Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival

Marion E. Gibbs

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1203 - c. 1208

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)
Romance

Resources

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Recommended Reading

The best known work of Wolfram von Eschenbach is his

Parzival,

and at almost 25,000 lines in rhyming couplets, it is also the most substantial. At its core is a courtly romance with many of the ingredients familiar to the audience of Chrétien de Troyes and, in Germany, Hartmann von Aue. The source for his tale of the hero's quest for the Grail is Chrétien's unfinished

Perceval

Li Contes del Graal

of about 1185, but Wolfram has extended and deepened the material and given to the traditional theme of the knight's quest the spiritual significance of man's search for his identity and his destiny. He has placed this story centrally in a multi-faceted work that stands alone in Middle High German literature and is justly regarded as one of the masterpieces of European literature. Composed,…

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2131 words

Citation: Gibbs, Marion E.. "Parzival". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 January 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13213, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival

Dates

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