Tristan and Tristan of Thomas.Gottfried Von Strasburg. 2004.

One of the great romances of the Middle Ages, Tristan was written in the early thirteenth century and is an epic story of passion and deceit. By slaying a dragon, the young prince Tristan wins the hand of beautiful Isolde for marriage to his uncle, King Mark. On their journey back to Mark’s court however, the pair mistakenly drink a love potion intended for the king and his young bride, and are instantly possessed by an all-consuming love for each other - a love they are compelled to conceal by a series of subterfuges that culminate in tragedy. Gottfried’s work is acknowledged as the greatest rendering of the legend of doomed lovers, and went on to influence generations of writers and artists and inspire Richard Wagner’s  Tristan and Isolde. This volume also contains the surviving fragments of the Tristan of Thomas, upon which Gottfried’s masterpiece was based.