eat no finer food. She dies. --The husband exiles himself to the Crusades to fight until death. (For background on Lancelot and Guenever see The Once and Future King.) .