| When Trystan, King Mark’s chief warrior and beloved nephew, follows a dream-vision and goes to Ireland to find a bride for his uncle, he does not know what his destiny has in store; and that the awakening of love between himself and the Irish princess, Essylt will lead the pair to the heights and also into the depths of emotional experience as outcasts in the social context of their times.
This classic tale, arguably the first romance in western European literary heritage, is retold here for modern readers, retaining many of the traditional elements from the medieval sources, and earlier poetic material. C. A. Meyer has pieced together the surviving fragments and brought it all to new life with an interpretation that dares to assert that this tale, with its theme of love, belongs in that group of story traditions of a timeless and universal nature.
C.A. MEYER
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