Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Possibilities
- 2 Gahmuret (Books I and II)
- 3 Parzival's youth (Books III and IV)
- 4 Parzival's failure (Books V and VI)
- 5 Gawan (Books VII–VIII and X–XIII)
- 6 Parzival and Trevrizent (Book IX)
- 7 Parzival's success (Books XIV–XVI)
- 8 Conclusions
- Appendix A The recognition of Parzival at Munsalvæsche and by Trevrizent
- Appendix B Trevrizent's ‘lie’
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Parzival's youth (Books III and IV)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Possibilities
- 2 Gahmuret (Books I and II)
- 3 Parzival's youth (Books III and IV)
- 4 Parzival's failure (Books V and VI)
- 5 Gawan (Books VII–VIII and X–XIII)
- 6 Parzival and Trevrizent (Book IX)
- 7 Parzival's success (Books XIV–XVI)
- 8 Conclusions
- Appendix A The recognition of Parzival at Munsalvæsche and by Trevrizent
- Appendix B Trevrizent's ‘lie’
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
These two opening Books of the Parzival narrative belong together for a number of reasons: they treat of the period of Parzival's youth, they demonstrate how he attains to knighthood, first in being taught it by Gurnemanz and then in putting it into practice for the first time at Pelrapeire, and they also incorporate the folktale pattern of the hero setting out into the world, gaining an unexpected victory and the hand of a queen in marriage. They constitute a unity which justifies us in taking them together as the first period in the hero's career.
Unlike his father, Parzival proceeds from a non-social context when he sets out from the wilderness of Soltane. Whereas Gahmuret was in a position to encounter people on his travels whom he already knew and could therefore recognise, Parzival knows nobody outside Soltane, so that the possibility of recognising or failing to recognise does not arise with him at the start of his travels. Nonetheless, the theme of recognition is relevant to the hero's early career in another sense, for at this stage we are repeatedly shown how he fails to recognise the relevance of what he has previously learned or experienced to his present situation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Art of Recognition in Wolfram's 'Parzival' , pp. 60 - 88Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982