Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival" and "Titurel". Did Parzival fail in his search for the Holy Grail because of his education?

Jil Hoeser

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2016
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9783668195424
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: German Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject German Studies - Older German Literature, Medieval Studies, grade: 2, 3, University College London, language: English, abstract: 'Parzival' by Wolfram von Eschenbach is probably the most popular medieval work in the German history of literature. When people try to sum up its plot, they commonly say something like this: the hero of the story is Parzival, an Arthurian knight, who is on his quest for the holy grail after failing the first time he had the chance to. What most people do not know, is that his story is close connected to another Middle High German romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach called 'Titurel'. But the essential question after reading a plot summary like this is: Why did he fail the first time when searching for the holy grail? What did or did he not do? Why did or did he not do this thing? The answers to these questions will be covered in the following work. The first step to do so will be by tracing back Parzival's different forms of education he got, starting by his mother Herzeloyde when he was still a little child to Gurnemanz, lord of the castle in Grâharz, a little afterwards and finally by Trevrizent, a hermit and important character regarding the grail family. I will start by elucidating the different forms of education he got and then analysing them, in order to explain why Parzival acted the way he did. Another important step in my opinion will be a short characterisation of each 'teacher' he had, so we can better understand why they educated him in the way they did.