Wolfram von Eschenbach

Wolfram von Eschenbach, a mediæval German poet, born in the end of the 12th century, near Anspach in Bavaria. He lived some time at Eisenach at the court of Hermann, Count of Thuringia, where he met Walther von der Vogelweide. His death took place after 1215. Besides Parzival he left seven Love Songs, a short epic, Willehalm, and two fragments called Titurel. Wolfram's works, written in Middle High German, were held in great esteem down to the Reformation. The Parzival is an epic, having for its main theme the history of the Grail (q.v.). Composed between 1204 and the author's death, it is, if we except the popular national epics, such as the Nibelungenlied, the greatest poetical production of German literature during the middle ages. To this supreme position it is entitled in virtue of its high imaginative qualities, its poetic truth and beauty, and its pure and lofty ethical strain. Besides it is a valuable picture and symbol of the age in which the writer lived, a translation into language of the ideals and aspirations of chivalry in its noblest phases of existence. It has been translated into Modern High German by San Marte (1886) and by Simrock (1883), the latter version being the more faithful and accurate, but the more difficult to read. It was from this poem that Wagner derived the libretto for his magnificent opera Parsifal.