Foreword and Chapter 1 Summary

In the Foreword, the editor explains that Parzival is Wolfram von Eschenbach's retelling and conclusion of Chretien de Troyes' "Perceval", which is the earliest extant narrative of the Holy Grail. Wolfram was an unfree knight, bound to the service of a lord, but able to change his patron. Some topical references allow his "Parzival" to be date to the early 1200s. Wolfram's dense, sententious style makes heavy demands on his audience. In chapter one, Wolfram introduces his retelling of a tale "of great fidelity, of inborn womanhood and manly virtue so straight as never was bent in any test of hardness" (p. 16). Custom dictates that the eldest brother inherits the entirety of his father's estate, so when Gahmuret's father, the King of Anjou, dies, an assembly of princes petition the new king to show his love for Gahmuret as...