Conventions and codes often prevail in literary texts of a specific historical literary period or genre. Although recognized in the past, their identification and understanding has been enhanced by modern structuralist criticism. As a well-known example, a beautiful woman should be described in a certain sequence of parts and with certain omissions in the poetry of Courtly Love. In feudal epic great attention may be placed on the lineage of a hero or any new character he is expected to fight. Likewise conventions rule the area of human reproduction in literature: in the literature of the nineteenth century, sexual relations between unmarried persons, almost invariably presented as seduction of an innocent girl by an experienced man, lead to pregnancy and ruin.
In the epic literature of the classical period and the medieval period in Europe other conventions prevail in the depiction of extramarital erotic relations, whereby the similarity in treatment in societies so widely separated in time and with little direct literary contact is quite surprising. Homer's epic poems were little or not at all known to the authors of Arthurian romances.
If we first consider the medieval matter of Tristan and Isolde as reflected in several national literatures over a period ofhundreds of years, it is signilicant that in none of the versions does Isolde become pregnant or bear a child. Yet she is a young and beautiful woman who maintains sexual relations over a lengthy period with two partners, her husband King Mark and his nephew, her lover Tristan. The latter has sexual relations with her as often as the opportunity presents itself; that is, whenever the former is not sleeping with her. For King Mark, who is officially unaware of his wife's infidelity, himselfmakes use of his conjugal rights throughout the period of triangularity and after Tristan's late departure from Cornwall. Only on the wedding night is Isolde's companion Branguine substituted for her mistress in the nuptial bed.
In an early German version, Eilhart, the love potion requires Tristan to "be with" Isolde on a daily basis or to perish; as in my paraphrase, the term is ambiguous, not absolutely meaning to have sexual relations each day. Nevertheless we may surmise that in all versions Isolde never sleeps alone, making her lack of offspring even more incredible. Even the second Isolde, she of the White Hands, continues the motif of barrenness in her marriage with Tristan.
Through years of erotic activity with two men the fictional Isolde never becomes pregnant, as she would havein real life, the medieval wife typically producing babies with great regularity, most of whom did not survive infancy, before herself dying in pregnancy or childbirth. This grim reality is not reflected in the many versions of Isolde. Indeed, a moment's reflection reveals the absurdity of the notion. None of the medieval ladies featured in Neophilologus 75 (1991) 321322323324325326