Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle (48 page)

Roselind Miles, Ph.D., is a well-known and critically acclaimed English novelist, essayist, lecturer, and BBC broadcaster. Educated at Oxford and the universities of Leicester and Birmingham, she is the founder of the Center for Women's Studies at Coventry Polytechnic in England. Her novels, including I,
Elizabeth
and the
Guenevere
trilogy, have been international bestsellers. She divides her time between homes in England and California. For more information, visit the author's website at www.Rosalind.net

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Isolde's story seems to intersect frequently with the famous tales of King Arthur, but she is less well-known than her Arthurian sisters Guenevere and Morgan le Fay. Why is that?

Isolde's story is as important as those of Guenevere and Morgan le Fay in Arthurian sources like Sir Thomas Malory's
Morte D'Arthur
, and there are more historical sites associated with Isolde's name in both Ireland and Cornwall. But she has suffered from centuries of English enmity toward all things Irish, and stories of Irish heroism in particular. Later on, in modern times, Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" gave rise to the totally false impression that Isolde was a German heroine, and she became deeply unpopular all over again because of German involvement in the two World Wars. On a personal level, some have shrunk from Isolde's story because of the man she married, the cruel and cowardly King Mark. We would prefer her husband to have the nobility and heroism of King Arthur, in the golden setting of Camelot.

What about her story was appealing to you as a writer?

Most of us have a long search to find our partners in life, and there is usually at least one failed love affair or broken marriage along the way. Isolde is lucky enough to experience that rare and special thing—the one great love—to which she remains faithful all her life. She never loves anyone except Tristan nor is she attracted to another man, and I find the idea of a flawless union with the One True Love deeply romantic and compelling.

Isolde also appealed to me strongly as a woman. She is gifted, visionary, and deeply sensitive, but at the same time she is resourceful, strong, merry, and attractive, with her smiling Irish eyes. When she meets adversity, she deals with it head-on and does not rely on anyone else to solve her problems for her.

You portray Isolde's mother as a sexually magnetic woman whose political alliances were often romantic ones as well. Were there truly queens like this in Celtic Ireland?

The Queens of Ireland and Irish women in general were notably bold and freethinking from the earliest recorded times. History and legend tell of heroines like the warrior Queen Aoife, who fought the Irish hero Cuchulain then took him as her lover for a year; and the even-more powerful Queen Maeve of Connaught, famed for her willfulness throughout the land. These and others were known to be as formidable in bed as they were on the battlefield, and Maeve was reputed to have shared the friendship of her thighs with thirty men in one night.

As late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a pirate queen called Grace O'Malley (Grainne Mhaol) of County Mayo visited London and negotiated fearlessly with the English Queen on equal terms. Like many others, she conformed to the portrayal of the Roman historian Tacitus, who described the women of the Celts as more fearsome than their men.

Isolde is a highly skilled healer whose surgical techniques and success rate seems almost modern. Was medicine truly this advanced in her day?

There was an astonishing level of medical knowledge and skill in the ancient world, some of it at a level still practiced today. Trepanning, for instance, the technique of removing part of the skull to relieve pressure on the brain, was known to the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians and the Chinese, and is even found in prehistoric skeletons. The Caesarean section, still used in modern childbirth, was known in the time of Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), even if we cannot trust the tradition that it was named after him. This knowledge spread to the West by sea and by land, via sailors from Syria and Phrygia who got as far as ancient Britain, and those who plied the silk route from the far East overland. We know that Druids and Celtic priests also traveled East in search of knowledge. Herbal lore too was sophisticated and well established in the British Isles. But so much of this knowledge and skill was lost during the Dark Ages and the witch-hunts that followed, that it is very hard to recapture the sense of it now.

Would women have been surgeons, as she was?

The very first surgeons would always have been women, as they were the first nurses, midwives, and those who took care of the dead. Seen as divine because they brought forth life from their own bodies, women from prehistory onwards were thought to have the secret of life and were entrusted with the responsibility for the health of all the tribe. There were notable female surgeons and healers from the earliest recorded period, including a number who practiced as men in difficult times (see
Who Cooked The Last Supper: the Women's History of the World
by Rosalind Miles, for details). In the early modern period in Europe, many of the women who were hanged or burned as witches were no more than herbalists or healers who did not conform to the dictates of their community or their church.

The modern history of Ireland and England is one of oppression and bloodshed, but you portray them as sister kingdoms
—
or queendoms
—
bound together by a common culture and religion, at least in Isolde's time. Is this accurate
?

England and Ireland were two common Celtic cultures for many hundreds of years until Saxon warriors from the Scandinavian countries and the east coast of Germany began invading England toward the end of the 6th century AD. England and Ireland also shared the same religion of Druidism in these years, with Ireland regarded as the Druids' Sacred Isle. The similarities between the two countries persisted even after the Saxon invasions, since it took many more centuries before the Saxons were established in mainland Britain, and Ireland too had its Viking visitors, most notably in Dublin.

The real split between these two sister-countries came with the English reformation of religion under Henry VIII (1491-1547). While England became Protestant, Ireland remained Catholic, giving rise to the bitter religious wars, which tragically have continued to this day.

1. Merlin is a mysterious character throughout the novel, orchestrating key events in everyone's lives and often saving the day with his otherworldly powers—yet he's sometimes hampered by the limitations of his magic. When do you see his powers failing him? In what ways does he directly or indirectly affect Isolde and Tristan? Who is the "broken bird" in his vision at the end of chapter one? Why do you think Merlin is cruel to Guenevere and unwilling to help in the issue of Arthur's paternity?

2. We first encounter Isolde as she seeks Sir Gilhan's counsel about the state of international affairs. She struggles to comprehend that her beloved Ireland has enemies, and that leading a war may be among her future responsibilities. How has Isolde's understanding of statecraft evolved by the end of the novel? Do you think it's significant that Miles reveals Isolde as a political character first, and as a romantic one later? Does this order change by the end?

3. At the root of the rocky political situation between Ireland and Cornwall lies the reckless, fickle Irish Queen. Is she truly power-hungry, or is she just wildly impressionable? When do we see her invoking the Old Ways to justify her behavior, and when do we see her betraying those same Old Ways? What do you think she really wants from Isolde?

4. When do we see Isolde experiencing the Sight? Which other characters have it? What kind of information does Miles convey to the reader by these visions?

5. When the Queen secures the love potion intended to bind Isolde to Mark, we read, "And overhead all the demons of death and destruction came to life and danced with delight at the feast of evil ahead." Then as Andred plots to expose Tristan and Isolde, we read, "All the spirits of evil awoke in their slimy lairs, yawned, stretched, laughed, and prepared to act." How do these reminders of unseen, dark forces at work affect your reading of Isolde and Tristan's affair? Is their love powerful enough to withstand such deadly forces, or is the couple destined to be ruined by them in the end?

6. What does the Lady of the Sea mean when she tells Isolde that the Hallows of the Sea are her "fate" and her "task"? How do you interpret her command to Isolde: "Watch the bubble rising in the foam. When it breaks, follow its path to the sea?"

7. How does Isolde manage to remain perfectly honest with Mark, even when Andred publicly accuses her of improper conduct with Tristan? Does Tristan manage the same degree of honesty with Isolde when he's recuperating in Ireland and attempting to explain who he is?

8. Throughout the novel, we see Isolde being incredibly gracious in trying situations—whispering encouragement and forgiveness to the guard who binds her hands for the ordeal by water, sending Palomides off with blessings and kindness despite his attempts to manipulate her, maintaining a loving devotion to her outrageous mother, etc. Does Isolde have any shortcomings? Is there anyone she cannot forgive?

9. Jerome's take on Christianity offers a stark counterpoint to Dominian's crush-and-conquer approach. What is the function of their brief conversation in relation to the rest of the novel? Is Isolde fully aware that Dominian's agenda involves full-scale destruction of the Mother-right?

10. When Tristan first presents himself at Mark's court, he enters a chamber that the narrator describes as "dank with fear," its occupants too desperate, resentful, nervous, and ashamed to even touch the food. Yet Tristan walks in and sees sunlight "pouring through the windows," a "rosy fire on the hearth," "rich furnishings," and "tables laden with welcoming food and wine." How does this glimpse into Tristan's mind color your reading of his character? Is he utterly naive, or just a cockeyed optimist? In either case, does this trait damage him at any point in the story? What is his first hint that Mark may not be all he had hoped for in a kinsman?

11. Does the Lienore episode serve as mere comic relief in the novel, or do we learn something vital about Tristan, Arthur, and/or the rules of chivalry through it?

12. The love cordial that the Queen obtains for Isolde is presented as a perversion: "When the power of nature was harnessed to pervert true love, the very voice of nature would protest. The Nain had indeed torn the elements apart as she made them release their secrets in her quest to counterfeit true desire." But since Isolde and Tristan share a real love and desire already, what affect does the potion have on them? Does their love transform the unnatural intent of the elixirs? Do you think their love would survive without the supernatural boost of the potion?

13. After the ordeal by water, Mark makes a show of recognizing his own weakness, admitting his wrongs, and repairing his relationships with both Isolde and Tristan. Do you believe him? Does the episode herald any change for Andred? For Dominian?

14. Do you think Brangwain purposely leaves the potion lying around for Tristan and Isolde to find?