The medieval story of Tristan and Isolde (or, interchangeably, Iseult) is the story of a Cornish knight sent on an ill fated mission to retrieve an Irish princess for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. Reminiscent of another famous fated lovers story, that of Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde fall in inevitable love and ensure their destruction in so doing. In both stories, the members of the love triangle have love and featly towards one another, and a complex series of conflicts and resolutions takes place until both of the ill fated lovers are dead.

So why would such a similar story be told over and over again? Medieval romance, as a genre, describes any stories of chivalry, questing, romantic love, and magic. These stories were forms of entertainment in their conception and tools of national identity and ethos in their repetition and development during the era of romantic nationalism. Romantic nationalism centers on the idea that the legitimacy of the state comes organically from the unity of those it governs. Thus, a cohesive assemblage of folklore, stories, music, and art provides the sense of national identity which naturally leads a group of people to consent to be led together. Stories like Tristan and Isolde, and the Arthurian legends, generally, are often thought of this way.

Many adaptations of the story, including Wagner's opera of the same name, use the love of Tristan and Isolde as a symbol of unification (either national or global).

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