Wolfram von Eschenbach'sParzival: A Complex Reshaping and Expansion of a Source

Abstract

Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival is based on Chrétien de Troyes's unfinished Perceval, le Conte du Graal , but is not merely a translation of the source text. Wolfram works with his source and reshapes it in significant ways, thus making his narrative style, content, and message far more complex by infusing them with his own vast learning and by taking the common narrative structure of medieval Romances, the double cycle, and multiplying it throughout the narrative. At the same time, Wolfram links this structural complexity to his thematic interests about the Orient and the Christian West, the secular Arthurian and the spiritual Grail realm, the story's two main heroes, Parzival and Gawan, Christianity and heathendom, and the peoples of black and white races. Wolfram weighs in on contemporary issues throughout his narrative, sometimes critically, sometimes favorably, but always reshaping contemporary discourses.