Page 165, line 5, _and seq._--'_Then he spake to the knights of
Monsalväsch_.' Those readers who are familiar with Wagner's _Parzival_
will see in this speech of Anfortas to the knights, and his attempt
to win death for himself by shutting his eyes to the Grail, the germ
of the scene in the Grail Temple in Act III. of the Drama. It will be
noted that _here_ Anfortas does not injure any one but himself by this
attempt at self-destruction. Titurel is still alive, cf. p. 178. It
is noteworthy that the knights still await the advent of the promised
Healer; though, as we gather from Trevrezent's speech, Book IX. p. 278,
'The knight, he hath come, and hath left us,' they were aware that
_Parzival_ was he, and had failed to fulfil his mission.
Page 166, line 49--'_Teriak_.' Cf. Book IX. p. 278, Ambra=Amber.
Page 167, line 67, _and seq._--'_Carbuncle and Balas ruby_,' _etc._
It has before been remarked that the belief in the virtue of precious
stones was very real and very general in the Middle Ages. Similar lists
are given by various writers, Albertus Magnus among them; and San Marte
remarks that, if this list is compared with mediæval writings, it will
be found that the names have not been put together in a haphazard
fashion, but that the special virtue ascribed to each stone has a
direct bearing on Anfortas' sufferings. _Jewels_, in the strict sense
of the term, these stones are not exclusively, _e.g._ we find Asbestos
and Pyrites among the list; the expression 'precious stones' was freely
construed in those days. The Latin equivalent of all these names can be
found in writings of the period, but it would scarcely be interesting
to give a minute description and identification.
Page 169, line 119--'_And e'en as was there the custom_.' Cf. Book V.
p. 132.
Page 169, line 130--'_O'er-long have I waited_.' Anfortas' speech to
Parzival is curious; some critics have opined that he alone was not
aware of the lately read Grail writing, and of Parzival's election to
the Grail kingdom, and was, therefore, in doubt as to whether or not he
was the destined Deliverer. But, if that were the case, how did he come
not only to know Parzival's name, but to lay such stress upon it ('If
_Parzival_ men shall call thee, _then_, etc.'), _i.e._ 'If thou art
indeed the chosen ruler of these knights, then exercise thine authority
on my behalf.' We learn from Book IX. p. 271, that the _name_ of the
elect knights appeared on the Grail. If Anfortas had learnt it from
Trevrezent, the only other source of information he could have had,
he would have had no doubt of the identity of the promised Deliverer
with the knight who had already paid an abortive visit to the Castle;
as it is, he recognises him at once, but is in doubt whether he is
the 'Parzival' named by the Grail. The meaning of his speech seems to
be that Anfortas was unaware how far Parzival himself was acquainted
with the _rôle_ assigned to him, and feared to transgress the Grail's
commandment, and risk the promised healing by saying too much.
Page 169, line 141--'_Now say where the Grail It lieth?_' It is
remarkable that though Parzival is well aware of the nature of the
question which he is to put to Anfortas, and of the happy results which
will follow (p. 159), yet he fully realises that this healing can only
be brought about by the blessing of God; it is as God's Messenger, and
not in his own power, that he speaks. He feels himself, and wishes the
knights to regard him, merely as the instrument in God's hand; there is
no trace of self-assertion or presumption in his action, the grace of
humility has been fully won. The beautiful touch in lines 155-56 seems
to show that to Anfortas, also, the long ordeal issued in distinct
spiritual gain. It is worth noting that, from this point onwards,
Anfortas is spoken of as a knight in the prime of life, worthy to be
compared in skill and prowess with his nephew, Parzival, and excelling
him in physical beauty; whereas Trevrezent, who was considerably the
younger (cf. Book IX. p. 275), is always spoken of as an old man. This
is, of course, due to the youth-preserving powers of the Grail (cf.
Book IX. p. 270), so Répanse-de-Schoie, who had been in the service of
the Grail from her childhood, would have retained the appearance of a
young girl, and there is nothing surprising, therefore, in Feirefis
becoming enamoured of her beauty.
Page 178, line 147--'_By the mouth of His saint, Sylvester_.' An
allusion to a well-known story told of S. Sylvester; how when he was
defending Christianity against a Jew, in the presence of the Emperor
Constantine, he restored to life, by the invocation of Christ, a steer
which the Jew had slain by whispering the most Holy Name into its ear,
but had failed to revivify by the same means.
Page 170, line 168--'_The wood when they fought of old_.' Cf. Book VI.
p. 160 and _seq._ This reunion of Parzival and Kondwiramur on the very
spot where he had been overcome by the mystic love-trance is a most
poetical feature of Wolfram's version, and one found nowhere else.
Page 171, line 183--'_Greater marvel I ne'er may see_.' Cf. Book IX. p.
267. This passage, with its practical unsaying of much that Trevrezent
has said in Book IX., is extremely difficult of explanation. That
there is a distinct discrepancy, not to say contradiction, between the
statements of Book IX. and those of Book XVI. is undoubtedly the fact;
the most probable solution appears to be that suggested in Excursus
C at p. 194 of this volume; _i.e._ the original interpretation, that
of Kiot, was purely religious, and it was that which Wolfram in Book
IX. was mainly following; he himself, however, had grafted another
meaning on to that originally suggested, that of salvation by fidelity
to the knightly ideal, the power of the _unverzagter mannes muot_.
By the time Wolfram had reached the end of the poem, he found that
his interpretation had dominated that of Kiot, he had practically
made Parzival do that which Trevrezent says is impossible ('Wouldst
thou force thy God with thine anger?' Book IX. p. 267. 'Thou by thy
wrath hast won blessing'), and this passage seems to be an attempt to
harmonise these two conflicting ideas. It is certainly not easy of
interpretation, for on the face of it, while Trevrezent is asserting
the unchanging nature of God's decrees, as illustrated by the history
of the rebel angels, he is also implying that Parzival himself has been
the object of special and peculiar favour on the part of the Deity, and
that the foreordained course of events has in his case been at least
modified.
Page 172, line 213--'_Duke Kiot of Katelangen_.' Cf. Book IV. p. 107,
and Book IX. p. 274.
Page 174, line 277--'_When many a year had flown_.' This is the only
indication we have of the eventual recovery of Parzival's inheritance.
From the emphasis laid upon the episode in Book III. one would have
expected to find Parzival himself making some effort for the recovery
of his kingdoms, but he never seems to have done so (cf. Notes to Book
III. pp. 308, 309).
Page 174, line 302--'_Schoysiané, the dead maid's mother_.' In
Wolfram's poem, _Titurel_, we find exactly the reverse of this
statement; _i.e._ Siguné, whose mother died at her birth (as we are
repeatedly told), was given into the care of the mother of Kondwiramur,
and the two children were brought up together till Siguné was five
years old, when Herzeleide persuaded Duke Kiot to transfer his daughter
to her charge. How this discrepancy arose is not clear; Wolfram may
perhaps have forgotten what he had said in _Titurel_, or he may have
followed his French source.
Page 174. line 306--'_Nor my tale like the bow shall be bended_.' Cf.
Book V. p. 137.
Page 175, line 310--'_A Templar of Patrigalt_.' Cf. Book II. p. 39.
Page 175, line 319--'_Garschiloie of Greenland_.' Cf. Book V. p. 144.
Greenland here is not to be understood as the Greenland we know, but
as part of Norway. The Grail maidens have not been individually named
before, though the Countess of Tenabroc and the daughter of Jernis were
mentioned in Book V. pp. 133, 134. Florie of Lünel may be the daughter
of the Count of _Nonel_ named in conjunction with Jernis.
Page 177, line 373--'_Claret, Morass, or Sinopel_.' Morass seems to
have been a wine made from mulberries; Sinopel, wine mixed with sweet
syrups.
Page 178, line 411--'_The Tourney hath fashions five_.' Cf. Note to
Book II. 'The Tourney.'
Page 178, line 434--'_If he be a heathen_.' This inability of the
unbaptized to behold the Grail, and the renewal of the power of the
stone every Good Friday are the two most direct proofs of the Christian
nature of the Talisman to be found in the poem. As remarked in Note
to Book IX., Wolfram never seems really to connect the Grail with the
Passion of our Lord.
Page 179, line 441--'_If I, for your sake, be baptizèd_.' It should be
noted that Feirefis is not in the least influenced by any religious
motive in seeking Baptism; throughout, as in the combat with Parzival
in Book XV., it is _Love_ that is his guiding impulse.
Page 181, line 501--'_God is Man_,' _etc._ Cf. p. 171 where Trevrezent
makes use of exactly the same words.
Page 181, line 506--'_Each tree from the water draweth_,' _etc._ This
and the following lines are inscribed on the fountain erected in 1860
to the memory of the poet, in the market-place of Ober-Eschenbach.
Page 182, line 526--'_The Templar whom God henceforward_.' In the face
of the antiquity of the Swan-knight legend, it is impossible to regard
this as more than an ingenious attempt on the part either of Wolfram or
of his French authority to account for Lohengrin's prohibition of the
question, cf. Note on 'Lohengrin.'
Page 183, line 562--'_Anfortas, he sent a message_.' Cf. Book IX. p.
285.
Page 183, line 566--'_Loehprisein_,' Book VIII. and Note.
'Loehtamreis,' Book XII. and Note.
Page 183, line 580--'_Camelot_.' This is the only mention in this poem
of the town so well known in other versions of the Arthurian legend.
Page 184, line 589--'_Prester John_.' The belief in a Christian kingdom
in the East, ruled over by a king who was at the same time a priest was
very widely spread in the Middle Ages, but it is very curious to find
it thus connected with the Grail legend. Simrock takes this connection
to be a confirmation of his theory, that the Grail myth was originally
closely connected with St. John the Baptist. According to _Der jüngere
Titurel_, a poem which, professedly written by Wolfram and long
supposed to be his, is now known to be the work of a certain Albert
von Scharffenburg, the Grail with its guardians, Parzival, Lohengrin,
Kondwiramur, and all the Templars, eventually left Monsalväsch, and
found a home in the domains of Prester John, but the story seems to be
due rather to the imagination of the writer than to any real legendary
source.
Page 184, line 610, _and seq._--'_The Lohengrin myth_.' This legend of
a supernatural benefactor or deliverer, who arrives at the land which
he is to benefit in a boat, miraculously guided, and leaves it in
the same way, is extremely widely spread, and may be regarded rather
as the property of the Aryan race as a whole, than of one nation in
particular. In its earliest forms, such as the legend of Sceaf among
the Anglo-Saxons, and Höni in the Faroe Isles, the hero is undoubtedly
of divine origin, and the second of these seems to be the first in
which the swan element is introduced. The original signification
appears to be that of a 'year-myth,' symbolising the conflict between
the seasons; the god of spring first overcoming, and then in his turn
being overcome by, the power of winter. Bloete, in an article on the
subject in the _Zeitschrift für Deutsches Alterthum_, explains the
connection with the swan by the fact that this is a migratory bird,
and that in the days when the lower part of the Rhine formed a marshy
Delta, swans frequented these lowlands in large numbers on their way
to, and from, their summer quarters in Northern Europe. In this way
the birds were the heralds alike of the coming and of the departing
light and warmth, and became associated with the embodied genius of
spring and summer. It is certainly a curious fact that the legend of
the Swan-knight in its developed form is distinctly to be traced to
these countries. The original association with the god of light, Bloete
thinks, was the work of Keltic fancy, and by them imparted to their
Batavian successors in the lowlands of the Rhine. By the thirteenth
century, the story had clothed itself in distinctly chivalric form, the
hero was no longer a god, but a knight, and in this shape the legend
became connected with the origin of more than one noble family of the
day; notably with that of Godfrey de Bouillon, the Crusader. It is
noticeable in this connection that Gerbert, one of the continuators
of Chrêtien, has a passage prophesying that of Perceval's race shall
spring the 'Swan-knight and the Deliverer of the Holy Sepulchre.'
This passage, together with the fact that Wolfram connects Lohengrin
with Brabant, seems to indicate that the German poet was not the first
to connect the legend of the Swan-knight with that of the Grail,
but found the story in his French source; though he certainly gives
the earliest version of the legend in the shape in which, through
Wagner's _Lohengrin_, it is familiar to us to-day. A more prolonged
and elaborate account of Lohengrin's adventures is given in _Der
jüngere Titurel_ already referred to; here the lady is the Duchess
of Lizaborye, and the catastrophe is brought about by the advice of
a treacherous maid, who persuades the Duchess that if she cuts off,
roasts, and eats a portion of her husband's flesh, he will be unable
to leave her. In pursuance of this intention, armed knights break into
Lohengrin's chamber at night, and in the struggle with them, though
overcoming his assailants, he is himself slain. The unhappy wife dies
of grief, and the name of the country is changed from Lizaborye to
Lothringen (Lorraine) in memory of Lohengrin. (Those familiar with the
Wagner Drama will note the skill with which Wagner has combined these
two versions of the legend.)
In the forbidden question we probably have a surviving testimony to
the originally divine nature of the hero; it is a well-known feature
of such legends that a mortal wife wedded to a divine husband may not
inquire too closely into that husband's nature, _e.g._ the myths of
Jupiter and Semele, and of Eros and Psyche. The question therefore
probably belongs to the original form of the story, and the passage on
p. 182 is merely, as suggested above, an ingenious attempt to explain a
feature which puzzled the later compilers.
Page 186, line 661--'_Here Herr Erec should speak_.' An allusion to
Hartmann's _Erec_, so often referred to. The hero forbids his wife
to speak to him, she breaks the silence in order to warn him of an
impending danger, and is punished by him for so doing.
Page 186, line 663--'_If Chrêtien of Troyes_,' _etc._ Here for the
first time Wolfram gives us clearly to understand that he knew
Chrêtien's Grail poem, but deliberately preferred to follow Kiot's'
version, to which he has made frequent allusions. If Wolfram's
statement is to be accepted as it stands, we must perforce conclude
that both the first two books and the last three (of which Chrêtien
has no trace) were in Kiot's poem, '_To the end_, the Provençal told
it.' Certainly Wolfram himself does not wish us to consider that any
part of the tale was due to his own invention, but rather that he was
throughout faithfully adhering to lines already laid down. The question
of the connection between Chrêtien and Wolfram will be found fully
discussed in Excursus B.
FINIS
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press
Transcriber's Notes:
Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were
silently corrected.
Punctuation normalized.
Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.
Italics markup is enclosed in _underscores_.
End of Project Gutenberg's Parzival (vol. 2 of 2), by Wolfram von Eschenback