Iseut of the White Hands
“[…] then he was such that all who saw him said that if he was not a brave knight he really must hate his fine body. And indeed he was so handsome that Iseut herself, who was called Iseut of the White Hands, fell madly in love with him.”
~ Iseut of the White Hands
The white hands wanted Tristan, the darkest
Parts, darkened by his strongest hair. She knew
Which parts she wanted most of all, Starkest
Desire for starkest parts that make and spew
That manliness inside, the parts with hair
Above, around them darkly, manliness so fine
That everyone who saw him knew a pair
Produced that hair and made his spear align
Itself with lust, her lust. It made her brave,
As brave as darkest knight. She wanted white
To have him and his darkest parts. His slave
She had to be. She wanted dark at night.
..White hands desired his starkest part to urge
….Its way inside. She needed it to surge.
Of Course She Didn’t Get It
Medieval minstrels being what they were,
They couldn’t let her have her wish. The man
Could bed with uncle’s wife, but songs prefer
The other woman punished. Songs must ban
Iseut of white hands getting her main need.
So when the knightly lover’s night came on,
He just refused to give her guts his seed.
He kissed and hugged her and then crawled upon
Her white, white breasts but didn’t enter in.
He’d suddenly remembered he’d another
Romance that he preferred. He couldn’t sin
With this wan woman. He had to smother
His lust. So all she got were hairy lips,
No surging up above her needy hips.
“When the night had come, Tristan lay down beside Iseut, who was so very beautiful that it is not surprising if he desired her. There was no one else in the room, and they lay in bed quite naked. The light in the bedroom was so bright that Tristan could see Iseut’s beauty very clearly. She had white and tender breasts, lovely bright and laughing eyes, fine slender eyebrows and a clear, pure face. Tristan kissed and embraced her. But when he remembered Iseut of Cornwall, he could not bring himself to touch this one. Great was the battle of the two Iseuts. This Iseut was in front of him. [. . . .] in the end he decided to go no further. Iseut, who did not know anything other than the joy of embracing, fell asleep in Tristan’s arms, and Tristan did likewise.”
~ Iseut of the White Hands
Sexist Omission in Medieval Tales
The legend writers carefully record
The bits of beauty this Iseut could list
Among her lovelinesses, how she scored
With Tristan, hinting at the parts he kissed,
But carelessly avoid the listing of
The beauties of the body of the knight.
No mention of the hairy chest to love,
The hairy nipples she would want to bite,
No noble, knightly nose for her to dote
On, no entrancing color of his eyes,
No Merlin magic color of them, throat
Of thickness, nor the thickness of his thighs,
Their hairiness, nor swelling of the part
She lusted most for in her hairless heart.