Pendragon Lands of Tristram.pdf

Lands of Tristram

The Realms of the Dumnonians: Cornwall and Brittany in the Age of

Arthur

Jeff Erwin

“Unfryd wyf yn y fro deg / A Thrystan uthr ar osteg”

“Unamity have I, in the sweet country / with Trystan, terrible in silence”

-Dafydd ap Gwilym

Thanks

to Kat, Mom, Dad (for introducing me to Pendragon), Jeremy,

Michael, Chris, Gen

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Cornwall

Overview of Regions

History

Cultural Details

Lords and Officers

Round Table Knights of Cornwall

Chapter 2 – Gazetteer of Cornwall

The Isles of Scilly

The Channel Isles

Chapter 3 – Brittany

Overview of Regions

History

Cultural Details

Lords and Officers

Round Table Knights of Brittany

Chapter 4 – Gazetteer of Brittany

Chapter 5 – Character Creation

Family History and Timeline

Chapter 6 – Encounters

Strangers, Friends and Foes

Tristram’s Stables, Kennels and Swords

Standard Encounters

Appendices

Travelling the Narrow Sea

Chronology of Sir Tristram

Chronology of Cornwall and Brittany after 531

List of the Rulers of Cornwall and Brittany

Fief data for Cornwall and Brittany

Author’s Notes and Bibliography

Introduction

What is this book?

This work concerns Cornwall, Brittany and source material for the adventures of

Sir Tristram, three core aspects of Arthurian romance for King Arthur Pendragon .

What other books do I need?

The main rules to King Arthur Pendragon are required to use this supplement

fully.

The following other books are useful, in rough order of importance : The Boy King ,

Lordly Domains , Pagan Shore and Savage Mountains . Tales of Magic and Miracles

contains an adventure set in Cornwall.

What is the Tristan Cycle?

The Tristan Cycle was one of two major character driven traditions that

contributed to the final form of the Arthurian legend as found in Malory (the

other was the stories about Lancelot, which were in fact fewer).

Both the Tristan (or, as Malory and the English call him, Tristram) and Lancelot

cycles were first developed by continental authors with various connections to

the Breton traditional lais and Northern French courtly society in the twelfth

century. The Tristan cycle defines the legendary geography and Arthurian

dimensions of Cornwall and Brittany through Tristram’s wanderings.

The earliest known versions of the story of Tristan were written down in the

second half of the twelfth century. The story was only tangentally related to the

Arthurian legends; in some versions Arthur is still alive and in others he seems

to be a figure of the recent past. In either case the story was initially set in the era

called in Pendragon, the Downfall.

The basic story concerns one Tristan, the nephew of King Marc of Cornwall.

Tristan volunteers to face the champion of the Irish, who have been demanding

tribute from the Cornish for many years. This champion, called “Le Morholt,” is

to his surprise, killed by the young hero, but not before wounding Tristan with

his poisoned spear. Tristan’s sword chips as he inflicts the fatal head wound that

fells the Irishman, leaving a sliver of steel in the dead man’s scalp.

Tristan languishes from his wound, and finally it is decided to send him to

Ireland, based on the theory that the makers of the poison must know its

antidote. Tristan, calling himself “Tantris” is succored by the young daughter of

the king of Ireland, named Isolde, and an innocent romance develops between

the two. Isolde is Le Morholt’s neice through her mother. Finally, Isolde’s father,

beset by a marauding dragon, offers his daughter’s hand to its slayer. Tristan,

still incognito, kills the creature, but not before the monster’s evil breath lays him

low. The king’s steward pretends to have killed the beast, a claim which is

ultimately refuted by Tristan, though not before it becomes known that he is the

killer of Le Morholt. Thus Tristan is only permitted to leave Ireland alive, and is

not wed to Isolde.

A while later, Marc, counseled by his barons to take a wife, resolves to marry the

woman whose golden hair is in the beak of a passing bird. Tristan, however is

able to identify the woman, so Marc’s jest becomes his duty—to fetch Isolde to

Cornwall to wed his uncle. Again Tristan is confronted by the king of Ireland.

This time, Tristan defends the king in a trial by combat. Thus he is permitted to

take the king’s daughter to his liege, though Isolde’s father openly prefers the

valiant young man to the middle-aged Marc.

As the two sail back to Cornwall, Tristan and Isolde mistakenly drink a love

philtre meant for the princess’s wedding night, and are overwhelmed by passion.

Their hearts troubled, they recruit Isolde’s handmaiden Brangain, who it is

proposed, will take her mistress’s place in Marc’s bed under cover of darkness,

so as to keep Isolde’s lost virginity a secret.

Isolde and Marc are married in great pomp and ceremony.

Isolde secretly plans to have her servant killed, but changes her mind. She and

Tristan also tryst under the nose of her husband, and are eventually discovered.

After using trickery and legalism to preserve their affair, finally they must flee to

the woods. In due time, Isolde leaves Tristan and goes back to Marc. Tristan,

saddened, goes to Brittany as a knight errant. There he saves the kingdom of

Hoel, and is engaged and wed to his daughter, also known as Isolde. Tristan’s

songs of bittersweet love were mistaken by Hoel’s son Kaherdin as signs of

affection for his sister. However, Tristan does not consummate the wedding.

When Kaherdin is nearly caught by a jealous husband whose wife he had been

lying with, Tristan is badly wounded saving his brother-in-law. He asks that a

message be sent to Isolde of Cornwall. If she will come to see him and heal him,

the ship she comes upon will bear white sails, otherwise, they will be black. In

jealous pique, Isolde of Brittany lies and tells her husband that the sails are black.

Filled with sorrow, Tristan dies. His paramour arrives, and seeing his dead form,

kills herself. The two are buried together, and two vines grow from the grave

and intermingle.

This original tale was subsumed by a longer epic called the “Prose Tristan”

composed between 1325-50. This version (and the interlocking “Post-Vulgate”

which combines the saga with the Vulgate romance) was the basis of the sections

of La Morte Darthur called “Sir Tristram of Lyonesse.” In it, the storyline

diverges after the discovery of the affair. Tristram escapes from Cornwall

without Isolde and goes to Brittany. Instead of dying there, he abandons his wife

and returns to Britain, taking part in adventures and interacting frequently with

Round Table knights. From time to time he uses various pretenses and disguises

to continue his adulterous liaisons with Isolde.

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