Ulrich Zaum

Parzival’s story begins with the story of Herzeloyde, his mother. She tells of how a generation of other people burdened her with an unlived life, defeats and dreams. Herzeloyde, who had won Gahmuret, the most famous of all knights, for herself as a young woman, only to lose him again immediately. She then left courtly life out of pain and anger, brought her child Parzival up in the wilderness, far away from everything that reminded her of knights, battle and death.
Parzival, physically a man but mentally a child, then stumbles into life wide-eyed and ignorant. Without a sense of scruples or morality, he goes out into the world, takes a wife against her will, kills a man – and does it all as cluelessly and innocently as a child. Although the rules of society are then drilled into him, they only go skin deep. Which is why he fails in the one crucial situation in which he tries to act out of compassion.
The story of Parzival is a complex parable about the arduous, difficulty path that people must take to become autonomous, compassionate human beings.