Open Access

Volker Mertens

• The bringing together of the two realms, that of Tristan and Isolde and that of Arthur, thus has a mutually corrosive effect. However, in the further course of the action Tristan and Isolde’s love regains some of its absoluteness: for instance Heinrich refrains from taking over the quarrel of lovers from Eilhart. He plays a double game, on the one hand reducing the absoluteness and self-sufficiency of love, on the other hand building it up again and thus preventing the establishment of a firm doctrine in the course of the narrative (…), as neither the Arthurian court nor the love of Tristan and Isolde provides an absolute norm. Heinrich wrote his romance for the Bohemian noble Raimund von Lichtenburg, and the account of the foundation of the Round Table and the self-directed activities of the knights have belonged (…). The initial Arthurian ideal has become a confirmatory ritual for an exclusive body of noblemen – that matches the spirit of the knightly societies.