by Wolfram Von Eschenbach
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Product Description
Parzival, an Arthurian romance completed by Wolfram von Eschenbach in the first years of the thirteenth century, is one of the foremost works of German literature and a classic that can stand with the great masterpieces of the world. The most important aspects of human existence, worldly and spiritual, are presented in strikingly modern terms against the panorama of battles and tournaments and Parzival's long search for the Grail. The world of knighthood, of love and loyalty and human endeavor despite the cruelty and suffering of life, is constantly mingling with the world of the Grail, affirming the inherent unity between man's temporal condition and his quest for something beyond human existence.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzifal", 2008-08-09
Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzifal" (Penguin Classics) is a must-read for everyone interested in the Medieval Arthurian Grail Romances.
With heavy Alchemical and Astronomical symbolism, and hinting at Middle Eastern contribution to Modern Science and the Arthurian legend, this is a great classic that should belong to every bookshelf in the modern world. A rollicking good yarn about Sir Parzifal's Quest for the Holy Grail! Two thumbs up!Parzival
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
I adore this translation., 2008-05-15
Yes, this is serious literature: a very early 'Bildungsroman' of some historical and cultural import. But it is also delightful, and in places, an absolute scream. Hilarious & entertaining as well as beautiful. And while I've not read other translations (except to note that one in modern German, of which I have read a passage or two, appears to be somewhat dry), I have read big swaths of a published version of the Middle High German original text. The fact that this is a prose translation takes away from the gloriousness of the tale *not one bit*. If you like a good yarn involving knights, their entourages, their quests, and the unusual characters they meet in their wanderings -- read this translation. Hatto comes to the text with a lovely feel for language. And the story moves. You don't have to be a philologist to groove on it.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 A dark mirror into the medieval psyche., 2007-05-30
Wolfram von Eschenbach gives us a glimpse into the fantasy life of the 12th century noble. His romance of Parzival, based on Chretien de Troyes Arthurian works, is the modern day equivalent of an action movie - the plot is unbelievable but the settings, ideas and characters reveal much about the society for which it was produced.
The story tells the tale of how Parsival is born, becomes a knight of the Round Table and ultimately achieves the Grail, which, it turns out, is not Joseph of Arimathea's chalice but is rather a stone. The text does not actually dwell on the description of the Grail, and aside from this oddity, follows the usual myths about the Grail quite closely. And while the Romance is entitled Parzival, he has to share his screen time almost equally with Gawan (Gawaine) who looms large in the book and generally gets all the interesting action.
The Romance is often less than romantic. No stodgy Victorian drama this, it revels in violence, dirt and sexual encounters, often much more explicit than later Arthurian writings. Parzival definitely does not fit the "my strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure" knightly mold. One of his first acts is a rape. Gawan, noble knight that he is, basically falls in love with anything that moves including a girl who is little more than a child. Death and destruction are all part of daily life for these guys and it becomes very difficult to tell the difference between tourneys and battles. Wounds are described in detail, including the unfortunate Lord of the Grail's rather private injury.
The plot largely concerns itself with tourneys and jousts, although there are definitely some interesting moments. The description of the Grail, the mystical Bed Marvelous (translated as Wonder Bed in this version) and the horrifying appearance of the sorceress Cundrie add some magic to the daily grind of hand-to-hand combat.
The Arab world also plays a large role in this novel, revealing a much more complex and enlightened medieval view of Islam than is commonly thought to have existed. Of course, the author seems to think Muslims worship Jupiter but, that aside, several of the main characters are Muslim and they are usually cast in very positive roles. Clearly, being a good knight had little to do with Christianity, and Feirefiz's (Parzival's brother) conversion at the end of the book seems almost an after thought by the author. The author's approach to Christianity is none to orthodox either and Parzival actually denies the existence of God at one point only to be led back to the the truth sometime later by a kindly cleric.
This translation of Parzival, originally written in German, leaves something to be desired. It often seems that the translators attempted to leave the German grammar intact. Perhaps they were seeking to leave an impression in English of the convoluted German sentence structure. Indeed, they often leave footnotes indicating that certain phrases were too tortured to translate directly and they have added information to make them more readable. The end result is that the book reads a bit like the King James Bible if you only modernized the vocabulary and left the grammar alone.
The book is also published in a rather unusual format, a very narrow paperback, with two unattributed illustrations that seem to have been added at random. It also contains a fairly extensive introduction, an extended set of text notes, a list of persons, and a set of family trees. The packaging seems intended for a general audience with some attention to artistic book headings and "Gothic" fonts on maps and elsewhere.
Overall, the story is fascinating both as a tale and as a way to understand how real knights viewed their ideal role models. The translation is tolerable, if difficult. The lack of an index or bibliography would not make this the best book for a scholar but, for fans of Arthurian legends who have the desire to study the early manuscripts and the persistence to get through them, this is a good read.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Spiritually Uplifting, 2007-02-09
Is this the greatest "novel" ever written? - the most beautifully written insight into the threefold nature of mankind via the Grail journeys of Pazival, Gawain, and Feirefiz.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Beneath the medieval skin, 2006-09-03
Hatto gives his usual accurate, precise and elegant English prose rendering of this classic German epic poem of the early 13th century.
Wolfram's Parzival is a more coherent and well-structured narrative than the Niebelungenlied, and is more courtly and refined than the Icelandic sagas of the same era. It is a lively, colorful insight into 13th century European culture. This, along with its place in the evolution of the Arthurian and Grail legends, is its main source of interest to modern readers.
Wolfram is particularly knowledgeable about military affairs and you can learn a lot from this story about what it was like (or supposed to be like) to be a knight at the time.
The Grail of this story is a stone. In Chretien's earlier story, on which Wolfram's is based, the Grail was a bowl. In other stories, it doubles as the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and the vessel used to catch the dripping blood at the crucifixion. In our own time it has served as a boon to conspiracy theorists and an excuse to cast Sean Connery in an Indiana Jones movie. Next...well, who knows what's next?
Parzival combines folk traditions - the Grail's power of providing unlimited food and drink is a favorite folk motif, most famously with the magic porridge pot - with knightly adventure, and adds a dash of mysticism. It is no more than a dash, and I think subsequent commentators have read too much into this aspect. Certainly it is a coming-of-age story and a tale of redemption, but the spiritual edifice that has since been built around it seems to me a bit of a stretch. At the time of writing this review, youth counselors in Britain are using Parzival as an allegory to teach the true meaning of manhood. Good luck to them.
Although Parzival does not have the continuity errors of the Niebelungenlied, individual sentences are sometimes mangled beyond comprehension. Presumably they sounded more acceptable when recited as poetry. Hatto wisely avoids the temptation to tidy these passages up and translates them warts and all.
History books can only take us so far in an understanding of a previous age. To get beneath the skin, to understand the anxieties, hopes, prejudices and beliefs of the people who lived then, we must share the stories that they told. In Parzival, we see how medieval man related to his own masculinity, his fellow man, his womenfolk and his god.
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