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Gottfried's version of this legendary romance--in which Tristan and Isolde chance to drink a magic potion that causes them to fall in love--portrays Tristan in the round as an attractive and sophisticated pre-Renaissance man. While Gottfried adheres faithfully to the events as set down by Thomas, his chosen source, he is correct over questions of Christianity and religion, but no more. In fact his persona as narrator is oddly elusive and engaging. A virtuoso stylist, adept in irony and wit, he is subtle and almost unmedieval in putting across his own imporessions of a love that transcends the bounds advocated by Church or society. As A. T. Hatto writes: it 'should bring a shock of delight to those who are expecting an Arthurian romance, a Tennysonian idyll, or a Wagnerian melodrama; or who imagined that in the year AD 1210 Germany was still altogether in the Dark Ages.'
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