Parzival: A Knightly Epic (vol. 1 of 2)
i. 83-112) claims that we have here a survival of the personifying
instinct which led the northern poets to make 'Saga' a daughter of Odin. The word itself is simply taken over from French romance where _or dist l'Aventure_ is a standing initial formula, in which _Aventure_ exactly renders the _maere_ of the opening quatrain of the _Niebelungenlied_.--[A. N.]
Page 251, line 6--'_Whom Kondrie, to find the Grail_.' Cf. Book VI. p. 187.
Page 252, line 34--'_The sword that Anfortas gave him_.' Cf. Book V. pp. 137 and 144, and note.
Page 252, line 47--'_Schionatulander and Siguné_.' This is Parzival's third interview with his cousin, who has a much more important rôle assigned to her in this poem than in the other romances. The hero meets her at every important crisis in his life; on his first entrance into the world, Book III. p. 79; after his visit to the Grail Castle, Book V. p. 141; now, previous to his interview with the hermit; and finally, in Book XVI. after he has won the Grail kingdom and been reunited to his wife, he finds her dead, and buries her with her lover. Siguné's parentage is fully given on p. 274 of this book.
Page 257, line 204--'_The Templar bold_.' This identification of the knights of the Grail with the Templars (Templeisen) is a marked peculiarity of Wolfram's poem. Nothing at all answering to the Grail kingdom and its organisation, as described in the Parzival, is to be found elsewhere. The introduction of this spiritual knighthood, chosen by Heaven, and, with special exceptions, vowed to celibacy, seems intended as a contrast with, and protest against, the ideal of worldly chivalry and lax morality portrayed in Arthur's court. Are we to attribute this feature of the poem to Wolfram himself or to his source? Judging from the value Wolfram placed upon fidelity to tradition it seems scarcely probable that he would have departed so far from his model as to introduce such an entirely new and striking element into the story; nor have we any trace of the poet-knight's connection with the order of Templars; but if the writer of the admitted French source was an Angevin, who had been in the East during the Angevin rule in Jerusalem, the connection is easily explained. Certainly, to judge from the freedom with which the introduction to the story has been handled, 'Kiot' does not seem to have been hampered with an undue respect for the traditional form of the legend.
Page 258, line 223--'_Nor Lähelein, nor Kingrisein, etc_.' Kingrisein is the father of Vergulacht, supposed to have been slain by Gawain, cf.