He wedded her in Tintagel Minster, but hardly was she wed when the
news came to him that his old enemy Duke Morgan had fallen on Lyonesse
and was wasting town and field. Then Rivalen manned his ships in
haste, and took Blanchefleur with him to his far land; but she was
with child. He landed below his castle of Kanoël and gave the Queen in
ward to his Marshal Rohalt, and after that set off to wage his war.

Blanchefleur waited for him continually, but he did not come home,
till she learnt upon a day that Duke Morgan had killed him in foul
ambush. She did not weep: she made no cry or lamentation, but her
limbs failed her and grew weak, and her soul was filled with a strong
desire to be rid of the flesh, and though Rohalt tried to soothe her
she would not hear. Three days she awaited re-union with her lord, and
on the fourth she brought forth a son; and taking him in her arms she
said:

“Little son, I have longed a while to see you, and now I see you the
fairest thing ever a woman bore. In sadness came I hither, in sadness
did I bring forth, and in sadness has your first feast day gone. And
as by sadness you came into the world, your name shall be called
Tristan; that is the child of sadness.”

After she had said these words she kissed him, and immediately when
she had kissed him she died.

Rohalt, the keeper of faith, took the child, but already Duke Morgan’s
men besieged the Castle of Kanoël all round about. There is a wise
saying: “Fool-hardy was never hardy,” and he was compelled to yield to
Duke Morgan at his mercy: but for fear that Morgan might slay
Rivalen’s heir the Marshal hid him among his own sons.