ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a mythic experience that involves two people: no Tristan without Iseult, or Isolde, any more than there is Iseult without Tristan. If they consider the collected body of work relating to Tristan, they find that, from whatever pole it is perceived, the myth of Tristan is first and foremost the myth of a hero. In addition to being a heroic myth and a civilizing myth, the myth of Tristan is also a myth about an artist. In fact what they are given to understand, one of the constants of the myth, is that Tristan and Iseult were exactly made for one another. In a study on the development of the tale of Tristan and Iseult in the theatre Edward Savage demonstrates that the changes made to the myth from the thirteenth century were aimed at Christianizing it. It is not therefore surprising to note that the couple has been integrated into religious iconography.
