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Updated: May 21, 2025
So Tristan went ashore and sat upon the beach, and a man told him that Mark was there and had just held his court. But where, said he, is Iseult, the Queen, and her fair maid, Brangien? In Tintagel too, said the other, and I saw them lately; the Queen sad, as she always is.
And Brangien seemed in the Queens mind like a witness spying; for Brangien alone knew what manner of life she led, and held her at mercy so. And the Queen thought Ah, if some day she should weary of serving as a slave the bed where once she passed for Queen If Tristan should die from her betrayal!
For this is its power: they who drink of it together love each other with their every single sense and with their every thought, forever, in life and in death. And Brangien promised the Queen that she would do her bidding.
Love pressed them hard, as thirst presses the dying stag to the stream; love dropped upon them from high heaven, as a hawk slipped after long hunger falls right upon the bird. And love will not be hidden. Brangien indeed by her prudence saved them well, nor ever were the Queen and her lover unguarded.
When the day of Iseults livery to the Lords of Cornwall drew near, her mother gathered herbs and flowers and roots and steeped them in wine, and brewed a potion of might, and having done so, said apart to Brangien: Child, it is yours to go with Iseult to King Marks country, for you love her with a faithful love. Take then this pitcher and remember well my words.
But on the morrow, doubting some trick, she took with her Perinis her squire and Brangien her maid, and all three rode unbeknownst towards the dragons lair: and Iseult saw such a trail on the road as made her wonder for the hoofs that made it had never been shod in her land. Then she came on the dragon, headless, and a dead horse beside him: nor was the horse harnessed in the fashion of Ireland.
And as the King had his fill of the fool he called for his falcons and went to hunt; and Iseult said to him: Sire, I am weak and sad; let me be go rest in my room; I am tired of these follies. And she went to her room in thought and sat upon her bed and mourned, calling herself a slave and saying: Why was I born? Brangien, dear sister, life is so hard to me that death were better!
Now these lovers would have died, but Brangien succoured them. At peril of her life she found the house where Tristan lay. There Gorvenal opened to her very gladly, knowing what salvation she could bring. So she found Tristan, and to save the lovers she taught him a device, nor was ever known a more subtle ruse of love.
Some foreign man had slain the beast, but they knew not whether he still lived or no. They sought him long, Iseult and Perinis and Brangien together, till at last Brangien saw the helm glittering in the marshy grass: and Tristan still breathed. Perinis put him on his horse and bore him secretly to the womens rooms.
So she went back to the womens rooms and told it to Brangien, who cried: Iseult, God has worked a miracle for you, for He is compassionate and will not hurt the innocent in heart. And when he had left the orchard, the King said smiling: Fair nephew, that ride you planned is over now.
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