SOURCE: “The Matter of Britain,” in English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer, Macmillan, 1921 pp. 201-14.

In the following excerpt, Schofield compares the versions of the Tristan legend written by the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas and the Norman Béroul and offers a discussion of Thomas's version, including commentary on the poet's form and style.

… It is appropriate that our study of the Tristram stories should follow directly that of the Breton lays, for in no legendary cycle is the influence of this form of Celtic material more manifest. Several of the most charming episodes in which the famous lovers appear are easily detachable from their surroundings and reveal a previous existence in the form of isolated lays. And, indeed, Marie de France records an incident in Tristram's life based on an earlier lay, the composition of which is ascribed to the hero himself. The good knight, after...