eside him of grief for her lover" (Tristan 248).
If there is any doubt about the intensity of the love of Tristan and Iseult for one another, it is entirely erased by the fact that the two lovers could not bear to live a single moment in the world without the other. They died, literally, of broken hearts at the very thought of life without the other.
Ywain and Laudine's love for one another is no less intense, but the style of the writer telling their story seems at times to lessen that intensity by his indirectness. At the same time, unlike the case of Tristan and Iseult, the story of Ywain and Laudine finds one not even recognizing the other just before they were to be re-united in their love. The powers at work against Ywain and Laudine are great, but they were instigated by the passion of their love itself, as was the case with Tristan and Iseult. In the case of Ywain and Laudine, the lovers are at odds until the final page
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