Tristan

[1] In the legend, his objective is escorting the Irish princess Iseult to wed Tristan's uncle, King Mark of Cornwall.

The character's first recorded appearance is in retellings of British mythology from the 12th century by Thomas of Britain and Gottfried von Strassburg, and later in the Prose Tristan.

He is featured in Arthurian legends, including the seminal text Le Morte d'Arthur, as a skilled knight and a friend of Lancelot.

[3] Tristan made his first recorded appearance in the 12th century in British mythology circulating in the north of France and the Kingdom of Brittany, which had close ancestral and cultural links with Wales, Cornwall and Devon by way of the ancient British kingdom of Dumnonia, as made clear in the story itself, and the closely related Cornish and Breton languages, both of which are P-Celtic like Welsh.

Arthurian romancer Chrétien de Troyes mentioned in his poem Cligès that he composed his own account of the story; however, there are no surviving copies or records of any such text.

In Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, when his mother, Blanschfleur, learns that her husband has been killed in battle, she dies in childbirth.

[5] Eisner explains that Irish monks of this time would have been familiar with the Greek and Roman narratives that the legend borrows from, such as Pyramus and Thisbe.

"[5] Thomas Malory later shortened and incorporated the Prose Tristan into his own English-language The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones (The Fyrste and the Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams de Lyones), a part of Le Morte d'Arthur in which Tristan (Tristram) plays the role of a counter-hero to Lancelot.

In later versions since the Prose Tristan, his parents are Queen Isabelle (Malory's Elizabeth, known as Eliabel or Eliabella in Italy) and King Meliodas of Lyonesse.

[9] Béroul's Norman French Romance of Tristan and Iseult, possibly the earliest extant version,[10][11] is notable for its very specific geographical locations in Cornwall.

One other suggestion sees Tristan as adopted into the family of Mark of Cornwall – a historical practice attested in Roman law.

It was then closer to Castle Dore and may have been the origin of the association of this site with the story of the tragic love of Tristan and Iseult.

It has been suggested, and is confidently asserted on the plaque by the stone, that the characters referred to are Tristan, of which Drustan is a variant and Cynvawr Latinized to Cunomorus.