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The Enchanted Cup
The most splendid love story of the Western World recreated for the first time in a great novel....
This is the story of a love larger than all time and all places. For almost a thousand years it has been cherished and told down the ages. Now for the first time, the story of Tristan and Isolde has been recreated in novel form for the modern reader. The Enchanted Cup is a significant literary achievement, a novel of dramatic power and exalted beauty.
When Tristan sailed into Ireland, he was near death from the wound which had won him knighthood. His sword, too, bore a wound, for a piece of it still remained in the head of a great champion who lay dead at Tristan's hands. He was saddened at the memory of his father, the King of Lyonesse, who had never welcomed him, and at the thought of his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, for whose sake he had done battle. Most of all Tristan was troubled at the memory of the noble warrior he had slain. But in Ireland his destiny awaited him. There he first saw Isolde the Fair, who would be queen of queens to him. For her he would challenge the fierce Saracen knight, for her no risk would ever prove too great.
Even Tristan's treacherous cousin Andret did not know what forces were unleashed when he compelled Tristan to deliver Isolde to Mark as the king's bride. On the immortal sea voyage Tristan and Isolde drank, unknowing, of the love potion. And nothing they had sworn was as powerful as the wine they drank. They loved from the first as if it were the last night of this world. Their passion was to rouse kingdoms against them and to break the heart of a gentle French princess. But nothing could sever the bond between them.
Here is the clash of medieval tournaments, the thunder of the charge, the rich splendor of King Arthur's court at Camelot, and the bravery of the Hundred and Forty who ringed the Round Table. Here is the sage squire Gouvernail, and the loyal Dinadan of wry wit and stout heart. Here, too, is the grey knight Launcelot who sorrowed for Guenivere and once gave the lovers haven. Here above all is the most famous and splendid love story of the Western World, told as only a gifted novelist could tell it. The Enchanted Cup is a novel in the grand tradition which does honor to the legend it refreshes.
(Description from the 1953 edition)
This is the story of a love larger than all time and all places. For almost a thousand years it has been cherished and told down the ages. Now for the first time, the story of Tristan and Isolde has been recreated in novel form for the modern reader. The Enchanted Cup is a significant literary achievement, a novel of dramatic power and exalted beauty.
When Tristan sailed into Ireland, he was near death from the wound which had won him knighthood. His sword, too, bore a wound, for a piece of it still remained in the head of a great champion who lay dead at Tristan's hands. He was saddened at the memory of his father, the King of Lyonesse, who had never welcomed him, and at the thought of his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, for whose sake he had done battle. Most of all Tristan was troubled at the memory of the noble warrior he had slain. But in Ireland his destiny awaited him. There he first saw Isolde the Fair, who would be queen of queens to him. For her he would challenge the fierce Saracen knight, for her no risk would ever prove too great.
Even Tristan's treacherous cousin Andret did not know what forces were unleashed when he compelled Tristan to deliver Isolde to Mark as the king's bride. On the immortal sea voyage Tristan and Isolde drank, unknowing, of the love potion. And nothing they had sworn was as powerful as the wine they drank. They loved from the first as if it were the last night of this world. Their passion was to rouse kingdoms against them and to break the heart of a gentle French princess. But nothing could sever the bond between them.
Here is the clash of medieval tournaments, the thunder of the charge, the rich splendor of King Arthur's court at Camelot, and the bravery of the Hundred and Forty who ringed the Round Table. Here is the sage squire Gouvernail, and the loyal Dinadan of wry wit and stout heart. Here, too, is the grey knight Launcelot who sorrowed for Guenivere and once gave the lovers haven. Here above all is the most famous and splendid love story of the Western World, told as only a gifted novelist could tell it. The Enchanted Cup is a novel in the grand tradition which does honor to the legend it refreshes.
(Description from the 1953 edition)
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 1, 2012
Classic tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde, well written in general but the ending was horrible. I say this not because I thought it was going to end all rainbows and butterflies...I already knew the story. Roberts manages to tell the story over the course of 350 + pages but then squeezes the ending into a paragraph. Still giving it 3 stars because it is full of lots of great description.
March 5, 2018
This book has sat on our bookshelves for decades, along with The Silver Chalice. They were written within a year of each other, though The Silver Chalice became a movie. This story is that of Tristan and Isolde. It is not a modern novel, but taking the journey a little slower and less frank has some advantages. The 1953 write-up of the book is worth the read, though:
The most splendid love story of the Western World recreated for the first time in a great novel....
This is the story of a love larger than all time and all places. For almost a thousand years it has been cherished and told down the ages. Now for the first time, the story of Tristan and Isolde has been recreated in novel form for the modern reader. The Enchanted Cup is a significant literary achievement, a novel of dramatic power and exalted beauty.
When Tristan sailed into Ireland, he was near death from the wound which had won him knighthood. His sword, too, bore a wound, for a piece of it still remained in the head of a great champion who lay dead at Tristan's hands. He was saddened at the memory of his father, the King of Lyonesse, who had never welcomed him, and at the thought of his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, for whose sake he had done battle. Most of all Tristan was troubled at the memory of the noble warrior he had slain. But in Ireland his destiny awaited him. There he first saw Isolde the Fair, who would be queen of queens to him. For her he would challenge the fierce Saracen knight, for her no risk would ever prove too great.
Even Tristan's treacherous cousin Andret did not know what forces were unleashed when he compelled Tristan to deliver Isolde to Mark as the king's bride. On the immortal sea voyage Tristan and Isolde drank, unknowing, of the love potion. And nothing they had sworn was as powerful as the wine they drank. They loved from the first as if it were the last night of this world. Their passion was to rouse kingdoms against them and to break the heart of a gentle French princess. But nothing could sever the bond between them.
Here is the clash of medieval tournaments, the thunder of the charge, the rich splendor of King Arthur's court at Camelot, and the bravery of the Hundred and Forty who ringed the Round Table. Here is the sage squire Gouvernail, and the loyal Dinadan of wry wit and stout heart. Here, too, is the grey knight Launcelot who sorrowed for Guenivere and once gave the lovers haven. Here above all is the most famous and splendid love story of the Western World, told as only a gifted novelist could tell it. The Enchanted Cup is a novel in the grand tradition which does honor to the legend it refreshes.
(Description from the 1953 edition)
The most splendid love story of the Western World recreated for the first time in a great novel....
This is the story of a love larger than all time and all places. For almost a thousand years it has been cherished and told down the ages. Now for the first time, the story of Tristan and Isolde has been recreated in novel form for the modern reader. The Enchanted Cup is a significant literary achievement, a novel of dramatic power and exalted beauty.
When Tristan sailed into Ireland, he was near death from the wound which had won him knighthood. His sword, too, bore a wound, for a piece of it still remained in the head of a great champion who lay dead at Tristan's hands. He was saddened at the memory of his father, the King of Lyonesse, who had never welcomed him, and at the thought of his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, for whose sake he had done battle. Most of all Tristan was troubled at the memory of the noble warrior he had slain. But in Ireland his destiny awaited him. There he first saw Isolde the Fair, who would be queen of queens to him. For her he would challenge the fierce Saracen knight, for her no risk would ever prove too great.
Even Tristan's treacherous cousin Andret did not know what forces were unleashed when he compelled Tristan to deliver Isolde to Mark as the king's bride. On the immortal sea voyage Tristan and Isolde drank, unknowing, of the love potion. And nothing they had sworn was as powerful as the wine they drank. They loved from the first as if it were the last night of this world. Their passion was to rouse kingdoms against them and to break the heart of a gentle French princess. But nothing could sever the bond between them.
Here is the clash of medieval tournaments, the thunder of the charge, the rich splendor of King Arthur's court at Camelot, and the bravery of the Hundred and Forty who ringed the Round Table. Here is the sage squire Gouvernail, and the loyal Dinadan of wry wit and stout heart. Here, too, is the grey knight Launcelot who sorrowed for Guenivere and once gave the lovers haven. Here above all is the most famous and splendid love story of the Western World, told as only a gifted novelist could tell it. The Enchanted Cup is a novel in the grand tradition which does honor to the legend it refreshes.
(Description from the 1953 edition)
April 2, 2013
The story of Tristan and Isolde as told by D. J. Roberts. This is an interesting book though not necessarily a great book. The author knows her history well but the story tends to bog down a little. I think it was an interesting version mostly from Tristan`s point of view. Her description of things of that time period were done well.
September 8, 2026
Whenever I go to a library book sale, I allow myself to pick a book that I’ve never heard of, but looks promising. This is how I live dangerously.
The Enchanted Cup by Dorothy James Roberts, was one such book. In a bid to make room on my bookshelves, I recently sampled this book and decided to keep it. I’m glad I did.
Published in 1953, this revitalizes the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde, or Tristram and Isoud, as spelled herein. Its backbone is that of the love story, but it deals with brotherhood, knightly derring-do, loyalty, treachery, and honor.
The story starts with Tristram’s birth—I had flashbacks to reading Tristram Shandy—and progresses to his time in Britany, Ireland and back to England. He becomes a knight and has several bouts of single combat. There isn’t a very strong, defined plot really. It’s closer to “a day in the life of a knight.” Like the cozy British stories of the early 1900’s, things happen, but in such a way that it’s hard to say what happened. The romance kinda binds it all together, but even then I wouldn’t categorize this strictly as a romance. Setting aside my inability to describe a cohesive plot, I’ve read a few other books set in the Arthurian time, and seen a handful of movies/shows, but this book is maybe one of my favorite forays into that legendary setting.
The ending is truncated and could’ve easily been one or two chapters longer. The story is wrapped up, but, you know, endings are important and this is the one big mark against it.
So do I believe the romance? There’s another girl in this story who loves Tristram, and watching her try to win him over was more impactful to me than the official romance. Tristram likes this other girl just fine and they get along, but while she tries to show interest in things she normally avoids and attempts to change herself to better entice Tristram, it doesn’t work, and that is the real heartbreak of the story, not Tristram and Isoud being separated. The real story doesn’t lie with those lovers, it’s in how their actions alter and sometimes destroy other people’s lives. So do I believe these two together? Not nearly to the degree that I would want to, but it doesn’t bother me how it normally would because the wreckage is more interesting than the ship itself. And their love is more symbolic of the great loves in literature, so I don’t think it has to be as deep or complete as other love stories should be.
I do like Tristram. He’s obviously a romantic, and the young buck who wants to do chivalrous things and trust that others will uphold the honor code as well. That expectation is ultimately his undoing, something I suspected was coming but couldn’t help wishing wouldn’t unfold.
In [Tristram] was no cruelty to be feared, nothing mean or cowardly.
The standout characters are Gouvernail and Dinadan, Tristram’s squire and knight friend, respectively. They are the long-suffering, but loyal and brotherly companions to Tristram’s adventures, both the romantic and daring kind. They’re also hilarious: the dry humor, commiserating looks, and thoughts that can best be summed up as “Tristram’s being a lovesick fool again, isn’t he?” They’re great bros to have and everything became better when they’re around.
…they were men who dared no longer torment themselves with the griefs of the past, because their present was danger, and danger was the profession they were bred to.
I do like the two kings Tristram becomes close with; they’re both good men who haven’t fallen to the temptations of being in power.
I was genuinely taken aback at how good the prose is. I shouldn’t be really surprised since I think older books are more likely to have stronger prose, but I was excited to have the opportunity to underline several passages of description (and dialogue) that stood out to me as being above average in vividness and uniqueness.
Justice could not be weighed in this dispute or that like so many ounces of salt. All the same, it moved inside a man, and knew whether it had been served or denied.
The spring did not return with great masses of flowers, with warm scents drifting on the air, with heavy sun and white moonlight. It came in small single blossoms pushing through dead leaves, in a slow green spreading from lawn to lawn, in high clouds floating seaward and melting into purple mist. They numbered its quiet signs, marvelling how it increased a little and a little until, one sudden morning, it set the fruit trees with blossoms, and roused the bees, and filled the woods with bird song.
…it was all the same to them whether their freight was dead things or whether it lived and suffered confusion enough to founder the boat, if human feelings could be assessed, like grain or earthenware, on balance and scale.
His mind swung like an unlatched door, crowds of memories milling through it, unchosen…
It began to wear the color of treachery.
There isn’t a crazy vocabulary or complex sentence structure; she’s just using simple language to a fuller capacity than most writers would or could. Something that intrigued me is that most of the dialogue tags are “said,” with not many accompanying adverbs. I would’ve thought that chiefly using that word would bother me because it’s pretty boring and doesn’t say anything more. But I will amend that idea to: it only bothers me when the dialogue itself isn’t giving any emotions. During this entire book, I don’t remember thinking that I wished these people could be more emotional because I don’t know how they’re acting. It’s plenty emotional and telling, without swinging into the Russian literature vein where emotions are worn on the sleeve and shouted from the rooftops. With so few adverbs to guide you, it’s up to the dialogue to speak its emotions and I think it does a good job.
I appreciate that faith is important and a daily part of these character’s lives, but it’s not preachy nor is it degraded. They often say something like, “God keep you” as part of a goodbye and it’s so natural and nice to see.
I know this type of story isn’t for everyone, but if you like Arthurian legends, I’d recommend you give this book a try. Let’s make it more well known.
“Part of having a great destiny, my son, is having great troubles.”
For more reviews, visit: https://damselinthelibrary.substack.com/
The Enchanted Cup by Dorothy James Roberts, was one such book. In a bid to make room on my bookshelves, I recently sampled this book and decided to keep it. I’m glad I did.
Published in 1953, this revitalizes the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde, or Tristram and Isoud, as spelled herein. Its backbone is that of the love story, but it deals with brotherhood, knightly derring-do, loyalty, treachery, and honor.
The story starts with Tristram’s birth—I had flashbacks to reading Tristram Shandy—and progresses to his time in Britany, Ireland and back to England. He becomes a knight and has several bouts of single combat. There isn’t a very strong, defined plot really. It’s closer to “a day in the life of a knight.” Like the cozy British stories of the early 1900’s, things happen, but in such a way that it’s hard to say what happened. The romance kinda binds it all together, but even then I wouldn’t categorize this strictly as a romance. Setting aside my inability to describe a cohesive plot, I’ve read a few other books set in the Arthurian time, and seen a handful of movies/shows, but this book is maybe one of my favorite forays into that legendary setting.
The ending is truncated and could’ve easily been one or two chapters longer. The story is wrapped up, but, you know, endings are important and this is the one big mark against it.
So do I believe the romance? There’s another girl in this story who loves Tristram, and watching her try to win him over was more impactful to me than the official romance. Tristram likes this other girl just fine and they get along, but while she tries to show interest in things she normally avoids and attempts to change herself to better entice Tristram, it doesn’t work, and that is the real heartbreak of the story, not Tristram and Isoud being separated. The real story doesn’t lie with those lovers, it’s in how their actions alter and sometimes destroy other people’s lives. So do I believe these two together? Not nearly to the degree that I would want to, but it doesn’t bother me how it normally would because the wreckage is more interesting than the ship itself. And their love is more symbolic of the great loves in literature, so I don’t think it has to be as deep or complete as other love stories should be.
I do like Tristram. He’s obviously a romantic, and the young buck who wants to do chivalrous things and trust that others will uphold the honor code as well. That expectation is ultimately his undoing, something I suspected was coming but couldn’t help wishing wouldn’t unfold.
In [Tristram] was no cruelty to be feared, nothing mean or cowardly.
The standout characters are Gouvernail and Dinadan, Tristram’s squire and knight friend, respectively. They are the long-suffering, but loyal and brotherly companions to Tristram’s adventures, both the romantic and daring kind. They’re also hilarious: the dry humor, commiserating looks, and thoughts that can best be summed up as “Tristram’s being a lovesick fool again, isn’t he?” They’re great bros to have and everything became better when they’re around.
…they were men who dared no longer torment themselves with the griefs of the past, because their present was danger, and danger was the profession they were bred to.
I do like the two kings Tristram becomes close with; they’re both good men who haven’t fallen to the temptations of being in power.
I was genuinely taken aback at how good the prose is. I shouldn’t be really surprised since I think older books are more likely to have stronger prose, but I was excited to have the opportunity to underline several passages of description (and dialogue) that stood out to me as being above average in vividness and uniqueness.
Justice could not be weighed in this dispute or that like so many ounces of salt. All the same, it moved inside a man, and knew whether it had been served or denied.
The spring did not return with great masses of flowers, with warm scents drifting on the air, with heavy sun and white moonlight. It came in small single blossoms pushing through dead leaves, in a slow green spreading from lawn to lawn, in high clouds floating seaward and melting into purple mist. They numbered its quiet signs, marvelling how it increased a little and a little until, one sudden morning, it set the fruit trees with blossoms, and roused the bees, and filled the woods with bird song.
…it was all the same to them whether their freight was dead things or whether it lived and suffered confusion enough to founder the boat, if human feelings could be assessed, like grain or earthenware, on balance and scale.
His mind swung like an unlatched door, crowds of memories milling through it, unchosen…
It began to wear the color of treachery.
There isn’t a crazy vocabulary or complex sentence structure; she’s just using simple language to a fuller capacity than most writers would or could. Something that intrigued me is that most of the dialogue tags are “said,” with not many accompanying adverbs. I would’ve thought that chiefly using that word would bother me because it’s pretty boring and doesn’t say anything more. But I will amend that idea to: it only bothers me when the dialogue itself isn’t giving any emotions. During this entire book, I don’t remember thinking that I wished these people could be more emotional because I don’t know how they’re acting. It’s plenty emotional and telling, without swinging into the Russian literature vein where emotions are worn on the sleeve and shouted from the rooftops. With so few adverbs to guide you, it’s up to the dialogue to speak its emotions and I think it does a good job.
I appreciate that faith is important and a daily part of these character’s lives, but it’s not preachy nor is it degraded. They often say something like, “God keep you” as part of a goodbye and it’s so natural and nice to see.
I know this type of story isn’t for everyone, but if you like Arthurian legends, I’d recommend you give this book a try. Let’s make it more well known.
“Part of having a great destiny, my son, is having great troubles.”
For more reviews, visit: https://damselinthelibrary.substack.com/
November 2, 2022
As fairytales go, this was a decent rendition of the old Tristram story. I felt the ending of this novel was a bit anti-climactic, but overall a decent, otherworldly type experience. I now want to read the original to see how different the two tales are.
November 8, 2020
Wasn't too bad of a story, but the ending was so quick and unsatisfying.
September 10, 2010
This is one of my new favorites. I found it on the shelf at DI and put it in the cart. I shorted it a star because I am a little disappointed in the main character's lack of morals when it came right down to it. So,really, I am just taking it out on him. It was a delightful read!
July 24, 2011
The Enchanted Cup
Roberts, Dorothy James
a Arthurian story in a simplistic form
Roberts, Dorothy James
a Arthurian story in a simplistic form
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews