The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
Joseph Bedier wove the scattered medieval fragments of the Tristan legend into a single flowing prose narrative, reviving one of Europe’s oldest and saddest love stories. Tristan, nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, brings the Irish princess Iseult across the sea to be his uncle’s bride. On the voyage the two mistakenly drink a love potion meant for the wedding night, and are bound to each other for life against all loyalty and law. What follows is a chain of secret meetings, exile, and grief that ends only in death. Bedier’s telling, first published in 1900, is spare and lyrical, closer to a chanted legend than a modern novel. This free edition is available as a PDF and EPUB download.
Listen to The Romance of Tristan and Iseult Audiobook Free
Listen to The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bédier free online. The full audiobook (2 hr 40 min, 15 chapters, read by Joy Chan) streams free on this page.
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (1903) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Childhood of Tristan | 14:58 | |
| 2 | The Morholt Out of Ireland | 8:37 | |
| 3 | The Quest of the Lady with the Hair of Gold | 17:33 | |
| 4 | The Philtre | 6:42 | |
| 5 | The Tall Pine-Tree | 13:53 | |
| 6 | The Discovery | 7:53 | |
| 7 | The Chantry Leap | 9:47 | |
| 8 | The Wood of Morois | 11:23 | |
| 9 | Ogrin the Hermit | 7:01 | |
| 10 | The Ford | 10:05 | |
| 11 | The Ordeal by Iron | 9:09 | |
| 12 | The Little Fairy Bell | 4:51 | |
| 13 | Iseult of the White Hands | 10:56 | |
| 14 | The Madness of Tristan | 13:50 | |
| 15 | The Death of Tristan | 13:31 |
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