SOURCE: Schultz, James A. “Why Does Mark Marry Isolde? And Why Do We Care? An Essay on Narrative Motivation.” Deutsche Vierteljahrs Schrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 61, no. 2 (June 1987): 206-22.

In the following essay, Schultz studies the differing forms of narrative motivation employed by Eilhart and Gottfried in their versions of the Tristan legend.

Although narrative motivation has only recently become a theoretical concern of literary scholars, it has always been a practical concern of storytellers, for anyone who tells a story must give some attention to the causal connections that join the events being recounted. It is not surprising then that storytellers who are inclined to reflect on their own activity will occasionally offer us their thoughts on the subject nor that Gottfried von Straßburg, surely one of the most self-conscious of medieval vernacular writers, should introduce such reflections into his Tristan. These reflections are formulated...