The Harp in the Legend of Tristan and Isolde
‘Tristan and Isolde’ by Edmund Blair Leighton (1902)
Posted by Dorothy Lander
Legend tells of Isolde who fell in love with Tristan, the nephew of her husband the King of Cornwall. At their deaths the king ordered the lovers be buried far apart but an ivy shoot grew from each grave and eventually entwined in a lovers’ knot to reunite them.
Ivy and other twining vines will feature in upcoming HARP publications: Hmmm: M the Humdinger (an interactive tale of Nature’s Child who hums along with bees and hummingbirds) and The Book of Hands (hands of artists and caregivers created from the botanicals that hold special meaning for them)
What is not so well known about the legend is that Tristan was a musician who played the harp for his beloved Isolde. Mary Ellen Winn writes about the medieval French romance called the Prose Tristan in her 2017 article in the journal Early Music:
https://academic.oup.com/em/article-abstract/45/2/171/4043873
A further search reveals that Isolde also played the harp under Tristan’s tutelage.
https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/tristan.html
The minstrel responded by playing a few strains, which so impressed the queen that she said, “I will cure you if you will become my daughter’s tutor.”
Tristan promised to do so. The queen began her cure forthwith, and the minstrel was soon able to begin tutoring the princess, whose name was also Isolde, and whose beauty knew no equal. Isolde the Fair proved to be an eager and gifted pupil, playing the harp exquisitely under Tristan’s tutelage and singing most beautifully with his accompaniment. Indeed, her singing was so magical that it could well be compared to that of the sirens.