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New Light on Oriental Sources for Wolfram's Parzival and Other Grail Romances
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Did Wolfram have any other sources beside Chrétien? Opinions are still divided. According to Fourquet, he used only two different Chrétien Mss. Weber assumes three additional sources, one for the “Enfances Perceval,” another for books i and ii, and a third one, which he considered an alchemistic writing, for the Grail. Schneider, summing up the investigations of scholars in his history of MHG literature, holds that Wolfram must have known, beside Chrétien, a Grail story in Oriental setting. My own research has gone in a similar direction and like Schneider, I am indebted to the pioneers in this field, to Veselovskij and Singer, founders of the Ethiopian theory.
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References
1 J. Fourquet, Wolfram d'Eschenbach et le Conte del Graal (Paris, 1938).
2 G. Weber, Wolfram von Eschenbach. Seine dichterische und geistesgeschichtliche Bedeutung. Deutsche Forschungen, ed. F. Panzer and J. Petersen, v. 18 (1928).
3 H. Schneider, Heldendichtung—Geistlichendichtung—Ritterdichtung (Heidelberg, 1925), p. 281.
4 For a list of his writings quoted here, as well as for all references quoted by the author's name only, see the Bibliographical Remarks at the end of this article.
5 S. Singer, “Über die Quelle von Wolframs Parzival,” ZfdA, xliv (1900), 321 f.; “Wolframs Stil und der Stoff des Parzival,” Sitzungsberichte der hais. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, phil-hist. Kl., clxxx (1916).
6 On all these items, cf. Martin's Commentary, especially to Parz. 57, 22.
7 E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia, etc. (London, 1928), i, 178; J. B. Coulbeaux, Histoire politique et religieuse de l'Abyssinie (Paris, 1929), i, 86; C. Marinescu, “Le Prêtre Jean,” Académie roumaine, Bull. de la section historique, x (1923), 108. Cf. also the MHG Lucidarius, ed. Heidlauf, 1915, p. 11, 1.16: “Der lande du da heizent India, sintdru.”
8 Marinescu, loc. cit., p. 104; F. Álvares, Verdadeira Informacão das Terras do Preste João das Indias, ed. A. R. Machado (1943), p. xxxiii.
9 Anecdota Oxoniensia. The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, attributed to Abu Sâlih the Armenian. Ed. and tr. by B. T. A. Evetts, with notes by A. J. Butler (Oxford, 1895), p. 286 (fol. 105 b): “All the kings of Abyssinia are priests.” About the date of Abû Sâlih's book, see ibid., p. x, and C. Conti Rossini, Storia d'Etiopia (1928), i, 308 and 318: “poco dopo il 1208.” No reference to Abû Sâlih is made by either Veselovskij or Singer.
10 Coulbeaux, I, 204, 260. Marinescu, pp. 101 ff.; Álvares, p. xxxii. See the King lists, Budge, 206 f.
11 See F. Zarncke, Abhandlungen d. k. säcks. Akad. d. Wiss., Leipzig, vn, 847 ff.; viii, 48 ff.; R. Hennig, Historische Vierteljahrsschrift, xxix (1934), 246.
12 Zarncke, vn, 870; Budge, p. 179; Marinescu, p. 110; Conti Rossini, i, 333; A. H. M. Jones and E. Monroe, A History of Abyssinia (Oxford, 1935), p. 61.
13 Budge, p. 161 f.; J. Theodore Bent, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians (London, 1893), p. 81; Coulbeaux, i, 48; Álvares, pp. 30, 230; Jones, p. 68; K. Beth, Zs. f. Religionspsychologie (Vienna, 1936), ix, 15 ff. and Neue Freie Presse (Vienna, 1936, Saturday, August 31, morning edition), pp. 1 and 2; Ves. 1904, pp. 415 ff.; Ves. 1896, p. 31.
14 Jobi Ludolfi, Lexicum Aethiopico-Latinum (Frankfurt a.M., 1699), p. 262: “Vulgo sic vocatur tabella oblonga apud Aethiopes, tam ex ligno quam lapide fieri solita.”
15 Coulbeaux, i, 117, ii, 461 f.; Bent, p. 165; Ves. 1904, p. 415 f.: J. Bruce, Travels to discover the Sources of the Nile, etc. (Edinburgh, 1813) iv, 322. The cathedral accordingly is called “Tsellaté-Moussié” (Tables of Moses). Each tabot partakes of the power embodied in the one Tablet, just as the Ark of the Jews originally was a manifold object, see W. R. Arnold, Ephod and Ark (Cambridge, 1917), p. 26 ff.
16 See the book of the Princess Asfa Yilma, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (New York and London, 1936), pp. 71 and elsewhere.
17 Encycl. Ital., Appendice, “Italia-Italo-Etiopica, Guerra.” The passage in Con L'Esercito italiano in Africa Orientale (Milan, 1936) on “L'Arca dell' Alleanza e una copia della Legge” in the church at Aksum (i, 93), looks more like a borrowing from J. Bruce's Travels than the result of recent autopsy.
18 Budge, p. 193 f.
19 E. A. Wallis Budge, The Queen of Sheba and her only Son Menyelek, being the “Book of the Glory of Kings” (Kebra Nagast), (London, 1932).
20 Kebra Nagast, p. xxxix; Conti Rossini, p. 253; Jones, p. 19 f.
21 Abû Sâlih, p. 287 f. (fol. 105 b).
22 Cf. L. Reinisch, Ein Blick auf Ägypten und Abessinien (Vienna, 1897), p. 41. Also Marinescu, p. 94 f.; Hennig, p. 251 f.; Jones, p. 44 f.
23 Conti Rossini, p. 332; Marinescu, p. 76; only Coulbeaux assumes that it was written by agents of the Negus.
24 Concerning a church in Rome and an altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, Conti Rossini, p. 306; Jones, p. 52 f.
25 Zarncke, vii, 945.
26 Jones, pp. 48 ff.; Princess Asfa, p. 77 f. Budge, p. 311, is skeptical.
27 Oliver, Historia Damiatina, in J. G. Eckhart, Corp. hist. med. aevi, ii, 1416 and ii, 1428. Cf. Zarncke, viii, 5 and F. Kampers, Das Lichtland der Seelen und der heilige Gral (1916), p. 20. See also Álvares, p. 276 and Conti Rossini, p. 260, on the survival of such a belief in modern Ethiopia.
28 On the so-called Falashas, see Carl Rathjens, Die Juden in Abessinien (1921), Also Conti Rossini, p. 143 f.
29 M. Gaster, The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (London, 1899), pp. ci ff.; 186 ff. Also Ves. 1904, pp. 406 ff.; Ves. 1886, pp. 281 ff.; Ves. 1896, pp. 30 ff.
30 Latin translation in G. Genebrardus, Chronographia Hebraeorum (Leyden, 1609), pp. 75 ff. For an English translation, see A. Neubauer, “Where are the Ten Tribes?”, Jew. Quarterly Rev., i (London, 1889), 98 ff. See also D. H. Müller, “Eldad ha-Dani,” Denkschriften of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, xli (1892).
31 P. Hagen, Quellen und Forschungen, lxxxv, 33 f., 56 ff., and ZfdA, xlvii, 217. Also E. Martin, Commentary to Parz. 453, 23, and W. Golther, Parzival und der Gral, etc. (Stuttgart, 1925), p. 203.
32 Martin, Commentary, p. xlviii.
33 Budge, p. 122.
34 K. Bartsch, Germanistische Studien, ii (1875), 138.
35 Bent, p. 287; Conti Rossini, p. 68 ff.
36 Budge, p. 13. Cf. also E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xlii.
37 Kebra Nagast, p. 156 (ch. 90).
38 Ves. 1904, p. 452.
39 Budge, p. 202.
40 Álvares, p. xxxii: “Menileque, que querería dezir: como éle, ou seja, semelhante a Salomão.”
41 A. Bockhoff und S. Singer, Heinrichs v. Neustadt Apollonius v. Tyrland and seine Quellen (Tübingen, 1911), pp. 67 ff.; S. Singer, ZfdA, xliv, 321 ff.
42 Not only in Wolfram's poem, but also in the Moriaen episode of the Middle Netherlandish. Lancelot, see G. Ehrismann, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, 2. Teil, ii/1 (1927), 244.
43 E. Karg-Gasterstädt, Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Parzhai (Halle, 1925), pp. 19, 24 ff., 56 ff., 66.
44 Golther, p. 140. Cf. Ves. 1904, p. 450 and F. Kampers, Turm und Tisch der Madonna (1917), p. 133; Gnostisches im Parzival und in verwandten Dichtungen (1919), p. 54 f.
45 Omitting these, namely 453, 1-22 and 454, 1-8, one eliminates exactly one laisse of 30 verses.
46 Karg-Gasterstädt, p. 56.
47 “Merkwürdigerweise spielt das afrikanische Heimatland des Feirefiz in den letzten Büchern gar keine Rolle mehr,” says Golther, p. 145.
48 Singer Zfda xliv, 340. Cf. J. J. Parry's review of the book by W. Sneleman, Das Haus Anjou und der Orient in Wolframs Parzival (1941), in JEGPh, xli, 543.—The names Zazamanc and Azagouc are not taken from the Nibelungenlied, see Ehrismann, Schlussband, p. 130.
49 Golther, p. 211.
50 Cf. R. Heinzel, “Über die französischen Gralromane,” Denkschriften der kais. Akad. d. Wiss., Wien, xl (1891), 7.
51 Álvares, p. 30 “Pedra de ara a que êles chamam tabuto,” etc.
52 C. F. A. Dillmann, Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae (Leipzig, 1865), p. 560. Arabic tabut. ‘al ‘ahdi=Ark of the Covenant. Princess Asfa consistently uses “ark” for the Church tabots as well as for the Table of the Law in Aksum. Budge translates Tabot by “Tabernacle,” and Ludolf in his dictionary is at pains to explain why an altar stone was called “arca”: “Sciendum vero est, in primitiva Ecclesia altaria fuisse lignea, et arcuata. Quam ob causam apud Aethiopes, quamvis mu tata forma, nomen tabot=Arcaeretinuerunt” (op. cit., p. 262).
53 Parz. 816, 15; see Martin, Commentary, p. xl.
54 See Martin, Commentary to Parz. 795, 24 and 471, 21.
55 Weber, p. 70; Golther, p. 207; R. Palgen, Der Stein der Weisen (1922), p. 3; Kampers Turm und Tisch, etc., p. 105; Gnostisches, etc., p. 36; J. L. Weston, Legend of Sir Perceval, ii, 313 ff. As for other interpretations, see Martin, Commentary, and especially the literature given by Ehrismann, ZfdA, ixv (1928), 62 ff. The explanation most applicable to our theory, would be “lapis ex celis,” see J. Blöte, ZfdA, xlvii, 118 f.
56 Weber, pp. 55 f., 82 ff.
57 Beth, Zeitschrift, etc., p. 17.
58 Budge, p. 161 f.; Coulbeaux, i, 48; Bent, p. 81; Beth, Neue Freie Presse, p. 2, col. 1.
59 Jones, p. 68. On the Grail as a portable altar, see the literature in Golther, p. 206, and M. Wilmotte, Le poème du Gral. Le Parzival de W. v. E. et ses sources françaises (1933), p. 87.
60 Kebra Nagast, pp. 13, 83, 145.
61 Kebra Nagast, pp. 7, 11, 13.
62 Kebra Nagast, pp. 83 f.
63 Kebra Nagast, p. 223.
64 This author, “A Historical Background for Chrétien's Perceval,” PMLA, lviii (1943), 597-620, and “Studies in Chrétien's Conte del Graal,” MLQ, viii (1947), 3-19.
65 Heinzel, p. 139 ff.
66 Conti Rossini, p. 286.
67 After having continued to rule in the South (Shoa), Encycl. Brit., 14th ed., “Abyssinia,” and Budge, p. 218.—Conti Rossini doubts it, pp. 256 ff.
68 Jones, p. 21: “The present dynasty … claims Solomonic descent, but only through the female line.”
69 The so-called Story of Gerasimos. See E. A Wallis Budge, “The History of the Blessed Men who lived in the days of Jeremiah the Prophet,” in The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great (1896), pp. 555-584. Cf. also MoDtague Rhodes James, Apocrypha Anecdota, (Cambridge, 1893), i, 88 f.
70 Greek text of the “Narratio Zosimi” in M. R. James, Apocrypha Anecdota, ii (Cambridge, 1899), 96-108. Cf. R. Reitzenstein, Historia Monachorum (1916), p. 181 fn.
71 Ves. 1886, pp. 296 ff.; Ves. 1904, pp. 407 ff.; Reitzenstein, op. cit., p. 183.
72 Th. Schermann, Propheten- und Apostellegenden (Leipzig, 1907), p. 87 f.
73 As it seems according to ii Chron.xxxvi.7.10.18; Isa.xxxix.6; T.B. Yoma, 53 b.
74 See Jew. Encycl., ii, 105, “Ark.”
75 Eusebius, Praeparatio evang., ix, 39, quoting from Eupolemos, see Schermann, op. cit., p. 88; n Macc. ii. 4-8, see C. Gutberlet, Das 2. Buch der Machabäer, p. 31; the Vita Jeremiae, in its different versions, Schermann, op. cit., pp. 81 ff., notably the Ethiopian version, tr. into French by R. Basset, Les Apocryphes éthiopiens (1893), i, 25 ff.; “Paralipomena Jeremiae, or the Rest of the Words of Baruch,” ch. ii, 7-8, ed. by J. Rendel Harris, Eaverford College Studies, No. 2 (1889), 47 ff.
76 E.g. in the “Vita Jeremiae,” Schermann, op. cit., p. 83:“ 
.”
77 E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles (1901), ii, 111 ff.; also R. A. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden, ii, 2, 115 ff.; ii, 2, 132 ff.
78 Cf. also the shorter version in F. Wüsteneld, Synaxarium der koptischen Christen (1879), p. 66; F. Haase, Apostel und Evangelisten in den orientalischen Überlieferungen (1922), p. 298.
79 P. 314.
80 Kebra Nagast, p. 8 (ch. 11).
81 Coulbeaux, i, 153. Álvares, p. 89, knows only the latter name. Either he was anxious to avoid references to Judaism, or he was by preference given the Christian explanation. Cf. Conti Rossini, p. 256.
82 Kebra Nagast, p. 225 f.—An abridged version of the same legend is found in the Ethiopian Synaxarium for the 15th of May, see A. v. Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, ed. F. Rühl, ii (1890), 374 f. The Latin Passio Matthaei (see R. A. Lipsius, ii, 2 (1884), 137 f.) tells only that Caleb's ancestor, King Beor, made one of his sons King, and the other one, a general. According to F. Kampers, Lichtland, p. 32, a similar division of power is reported of two sons of the Queen of Sheba.
83 Conti Rossini, p. 260; cf. Budge, p. 264.
84 “Zion,” Kebra Nagast, passim; “Chariot,” Kebra Nagast, pp. 221 f.
85 For the Grail as symbol of the tomb, see Joseph v. 847 f.: “En ten pouoir l'enseigne aras De ma mort,” and Birch-Hirschfeld, Die Sage vom Gral (Leipzig, 1877), 221 f.; J. D. Bruce, The Evolution of Arthurian Romance (1928), i, 241.
86 Some such procedure has already been assumed by: H. Suchier, in his review of Heinzel's book, ZfrPh, xvi (1892), 271; G. Gröber, Grdr. d. roman. Philologie, ii, i, 521; E. Wechssler, ZfrPh, xxiii (1899), 170 fn.; W. Foerster, Wörterbuch zu Kristians v. Troyes sitmtlichen Werken (1914), p. 166*; Ph. A. Becker, ZfrPh, lv (1931), 268.
87 See the literature quoted by Bruce, ii, 116 ff.; and W. A. Nitze, “On the Chronology of the Grail Romances,” Manly Anniversary Studies (1923), pp. 307 f., as well as his edition of the Roman de l'Esloire dou Graal (1927), p. vii.
88 Cf. E. Wechssler, ZfrPh, xxiii, 170.
89 Concerning the empty seat, the vv. 2531 ff. stand against vv. 2789 ff. and 3091 ff. Alain's decision not to marry, v. 2958 ff., may be a remainder of the original plan, or be explained, with Wechssler, op. cit., 151, as the typical attitude of the ascetic hero.
90 He is a “good man,” v. 2495 ff.; “Il atendra le fil sen fil Seürement et sanz peril,” v. 3363 f., and yet vv. 3340 hint at coming disaster.
91 W. W. Newell, PMLA, xviii (1903), 511 fn.
92 Evolution, ii, 129.
93 See especially H. Newstead, Bran the Blessed in Arthurian Romance (New York, 1939), pp. 36 ff.
94 Heinzel, pp. 100, 183.
95 So Bruce, Evolution, i, 266 f.
96 So now the majority of scholars: Newell, p. 510; Golther, p. 29; Nitze, Joseph, p. v and in MP, xli, 1 ff.
97 W. A. Nitze, MP, xl, 114 ff.
98 The Burgundian Avallon is mentioned: C. R. Slover, MP, xxviii (1931), 398; Nitze, MP, xl, 115.
99 Regarding such a reaction, see Newell, p. 510; Nitze, Perlesvaus, ii, 186.
100 F. Zarncke, PBB, iii (1876), 332; Bruce, Evolution, i, 262-267.
101 Newell, p. 486.
102 Archiv für slavische Philologie, xxiii (1901), 326 ff.; cf. Golther, p. 32 f.; Bruce, Evolution, i, 355 fn.
103 H. Newstead, “Perceval's Father and Welsh Tradition,” RR, xxxvi (1945), 19, connects the number with Bran.
104 E.g., Newell, p. 486; Golther, p, 29 ff.; Ehrismann, ii/ii/1, 248.
l05 Zarncke, PBB, iii, 310, 325.
106 H. O. Sommer, The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, i (1919), 288.
107 Heinzel, p. 155.
108 Ves. 1904, p. 426: = Ethiopic “Communion”; M. Gaster, Studies and Texts (1925-28), p. 905: = Hebrew or Chaldee, “offering,” “sacrifice”; M. A. Murray Ancient Egypt, ii (1916), 62: = Arabic qurbani= “belonging to the Eucharist,” Arabic qurban being derived from the Syriac (cf. Conti Rossini, p. 155: “Ethiopic qurban=a loan word introduced by Syriac missionaries”).
109 R. S. Loomis, Rev. celt., xlvii (1930), 39; RF, xlv, 87 ff.; Kastner Miscellany (Cambridge, 1932), pp. 342-350; H. Newstead, PMLA, li (1936), 17; Bran the Blessed (1939), p. 91.
110 Evolution, i, 393 fn. and especially MLN, xxxiv (1919), 385 ff.
111 “Appunto caldaico è detto l'etiopico fino al secolo xvi,” Conti Rossini, p. 333.
112 Heinzel, p. 139 f.
113 Conti Rossini, 170 ff.; Budge, p. 262; Gibbon, ch. xlii; cf. Sommer, i, 231-241.
114 E. Hucher, Le Saint Graal, iii, 311 ff.
115 In its shorter version, as told in the Latin Passio Matthaei. See Heinzel, p. 139, and this paper, p. 314.
116 On this parallelism, see Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 62.
117 According to F. Lot, Etude sur le Lancelot en prose (Paris, 1918), p. 124 f., also the names Bohort and Agloval in the Lancelot are of Ethiopic origin (Beor and Aeglippus in the Latin Passio Matthaei).
118 Heinzel, p. 141 f.; Sommer, i, 133; cf. Ves. 1896, 37 ff.; Ves. 1904, 422 ff.
119 Not so the usurping Zagué dynasty in the twelfth century. They countered their rivals' claim by pretending to be descendants of Moses himself (see Abû Sâlih, p. 288=fol. 106 b).
120 Sommer, i, 133.
121 Heinzel, p. 141.
122 MLN, xxxiv, 386 fn.
123 Cf. Lévi-Strauss, Word, i (1945), 33 ff.—Incidentally, the Ethiopian change of name upon accession to the throne (Caleb becoming Elesbaas, etc.) may have something to do with the double names of Oriental princes in the Estoire, although conversion to Christianity is given as a reason for Evalach's becoming Mordrain, Calafes' becoming Alphasem, etc.
124 Evolution, i, 374 fn.
125 Conti Rossini, p. 258.
126 The author's birth-place, according to Birch-Hirschfeld, p. 238.
127 Mordrain, says Bruce, MLN, xxxiv, 387, is Maurdramnus, Abbot of Corbie from 769 to 781. It is strange that this name, according to the authorities quoted by Bruce himself, has as its first element Latin Maurus=OHG môr, “Aethiops.” The Estoire, Sommer, i, 75, interprets the name as “tardif en creance.”
128 The Estoire calls him King of Babylon, but this means Babylon in Egypt (Cairo). Cf. Sommer, i, 43: “en la main al felon egitijen huerai iou le roi mesconneu.”
129 Evolution, i, 381.
130 Myrrha Lot-Borodine, Rom., lvii (1931), 185.
131 “Aufsatzkasten,” Beth, Zeitschrift, p. 15 f.; “double table or whatnot,” Bent, p. 81; cf. Budge, p. 161.
132 Miss Murray's statement, Ancient Egypt, ii (1916), 54, is misleading.
133 Beth, Zeitschrift, p. 15 f.
134 Sommer, i, 36: “& encore le dient cil qui la voient.”
135 Abû Sâlih, p. 290 (fol. 106 b): “The King possesses, among his treasures, the throne of King David, upon which he sat to give judgment.”
136 A. S. Rappoport, Myth and Legend of Ancient Israel (London, 1928), iii, 115. Cf. Sommer, i, 36: “Ce nestoit pas sieges domme mortel,” hinting at more marvels reported by tradition.
137 Conti Rossini, p. 258.
138 Abû Sâlih, p. 288 (fol. 106 a).
139 Sommer, i, 288.
140 Provided its author knew Chrétien, see Golther, p. 118 f.
141 Bibliographical Remarks.—This paper embodies the results of twelve years of research. It would have been desirable to quote all the evidence in extenso: but such a procedure would easily have swelled the article to the size of a book. In order to substantiate my theory, I have used an elaborate system of references. As a slight help for the reader, I am adding an alphabetical list of abbreviations for frequently mentioned books and articles. Abû Sâlih = A necdota Oxoniensia. The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, attributed to Abû Sâlih the Armenian. Ed. and tr. by B. T. A. Evetts, with notes by A. J. Butler. Oxford, 1895.