Bédier and Belloc’s Great Epic

The style of this epic story is a crossing of the dragons and chivalry of King Arthur with the romance and tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. But The Romance of Tristan & Iseult predates them both. Many versions of the story exist; the origins are in 12th century Norman writings. French scholar Joseph Bédier published his reconstruction of the original story in 1900. Hilaire Belloc, the French-born English writer, provided us with this definitive English translation of Bédier's work.

I came to find this book through my interest in the writer Hilaire Belloc, and I met him through his friend G.K. Chesterton. Belloc's work was typically Christian apologetics, political, history, mystery, poetry, essay, or farrago. This was a wide range of writing, and Tristan & Iseult stretched it further. His early biographer Robert Speaight told us that Belloc had a special love for his translation of Tristan & Iseult. Continuous words came from Belloc in order to keep food on the table; much of it was tremendously good and some of it was tiresome, but this story was one that he wanted preserved if ever a "Collected Works of Hilaire Belloc" were gathered. An epic story suited his temperament and his life story.

Belloc's text makes use of some archaic grammar and paragraph structure, which help the mood of this kind of story; but sentences are short and simple, and so easy to read. The terseness of the text reminds me of Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. And like the hero Beowulf, Tristan is a warrior who cannot be conquered.

The Romance of Tristan & Iseult is a story with knights and ladies, dragons and magic, lepers and hermits, castles, forests, and sea. There is no perfect role-model in a story like this. Most every character is presented as good and evil; but one can recognize what is right and what is wrong, even as one makes excuses for the wrongs.

[originally posted at veni.sanctespirit.us on Feb 7, 2008]