Parzival

Outline of the action

The education of Parzival to the Knighthood and its research of the Graal is - as the author underlines it on different occasions - the principal subject of the action, and however we find in counterpoint, and almost equal in importance, the chivalrous adventures of Gauvain. While this one incarnates the laic knighthood and leaves always victorious its multiple adventures, in which he faces those which are responsible for the disorders in the world and gives the things in the right way, Parzival is plunged in extreme situations of personal conflicts which make it itself guilty - precisely because it is only with the wire of the account that he becomes aware of his duty. But it is precisely him which, after having had during long years to support the consequences of its faults, will end up reaching the possession of Graal. The Epopee finishes with an evocation of the history of Lohengrin, the son of Parzival.

The outline which one will find here what is called follows the distribution of the text in “books”, while conforming to the established order by Karl Lachmann, the first “critical” editor of Parzival.

“Wolfram Prolog” (I delivers, towards 1,1 to 4,26)

Introduction: Gahmuret, knight-errant (books III)

Wolfram begins its novel with the detailed history of Gahmuret, the father of Parzival. As a junior, Gahmuret remains without heritage with dead of his/her father, the king of Anjou, and it Orient will seek fortune and famous in . Initially with the service of the Caliph of Baghdad, it helps then the black queen Bélacane against her besieging. He triumphs and marries Bélacane, becoming thus king de Zazamanc and of Azagouc; despite everything it leaves it soon to seek other adventures. Of return in Europe, Gahmuret takes part in a Tournoi in Kanvoleis, where it gains the hand of the Herzeloyde queen and the capacity on its grounds of Waleis and Norgals. Gahmuret does not take again of it less its adventurous life; it leaves, enters again to the service of the Caliph, and dies finally, killed by a poisoned lance.

Gahmuret so quickly leaves its two wives whom he does not learn the birth from his two sons: Feirefiz, the son of Bélacane, of which all the body is black and white like a magpie, and of Parzival the son of Herzeloydes.

The youth and the chivalrous education of Parzival (books III-IV)

When she learns death from Gahmuret, Herzeloyde, despaired, is withdrawn with Parzival in a deserted place, the forest of Soltane. There it raises her son in an innocence and a quasi paradisiac ignorance; it is only later that he will learn his name and his origin from the mouth of his Sigune cousin, little before arriving for the first time at the court of king Arthur. Deliberately, his/her mother does all to him to be unaware of world and life apart from the forest, it does not prepare it in particular with nothing of what would claim, on the social plan, ethics and warrior, his statute of knight and lord. So thereafter Parzival is however recognized like such in the courteous world, it initially owes it with its external appearance: on several occasions the storyteller underlines his astonishing beauty, his force and his surprising flexibility, and he says to us which impression make on its entourage of such qualities.

Herzeloyde thus tries to protect his/her son from the dangers of the knighthood, and to even be tried by it, but it will not succeed. When for the first time Parzival meets by chance of the knights, Herzeloyde cannot prevent it from leaving for the court king Arthur in order to become knight there. In the hope which his/her son will return to him after having made in the world enough of bad experiments, it equips it as the insane ones are equipped and it gives him on the way of acting absurd instructions which, observed with the letter and united with its dress of insane, cannot miss making it ridiculous. (Thus she advises to him to pleasantly greet everyone, which it does while exaggerating and while adding: “It is what my mother said to me to do. ”)

After Parzival left Soltane, the ignorance in which one left it causes a whole series of catastrophes without at this time it having less world conscience to be there for something. Initially it is his/her mother who dies of pain to have seen it leaving, then it is Parzival which, including/understanding through the courteous doctrines, falls on Jeschute, the first woman whom it meets, and steals its jewels to him. Its meeting with Parzival becomes a drama for the poor woman, because her Orilus husband refuses to believe that it is not there for nothing, he maltreats it and dedicates it like adultery with the contempt of the company. Lastly, hardly arrived at the court of king Arthur, Parzival kills the “red knight” Ither (from which later he will learn how that it was a close relative) to take his weapons and his horse to him. In its spirit the weapons which it has flights make of him maintaining a knight. However (and it is characteristic), it continues to wear its clothing of insane under its armor.

It will remove them only at the following stage of its voyage, at Gurnemanz de Graharz, which teaches the rules of life and the way to him of fighting knights; it is only at this time which Parzival learns really what is the courteous behavior (who must be also human): he learns how to have shame and he leaves his clothing of insane, he learns the ritual from the mass and the rules of the courtesy. Thus it is informed exactly of all that it must know to hold its row in the world like lord and engaged couple. When it leaves Graharz at the end of 14 days, he became a perfect knight in the direction of the world arthurien. Unfortunately, by warning it against the useless questions, Gurnemanz is at the origin of a serious mishap that to know Parzival later (see low).

In the town of Pelrapeire, Parzival proves reliable of knight by releasing the Condwiramurs queen of the applicants whose court importunes it; it obtains the hand of the queen and by there becomes the Master of the kingdom of which it puts in order the businesses. However, as his/her father had done it before the childbirth of his wife, it leaves Condwiramurs to return visit to his mother of which it is unaware of still that she died.

The too great discretion of Parzival to the castle of Graal (books V-VI)

Parzival seeks a lodging for the night, a fisherman indicates a castle to him and the young knight will be pilot there of a whole series of mysterious events. One is delighted obviously by his arrival and, at the same time, everyone acts as if one were plunged in greatest sadness. In the village hall it finds the fisherman and realizes that it is him the lord of the manor, Anfortas, which suffers from a serious disease. Before the meal, one carries in the room a ensanglantée lance of which the sight tears off lugubrious complaints with the assistants. At this point in time twenty-four noble young women, in a complicated ritual, put on the table of invaluable covers, finally Graal is brought by the queen Repanse de Schoye, according to Wolfram these is a stone which, with the manner of “Small-table-is covered” makes emerge in a mysterious way foods and drinks. To the end, the Master of the places gives to Parzival his own sword, of a great value, it is the last attempt to bring the knight, dumb man until there, to put a question which, so that we says the storyteller, could have cured the valetudinary king. Parzival however, according to the instructions of Gurnemanz and believer to show a courteous and wise control, represses its curiosity, not requiring more of what the disease of its host consists that the significance of all this singular ceremonial.

When Parzival awakes, the next morning, the castle is completely empty; it tries to follow the knights to the trace of the shoes of their horses but it loses it. Instead of that, it meets Sigune for the second time in wood and she teaches him the name from the castle, speaks to him about the lord who lives there and reveals to him that itself, Parzival, would be now a king powerful and respected if he had asked the lord of the manor from what he suffered: not only the unhappy one but all its entourage would have been delivered. When it is forced to acknowledge in Sigune which it was not even able to say a simple word of comfort, it curses it and refuses to deal with him from now on. Immediately afterwards, Parzival meets another woman for the second time: it is Jeschute. While swearing in Orilus that it forever have relations with it, it repurchases the awkward behavior of its first meeting and her husband restores it in any point in its honor.

Lastly, one of these new changes in the behavior which are recurring: Parzival arrives for the second time at the court of king Arthur. Arthur had especially gotten under way in order to find the “knight red” become celebrates meanwhile, and this Parzival time is accommodated with the Roundtable with all the honors of the court; it is thus assembled until the top of the hierarchy of the knights. The Roundtable meets for the meal taken jointly; it seems that there all the oppositions, all the faults, all the internal competitions are forgiven and erased. Here giving up Parzival temporarily, it is of Gauvain, the nephew of Arthur, which the storyteller speaks to us, another hero of knighthood of which it underlines the respect of the courteous values, courage in the fight and the value of his nobility.

But it is precisely at this time, where expresses splendor and safety of oneself of company noble more typical, that two characters present themselves who destroy completely this atmosphere of gaîté, by uttering bitter curses and reproaches against the chivalrous honor of Gauvain and Parzival, which puts an end immediately to the festival: the dreadful Cundrie witch, the messenger of Graal, cursed Parzival and its silence with the castle of the king-fisherman, and it qualifies its presence at the court of king Arthur of shame for the chivalrous company. In addition, it draws the attention of the Roundtable to the fact that, in the world of the knights, all does not occur as well as could make it believe the merry atmosphere of the company. She speaks about the captivity of several hundreds about women and noble girls in the castle of Schastel Marveile, and some among them are related in Gauvain or Arthur. Gauvain, finally, is shown by Kingrimursel, landgrave of Schanpfanzun, to have killed by treachery king d' Ascalon and it is caused in legal duel.

It is there that the surface idea of Parzival about God appears: he is explained his refusal to speak with the castle about Graal by the fact that God refused to deal with him, whereas he could have expressed his absolute power by curing Anfortas and by thus preserving Parzival, its faithful servant, of the dishonouring imprecation launched by Cundrie. As in a report/ratio of vassal with suzerain, Parzival denounces his God tender; to this error of appreciation of the relationship between God and the men will be added later a hatred towards God in conformity with the rules of the knighthood.

The hero éponyme leaves the Roundtable immediately and leaves for a solitary research Graal which will last several years, it becomes by that even a supporting character in the accounts of the following books; in the foreground the adventures of Gauvain appear.

Adventures of Gauvain with Bearosche and Schanpfanzun (books VII-VIII)

The action of Parzival and that of Gauvain vary according to the same problems but from the different point of view: the two protagonists are always put in residence as hero of the knighthood to restore the lost order of the courteous world. In this task Parzival fails regularly because he learned only little by little what it is necessary to know about the knighthood and, because of this insufficient education, each time it meets a new task, increasingly more difficult than the preceding one, it does not arrive there. The faulty behavior of the hero éponyme always comes from the defects of the courteous company.

Gauvain on the contrary is as of its appearance the incarnation of the ideal knighthood. He also must face increasingly difficult tasks because of the defects of the courteous company; but all the conflicts with which he is confronted draw their origin owing to the fact that he badly includes/understands what is the love (it is the problems of the courtly love). Gauvain however is able to solve the problems which result from this, even if during the years it is unable to keep its fidelity with his wife - it in what it is still opposed to Perceval.

Whereas it goes to its legal duel, Gauvain passes in front of the town of Bearosche and it is pilot preparations of war: king Meljanz de Liz besieges the town of his clean vassal because Obie, the girl of this last, pushed back its declaration of love. The situation becomes complicated owing to the fact that Obie shows wrongly its sighing to be a good-for-nothing and requires of the new arrival his chivalrous help. The honor of Gauvain orders to him to answer this request, but he does not want to be implied in a battle because it is obliged to arrive in time and without wounds at Ascalun. Obilot, the little sister of Obie, uses of its childish charm to convince Gauvain to intervene as its knight in the battle; Gauvain then enters the combat and captive fact Meljanz. It acts then as skilful intermediary when it delivers to Obilot the prisoner and succeeds in reconciling Meljanz and Obie.

The central passage of the text, the declaration of love of Obilot with Gauvain after it helped it in a chivalrous way, presents a comic aspect because of great difference in age between them two; Gauvain is satisfied to answer these advances while badinant, within the framework of the courtly love. It is all the opposite with the adventure in love following. It is now about Antikonie, the sister of king d' Ascalun, a tempting woman this time. But a serious danger comes to threaten the life of the hero. Gauvain meets king Vergulaht which one tells that it killed the father with hunting, and the king advises to him to go to place in his sister with Schampfanzun. Gauvain hardly hides in Antikonie its desire to which it lets see that it answers and that the met both in a compromising situation; when they are discovered, the population of the city takes the weapons naturally thinking that Gauvain intended to rape the young girl. As Gauvain is not armed, it is quite difficult for them to be defended, when king Vergulaht enters the combat against him.

Kingrimursel however had given to Gauvain the insurance which it could freely go to the legal duel and it does not hesitate to protect the knight, even against its own king. After discussions animated among the advisers of the king one arrives at a compromise which makes it possible Gauvain to save the face and to leave the city freely: the legal duel is given to later and in fact it will not take place since finally the innocence of Gauvain will be proven. But Gauvain receives the task to leave in the place the king to research Graal.

Parzival with Trevrizent - religious instruction and illumination (IX deliver)

If the storyteller takes again the history of Parzival, more than four years happened since the last scene from the “Red Knight” while one told the adventures of Gauvain. Nothing changed in the fundamental attitude of Parzival: according to him, God was in having to give him his assistance to the decisive moment when it was with the castle of Graal and, as it refused, Parzival continues to hate it; however it is always occupied in its solitary research of Graal.

For the third time Parzival meets his/her Sigune cousin, plunged painfully in the mourning of its Schianatulander beloved: she was locked up with the coffin in a cell. Castle of Graal one provides him strict essential food. That however it is now laid out to communicate again with Parzival and to reconcile themselves with him, it is the first sign which the destiny of the character éponyme can change: it is possible for him to turn to the good. However it cannot still find the castle of Graal, even if obviously it is not far.

And here that a few weeks later, Friday-Saint, in synchronism with the liturgical cycle, Parzival meets a group of penitent; they make him shame to have endorsed the weapons such a day and to be itself diverted of God and they advise to him to go to consult a saint man who lives a cave in the surroundings: it is to make him which will be able to help it and him obtain the forgiveness of its sins. And it is this meeting with the hermit Trevrizent, a brother of his mother, as he discovers it, which completes the personal development of the hero, i.e. his chivalrous education; it is only now that it is in a position to leave again to the search Graal. The long conversations which it has during the two following weeks with Trevrizent have nothing to do with the preceding lesson of Herzeloyde or of Gurnemanz because they are vaster and deeper. In an almost maieutic dialog with Parzival, the hermit goes at the bottom of the problem and gives to his nephew decisive lights on the true reasons of the desolation of his heart.

Trevrizent clearly poses the problem and he explains it: he makes include/understand that it is impossible to force God to grant his assistance, which Parzival believed capacity to require, but that God grants it, by its kindness and its love towards the men, with that which is subjected humbly to its will. Continuing his teaching, the hermit explains in detail what is Graal and for what it is used; these is in short a stone of an incalculable value which contains a force of life and of youth which is renewed each year, at the Good Friday, by a host come directly from the sky; sometimes on the stone a message appears which carries instructions, saying for example which must be accepted among the knights of Graal. But it is impossible, Trevrizent says it clearly, to obtain Graal by chivalrous actions and combat, as try to do it Parzival and at the same time as him Gauvain. Of Graal only that will be able to become king which Graal itself will call for that, and the community awaits the heart broken this message of the stone so that Anfortas is finally cured of sound badly. Trevrizent insists on the history of the Fall, and in particular on the murder of Abel by his Caïn brother, because it is the example of the deeply sinning character of the humanity and her distance of God. Finally it reveals in Parzival the history of its family: Anfortas, which must continue to suffer because of Parzival which did not want to question it, is him also the brother of its mother; Herzeloyde died of pain after the departure of his/her son; as for Ither, that Parzival killed and of which it always carries the armor, it was still another relative All these sins weigh now on him.

The days spent at Trevrizent in its cave, during which it is placed misérablement and eats badly, are for Parzival the occasion to find the comfort in penitence; and when it leaves its Master, this one quite naturally gives him a kind of discharge of laic. Now it is certain that Parzival is released from the sins of formerly, in any case in the course of the account they will not be looked at more as a load which weighs on the hero. But especially it is released from its hatred against God.

Gauvain and Orgeluse - release of the Castle Wonder (books X-XIII)

The combat of Gauvain against Lischoys Gwelljus

Initially, Gauvain sees the castle which is on the edge of a river and he notices with the windows the women who live it. The reason which it has to remain there is its unfinished love for Orgeluse. It is there that it have to acquire, as she wishes it, right to re-examine it while fighting against the knight Lischoys Gwelljus while she is already on the boat which must lead it towards Ground Wonder. For that Orgeluse makes use of a reprimand launched to the spectators to encourage Gauvain to act. This reprimand already makes it possible to suppose that the action will move in this direction.

At the Plippalinot frontier runner

The victory that Gauvain gains over Lischoys makes, certainly, under the eye of the young girls of the castle although it takes place in the normal world. While crossing the river, Gauvain transgresses the boundary line between the World of Arthur and Terre Wonder. The frontier runner which leads it calls Plippalinot and thereafter he speaks in Gauvain de Terre Wonder after having invited it at his place; he describes it as an incomparable place of adventure. As very interested Gauvain questions the frontier runner on Château Wonder, this one starts by refusing of him to speak about it because it is afraid to lead it to its loss.

The parallel is manifest between the obstinacy of Gauvain and the control of Parzival. This one did not raise the question which it should have raised, that one questions where it should have been keep silent.

When Gauvain obtains finally the answer, Plippalinot teaches him that in the final analysis it will have to fight. Then, it provides the knight an old heavy shield then gives him the name of the country of which it describes the great dangers. Then it details the miracles of the Bed Wonder, i.e. magic bed. In addition to the shield Plippalinot still gives to Gauvain wise councils which will appear very useful thereafter: Gauvain must buy something with the merchant who is held in front of the doors and give him his horse in guard, with the castle it will have always to carry its weapons on him and to lie down on the Bed Wonder in order to be able to remain on its guards.

Thereafter, it is exactly what Gauvain will do.

Gauvain in the merchant

Arrived at the Gauvain castle realizes that it does not have what to pay the goods that one proposes to him. At least the merchant proposes to him it to take care on his horse so that it tries his chance. Then, Gauvain enters by the door and penetrates in the castle without nobody preventing it. The immense interior court is deserted, as also the remainder of the castle. The ladies which are with the castle do not have the right to be held near him for the combat; this is why it cannot as it was generally the case in the preceding combat, to seek its force in the courtly love. As for example in the battle in front of Bearosche it had made use of the courtly love of Obilot. Then such a love was its protection and its shield, which it symbolically expressed by attaching a sleeve of the clothing of the lady on one of its combat shields. Besides one is struck to see that such a use plays in the adventures of courtly love of Gauvain a crucial role.

Adventures

The first obstacle which Gauvain with the castle must overcome is the parquet floor, as smooth as a mirror, which was designed by Klingsor in person, but then, and especially, it is the bewitched Bed Wonder.

This smooth parquet floor seems to symbolize the particularly dangerous way which leads to the courtly love, which is symbolized as it should be by the bed. The first time that Gauvain tries to reach it, it is a lamentable failure. It is finally by a rather bold jump that it arrives there. One cannot refuse with this scene certain comic, but it is that it symbolizes, and that can be partly amusing, the efforts which make many men who démènent themselves around the courtly love.

Here now that the bed, as if it had become mad, is put at the continuation of Gauvain through the room, the knight protects himself with the shield and addresses a prayer to God. Now Gauvain is in a situation which usually appears desperate for somebody, because it cannot anything in such a situation. Perhaps this episode draws the attention to the character humiliating and dangerous Courtly love. However, as Gauvain already tried out all the demonstrations of them, it manages to control the bed. The dangers despite everything are not overcome yet. Once it finished some with the bed, Gauvain must still triumph over two attacks, the first of five hundred slings, the second of five hundred crossbows. What they symbolize now, it is the power of the magic of Klingsor. Against of such adversaries the heavy equipment of the knights does nothing but obstruct, it is made the ordinary combat, and is obviously impotent when it is about the Courtly love. And it is now a giant, wrapped in a fish skin, which comes in the room, and insults Gauvain in the terms more the violent ones and benefits from it to draw its attention to the danger to come. Since this giant without weapons does not appear an adversary worthy of a knight of king Arthur, perhaps this episode aims at introducing a respite in the middle of all these attacks.

It is now a lion which springs brutally on Gauvain and hustles it with force, but the knight succeeds in slicing a leg to him and finally killing it out of a blow of sword in the chest. This combat against the king of the animals symbolizes here, perhaps, the fight of the courteous character against itself. Now Gauvain collapses, wounded and unconscious, on its shield.

But precisely, it is the fact of collapsing on its shield which means that the dangers are finished. The castle is conquered, the magic capacity is broken. The shield which Gauvain in its combat against the lion uses symbolizes at the same time the incarnation of the courteous company and the courtly love. In the fight against the Bed Wonder, on the contrary, the roles are exchanged: the magic bed which incarnates the courtly love is the danger here, and it is the chivalrous spirit of Gauvain which protects it.

Why Gauvain?

Why is this precisely Gauvain which succeeded in leaving unscathed all the dangers of the castle contrary to a great number of other knights, one can explain it very simply: in all the engagements it had what was necessary for him: the experiment in the courtly love and the tactical skill. Moreover, it had the suitable assistances: the heavy shield of oak and the prayer which it was necessary to say to the good moment.

We pass now to the life of Klingsor that the book reveals us by short but many accounts.

Klingsor (duke Terra di Lavoro)

It is the first time that Plippalinot calls of its name Klinschor (or Klingsor) like lord of the country, country dedicated to “the adventure”. Until the conquest of the castle the lord of the manor of Castle Wonder will use his magic. One learns already some important details on king Kramoflanz. Thus, this one to gain the love of the duchess (Orgeluse), killed that which she liked, Zidegast. After such an action the duchess only aspires to kill it in her turn. She had many mercenaries and knights to his service, she sent them to kill Kramoflanz. Among them was the knight Anfortas and it is there, with its service, that it received his wound. It offered to Orgeluse also its splendid stall of merchant (which now is in front of Château Wonder). By fear of the powerful magic of Klingsor, it gave to him the invaluable stall of merchant under the condition which its love and the stall is publicly proposed as the price that would receive the winner of the adventures. By this means Orgeluse wanted to attract Kramoflanz and to send it to death.

However, Kramoflanz is absolutely not in bad relations with Klingsor, since his/her Irot father offered to this last the mountain and the eight miles of ground for the construction of Castle Wonder. This is why Kramoflanz did not see any reason to seize Castle Wonder. Until now, one also learns that Klingsor must have profited from a teaching of the black magic, but that on another side it is a sovereign lord with whom it good manners and the courtesy are not foreign.

As Gauvain could now gain the favor of Orgeluse, it returned to Château Wonder to question wise Arnive about Klingsor. He wanted to know how he would come to end from such a task. By Arnive Gauvain learns that Ground Wonder is not the only area on which Klingsor reigns or reigned. Its country is Ground of Ploughing and it is of the family of the duke of Naples. She adds that Klingsor is duke and that he enjoyed a great regard in his town of Capoue, but by an adulterous love towards the Ibilis queen of Sicily him because much of wrong and finally pushed it to practice the magic. It was surprised by king Ilbert in red-handed with his wife and known this one did not see anything of other to make but castrate it.

Following this insult that one had made him, Klingsor got under way towards the country of Persida, where the magic had more or less been born. It made there its training until he had become a large Master in the magic. The reason for which it had built Château Wonder was revenge. He wanted by there, to destroy the happiness of all the members of the courteous company to be avenged thus for his emasculation. For this revenge it employs all the means which its art of the magic places at its disposal. With the image of its own mutilation and its failure to the service of the courtly love, it reproduces in the adventures of the castle the same dangers. In spite of its consecrated life with the black magic, it always remains until a certain somebody degree the courteous one and one can see it, when it is a question of giving up Ground Wonder in Gauvain. When this one becomes lord of the castle and Master of the country and its richnesses, Klingsor disappears from the area and also from the book.

Comparison between Schastelmarveile and Munsalwäsche

Munsalwäsche in the book it is the castle of God and thus the castle of Graal. Schastelmarveile on the contrary, it is the evil in a pure state. Both exist in “our world” what explains why in us all the good and all the evil coexist. The contradictory personality of Klingsor in is another example. Moreover, Klingsor and Anfortas are confronted a very nearby problem since the courtly love made them fall into a similar distress: both lost the possibility of having a descent.

But while Klingsor was mislaid on the way of the evil and started to implement its revenge against the courtly love by calling upon the black magic, Anfortas on the contrary turns to Graal and borrows the way of penitence.

Legend arthurienne
Parsifal

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