Page [64], line 471—'True as the one-horned marvel.' Cf. Book IX. p. 277, where the story of the Unicorn's love for a pure maiden is given. We learn from this passage that advantage was taken of its slumber to slay it.
Page [65], line 511—'For the winning his death.' Here we have a full explanation of the connection between Orgelusé and Anfortas. The tent given to the Lady of Logrois by Anfortas was, we learn from the Willehalm (which abounds in allusions to the Parzival), sent to that monarch by Queen Sekundillé as a love-token.
Page [66], line 547—'And never a man beheld me.' This account of Orgelusé's bargain with the knights who fought for her, and her relations with Parzival and Gawain, throws a most curious light on the conventionalities of the day. It is quite evident that Orgelusé in no way transgressed against the code of manners then prevailing, she is throughout treated as a great lady, and is well received at Court.
Though this is the only episode of the kind recounted, it is quite clear from Books XIV. pp. 130-131 and XVI. 173 that Orgelusé was not the only lady who had proffered her love to Parzival and been refused. (Those familiar with Wagner's Parzival will not need to have it pointed out to them what fine dramatic use he has made of the fact that it is Anfortas' love, and the indirect cause of his wound, who thus offers herself to Parzival. With wonderful skill Wagner has combined the characters of Kondrie and Orgelusé, thereby, in some ways, assimilating Kondrie more closely to the original form of the legend.)
Page [69], line 625—'The Swallow.' Bartsch says that this was an English harp, so called from the fact that the lower part of the frame was shaped like the fork of a swallow's tail.
Page [69], line 639—'The Buhurd.' Cf. Book II. Note on 'The Tourney.' There is no trace of this formal knightly reception in Chrêtien,—there the old queen receives them seated outside the castle, and the maidens dance and sing around them.
BOOK XIII
TRADITIONAL EVENTS
| Feast at the Château Merveil; Gawain persuades his sister to confide her love-story to him. | Chrêtien, whose poem ends abruptly in the middle of a line. |
| Arrival of Gawain's messenger at the Court of King Arthur. |
(From this point onwards there is no resemblance between Wolfram's poem and any other known Romance of the Grail-cycle.)