Abstract
In the Old Czech Tristram a Izalda, one element of Tristram's combat with Morolt defies a basic expectation fulfilled in other versions of the story: the fighting does not take place on an island, nor does it involve boats. Instead, the Czech author decided to place the event on a hilltop.
This curious detail, a departure from the Middle High German hypotexts of the Old Czech rewriting, is not a singular quirk, as similar modifications and insertions later recur. What lies behind this landscaping operation, which has so far been noticed, but not sufficiently explained? I propose to read the author's readiness to transform the scene of action as part of a strategy of adjustment or acculturation of the fictional world of Tristram a Izalda specifically for Bohemian readership which, by the later Middle Ages, had formed its own peculiar horizon of expectation regarding the natural environs suitable for a setting or backdrop to action.