زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی

summary of Book 8 - Sir Tristram

King Mark of Cornwall's sister Elizabeth married King Melodias of Liones (just two of the many kings all over Britain and Europe who ruled under Arthur) but she died in a forest, giving birth to Tristram while searching for her kidnapped husband (later rescued by Merlin).

Surviving his stepmothers's failure to poison him, he grew up into a young man without too much fighting. When he was eighteen years old, he was knighted by King Mark so he could defend his right not to pay truage to King Anguish of Ireland by defeating the Irish champion, Sir Marhaus (Anguish's queen's brother and a Round Table knight) on a small island near Tintagil.

Sir Marhaus eventually died in Ireland, where his sister (the queen) pulled a fragment of Sir Tristram's sword out of his brain, and Tristram followed using the pseudonym Tramtrist, after a wise-woman predicted his lingering wounds could only be healed in the country of his enemy. King Anguish's daughter, La Beale Isoud, healed him, and he met Sir Palomides, a pagan Saracen about to get Christened out of love for her. Their sexual rivalry would last for 4 whole books, especially after Tristram humiliated Palomides at an Irish joust.

But the queen matched the shard from her brother's brain to a nick in Tristram's blade and tried to kill him in the bath, but Sir Hebes stopped her and Tristram returned to the court of King Mark in Cornwall.

There, he, and King Mark, and also the Round Table knight, Sir Boeberis de Ganis, all fell in love with the wife of the earl Sir Segwarides.

Next, Tristram and his friend Gouvernail were sent back to Ireland to fetch La Beale Isoud (and Dame Bragwaine) back to Cornwall to marry King Mark, but on the boat back, Tristram and Isoud accidentally drank a love potion and fell permanently in love, before being captured by Sir Breunor of the Castle Pluere (the weeping castle).

He soon escaped, met Sir Galahad (not Galahad, son of Launcelot, but Galahad, son of Sir Breunor) and delivered Isoud to King Mark, whom she married. Then Sir Palomides rode off with her, Sir Tristram followed, they fought, Isoud stopped it, and Palomides went off to see Arthur.

One day, Tristram's cousin, Sir Andred, tipped off King Mark and he caught Tristram and Isoud chatting and he made a scene, whereupon Tristram humiliated him and went off into the forest to kill several of his uncle's knights. But they made up, and at the next joust, Tristram annoyed Sir Lamorak de Galis to please his uncle.

On his way home Sir Lamorak met a knight carrying a magic horn from Morgan le Fay to King Arthur, which could only be drunk from by a woman who was true to her husband (another of Morgan's plans to cause trouble), so he made the knight take it to King Mark instead, to spite Tristram. Isoud and ninety percent of the ladies at court failed the horn test, but the barons stopped Mark from burning them all.

Sir Andred and twelve knights captured Tristram one midnight whilst sleeping with Isoud, and dragged them both off, but Tristram escaped naked and rescued Isoud too, until he was shot with a poison arrow and Mark retrieved Isoud and locked her up.

Tristram went to Brittany to be healed by the daughter of King Howel - coincidentally called Isoud la Blanche Mains - won his host's war and married his daughter (upsetting the other Isoud and Launcelot when they found out, although Tristram swore the marriage was never consumated).

One day Tristram, Isoud la Blanche Mains, and her brother Sir Kehydius, accidentally sailed to the Isle of Servage off the coast of North Wales (where Sir Lamorak was recovering from a shipwreck) and met Sir Segwarides and his new woman, who had completely forgiven Tristram for destroying his marriage. They all got together at a joust organised by the evil lord of the island, Sir Nabon le Noire, and Tristram slew him and his son and left Segwarides in charge.

Tristram and Isoud la Blanche Mains returned to Britanny and Sir Lamorak returned to Britain, where he saved a damosel from Sir Gawaine, saved then slew Sir Frol, and then fought then made friends with Frol's father, Sir Belliance le Orgulus.