Besides the version of Thomas we have a fragment by a certain Beroul, also an Anglo-Norman, and a German poem by Eilhart von Oberge, both of which derive from a common source. There also exists in two mss. a short poem, La Folie Tristan, relating how Tristan, disguised as a fool, visits the court of King Mark. This poem is valuable, as, relying upon the sufficiency of his disguise, Tristan audaciously gives a résumé of his feats and of his rela tions with Iseult, in this agreeing with the version of Thomas. The "Gerbert" continuation of the Perceval contains the working over of a short Tristan poem, called by him the Luite Tristan; the latter part, probably a distinct poem, shows Tristan, in the disguise of a minstrel, visiting the court of Mark.
Finally, in consequence of the popularity of the cyclic version of the Arthurian romances, the original Tristan story was worked over in prose form, and incorporated with the final version of the Arthurian legend, where it served to swell the already unwieldy bulk of the romantic corpus to an impossible extent. Little of the primitive story is here preserved, and its original tragic beauty is obscured by an interminable series of "banal" adventures. It was in this form that Malory knew it. Fortunately for the present
generation the genius of Richard Wagner, inspired by the text of Gottfried von Strassburg, has restored the story to its earlier form, and enshrined it in imperishable music.
BIBLioGRAPnY.—Thomas, Roman de Tristan (edit. J. Bedier, Societe des Anciens Textes Francais, 2 vols., 1902, 1905) ; Beroul, Roman de Tristan (edit. E. Muret, same series, 1903) ; E. Kolbing, Die nordische und die englische Version der Tristan saga (1877, 1888) ; La Folie Tristan (edit. J. Bedier, 1907) ; Tristan Menestrel, from the Perceval (edit. J. Bedier and J. L. Weston, Romania, vol. xxxv., 1906). Gottfried's Tristan und Isolde has been several times published; the best editions are those of Bechstein (1890) and Golther (1889). There is an English prose rendering by J. L. Weston (Arthurian Romances, No. II.). A detailed analysis of the contents of the prose romance, compiled from the mss. of the Paris library, was published by E. Loseth, Le Roman en prose de Tristan (1890). For a study of the sources see Gertrude Schoepperle, Tristan and Isolt (2 vols., 1890), and for a bibliography of the extensive Tristan literature, J. D. Bruce, The Evolution of Arthurian Romance (1923). (J. L. W.)