Fire and Sword
1981 film by Veith von Fürstenberg
Fire and Sword (German: Feuer und Schwert: Die Legende von Tristan und Isolde) is a 1981 romantic drama film directed by Veith von Fürstenberg. It is based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, played by Christoph Waltz (in his first leading credited film role) and Antonia Preser. Leigh Lawson and Peter Firth also star. Set during a raging war between Cornwall and Ireland, the film explores themes on conflict between magic and religion, violence, and destruction.
Principal photography took place from July to November 1980. It was filmed in Ireland at the same location as Excalibur (1981), another Arthurian film, and reused the stuntmen and horses from that production. Critics praised its cinematography, for which it won an award at the 1983 Sitges Film Festival, but criticised the script, Waltz's and Preser's performances, and its interpretation of the source material.
Plot
As war rages between Cornwall and Ireland, the Cornish knight Tristan defeats Morholt, a formidable Irish warrior, in combat. Tristan himself is gravely injured and drifts out to sea, eventually landing on the coast of Ireland. He pretends to be a minstrel named Tantris and is treated at a convent by the Irish princess Isolde, who is disguised as a maid.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Fire and Sword” is 1981 film by Veith von Fürstenberg. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Fire, Sword and film, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “1981 film by Veith von Fürstenberg” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5451539. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1980 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fire and Sword” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.