Originally published in 1951, this collaboration of two accomplished translators resulted in the first English verse translation of a major work of German literature. Rather than a translation of the entire poem, in this volume the translators present key passages connected by prose summaries, and include an introduction giving an overview of the work and its historical and literary context.

In presenting, for the first time, to English readers the greatest work of Germany's greatest mediæval poet, a few words of introduction, alike for poem and writer, may not be out of place. The lapse of nearly seven hundred years, and the changes which the centuries have worked, alike in language and in thought, would have naturally operated to render any work unfamiliar, still more so when that work was composed in a foreign tongue; but, indeed, it is only within the present century that the original text of the Parzivalhas been collated from the MSS. and made accessible, even in its own land, to the general reader. But the interest which is now felt by many in the Arthurian romances, quickened into life doubtless by the genius of the late Poet Laureate, and the fact that the greatest composer of our time, Richard Wagner, has selected this poem as the groundwork of that wonderful drama, which a growing consensus of opinion has hailed as the grandest artistic achievement of this century, seem to indicate that the time has come when the work of Wolfram von Eschenbach may hope to receive, from a wider public than that of his own day, the recognition which it so well deserves. Of the poet himself we know but little, save from the personal allusions scattered throughout his works; the dates of his birth and death are alike unrecorded, but the frequent notices of contemporary events to be found in his poems enable us to fix with tolerable certainty the period of his literary activity, and to judge approximately the outline of his life. Wolfram's greatest work, the Parzival, was apparently written within the early years of the thirteenth century; he makes constant allusions to events happening, and to works produced, within the first decade of that period; and as his latest work, the Willehalm, left unfinished, mentions as recent the death of the Landgrave Herman of Thuringia, which occurred in 1216, the probability seems to be that the Parzival was written within the first fifteen years of the thirteenth century. Inasmuch, too, as this work bears no traces of immaturity in thought or style, it is probable that the date of the poet's birth cannot be placed much later than 1170.

Parzival is the greatest of the medieval Grail romances. It tells of Parzival's growth from youthful folly to knighthood at the court of King Arthur, and of his quest for the Holy Grail. Cyril Edwards's fine translation also includes the fragments of Titurel, an elegiac offshoot of Parzival.

Presenting the story of 'Parzival' that was intended as an argument against continued efforts by Latin Christians to regain the Holy Land by force, the author reveals the secrets of the altar stone that inspired Wolfram's work in the diocesan museum of the German city of Bamberg.

The story of Parzival is one of the great classics of the previous millennium. It is the colorful tale of the time of knights, filled with romance, love and, adventure. David Newbatt's illustrations in this book bring a refreshing, vivid, and direct interpretation of Parzival's quest for the Holy Grail, while the text gives a brief, clear, and concise introduction to some of the many characters and events portrayed in this epic tale. Parzival is a great story for reading by the fireside, but it is also a deep and intense piece of literature. It portrays an individual's archetypal biography, which still speaks to us today as we pursue our own search for the modern Grail Temple. This lavish edition is highly recommended ... a great gift that will be treasured for years to come.

Taking as his starting point the assertion by the Russian narrative theorist Mikhail Bakhtin that Parzival achieved a pluralism of novelistic discourse generally associated with more recent works, Groos traces several strands of narrative - especially Arthurian and Grail. He focuses on crucial episodes in the hero's quest, ranging from his discovery of knighthood to the healing of the Fisher King, and shows how Wolfram transposes the clerical French perspective of Chretien de Troyes's Li Contes del Graal into the context of chivalric German culture. Examining the variety of language registers and genres incorporated in Parzival, Groos demonstrates that the interaction of chivalric romance, hagiography, dynastic chronicle, and scientific and medical treatise produces a decentered fictional universe in which various religious and secular viewpoints enter into dialogue.

This book is a textual analysis of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and Titurel, dealing specifically with minnedienst (Love Service--fin amours) and its negative influence on the female characters in the narratives. By scrutinizing the women in Wolfram's works, one can see that there are surprising similarities in female characters and their situations. The author examines the actions of the male characters and follows the often painful repercussions stemming from the never-ending search for honor. Wolfram states often that love is related to pain. By doing so, he is actively criticizing a literary construct created by Chrétien de Troyes and continued by Hartmann von Aue. The author provides examples of Wolfram's criticism of his predecessors and makes a statement as to the nature of that criticism: that Wolfram was criticizing an element of society through the themes presented in Parzival and Titurel. It is a widely held opinion of researchers that Wolfram had a positive opinion of women and the institution of marriage. The author maintains that this is true but argues that Wolfram had a negative opinion as to the means whereby love was to be won. Wolfram generally liked and respected women and went to great lengths to portray them positively. It is shown through textual examples that he pitied them and sympathized with their pains brought on by the society that they lived in. It is also hypothesized that Wolfram wrote not for mere entertainment but for the betterment of society and for the advancement of women's roles in a patriarchic society.