date_of_birth eilhart von oberge
Tristan and Iseult is a tale made popular during the 12th century through Anglo - Norman literature , inspired by Celtic legend , particularly the stories of Deirdre and Naoise and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne and Gráinne . It has become an influential romance and tragedy , retold in numerous sources with many variations . The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan ( Tristram ) and the Irish princess Iseult ( Isolde , Yseult , etc .). The narrative predates and most likely influenced the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere in the Matter of Britain and has had a substantial impact on Western art , the idea of romantic love , and Western literature since it first appeared in the 12th century . While the details of the story differ from one author to another , the overall plot structure remains much the same . Eilhart von Oberge was a German poet of the late 12th century . He is known exclusively through his Middle High German romance Tristrant , the oldest surviving complete version of the Tristan and Iseult story in any language . Tristrant is part of the `` common '' or `` primitive '' branch of the legend , best known through Béroul ' s fragmentary Norman language Tristan . It is German literature ' s first rendition of the story , though Gottfried von Strassburg ' s Tristan , part of the `` courtly '' branch , is more famous and respected . It is usually considered that Eilhart adapted his work from French source , likely the same one used by Béroul , but the differences between Tristrant and Béroul ' s work suggest that Eilhart was not particularly faithful to the original . Some episodes and details appearing in surviving fragments of Béroul are altered or omitted entirely , for instance Iseult ' s equivocal oath of fidelity to her husband Mark ( in Béroul she swears she has had no man `` between her legs '' besides Mark and a beggar who carries her over a stream on his back ; the beggar is really her lover Tristan in disguise . ) Tristrant also preserves scenes that do not survive in the known French fragments , most notably the conclusion ; it contains the earliest known telling of Tristan ' s banishment and marriage to the second Iseult ( the daughter of Hoel of Brittany ) , and of the lovers ' deaths in a tragic turn of events . Because of its relatively early date of composition , its relationship to Béroul ' s common branch , and its relatively intact state , Eilhart ' s Tristrant is of interest to scholars documenting the development of the Tristan and Iseult legend . French academic Joseph Bédier used it as the template for his Romance of Tristan and Iseult , his attempt to reconstruct what the story may have been like in its earliest state ( the so - called `` Ur - Tristan . `` ) Its esteem as a work of literature , however , often suffers in comparison to the other major versions . For example , Lacy , Ashe and Mancroff ' s The Arthurian Handbook says the poem is '' overshadowed `` by Gottfried ' s masterful version and provides its characters with weak psychological motivations , though it is still '' worthy of admiration . `` Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ___MASK55___ May 181313 February 1883 ) was a German composer , theatre director , polemicist , and conductor who is primarily known for his operas ( or , as some of his later works were later known , " music dramas "). Unlike most opera composers , Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works . Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer , Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the " Gesamtkunstwerk " (" total work of art "), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic , visual , musical and dramatic arts , with music subsidiary to drama . He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and ___MASK97___ . Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four - opera cycle " Der Ring des Nibelungen " (" The Ring of the Nibelung "). Anglo - Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo - Norman language developed during the period ___MASK37___  1204 when the Duchy of Normandy and England were united in the Anglo - Norman realm . Guinevere , often written as Guenevere or Gwenevere , was the wife of King Arthur of legend . She first appears as " Guanhumara " ( with many spelling variants in the manuscript tradition ) in Geoffrey of Monmouth ' s pseudo - historical chronicle of British history , the " Historia Regum Britanniae " ( written circa ___MASK70___ AD ) and is first found in medieval Welsh prose in the mid - late 12th century tale " Culhwch and Olwen " as Arthur ' s wife " Gwenhwyfar ". In medieval romances , one of the most prominent story arcs is Queen Guinevere ' s love affair with her husband ' s chief knight , Lancelot . This story first appeared in Chrétien de Troyes ' s " Lancelot , the Knight of the Cart " and became a motif in Arthurian literature , starting with the Lancelot - Grail of the early 13th century and carrying through the Post - Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory ' s " Le Morte d ' Arthur ". Guinevere and Lancelot ' s betrayal of Arthur preceded his eventual defeat at the Battle of Camlann by Mordred . Thomas of Britain was a poet of the 12th century . He is known for his Old French poem " Tristan ", a version of the Tristan and Iseult legend that exists only in eight fragments , amounting to around ___MASK19___ , 300 lines of verse , mostly from the latter part of the story . It is calculated that this represents about one sixth of the original . As a means of recording the passage of time , the 12th century is the period from ___MASK41___ to ___MASK6___ in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Common Era . In the history of European culture , this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and is sometimes called the Age of the Cistercians . In Song dynasty China an invasion by Jurchens caused a political schism of north and south . The Khmer Empire of Cambodia flourished during this century , while the Fatimids of Egypt were overtaken by the Ayyubid dynasty . Gottfried von Strassburg ( died c . ___MASK8___ ) is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance " Tristan ", an adaptation of the 12th - century " Tristan and Iseult " legend . Gottfried ' s work is regarded , alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach ' s " Parzival " and the " Nibelungenlied ", as one of the great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages . He is probably also the composer of a small number of surviving lyrics . His work became a source of inspiration for Richard Wagner ' s opera " Tristan und Isolde ". Early New High German ( ENHG ) is a term for the period in the history of the German language , generally defined , following Wilhelm Scherer , as the period ___MASK22___ to 1650 . Norman (', , Guernésiais : " Normand ", Jèrriais : " Nouormand ") is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon . The name Norman - French "' is sometimes used to describe not only the Norman language , but also the administrative languages of " Anglo - Norman " and " Law French " used in England . For the most part , the written forms of Norman and modern French are intercomprehensible . Tristan und Isolde (" Tristan and Isolde ", or " Tristan and Isolda ", or " Tristran and Ysolt ") is an opera , or music drama , in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer , based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg . It was composed between ___MASK40___ and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hof - und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June ___MASK43___ with Hans von Bülow conducting . Wagner referred to the work not as an opera , but called it " eine Handlung " ( literally " a drama ", " a plot " or " an action "), which was the equivalent of the term used by the Spanish playwright Calderón for his dramas . England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom . It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west . The Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest . England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south . The country covers five - eighths of the island of Great Britain ( which lies in the North Atlantic ) in its centre and south ; and includes over ___MASK7___ smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly , and the Isle of Wight . Middle High German is the German language between ___MASK80___ and ___MASK22___ . It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German . In some uses , the term covers a longer period , going up to 1500 . Old High German ( OHG , , German abbr . "") is the earliest stage of the German language , conventionally covering the period from around ___MASK30___ to 1050 AD . Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century , and some treat the period before ___MASK86___ as " prehistoric " and date the start of Old High German proper to ___MASK86___ for this reason . There are , however , a number of Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the 6th century ( notably the Pforzen buckle ), as well as single words and many names found in Latin texts predating the 8th century . Iseult ( or ), alternatively Isolde ( or ), Iseo , Yseult , Isode , Isoude , Izolda , Esyllt , Isotta , is the name of several characters in the Arthurian story of Tristan and Iseult . The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland , wife of Mark of Cornwall and adulterous lover of Sir Tristan . Her mother , the Queen of Ireland , is also named Iseult . The third is Iseult of the White Hands , the daughter of Hoel of Brittany , sister of Sir Kahedin , and eventual wife of Tristan . Tristan legend cycle . Tristan made his first appearance in the twelfth century in Celtic mythology circulating in the north of France and the Kingdom of Brittany , which had close ancestral and cultural links with Cornwall by way of the ancient British kingdom of Dumnonia , as made clear in the story itself , and the closely related Cornish and Breton languages . Although the oldest stories concerning Tristan are lost , some of the derivatives still exist . Most early versions fall into one of two branches , the " courtly " branch represented in the retellings of the Anglo - Norman poet Thomas of Britain and his German successor Gottfried von Strassburg , and in the " Folie Tristan d ' Oxford "; and the " common " branch , including the works of the French . The name Tristan is also known as " Trischin " in the Maltese culture . Brittany ( pronounced or ; Gallo : " Bertaèyn ", pronounced ) is a cultural region in the north - west of France . Covering the western part of Armorica , as it was known during the period of Roman occupation , Brittany subsequently became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in ___MASK57___ as a province governed as if it were a separate nation under the crown . Brittany has also been referred to as " Less ", " Lesser " or " Little " Britain ( as opposed to " Great Britain "). It is bordered by the English Channel to the north , the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west , and the Bay of Biscay to the south . Its land area is ___MASK87___ , 023 km² .