SOURCE: Trindade, Ann. “The Enemies of Tristan.” Medium Aevum 63, no. 1 (1974): 6-21.

In the following essay, Trindade discusses the narrative structure of the Tristan legend as it exists in poetic versions by Eilhart and others, placing particular emphasis on the function of antagonists in the story.

The enemies of Tristan are many and varied in what are usually called the ‘primary’ versions of the legend. Their number and degree of individualization varies, and while the principal editions and studies of Tristan texts have included comments on individual variants as they occur, there has been, as far as I am aware, no study devoted entirely to this group of characters alone. I propose to show that there are important advantages to be gained from studying them as a group and in terms of their narrative function.

First, while a number of influential Arthurian scholars have maintained that the study of...