Jessie Laidlay Weston

“ The bodies are sent to Cornwall, and Mark, learning the truth, has a fair chapel erected and lays them in tombs, one at each side of the building, when a sapling springs from the heart of Tristan, and reaching its boughs across the chapel, makes its way into the grave of Iseult. However often the tree may be cut down it never fails to grow again. ”

“ In the poems, Mark is, as a rule, represented in a favourable light, a gentle, kindly man, deeply attached to both Tristan and Iseult, and only too ready to allow his suspicions to be dispelled by any plausible explanation they may choose to offer. At the same time the fact that the lovers are the helpless victims of the fatal force of a magic spell is insisted upon, in order that their career of falsehood and deception may not deprive them of sympathy. ”

“ The Cornish knights (who in Arthurian romance are always represented as hopeless cowards) , dare not contest his claim but Tristan challenges him to single combat, slays him and frees Cornwall from tribute. Unfortunately he himself has been wounded in the fight, and that by a poisoned weapon; and none but the queen of Ireland, Isôlt, or Iseult, possessed the secret of healing. Tristan causes himself to be placed in a boat with his harp, and committed to the waves, which carry him to the shores of Ireland. ”