Stairway to Heaven, German-Major Style
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
(Okay, so my JP wound up being mostly about women's political power in Tristan. "If the stores are all closed" refers to King Gurmun's promise to marry Isolde to whoever killed the dragon, thus "clos[ing]" her options. Her mother talks her way out of it--"with a word"--and over the course of the story Isolde effectively becomes her mother, so in theory she has this power as well.)
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven
There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
(Tristan killed Isolde's uncle Morold, but before he did so Morold stabbed him with a poisoned sword. Conveniently enough, only Isolde's mother can cure the wound, but it is known throughout Dublin that if Tristan enters the city, he must be killed. In order to be cured, Tristan disguises himself as a merchant and calls himself "Tantris." When he returns to Ireland to kill the dragon and win Isolde, he remains disguised as Tantris, but Isolde, looking at him in the bathtub, marvels at his noble body, and starts to connect his exterior to noble birth--in effect, the "sign on the wall." When she sees his broken sword (a piece of it was left in Morold's head), she becomes "sure" that Tantris is, indeed, Tristan. Tristan and Tantris--one word, flipped around=two meanings. Considered to be Isolde's first instance of using womanly cleverness.)
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
(This one actually has two connections. As Riwalin and Isolde fall in love with their respective partners, they are both described as a "Vogel in Leim," a bird trapped in lime--the more it tries to fly away, the more it becomes stuck. Both have doubts that eventually turn to certainty, revealing that their "thoughts" of anything but love were "misgiven." Secondly, when Marke is told that Tristan is sleeping with his wife, he and a steward wait in a tree next to the brook where Tristan and Isolde meeet at night. Tristan sees the shadows of the men in the tree and sends word to Isolde on a leaf sent downstream. The two act as though there is only animosity between them and that they are confused by the rumors about them, and Marke is convinced that his wife is chaste. Tree by the brook? Spot-on.)
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder
There's a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
(Ireland=west of England. Isolde really doesn't want to go to Cornwall--before she drinks the love potion, she's angry about being taken from her parents and furious at Tristan; afterwards, she doesn't want to leave Tristan and marry Marke.)
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder
And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
(Tristan is a gifted minstrel in addition to a knight--really, he only becomes a knight because the court is so taken with his musical gifts at first.)
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forest will echo with laughter
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
(The biggest assertion I made in the JP was that Isolde's decision first to pick up and then to throw aside Tristan's sword is the first time she thinks and acts autonomously. She chooses the path of womanhood that follows her mother's example, and eventually winds up a prudent, politically-vocal queen and wise healer like her mother, but "the road [she's] on" is still "change[d]" by the addition of the love potion at the wrong time, which changes the outcome of the middle of the story.)
And it makes me wonder
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind
(Two major sailboats in conjunction with Isolde. #1: boat to Cornwall, they drink the love potion--that's one "stairway" to her eventual fate. #2: boat to Caerleon at the end. Tristan marries a woman names Isolde of the White Hands, who eventually figures out that Tristan's in love with another Isolde. When Tristan is wounded, he sends word to Isolde, and she sails to heal him, but there's some doubt as to whether or not she can make it. The signal: black sails mean she can't go to him, white sails mean she's on her way. The jealous IWH tells Tristan the sails are black, he dies of a broken heart, Isolde (whose sails were actually white) arrives and dies of a broken heart as well. Quite some stairway, and all because the "whispering wind" blew her sails to Caerleon. In earlier versions of the story, Marke and Tristan are walking on a beach in Cornwall and come across a beautiful blond hair dropped by a swallow. Marke tells Tristan he wants to marry whoever the hair belongs to, and Tristan goes out--to find Isolde.)
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
(The three women--Queen Isolde, Tristan's Isolde, and her cousin Brangane--are described as luminaries. Tristan's Isolde is called "the sun" and is referred to as "Isolde la Blonde" to distinguish her from her mother and IWH.)
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she's buying the stairway to heaven
(More to come once my pumpkin bread's out of the oven.)