SOMETIME in the latter part of the twelfth century, there was born to a Bavarian family of the lesser nobility a son who was destined to become one of the greatest German medieval poets. Wolfram von Eschenbach became a knight, serving a number of feudal lords, and then, during the early part of the thirteenth century (probably between 1200 and 1210), this knight who claimed that he was illiterate wrote a 25,000-line epic poem that has endured for nearly eight hundred years.
Where Wolfram got the idea for Parzival is a matter that scholars argue. Wolfram says that he did not get it from the French poet Chrétien de Troyes, who wrote a poem around 1180 titled Perceval, which was quite famous at the time. Scholars disagree, pointing to similarities between the two epics. Wolfram says he heard the story from someone called Kyot, but since there is no evidence that such a person ever existed, Kyot may well be a product of Wolfram’s very fertile imagination. His claim of illiteracy probably meant that he did not know Latin or Greek and was, therefore, not a scholar. It is evident that he used as the basis of his poem stories about the Holy Grail in wide circulation at the time, but Wolfram clothed the well-known legend with both humor and a profound seriousness that no other medieval writer quite matched.
Wolfram’s Parzival is in some senses the Percival of the more familiar English tales of the Round Table. He is the boy raised in the wilderness, ignorant of chivalry and the great King Arthur. But in Wolfram’s tale, he is much more than that. He is the innocent fool who through trial, loss of faith, suffering, repentance, and at last, redemption, becomes the Grail Knight he was destined to be.
In this retelling, I have simplified Wolfram’s long poem, leaving out the chapters that tell of his father Gahmuret’s adventures and those of his friend, Sir Gawain. I have also left out Wolfram’s explanation of why he wrote the poem and his commentary on life. Some of this is fun to read and shows the poet’s delightful sense of humor. If you want to read the whole poem as Wolfram wrote it, there is an English translation by A. T. Hatto. It is Professor Hatto’s translation (Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Penguin Classics, 1980) on which this retelling is based.
Why, you may wonder, is it necessary to have yet another story of the Holy Grail? Because Wolfram, I believe, tells the story as no one else has told it. Professor Hatto points to Wolfram’s unique vision in his introduction: “At one point in his poem Wolfram humourously wonders how it is possible for so impecunious a knight as himself to describe such wealth and luxury as he unfolds. We, in our turn, wonder ... how it was possible for a knight of such humble station and education to enshrine in his poetry an understanding of the Christian message deeper and truer than that of all the popes and most of the saints of his day.”
Katherine Paterson’s books have received wide acclaim and have been published in twenty-two languages. Among her many literary honors are two Newbery Medals, for Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved, and two National Book Awards, for The Great Gilly Hopkins and The Master Puppeteer.
Mrs. Paterson has long been interested in the legend of Parzival and used it as the basis of her novel Park’s Quest. She lives in Barre, Vermont, with her husband. The Patersons have four grown children and four grandchil-dren.