Willehalm

Wolfram von Eschenbach (fl. c. 1195-1225), best known as the author of  Parzival, based <i>Willehalm</i>, his epic poem of military prowess and courtly  love, on the style and subject matter of an Old French "chanson de  geste." <br/>
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In it he tells of the love of Willehalm for Giburc, a Saracen  woman converted to Christianity, and its consequences. Seeking revenge  for the insult to their faith, her relatives initiate a religious war  but are finally routed. Wolfram's description of the two battles of  Alischanz, with their massive slaughter and loss of heroes, and of the  exploits of Willehalm and the quasicomic Rennewart, well displays the  violence and courtliness of the medieval knightly ideal. Wolfram flavors  his brutal account, however, with tender scenes between the lovers,  asides to his audience, sympathetic cameos of his characters--especially  the women--and, most unusually for his time, a surprising tolerance for  'pagans'.

Wolfram von Eschenbach was the greatest of the medieval German narrative poets. Very little is known about his life, but it is generally accepted that he belonged to a Bavarian family of the lower nobility, that he may have served a Franconian lord, and that for the better part of his creative period he enjoyed the patronage of the great medieval German Maecenas Hermann I, landgrave of Thuringia. He probably died between 1220 and 1230.

Wolfram Eschenbach

A. Hatto

Composed in the early thirteenth century, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival is the re-creation and completion of the story left unfinished by its initiator Chrétien de Troyes. It follows Parzival from his boyhood and career as a knight in the court of King Arthur to his ultimate achievement as King of the Temple of the Grail, which Wolfram describes as a life-giving Stone. As a knight serving the German nobility in the imperial Hohenstauffen period, the author was uniquely placed to describe the zest and colour of his hero's world, with dazzling depictions of courtly luxury, jousting and adventure. Yet this is not simply a tale of chivalry, but an epic quest for spiritual education, as Parzival must conquer his ignorance and pride and learn humility before he can finally win the Holy Grail.

Wolfram Eschenbach

Books by Wolfram Eschenbach

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