Béroul

1170) and the Norman Béroul (rather later and possibly composite). The legend was reworked in French prose and widely translated (Thomas’s version can be reconstructed from Gottfried von Strassburg’s German rendering and another in Old Norse). Chrétien de Troyes’s treatment, mentioned in his Cligès, has been lost.

1170–90 by the Norman poet Béroul. From this it can be inferred that the archetypal poem told the story of an all-absorbing passion caused by a magic potion, a passion stronger than death yet unable to triumph over the feudal order to which the heroes belong. The story ended with…