DOCSLIB.ORG

Personal Clothing in Wolfram's Parzival and Willehalm

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Personal Clothing in Wolfram's Parzival and Willehalm PERSONAL CLOTHING IN WOLFRAM'S PARZIVAL AND WILLEHALM: SYMBOLISM AND SIGNIFICANCE by PAULA BARRAN WEISS B.A., College of William and Mary, 1971 M.A., Cornell University, 1973 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Germanic Studies We accept this thesis as conforming - to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August, 1976 0 Paula Barran Weiss,.1976 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of German The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date O ABSTRACT This study is a discussion of the use of clothing symbolism by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Parzival and in Willehalm, investi• gating whether he did in fact use clothing symbols, how he made use of them, and suggesting some explanation for why he used them. The reasonableness of the hypothesis that clothing sym• bols were used is established by the existence of a strong symbolic tradition in the times in which Wolfram was writing, an era in which everything participated in the fundamental underlying unity of all creation and therefore had the potential for acting as symbols of those aspects to which a relationship was established. The hypothesis is further supported by the existence of confessed clothing symbolism in the garments used in the services of the Church during Wolfram's lifetime, and made likely by the use of admitted clothing symbols in the narrative poetry of Wolfram's contemporaries, notably Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg, and the author of the Nibelungenlied. Elements of medieval clothing which contribute to the symbolic potential of the various garments are examined. These include color and style as well as legal restrictions covering the use of certain clothing styles by certain classes of society. The following groups of clothing and clothing-related articles are considered separately: armor, clothing on formal occasions, daily clothing, gemstones, gifts of clothing and aid Supervisor: Professor Michael S. Batts offered in the act of robing and disrobing. The same dis• tinctions are followed in the discussion of personal clothing in Willehalm, but the discussion is confined to a single chapter. Individual considerations which are important in estab• lishing a firm support for the arguments are elements of contemporary culture which establish symbolic significance for certain articles, among them lapidaries, bestiaries, and the customs of the Church. A very important aspect of the argument is the establishment of an interpretation that is coherent in terms of the parameters of the narrative as a whole. The general conclusions reached are that the use of clothing symbolism is supported by personal admission of the author, the existence of a strong tradition, and by poetic use within the narrative, notably by the creation of incon• gruity of situation which indicates an extended meaning. Clothing symbols are valuable tools for the poet's character• ization as well as for scene linkage and are used furthermore to suggest an inner reality which is not necessarily supported by the external evidence offered. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYMBOLS. MEDIEVAL CLOTHING AND ITS SYMBOLIC POTENTIAL .. 26 TWO ARMOR 58 THREE CLOTHING ON FORMALIZED OCCASIONS.. 113 FOUR DAILY CLOTHING 142 FIVE GEMS 165 SIX GIFTS OF CLOTHING. OFFERING OF AID AND ASSISTANCE 178 SEVEN PERSONAL CLOTHING IN WILLEHALM 195 CONCLUSION. 218 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . .. 227 NOTES 229 LIST OF WORKS CITED 249 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great deal of gratitude to Michael.S. Batts who super• vised the writing of this thesis and offered unfailing good advice on all aspects of the work involved. I would also like to thank Rev. Robert F. McNamara and Michael Resler for pro• viding me with obscure material, The Ohio State University for permitting me to make use of their library facilities, and my husband, Bill, for exhibiting extraordinary patience during the past year. P.B.W. v INTRODUCTION Symbolism in its broadest sense as the representation of one thing by another was an undeniable facet of medieval man's life. In a world fashioned by God's hand, all aspects of reality were interconnected, all served God's ultimate scheme. Because of this interconnection, a network of similarities was easily seen to exist and one separate unit or object might well be thought to be very much the same as another, similar enough so that one was used to represent or symbolize the other.: Symbolism, whether conscious or unconscious, always fundamental in thinking, became in the Middle Ages both the natural medium of thought and expression, and an instrument consciously developed as the truest means of penetration into the mystery of reality. It was such, in whichever branch of knowl• edge lay the seeker's interest: for all were united in their goal .1 This basic view of a unified and interrelated creation naturally touched everything created during the Middle Ages. Medieval man saw symbols in everything around him and placed symbols in everything he wrote, carved, and painted: It is a characteristic trait of medieval life and literature that a thing may appear in more than one function, that is, it can appear as itself and also as a symbol or outward manifestation of something else, some idea or quality. This is particularly true of religious literature, es• pecially of mystical writings, and the medieval love of symbolism and allegory is patently obvious in such works as the Physiologus and the commentaries on the Song of Solomon, but xt is by no means con• fined to the religious sphere. The dictum of St. Irenaeus 'nihil vacuum neque sine signo apud Deum' finds expression almost everywhere, as symbolism and allegory are the best medium for expressing philo• sophical, metaphysical and religious ideas to people 1 2 unaccustomed to reading, but impressionable to visual imagery.2 Philosophy and religion, inextricably intertwined, provide examples of this fact as well as possible origins for this particular unified Weltanschauung. The Bible, prime document of Christianity, was interpreted typologically from the first; references in Epistles of St. Paul to Adam as a type of Christ3 and the wandering Israelites as types of later Christians^ led to much lengthier discussions by the Church Fathers on the matter. Early devotional poetry adopted some Biblical symbolism and imagery, and produced even more, especially in Marian poetry, where every conceivable image was put to use.5 The following verses are from the Melker Marienlied, written in the first half of the twelfth century: Ju in deme gespreidach Moyses ein fiur gesach. daz holz niene bran, den louch sah er obenan, der was lanch unde breit: daz bezeichint dine magetheit, Sancta _ Maria. Ysayas der wlssage der habet din gewage, der quot wie vone Jesses stamme wiiehse ein gerte danne. del vone scol ein bluome varen: diu bezeichint dich unde din barn, Sancta Maria.6 The stanzas of this hymn interpret various phenomena as sym• bolic of Mary or certain of her aspects: her virginity or her position in the course of the redemption of mankind. The images used in early devotional poetry are highly visual and were easily reproduced in the plastic arts, showing a naivete 3 of imagery which indicates the existence of a less sophisticated literary age on whom subtler symbols might be lost. During the Middle Ages art was primarily religious art, and although the images were not always created to function as symbols, later interpretations show that they lent themselves to symbolic interpretation. Certain aspects of early Christian art were conceived as tools in light of the existence of an illiterate faithful and the need for secrecy and secret signs and signals occasioned by the persecutions: When the new religion broke new ground and attracted the pagan masses, it had to come to terms with the : mind of the illiterate classes who needed images to guide their belief. Having allowed such imagery against its inclination, Christianity had to purge it of that physical emphasis which, ever since the Greeks, had made it a reflection of earthly things. If it was to be no longer an object of worship, but only a means to it, the image was none the less to play a part in the new faith very like the one it had held in the old religions of the East. It was an instrument of theology, the figurative inter• mediary on which faith leans in order to appreciate the dogma of which the image is only the garment and representation.7 Architecture and other artistic areas added symbolism to structural necessity or existing fact: the cathedral is said to represent a cross in its shape--and indeed it does—yet had it appeared in any other shape, medieval symbolists would certainly have presented an equally convincing, equally devotional interpretation. It is difficult to determine whether or not the symbolic aspects of early Christian art were really present in the minds of the creators; it is obvious', however, that they were uppermost in the minds of the medieval viewers. For the two centuries following the persecutions, when Christianity reigned as the Roman Empire's official religion, :•: 4 architecture was developed more fully than other facets of religious art.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Article RIP581.Pdf
    INTRODUCTION What is he? I do not mean the force alone- The grace and versatility of the man! Is it not Lancelot? -Tennyson, The Idylls of the Xing. There is scarcely anyone in our time to whom the name "Lancelot" does not have a familiar sound. The average person's acquaintance with the deeds of this noble knight is likely to come from motion pictures that, while trying to portray the impossible, have such promising titles as "The Sword of Lancelot," "The Knights of the Round Table," and "Camelot," this last being an insipid version of T. H. White's enormously successful and still widely read Tlze Otzce and Future Kitzg. It is only the more serious student of English letters who derives his knowledge of Lancelot and Guinevere from the reading of Malory's Le Morte Darthrtr or Tennyson's Tlze Idylls of the Kitzg. Among these readers, Lancelot is generally recognized as King Arthur's most gallant knight and the unswerving but secret lover of Queen Guinevere, an austere and almost saintly man whom passion stirs only when he is in the direct service of his love. Lancelot's prominence throughout the last centuries is a strange phenom- enon, especially when we consider that another great Arthurian lover, Tristan, whose philosophy of love corresponds much more to our modern ideal, would most likely be forgotten if it were not for the music of Wagner. And who would seriously believe that Lancelot, the foreigner, barely eked out an existence in the literature of late medieval England while the figure of the indigenous Gawain towered gigantically over the literary horizon of that era? Perhaps ir would be even more startling to discover that Lancelot as a knight of the Round Table and as a lovcr of Queen Guinevcre is a com- paratively late addition to the Arthurian legend.
    [Show full text]
  • The Difference the Middle Ages Makes: Color and Race Before the Modern World
    JMEMS31.1-01 Hahn 2/26/01 6:55 PM Page 1 a The Difference the Middle Ages Makes: Color and Race before the Modern World Thomas Hahn University of Rochester Rochester, New York The motives for gathering the present cluster of essays stem, in part, from the session “Race in the Middle Ages” that took place during the Interna- tional Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo in 1996. The event, sponsored by the Teachers for a Democratic Society, featured Michael Awk- ward, then Professor of English and Director of the Institute for African- American Studies at the University of Michigan, and included a brief response by me.1 Professor Awkward, an Americanist with little professional interest in medieval studies, had nonetheless agreed to address this session on race, presenting the lecture “Going Public: Ruminations on the Black Public Sphere.” This session, in prospect and panic, and in retrospect and reflection, urgently raised the question for me as a medievalist, What’s race got to do with it? What, if anything, does medieval studies have to do with racial discourses? Awkward’s appearance at Kalamazoo, unusual from several perspec- tives, had a double effect, for in providing an immediate, even urgent, perhaps arbitrary forum for discussion, it also pointed up the prevailing lack of interest in race among medievalists. What would he do, what was he doing—the nonmedievalist, the “expert” on race—at a conference that, among those who care, is a byword for dedicated, extensive (and to some degree exclusive) study of all things medieval? Within the identity politics that obtains throughout American society, the position he occupied as a per- son of color defined his relation to his subject and endowed him with exis- tential and political warrants that few at that particular conference might claim.
    [Show full text]
  • The Portrayal of Zorn in Hartmann Von Aue's
    This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Portrayal of zorn in Hartmann von Aue’s Arthurian Romances and in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival Regulski, Carol Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 This electronic theses or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Title: The Portrayal of zorn in Hartmann von Aue’s Arthurian Romances and in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival Author: Carol Regulski The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement.
    [Show full text]
  • By Greg Stafford
    Book of Armies By Greg Stafford Layout: David Zeeman Assistance from: Chris John Payne, Sven Lugar, Jeff Richard, Philippe Auirbeau, Gianfranco Geroldi, Daren Hill Special thanks to the emergency eschille: Chip Hausman, Robert Saint John, Martin Miller, Taheka Harrison, Newton Phyllis, Bob Schroeder, Ben Quamt All photos, pictures and illustrations are original or from royalty-free sources, such as ClipArt.com (www.clipart.com), Liam’s Pictures from Old Books (www.fromoldbooks.org/), and the Historic Tale Construction Kit (www.adgame-wonderland.de/type/bayeux.php) by Björn Karnebogen This book is a fan production of Greg Stafford Publications, under license from Nocturnal Media, LLC. © 2009 by Greg Stafford. All rights reserved. Reproduction without written permission of the author is expressly forbidden, except for the purpose of reviews, and for any record sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. 1 Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................5-8 Tribal Picts .........................................................................49-50 A Pict Army .......................................................................49 Interpreting the Army Tables ..................................................6-7 Leaders & Alternatives ......................................................50 Passions for Opponents ..............................................................7 Lowland Troops ................................................................ 50 Cultural Specialties
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and Religious Symbolism in the Tale of the Grail by Three Authors
    Faculty of Arts English and German Philology and Translation & Interpretation COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM IN THE TALE OF THE GRAIL BY THREE AUTHORS by ASIER LANCHO DIEGO DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES TUTOR: CRISTINA JARILLOT RODAL JUNE 2017 ABSTRACT: The myth of the Grail has long been recognised as the cornerstone of Arthurian literature. Many studies have been conducted on the subject of Christian symbolism in the major Grail romances. However, the aim of the present paper is to prove that the 15th-century “Tale of the Sangrail”, found in Le Morte d’Arthur, by Thomas Malory, presents a greater degree of Christian coloration than 12th-century Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. In order to evaluate this claim, the origin and function of the main elements at the Grail Ceremony were compared in the first place. Secondly, the main characters’ roles were examined to determine variations concerning religious beliefs and overall character development. The findings demonstrated that the main elements at the Grail Ceremony in Thomas Malory’s “The Tale of the Sangrail” are more closely linked to Christian motifs and that Perceval’s psychological development in the same work conflicts with that of a stereotypical Bildungsroman, in contrast with the previous 12th-century versions of the tale. Keywords: The Tale of the Grail, Grail Ceremony, Holy Grail, Christian symbolism INDEX 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Vault of the Old Guard 2 TABLE of CONTENTS Plateoftheforgiving4 Defenderoftheoldways8
    CREDITS Producer: Realmwarp Media (@RealmwarpM) Author: Sean Shannon Editing: Ryan Langr Layout and Graphic Design: Ryan Langr, Using Fallen Camelot template design by Anne Gregersen (@AnneofManyNames) Cover Art: (c) 2015 Dean Spencer. Used with Permission. All rights reserved. Other Interior Art: Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art (c) Rick Hershey/Fat Goblin Games. Sample file Vault of the Old Guard 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PlateoftheForgiving 4 DefenderoftheOldWays8 CoatoftheAvenger 4 FavoroftheLake8 Mentor’sHelm 4 TheLastStand 9 QuestingSaddle 4 Turncoat’sCoat9 PainofTruth 4 PersistentVestments9 BridgingSpike 5 BladeofPromises9 BladeofLastWill 5 HelmoftheEternalQuest9 UnwaveringCharm 5 ResilientDefender9 WardsProtector 5 Swift to Wrath 10 PendantofGracefulFailing 5 Hunter’sBow 10 HammerofVengeance 5 LoveNeverReached10 Redeemer’sChain 6 CompanionsPendant 10 Fool’sScarf 6 LegalInformation11 PragmaticBlade 6 Aspirant’sBlade 6 WarningRings 6 QuestingBlade 6 CeasingofSwords 6 FeyTouchedSword 7 Challenger’sBlade 7 Rescuer’sBeacon 7 KnightsBane 7 TheReadyingRing 7 TheManualofKnighthood 7 DefendersBoots 8 SampleLoyalBands 8 file BurningSpite 8 GloryPlate 8 Requester’sBand 8 Vault of the Old Guard 3 Plate of the Forgiving Questing Saddle Armor (plate), rare Wondrous item, very rare You have a +1 bonus to AC while wearing While riding a mount that is wearing this this armor. Additionally, you have saddle, your journey becomes much safer. resistance to all damage you take from a As long as you know the exact location of friendly creature. your destination, you are immune to effects of divination magic that would scry This is the armor of Sir Accolon, who was your location or cause you to lose your killed by Arthur when he had been way. Your mount ignores difficult terrain, tricked by the fae to see Accolon as a foe.
    [Show full text]
  • Le Morte Darthur: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Pdf
    FREE LE MORTE DARTHUR: KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE PDF Sir Thomas Malory,Stephanie Lynn Budin | 768 pages | 27 Oct 2015 | Thunder Bay Press | 9781626864634 | English | United States Le Morte d'Arthur - Wikipedia Interspersed throughout the story are a variety of colorful characters and circumstances which illustrate the important moments in the history of his kingdom. At the beginning of the epic, Uther Pendragon is King of all England. He lusts after Igrainewife of the Duke of Tintagil. They eventually conceive a child together, named Arthur, who is raised by a surrogate family and is prophesized by the sorcerer Merlin to become High King and to unite the kingdom. Chaos ensues after the death of Uther, and the throne remains empty until a young Arthur pulls the sword Excalibur from a stone, which makes him King of all England. Naturally, there is dissention among the other lesser kings, who think Arthur is unworthy of his position. This leads to war, and young King Arthur prevails. Meanwhile, Arthur learns his true identity and accepts his fate. Unfortunately, he has already conceived a child with his half-sister. The child, Mordred, is destined to destroy Arthur and his kingdom. In the meantime, King Arthur establishes a code of ethics for the Knights of the Round Table, which helps maintain the peace of the kingdom until it is unfortunately divided from within. Book I, as mentioned, heralds the birth of Arthur and his rise to power. Their tale ends when the brothers tragically kill each other over a case of mistaken identity.
    [Show full text]
  • {Download PDF} Parzival
    PARZIVAL PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Wolfram von Eschenbach, A. T. Hatto | 448 pages | 20 Nov 1980 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780140443615 | English | London, United Kingdom bibliotheca Augustana Kundry, who serves the knights—she also serves the evil sorcerer Klingsor—has brought herbs from Arabia, hoping they will heal him. Amfortas, brought in on a litter, is not optimistic. He also explains how Amfortas came to be wounded by Klingsor and how Klingsor managed to seize the spear. A dying swan falls from the sky, and the youth who shot the swan arrives. Gurnemanz scolds the youth, who protests that he did not know it was wrong to shoot the bird. The youth—Parsifal—knows nothing of the world, not even his own origins. Gurnemanz, wondering whether he has found the hoped-for pure and innocent man, brings Parsifal into the castle. Amfortas feels unequal to the task, though it is carried out. Parsifal shows no interest in the proceedings, and an angry Gurnemanz sends him from the hall. Klingsor summons Kundry to his castle, and she reluctantly appears. He declares that she must assist him in defeating an opponent, and he demands that she change herself into an irresistible temptress. In such a form, she had helped Klingsor to best—and gravely wound—Amfortas. When Kundry appears, the other women leave. As Kundry tells Parsifal of his parents, she begins her own attempt at seduction. When she kisses Parsifal, however, she awakens in him not only passion but also knowledge. Klingsor appears and casts the spear at Parsifal. Parsifal catches it in midair and makes the sign of the cross with it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of Ludwig Feuerbach's Philosophy
    1 THE INFLUENCE OF LUDWIG FEUERBACH’S PHILOSOPHY UPON THE LIBRETTO OF RICHARD WAGNER’S MUSIC-DRAMA ‘PARSIFAL’ By Paul Heise Research Consultant – The Richard Wagner Society of Florida [email protected] Home Tel: 727-343-0365 Home Add: 2001 55TH St. South Gulfport, FL 33707 ELABORATION OF A TALK PRESENTED TO THE BOSTON WAGNER SOCIETY ON 5/30/07, AT THE WELLESLEY FREE LIBRARY While it is well known that the atheist German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach’s influence upon Richard Wagner’s libretto for his music-drama The Ring of The Nibelung is great, it is usually assumed that Feuerbach’s influence upon Wagner’s writings and operas dropped off radically after his 1854 conversion to the pessimist philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. For this reason the librettos of Wagner’s other mature music- dramas completed after 1854, namely, Tristan and Isolde, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, and Parsifal, are widely regarded as expressions of Wagner’s post-1854 Schopenhauerian phase. It is therefore quite surprising to find in key passages from the libretto of Wagner’s last work for the theater, Parsifal, a remarkable dependence on Feuerbachian concepts. This paper will examine that influence closely. A familiarity with the libretto of Parsifal is assumed. This paper has retained all the extracts from Feuerbach’s and Wagner’s writings (and recorded remarks) discussed in my original talk of 5/30/07. However, a number of key extracts which had to be dropped from the talk due to time constraints have been restored, and other extracts added, both to fill in logical gaps in the talk, and also to address certain questions posed by audience members after the talk.
    [Show full text]
  • Power, Courtly Love, and a Lack of Heirs : Guinevere and Medieval Queens Jessica Grady [email protected]
    Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 1-1-2009 Power, Courtly Love, and a Lack of Heirs : Guinevere and Medieval Queens Jessica Grady [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Other Classics Commons Recommended Citation Grady, Jessica, "Power, Courtly Love, and a Lack of Heirs : Guinevere and Medieval Queens" (2009). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 69. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Power, Courtly Love, and a Lack of Heirs: Guinevere and Medieval Queens Thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Jessica Grady Dr. Laura Michele Diener, Ph.D., Committee Chairperson Dr. David Winter, Ph.D. Dr. William Palmer, Ph.D. Marshall University December 2009 ABSTRACT Power, Courtly Love, and a Lack of Heirs: Guinevere and Medieval Queens by Jessica Grady Authors have given Queen Guinevere of the Arthurian stories a wide variety of personalities; she has been varyingly portrayed as seductive, faithful, “fallen,” powerful, powerless, weak-willed, strong-willed, even as an inheritor of a matriarchal tradition. These personalities span eight centuries and are the products of their respective times and authors much more so than of any historical Guinevere. Despite this, however, threads of similarity run throughout many of the portrayals: she had power in some areas and none in others; she was involved in a courtly romance; and she did not produce an heir to the throne.
    [Show full text]
  • The Symbolism of the Holy Grail
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Honors Theses Student Research 1962 The symbolism of the Holy Grail : a comparative analysis of the Grail in Perceval ou Le Conte del Graal by Chretien de Troyes and Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach Karin Elizabeth Nordenhaug Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Nordenhaug, Karin Elizabeth, "The symbolism of the Holy Grail : a comparative analysis of the Grail in Perceval ou Le Conte del Graal by Chretien de Troyes and Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach" (1962). Honors Theses. 1077. https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1077 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND LIBRARIES ~lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll3 3082 01028 5079 r THE SYMBOLISM OF THE HOLY GRAIL A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE GRAIL In PERCEVAL ou LE CONTE del GRAAL by CHRETIEN de TROYES and PARZIVAL by WOLFRAM von ESCHENBACH by Karin Elizabeth Nordenhaug A Thesis prepared for Professor Wright In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Honors Program And in candidacy for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Westhampton College University of Richmond, Va. May 1962 P R E F A C E If I may venture to make a bold comparison, I have often felt like Sir Perceval while writing this thesis. Like. him, I set out on a quest for the Holy Grail.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: to Be a Shapeshifter 1
    NOTES Introduction: To Be a Shapeshifter 1 . Sir Thomas Malory, Malory: Works , ed. Eugene Vinaver (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978 ), 716. 2 . Carolyne Larrington, for example, points out that “Enchantresses . sometimes . support the aims of Arthurian chivalry, at other times they can be hostile and petty-minded.” See King Arthur’s Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition (New York: I. B. Taurus, 2007), 2. While Larrington’s book provides a review of many of Morgan’s literary appearances, my study focuses on close reading, attention to translation issues, and discussion of social concerns. In her review of Larrington’s King Arthur’s Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition , Elizabeth Archibald laments that “it would have been interesting to hear more about the ways in which Arthurian enchantresses do or do not resemble their Classical precursors, or indeed Celtic ones, in their use of magic and in their challenges to male heroic norms.” See Elizabeth Archibald, “Magic School,” Times Literary Supplement (February 2, 2007), 9. My study answers this cri- tique by reexamining pivotal scenes in critical texts and by dismantling the archetypal approach that Larrington follows. 3 . Norris J. Lacy, ed., The Fortunes of King Arthur (New York: D. S. Brewer, 2005 ), 94–95. 4 . Helaine Newstead, Bran the Blessed in Arthurian Romance (New York: AMS Press, 1966 ), 149. 5 . Elisa Marie Narin, “‘Þat on . Þat oÞer’: Rhetorical Descriptio and Morgan La Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ,” Pacific Coast Philology 23 (1988): 60–66. Morgan only partly fits the description of a supernatural ‘enemy’ provided by Hilda Ellis Davidson and Anna Chaudri; see n.
    [Show full text]