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Tristan and the Round Table: A Translation of La Tavola Ritonda
English, Italian (translation)
- GenresArthurian
368 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1446
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 18, 2025
My favorite of the Tristan/Isolde texts!
It opens with the battles fought by Tristan’s father and carries on through to the fall of Camelot. I really like that Percival gets to hunt the Questing Beast and that Palomides is a beloved member of the group. Dinadan and Lamorak both get a bunch of unique interactions with Tristan they don’t have anywhere else.
Isolde is so fun here. She has a wonderful friendship with Guinevere. One of my favorite things in the whole text is a joust put on for the two of them with all knights divided into teams, so on Guinevere’s side is Lancelot and kinsmen plus Gawain and kinsmen, and on Isolde’s side, Tristan, Dinadan, Palomides, and other characters they picked up along the way. There was a really crazy part where Lancelot’s mother, the Lady of the Lake, kidnapped Guinevere/Lancelot and Isolde/Tristan so they could have a special lovers getaway vacation for a couple weeks. Insane story.
The biggest downside to this text is that for whatever reason, Anne Shaver chose not to translate any of the names from their Italian spellings, yet she did translate titles. So while “Brunoro of the Ill-Fitting Coat” is easier to identify with Brunor La Cote Male Taile, “Amorotto” is not so easily identified with Lamorak, or “Calvano” with Gawain, or “Cheso” with Kay. It’s absolutely been a deterrent for modern readers as it can be very difficult to tell who is who. There is no key to help readers figure it out (such as was done with Byelorussian Tristan, which kept the Russian spellings, but indicated the character’s English name in brackets).
Overall I highly recommend this text! It’s unhinged as all Tristan/Isolde stories should be and a lot of fun.
It opens with the battles fought by Tristan’s father and carries on through to the fall of Camelot. I really like that Percival gets to hunt the Questing Beast and that Palomides is a beloved member of the group. Dinadan and Lamorak both get a bunch of unique interactions with Tristan they don’t have anywhere else.
Isolde is so fun here. She has a wonderful friendship with Guinevere. One of my favorite things in the whole text is a joust put on for the two of them with all knights divided into teams, so on Guinevere’s side is Lancelot and kinsmen plus Gawain and kinsmen, and on Isolde’s side, Tristan, Dinadan, Palomides, and other characters they picked up along the way. There was a really crazy part where Lancelot’s mother, the Lady of the Lake, kidnapped Guinevere/Lancelot and Isolde/Tristan so they could have a special lovers getaway vacation for a couple weeks. Insane story.
The biggest downside to this text is that for whatever reason, Anne Shaver chose not to translate any of the names from their Italian spellings, yet she did translate titles. So while “Brunoro of the Ill-Fitting Coat” is easier to identify with Brunor La Cote Male Taile, “Amorotto” is not so easily identified with Lamorak, or “Calvano” with Gawain, or “Cheso” with Kay. It’s absolutely been a deterrent for modern readers as it can be very difficult to tell who is who. There is no key to help readers figure it out (such as was done with Byelorussian Tristan, which kept the Russian spellings, but indicated the character’s English name in brackets).
Overall I highly recommend this text! It’s unhinged as all Tristan/Isolde stories should be and a lot of fun.
Displaying 1 of 1 review