ABSTRACT

The role of cultural fantasy in the formation of orthodox Christian identities is a fervid mix of staple ingredients and surprizing twists. By way of exploring that history, this piece examines how medieval accounts of heretical and pagan orgies may be mirrored in literary representations of sex and ritual. The author's principal focus is Broul's version of the Tristan tale, a work that has been explored by a number of scholars as a witness to religious attitudes. Given that the opening of Broul's poem is lost, we have no access to the picture it painted of Tristan's parents and their place in the larger clan group, though, following other versions; he is clearly the son of Mark's sister and Riwalin. On love in the Tristan material see, venerably, Denis de Rougemont, Passion and Society, trans. Montgomery Belgion and more recently Sahar Amer, Re-defining Marriage and Adultery in Broul's Roman de Tristan, Romance Languages Annual.