Tristan and Isolde | a Review
originally published on 07/08/2023;
Hello everyone, I am the legendary G.E.M.Simov, a petty king, more of a noble, from medieval Europe, here to tell you about Günter de Bruyn's novelette, "Tristan and Isolde".
Simple review details - I rank books on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
As a disclaimer, I read this in a translated variant. That could have affected some aspects of my judgment.
Contents
This book is not a book-book, it's a novelette. It's very short, and very simple. So simple, in fact, that it barely has anything in it other than the main topic that is being examined - love.
In regards to everything else, it almost seems pointless. There's mention of greed, of envy, of hatred, but those are all painted as being bad. There's mention of doubt, too, but it is also presented as bad, without being further examined.
In truth, the only thing that is truly looked upon is the idea of love, and the best examination is performed when looking at the falling in love, and the love potion's effects, as well as when the cave of love is involved. Everything else that is present is, more or less, a regurgitation of those things.
It is interesting to consider that, perhaps, this love that is being spoken of is very crude and rough, much like an uncut gem. For the love of one character for another is not described as being different when compared to the love of a third character for the second. The only difference could be the intensity of that love, and whether it is a shared one, or not.
But there is no distinction between one's love for another's body and their love for another as a person, or one's love for the entirety of an individual, including their body, and the love of one that is centered on their body. It appears as though this natural inclination of the human animal to consider an individual compatible and to feel their body urging them to engage in copulation or, at the very least, informing them that there might be a compatibility.
This type of love is not the type of love that contemporary humanity has an appreciation for, though it could very well be that. It seems so different, so much more carnal and lacking deliberation, whereas contemporary love almost depends on deliberation, or at least on an effort to look past the outside and glance inwards.
So that is present and bothersome - everyone loves everyone, and there's a distinction between a parent loving their child and a man loving a woman, but then the loving is so destructive and problematic, so exclusionary and marred by Christian values, that it brings only great sorrow.
The idea of a love potion, then, is very clearly just some aphrodisiac, since love in this is story is essentially the carnal want for another's body. And it is not truly love that it sparks, but some incredible lust for a particular person. Fair enough, it could also be proper love, but a lot of what was described was almost inline with the concept of something that gets its imbibers very horny.
Then what is the lesson to be derived? Don't fall in love? Don't drink when you're thirsty? Feudalism is bad? Social norms are bad?
Or there is no lesson at all? Or, perhaps, the lesson is that one must remain so faithful to social norms and etiquette that they destroy their personality, lest it does not perfectly fit with those rules, so that they can live happily?
It's just a story that seemingly fails to teach the reader anything. Actually, it teacher the reader that being good and noble is not the point of life, and that by being such, one gets punished. However, being selfish and evil, petty and spiteful is rewarded, as those who are such in the story appear to outlast those who are not.
Tis all very backwards, and the contents of this novelette are very lackluster. 1/3
Richness of Expression
Much like any other tale or fable that comes from the old days, there are many words that do not appear in contemporary lexicons. There are many specialized words, even ones that would require examination and additional work to be properly discovered.
However, even if the means of expression featured a large number of words, and there were no issues regarding repetition, there was a very odd, almost repetitive, inclination that was had by the author to list a number of inclusionary traits pertaining to a character when describing them, which was not thoroughly horrible, but when goon A is described as XYZ three times in the span of four chapters, I am left bothered by it.
Other than that, though, there's honestly nothing I can complain about. As is to be expected, whenever one expresses themselves properly, it fails to be noticed, as it is simply how it should be, and this bears no description. 3/3
Story
As was hinted at in the Content part of this review, there is something lacking in this story. One could say that it's "legend"-ness takes way and makes it very simplistic, or one could argue that it is written for kids, but neither is the case - because Tristan and Isolde fuck. They fuck a lot. Other people also fuck. There are descriptions of people fucking others who are unwilling to fuck.
So it's not a children's book - or if it was a children's book, one can clearly see why misogyny is still alive and well - because this book conveys the idea of love being physical attraction.
But let's not dwell on that, as it was examined in the Content portion of this review. Instead, why don't we talk about character development - or lack thereof? In fact, it appears as if some characters simply regress.
Tristan starts off by being wonderful, and he remains wonderful. Isolde starts off bring wonderful, and she becomes even more wonderful. King Mark starts off as being really nice, he becomes wonderful, and then he becomes horrible. It's absolutely baffling how this even works out, but apparently it does.
Then there are also other characters who start out proper, but become sour. There is one interesting exception that winds up dead and the reason for the conclusion of the story.
Now, the story - it's a bit of a mess, but that's owed to the fact that it is set in medieval, feudal Europe. Knight guy, who is a lord of some land, goes to King Mark's castle and spends a year learning how to be a lord there. He falls in love with Mark's sister, they fuck, they leave. Knight guy fights against an invader to his lands, dies in the process. King's sister, pregnant, dies giving birth from the news.
The child is raised by knight guy's marshal as his own child. The child, Tristan, gets abducted, because he is super smart and knows many languages. He gets let go in England and finds his way to King Mark's castle, impresses him greatly and becomes his musician.
Three years later, the marshal finds Tristan and reveals his birth to King Mark. King Mark, having come to love Tristan, names him his heir and says he will take no wife so as to not interfere with Tristan's inheritance.
Then Tristan goes back to his father's lands, reconquering them, and returns to England. But the Irish king has sent a debt collector - his wife's cousin - and no one dares to oppose him. Tristan, of course, ever the hero, fights and kills him, but a piece of his sword gets stuck in the tax collector's skull. Tristan is also wounded and poisoned, and the only person who knows how to cure the poison is the King of Ireland's wife, the cousin of the tax collector.
So Tristan goes and disgusted himself, earns the trust of the queen and her daughter - Isolde - and gets himself cured. Then he leaves with some more trickery.
But alas, the barons under King Mark hate Tristan, because he showed them up by actually dealing with the tax collector. They don't want him to inherit anything, and constantly bitch and moan about it to King Mark, who somehow decides he has to appease them, agrees to take a wife.
Tristan goes to Ireland, kills a dragon, and leads Isolde to King Mark's castle. On the way there, a potion meant for Isolde and the King, through some unfortunate mistaking, ends up imbibed by Tristan and Isolde, who fall in love with each other. That's a problem.
When Isolde gets married to King Mark - which she now wants even less than before - she manages to trick him with her most faithful handmaiden, for she is not longer a virgin and there'd be no blood.
Many trepidations follow, with folks who hate on Tristan or love Isolde wanting to reveal that the two of them love each other and often elope. King Mark, supposedly loving Tristan, goes through a character change and now loves Isolde, and is very VERY envious. The two of them get banished, but the King really loves Isolde's body, so he has them brought back. Then Tristan gets caught red handed, and flees. He goes to some tiny country, saves it, and in his grief over being separated from Isolde wind sup misleading himself, and another dame named Isolde, into falling in love with one another - they even get married, but he can't fuck her, since she isn't his Isolde.
She's not happy about that and her brother finds out. Her brother threatens to kill Tristan, but Tristan makes a bet that his Isolde is the finest woman ever, and the two of them go to King Mark's lands and Tristan wins the bet, being spared by other Isolde's brother. Well, other Isolde's brother is in a similar predicament, and they go about resolving it.
They get caught after the fact, with other Isolde's brother being killed and Tristan winning a 1 on 8 fight, being wounded by only a spear, which is poisoned. Only his Isolde, by merit of being a daughter of her mother, can cure this position, so he sends his most trusted man to bring her. The dude managed to get Isolde to this place, but other Isolde lies about the color of the sail, which was an agreed upon means of signaling success or failure, and Tristan just dies of hopelessness.
His Isolde then reached him and dies from a broken heart.
In conclusion, what the Hell? How come the King in this literal fairytale with literal, fire-breathing dragons and love potions, doesn't have absolute power over his subjects? How can the barons exert such control over the King that he needs to do as they wish? What is this, a democracy?
And how does the King go from loving Tristan so much he LITERALLY makes him his heir to wanting him dead? Sure, love does things to people, but the King is at least thirty four years old - he's not a 'young buck' and should be able to operate rationally!
What about the other Isolde? She loves Tristan so much she just lies to him about the only thing keeping him alive, and he dies. There's no inner dialogue during which she decides that if she cannot have him, no one can. She just lies to him for no good reason at all, and he dies, and then she's very sad!
The story is a classic fairytale, full of inexplicable events and decisions. There is a semblance of logic and plausibility, but it is so tiny that I can not abide by this defilement of the genre(since fairytales supposedly have good endings or lessons to take out of the bad endings, and this one has neither).
And it was almost good, too… 1/3
Legendary Point
Does this book get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time?
In short, NO. Why? Because it only served to bother me. It made me ask: "Why?" And since there was no means of answering, other than with the statement that "people, and the systems people create for themselves, are bad", I was left disappointed.
This could have been a very nice story. A very neat fable, if you I'll. Yet, alas, it's just long torture porn. 0/1
Conclusion
5/10. A 'classic' fairytale in which everything is fantastical and magical and wonderful, with the exception of everything. I'd maybe recommend it to people who would like to read into feudal Europe's culture, particularly that surrounding their nobility… And no one else.
I would not even read it to my kids.
In the bag of mediocrity. I had decently high hopes for this, but it sounds up being absolutely unremarkable. Let's let it gather dust, as that might be all it's good for…