Joseph Bédier
Finished reading diciembre 2003
This isn't the first edition of the Tristan and Isolde myth I've ever read, though it may have been the second. The first was Thomas Bulfinch's, contained in his Age of Chivalry. Most of the differences I didn't like. I didn't have a problem with the names being different. Iseult instead of Isolde, Gourvenal versus Gorvenal. I suppose Bédier chose the ones he felt he liked the best. I think I prefer the Germanic ones, but that's not too major an issue.
There are other differences, though, for my rating this edition low. It isn't any where near as romantic as the Bulfinch version, and that one's only a few chapters in a huge book; this one's self-contained, so I would expect more of it. There are also several plot points in this that I found redundant or ridiculous.
None of the characters were to my liking. I didn't feel like any of the characters were consistent. This may have been because, in his preface, Bédier explains his sources. He used a great number of different sources, but in the preface, he makes it sound like each chapter is from a different one. His sources include Thomas (an Anglo-Norman poet), Eilhart von Oberg, Gottfried von Strassburg, and especially Béroul, as well as various anonymous poems. Perhaps this piecemeal attitude toward the story is what gives the characters such inconsistency. But I speculate.
I don't mean to say this is a bad book. It goes into much more detail than the Bulfinch version, and is interesting in its own right, besides. I don't think a full comprehension of Tristan and Isolde can be made from either this or the Bulfinch chapters, rather both together is required. But I imagine that there is some where another version, one much better; as I say, I've only read the two. And all my problems with this book may be due to the fact that I read the Bulfinch first, and didn't like there being differences.
Rating: 3/5