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Parzival and Titurel
Written in the first decade of the thirteenth century, Parzival is the greatest of the medieval Grail romances. It tells of Parzival's growth from youthful folly to knighthood at the court of King Arthur, and of his quest for the Holy Grail. Exuberant and gothic in its telling, and profoundly moving, Parzival has inspired and influenced works as diverse as Wagner's Parsifal and Lohengrin, Terry Gilliam's film The Fisher King, and Umberto Eco's Bandolino.
This fine translation, the first English version for over 25 years, conveys the power of this complex, wide-ranging medieval masterpiece. The introduction places Eschenbach's work in the wider context of the development of the Arthurian romance and of the Grail legend. This edition also includes an index to proper names and a genealogical table, and is the first to combine Parzival with the fragments of Titurel.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
This fine translation, the first English version for over 25 years, conveys the power of this complex, wide-ranging medieval masterpiece. The introduction places Eschenbach's work in the wider context of the development of the Arthurian romance and of the Grail legend. This edition also includes an index to proper names and a genealogical table, and is the first to combine Parzival with the fragments of Titurel.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
415 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2004
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About the author
Wolfram von Eschenbach
179 books62 followersWolfram von Eschenbach was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of his time. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry.
Little is known of Wolfram's life. There are no historical documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In Parzival he talks of wir Beier ("we Bavarians") and the dialect of his works is East Franconian. This and a number of geographical references have resulted in the present-day Wolframs-Eschenbach, previously Obereschenbach, near Ansbach in Bavaria, being officially designated as his birthplace. However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems - there are at least four other places named Eschenbach in present-day Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of Bavaria in Wolfram's time.
The arms shown in the Manesse manuscript come from the imagination of a 14th-century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in Parzival, and have no heraldic connection with Wolfram.
Wolfram's work indicates a number of possible patrons (most reliably Hermann I of Thuringia), which suggests that he served at a number of courts during his life. In his Parzival he claims he is illiterate and recorded the work by dictation, though the claim is treated with scepticism by scholars.
Wolfram is best known today for his Parzival, sometimes regarded as the greatest of all German epics from that time. Based on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal, it is the first extant work in German to have as its subject the Holy Grail. In the poem, Wolfram's narrator expresses disdain for Chrétien's (unfinished) version of the tale, and states that his source was a poet from Provence called Kyot. Some scholars believe Wolfram might have meant Guiot de Provins (though none of the latter's surviving works relate to the themes of Parzival), however others believe Kyot was simply a literary device invented by Wolfram to explain his deviations from Chrétien's version.
Wolfram is the author of two other narrative works: the unfinished Willehalm and the fragmentary Titurel. These were both composed after Parzival, and Titurel mentions the death of Hermann I, which dates it firmly after 1217. Wolfram's nine surviving songs, five of which are dawn-songs, are regarded as masterpieces of Minnesang.
Little is known of Wolfram's life. There are no historical documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In Parzival he talks of wir Beier ("we Bavarians") and the dialect of his works is East Franconian. This and a number of geographical references have resulted in the present-day Wolframs-Eschenbach, previously Obereschenbach, near Ansbach in Bavaria, being officially designated as his birthplace. However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems - there are at least four other places named Eschenbach in present-day Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of Bavaria in Wolfram's time.
The arms shown in the Manesse manuscript come from the imagination of a 14th-century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in Parzival, and have no heraldic connection with Wolfram.
Wolfram's work indicates a number of possible patrons (most reliably Hermann I of Thuringia), which suggests that he served at a number of courts during his life. In his Parzival he claims he is illiterate and recorded the work by dictation, though the claim is treated with scepticism by scholars.
Wolfram is best known today for his Parzival, sometimes regarded as the greatest of all German epics from that time. Based on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal, it is the first extant work in German to have as its subject the Holy Grail. In the poem, Wolfram's narrator expresses disdain for Chrétien's (unfinished) version of the tale, and states that his source was a poet from Provence called Kyot. Some scholars believe Wolfram might have meant Guiot de Provins (though none of the latter's surviving works relate to the themes of Parzival), however others believe Kyot was simply a literary device invented by Wolfram to explain his deviations from Chrétien's version.
Wolfram is the author of two other narrative works: the unfinished Willehalm and the fragmentary Titurel. These were both composed after Parzival, and Titurel mentions the death of Hermann I, which dates it firmly after 1217. Wolfram's nine surviving songs, five of which are dawn-songs, are regarded as masterpieces of Minnesang.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 4, 2024
The poem centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival and his long quest for the Holy Grail following his initial failure to achieve it.
Parzival begins with the knightly adventures of Parzival's father, Gahmuret, his marriage to Herzeloyde, and the birth of Parzival. The story continues as Parzival meets three elegant knights, decides to seek King Arthur, and continues a spiritual and physical search for the Grail. A long section is devoted to Parzival's friend Gawan and his adventures defending himself from a false murder charge and winning the hand of the maiden Orgeluse. Among the most striking elements of the work are its emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, sympathy and the quest for spirituality. A major theme in Parzival is love: heroic acts of chivalry are inspired by true love, which is ultimately fulfilled in marriage.
Wolfram's Parzival was an adaptation of the unfinished French romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, by Chrétien de Troyes. Titurel provides the back-stories of Wolfram's characters, principally the wounded Grail-king Titurel and the tragic lovers Sigune and Schionatulander. Titurel was written some time after 1217, as indicated by its mention of the death of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia, which occurred that year. It survives in three fragments and in Albrecht's Jüngere Titurel. The fragments primarily deal with the love between the young knight Schionatulander and the princess Sigune, the granddaughter of Titurel and a cousin of Parzival. Like Parzival the poems focus on the relationship between secular and spiritual obligations.
Parzival begins with the knightly adventures of Parzival's father, Gahmuret, his marriage to Herzeloyde, and the birth of Parzival. The story continues as Parzival meets three elegant knights, decides to seek King Arthur, and continues a spiritual and physical search for the Grail. A long section is devoted to Parzival's friend Gawan and his adventures defending himself from a false murder charge and winning the hand of the maiden Orgeluse. Among the most striking elements of the work are its emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, sympathy and the quest for spirituality. A major theme in Parzival is love: heroic acts of chivalry are inspired by true love, which is ultimately fulfilled in marriage.
Wolfram's Parzival was an adaptation of the unfinished French romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail, by Chrétien de Troyes. Titurel provides the back-stories of Wolfram's characters, principally the wounded Grail-king Titurel and the tragic lovers Sigune and Schionatulander. Titurel was written some time after 1217, as indicated by its mention of the death of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia, which occurred that year. It survives in three fragments and in Albrecht's Jüngere Titurel. The fragments primarily deal with the love between the young knight Schionatulander and the princess Sigune, the granddaughter of Titurel and a cousin of Parzival. Like Parzival the poems focus on the relationship between secular and spiritual obligations.
September 17, 2019
Minu arvamuse leiab blogist https://triinuraamatud.wordpress.com/...
March 17, 2013
I haven't the least doubt that attempting to render medieval German verse in modern prose is extremely difficult, but still, this is a laughably horrible attempt. At the very least, a translation should be readable, and this version of Parzival is so stilted, awkward, and full of howlers that it is torment to read. The translator seems to have made every effort to represent every single word of Parzival in modern English, regardless of any sort of consideration of flow and readability. For example: "Wretchedly, he spoke these words: ‘How my anchor’s point has now gripped land’s harbour in grief!’" Nifty image, but not exactly idiomatic English. Or, "When the next day dawned they all agreed, the inner and the outer army, all those equipped for combative defiance there, young or old, timid or bold, that they should not joust." Combative defiance? Really? And a little later, this fine line: "The queen then took, without delay, those red, fallow tips—I mean her tits’ beaklets—these she pressed into his little gob." How romantic. Later on, "That land’s lady wetted herself with her heart’s sorrow’s dew; her eyes rained down upon the boy. She knew how to hold to a woman’s loyalty. Her mouth knew full well how to form both sighs and smiles. Her mirth drowned at grief’s ford." I don't even want to know what was supposed to have been described here. Honestly, I think Google Translate could do a better job.
In a recent New York Review article (The Mystery of Translation), the poet W. S. Merwin observes about translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
"But the alliterative pattern that was the convention used by the unknown original author sounds wearisome to us, and I wanted to see whether I could get closer to a rhythmic sound that would keep the audience, for I was assuming that the original audiences listened before they read--if they could read at all. ...the version I produced is an attempt to bring into our hearing some of the original excitement of the story."
Understood that Richard Barber is not a poet, and is probably an excellent scholar of medieval German. But he has done readers no service at all by rendering an already obscure work into ungainly, unreadable English prose.
In a recent New York Review article (The Mystery of Translation), the poet W. S. Merwin observes about translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
"But the alliterative pattern that was the convention used by the unknown original author sounds wearisome to us, and I wanted to see whether I could get closer to a rhythmic sound that would keep the audience, for I was assuming that the original audiences listened before they read--if they could read at all. ...the version I produced is an attempt to bring into our hearing some of the original excitement of the story."
Understood that Richard Barber is not a poet, and is probably an excellent scholar of medieval German. But he has done readers no service at all by rendering an already obscure work into ungainly, unreadable English prose.
June 1, 2024
I must defend this translation a little, even if I cannot compare to the Deutsch. The one-star review seems not a criticism of the translation’s level of accuracy but of the prose style that is presented in English.
This is the first version of Parzival I read, and although there is peculiar phrasing I had no struggle at all and found it to have a wonderful character in its language. it became, and is once again, a very dear book to me in the transmission of symbol that moves deeper and higher than any of the other Grail writings.
Later, I bought a physical copy of the Penguin edition (which I am re-reading now), and while the translation is much more plain I found it less emotive, somehow less illustrative - a perfectly fine translation, I’m sure, but lacking something that gave a zeal to this later edition.
The translator here said himself that this edition would be more of a challenge to read than the rather tamed versions which had come before, and that (as I cannot verify in any way) it is written as to be closer to Wolfram’s apparently striking and strange use of Deutsch.
whatever is true in such regard, and without being linguistically equipped to make objective judgement, I will just say that of the two translations I have read (this and that from A. T. Hatto), this one was several levels more enjoyable. both versions convey meaning and symbol perfectly well and either is fine for the sake of studying the story, but this one just feels more alive and will be the one I read in any future journeys back to what should not be considered merely story but to my mind should be taken similarly to scripture in what these pages may teach if we are to glean what really was being gifted to us.
In any edition, this to me is THE Grail tale. The defining expansion of Perceval, the truest transmission of the wisdom that unfortunately pales a little in the more clearly Christian renditions of Boron or the Vulgate Cycle.
This is the first version of Parzival I read, and although there is peculiar phrasing I had no struggle at all and found it to have a wonderful character in its language. it became, and is once again, a very dear book to me in the transmission of symbol that moves deeper and higher than any of the other Grail writings.
Later, I bought a physical copy of the Penguin edition (which I am re-reading now), and while the translation is much more plain I found it less emotive, somehow less illustrative - a perfectly fine translation, I’m sure, but lacking something that gave a zeal to this later edition.
The translator here said himself that this edition would be more of a challenge to read than the rather tamed versions which had come before, and that (as I cannot verify in any way) it is written as to be closer to Wolfram’s apparently striking and strange use of Deutsch.
whatever is true in such regard, and without being linguistically equipped to make objective judgement, I will just say that of the two translations I have read (this and that from A. T. Hatto), this one was several levels more enjoyable. both versions convey meaning and symbol perfectly well and either is fine for the sake of studying the story, but this one just feels more alive and will be the one I read in any future journeys back to what should not be considered merely story but to my mind should be taken similarly to scripture in what these pages may teach if we are to glean what really was being gifted to us.
In any edition, this to me is THE Grail tale. The defining expansion of Perceval, the truest transmission of the wisdom that unfortunately pales a little in the more clearly Christian renditions of Boron or the Vulgate Cycle.
August 26, 2016
A good book, if slightly confusing. Chivalric romance tends to be confusing anyway, as the authors (or, sometimes, copyists) try to shoehorn in everything they know. Names come thick and fast, characters die in their first outings, and it can be a bit much. Narrative consistency not being an issue for writers in that period, there is an awful lot of 'oh, and by the way, although I didn't tell you this before, this is true' as they strive to close a narrative loop. Also, the amount of sex mentioned might surprise you if you aren't familiar with how frisky medieval folk can be. You find yourself, after certain passages, singing 'bow-chicka-wow-wow' in the most infantile manner. But really, this is quite long if you *aren't* specifically interested in medieval or Arthurian lit. Not a page turner by any means, it's still a good thing to read if you want to understand European lit.
June 9, 2022
read as homework for wagner next week (although i skipped titurel). i started out with hatto's penguin translation before jumping over to this slightly more modern one. both have the same problem in that they're scholars efforts to crib literal meaning for students struggling with the original. this is a worthwhile aim but leaves us laypeople wanting, there is no poet's englishing of wolfram into lively language.
being staidly devoted to getting across the base meaning this is mostly "sir so-and-so rode over here and over there, then ran into sir whatshisname, not recognising each other they jousted, and were bitterly brought to tears when they realised who the other was after fatally injuring each other"
being staidly devoted to getting across the base meaning this is mostly "sir so-and-so rode over here and over there, then ran into sir whatshisname, not recognising each other they jousted, and were bitterly brought to tears when they realised who the other was after fatally injuring each other"
January 28, 2009
I honestly don't know what to make of this. Somehow everything I understood in Chrétien, refracted through Wolfram, became confusing: why does Parzival disappear for almost the entire narrative? What's Gawain's point? Why the proliferation and names? What accounts for this paratactic aesthetic? I know it'd be fun to teach the authorial intrusions, and I'm sure the German is itself unbearably dense, probably the sort of thing that'd reward a life's attention. But lord knows I'll never put this on a syllabus: it's just too smart for me.
March 30, 2021
I read this, specifically Parzival's story, for a class on Race and Racisms in/and the Middle Ages! The dialogues contained within, especially between Parzival and Ferefiz, offer a disturbing if perplexing insight into medieval thoughts on those of mixed heritage, as well as questioning aspects of courtly love and devotion.
Make liberal use of the family tree chart and notes in the back, especially if you've not read other Arthurian or Grail romances recently! They offer a lot of help, as does the introduction.
Make liberal use of the family tree chart and notes in the back, especially if you've not read other Arthurian or Grail romances recently! They offer a lot of help, as does the introduction.
September 30, 2020
This translation is irredeemably bad. Don't buy this edition, or waste your time even checking it out
Read
July 6, 2024Parzifal: first decade of 13th
Titurel: after 1217
dnfs
April 4, 2025read bits and pieces for a uni course but did not go through 50% or more so I don’t feel justified in giving it a proper rating or shelving it amongst my reads. it’ll just sit here instead
April 2, 2012
Wolfram's narrating persona endears itself through a Malory-like enthusiasm about both secular chivalry and the mysteries of the grail, both in the beginning part (not in Chretien) regarding Parzival's father and his first marriage, and throughout the crib from Chretien. When he picks up afterwards, though he starts out strong with some good railing against God from Parzival, we then get just a really long fight between Parzival and his heathen brother, some talk about pronouns, and, most dumb, Cundrie the sorceress just shows up and tells Parzival that if he asks Anfortas his question now he'll be the grail king. All in all, past the Chretien part, you get less mystery that Flannery O'Connor puts into most hats, and why would you read Parzival if you didn't want mystery?
April 24, 2013
A fascinating and infuriating book at the same time. A 'best seller' in the 12th century, it gives a good insight into the ways of thinking of the literate classes at the time. This is a long text, so not for the fainthearted and it can see repetitive at times. But it raises a lot of interesting issues, that I wouldn't have even considered, such as issues around racial tolerance. Although of uneven pace where the pace picks up there are some great section. This one is for those who want to study medieval life (as described in fiction) seriously.
July 18, 2014
Charming and wild, and I love epic poetry anyway. Started reading to prepare for going to Wagner's opera, but nothing can prepare one for that!
May 3, 2017
:(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews