They marched towards the ring in grand style. Some ladies were jostled there and would have gone down had their palfrey not been well girthed. You could see masses of splendid banners arriving on all sides. The bohort was ridden in a wide sweep round the ring of the Table. It was a matter of courtesy that none should ride into the ring – the meadow outside was large enough for them to gallop their horses, mingle charge with charge, and delight the ladies’ eyes with feats of horsemanship.
At length they rode to where their seats were and where the elect were to feast. Chamberlains, stewards, butlers had to bring the meal to table with due regard to ceremony. I fancy they gave the company sufficient.
Each lady sitting there beside her gallant was enhanced in reputation. Many had been served with high exploits inspired by hearts desiring them. Feirefiz and Parzival had a delightful choice of ladies for their critical assessment, over there and close to hand. For on tilth or meadow, complexions more fair or redder lips were never seen in such profusion as in that ring, a cause of great pleasure to the Infidel.
Hail to this day of advent! Blessed be the utterance of her sweet speech as it is heard from her lips! They saw a virgin approaching – her clothes fine and costly and well cut in the French fashion! Her hood was of rich samite blacker than genet. On it there gleamed a flock of Turtle-doves finely wrought in Arabian gold in the style of the Gral-insignia. She at once became the focus of all their curious gazes. Now let her hurry to the scene. Her wimple was high and white, and her face was shrouded with many a thick fold and hidden away from sight.
She came riding over the field smoothly, despite her ambling gait. Her bridle, saddle and palfrey were beyond dispute costly. They at once let her ride into the ring. The knowing lady – no fool of a girl she – rode right round the ring. They pointed out to her where Arthur was sitting, and she was quick to salute him. What she said was in French. The object of her coming was to seek pardon for a wrong she had done and ask a hearing. She begged the King and Queen to help her and approve her declaration. Then immediately she turned to where she saw Parzival sitting close at Arthur’s side and, losing no time, leapt down from her palfrey on to the grass and with courtesy, of which she had no lack, knelt before Parzival. Through her tears she craved his good will in such sort that he should set aside his anger towards her and pardon her – sans kiss of reconciliation. Arthur and Feirefiz warmly seconded her plea.
Parzival nursed great resentment towards her, yet at his friends’ request he set it aside, sincerely without malice.
The noble woman whom none can call comely at once leapt to her feet and, bowing, thanked those who had helped her back to favour after great error. She unwound her wimple and flung it into the ring, hood, ribbons and all. Cundrie la surziere was immediately recognized, together with the Gral-device she wore, and they all gazed their fil on the sight. For she still had the same features which so many men and women had seen approach the Plimizoel. You have heard her visage described to you. Her eyes were still as they used to be – yellow as topaz; her teeth long; her mouth bluish like a violet. Except that she hoped for praise, she need not have worn that expensive hat on the meadow beside the Plimizœl, for the sun would have done her no harm – its treacherous rays could never have tanned her skin through her hair!
She stood there ceremoniously and uttered things they deemed of high import.
She began her speech at once in these terms. ‘O happy you, son of Gahmuret I God is about to manifest His Grace in you! I mean the man whom Herzeloyde bore. I am bound to welcome particoloured Feirefiz for Secundille’s sake and for the many high distinctions he has won so gloriously since boyhood days.’ Then, addressing Parzival: ‘Now be modest and yet rejoice! O happy man, for your high gains, you coronal of man’s felicity 1 The Inscription has been read: you are to be Lord of the Gral! Your wife Condwiramurs and your son Loherangrin have both been assigned there with you. When you left the land of Brobarz she had conceived two sons. For his part, Kardeiz will have enough there in Brobarz. Had you known no other good fortune than that your truthful lips are now to address noble, gentle King Anfortas and with their Question banish his agony and heal him, who could equal you in bliss?’
Seven stars she named in Arabic. They were known to the noble potentate Feirefiz who sat before her all black and white. ‘Now take note, Parzival,’ she said. ‘The loftiest planet Zval and swift Almustri, Almaret and bright Samsi point to good fortune in you. The fifth is called Alligafir and the sixth Alkiter, while the nearest to us is Alkamer.* I do not pronounce it in a dream: these planets are the bridle of the firmament, checking its onrush; their contrariness ever ran counter to its momentum. You have now abandoned care. All that the planets embrace within their orbits, whatever they shed their light on, marks the scope of what it is for you to attain and achieve. Your sorrow is doomed to pass away – greed alone can deny you your portion. The Gral and its power forbid false companionship. You raised a brood of cares in tender years: but the happiness which is on its way to you has dashed their expectations. You have won through to peace of soul and outlived cares to have joy of your body.’
Parzival was not put out by her news. Tears – the heart’s true foundation – streamed from his eyes, so happy was he. ‘Madam,’ he said, ‘if I have been found worthy in God’s eyes of the things you have just named to me, and my sinful self and my wife and any children I have are to share in it, then God has been very kind to me. As to any amends you can make to me, you show your sincerity by asking. Nevertheless, if I had not done amiss you would have spared me your anger on one occasion … Then, most assuredly, my luck was not yet in. But now you are giving me such high gains that my sorrows are at an end. Your clothes bear out your message. When I was at Munsalvæsche with sorrowful Anfortas, all the shields I saw hanging there bore the same device as your habit – you are covered in Turtle-doves! Now, Madam, tell me when or how I am to set out on my path to happiness, nor let me put it off too long!’
‘My dear lord,’ she answered, ‘one man may go as your companion. Choose him. For guidance look to me. Because of the help you bring, do not delay.’
The news ‘Cundrie la surziere is here I’ went all round the ring, and also what it portended. Orgeluse wept for joy because Parzival’s Question was to make an end of Anfortas’s suffering. Ever-bold in pursuit of honour, Arthur courteously addressed Cundrie. ‘My lady, ride to your quarters and have yourself taken care of as you yourself would have it.’
‘If Arnive is here,’ she said, ‘I shall content myself with any shelter she gives me now until my lord’s departure. If she has been freed from her captivity, let me see her and the other ladies to whom Clinschor has meted out his malice by keeping them prisoner now many a year.’ Two knights handed her on to her palfrey, and the worthy maiden rode off to find Arnive.
And it was time, too, for them to have finished their repast. Parzival was sitting beside his brother whom he then asked to be his companion, and Feirefiz proved willing to ride with him to Munsalvæsche. Then at once throughout the ring the company rose to their feet. Feirefiz had a great request to make. He asked King Gramoflanz to give proof of the unflawed love that joined him and Feirefiz’s cousin Itonje. ‘You and my cousin Gawan must lend a hand and see to it that none of the kings and princes we have here, or barons, not to mention landless knights, leaves this place without looking at my treasures. I should be disgraced if I were to go away without bestowing a single gift! All the strolling entertainers here can look to me for largesse. Arthur, I have a favour to beg of you – not to let the great lords scorn it, but actively to win them over and by your own example guarantee them against loss of dignity. They never met so rich a man! And give me messengers to send to my haven, where the presents are to be disembarked.’
They promised the Infidel that they would not leave the meadow for four days, and he was pleased, so I am told. Arthur gave him experienced messengers to send to the harbour. Feirefiz son of Gahmuret took ink and parchment. His missive was
not lacking in marks of authenticity, I fancy no letter ever had more.
The messengers promptly set out while Parzival began a speech as follows. He told them all in French, as Trevrizent had declared when he was with him, that no man could ever win the Gral by force ‘except the one who is summoned there by God’. The news spread to every land that it was not to be won by force, with the result that many abandoned the Quest of the Gral and all that went with it, and that is why it is hidden to this day.
Parzival and Feirefiz made the ladies very sorry for themselves. They rode into the four sections of the army and took leave of all the people. They would have regretted it had they not done so. Then they both set out happily, fully armed against attack.
On the third day gifts were brought from the Infidel’s army to Joflanze of such splendour as was never conceived of. Any king acquainted with a gift from Feirefiz benefited his land with it forever after. No man, in terms of what was proper to his rank, had ever been shown such rare gifts. All the ladies had costly presents from Triande and Nourient.
I do not know how this army dispersed: but Cundrie and the two rode away.
Chapter 16
ANFORTAS and his people were still suffering an agony of grief. From loyal love they left him in his plight. For he often asked them to let him die and indeed would soon have done so had they not, as often, shown him the potent Gral.
‘If you are loyal I know you will be moved by my sorrows,’ he told his knights. ‘How long am I to continue in this state? If you claim justice for yourselves, you will have to atone before God for wronging me. Since the day I first bore arms I was always willing to do your wishes. I have paid in full for any disgrace that may have befallen me and which may have been seen by any of you. If you have kept your loyalty, release me, by the Order of us who bear Helmet and Shield! For these, as you may often have been kind enough to note, I have resolutely carried to chivalric encounters. I have ranged over hills and valleys, my lance at the ready, and thrust it home in many a joust and used such sword-play as cloyed my enemies, however little it availed me with you. Wretched alien to all happiness that I am, I shall accuse you at the Last Judgment, one man against you all. If you will not let me leave you, your damnation will not be far off. My suffering should arouse your compassion. You have both seen and heard how this disaster overtook me. What good am I now as your lord? It would come as an unwelcome surprise to you if your souls were to perish over me. What new ways have you chosen to follow?’
They would have given him his release but for the consoling hope which Trevrizent had voiced once before, after seeing it written on the Gral. They were now waiting a second time for the man whose happiness had eluded him there, and for that liberating moment when his lips, would frame the Question.
The King often kept his eyes shut tight for as many as four days on end. Then they carried him to the Gral whether he liked it or not, and with the malady racking him to the point where he had to open his eyes, he was made to live against his will and not die. This was how they proceeded with him until the day when Parzival and particoloured Feirefiz rode joyfully to Munsalvæsche.
The hour had waited till Mars or Jupiter* had returned angrily in their courses to where they had set out from, with the outcome that Anfortas was abandoned to the pain of his wound, suffering such agony that knights and maidens both heard his frequent cries and saw the doleful glances he gave them with his eyes. His wound was beyond all cure: there was nothing they could do for him. Nevertheless, the story says true help was now on its way to him. They took hold of heartfelt grief.
When sharp and bitter anguish inflicted severe discomfort on Anfortas they sweetened the air for him to kill the stench of his wound. On the carpet before him lay spices and aromatic terebinth, musk, and fragrant herbs. To purify the air there were also theriac and costly ambergris: the odour of these was wholesome. Wherever people trod on the carpet, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg lay crushed beneath their feet for the sake of the fragrance – as these were pounded by their tread the evil stench was abated. Anfortas’s fire was a wood of aloes, as I have told you before. His bedposts were of viper’s horn. To give relief from the poison, the powder of various spices had been dusted over the counterpane. The cushions on which he reclined were of brocade of Nourient, quilted, not just sewn, and his mattress was of palmat-silk. His bed was further adorned with precious – no other! – stones. The tensed cross-ropes on which the bed beneath him rested were of salamander. On every side it was luxurious, this bed of a man beggared of joy! Let no one try to argue that he ever saw a better. It was elegant and costly from the nature of its gemstones. Hear their names in detail. Carbuncle and moonstone, balax† and gagadiromeus, onyx and chalcedony, coral and bestion,‡ union pearl and optallius, ceraunius and hephsæstitis, hieracitis and heliotrope, pantherus and androdragma, prasius and sagda, hæmatites and dionysias, agate and celidonius, sardonyx and chalcophonus, cornelian and jasper, ætites and iris, gagates and lyncurion, asbestos and tecolithus, galactites and hyacinth, orites and enhydrus, apsyctus and alamandine, chrysolectrum and hyænia, emerald and magnes, sapphire and pyritis. Also, in one place and another, there were turquoise and lipara, chrysolite, ruby, balas and sard, diamond and chrysoprase, malachite and diadochus, peanites and medus, beryl and topaz. Some of these rallied his spirits: the properties of many of the stones there were beneficial medicinally, and they were propitious, too. Those who could handle them expertly discovered many powers hidden away in them. It was with these that they had to sustain Anfortas, their very heart, and source of their abounding sorrow.
But now we shall hear that Anfortas found happiness. Riding from Joflanze into Terre salvæsche, Parzival has come, his cares all gone from him, and with him his brother and a maiden. I was not told what the distance was. And now they would have had fighting on their hands, had not their escort Cundrie saved them from such toil.
They were riding towards an outpost when a whole force of well-mounted Templars in full armour galloped up: but these were well versed enough to see from the escort that joy was coming their way. Seeing all the Turtle-doves gleaming on Cundrie’s habit, the commander of the squadron said: ‘Our trouble is over! What we have been longing for ever since we were ensnared by sorrow is approaching us under the Sign of the Gral! Rein in! Great happiness is on its way to us!’
At that same moment, Feirefiz Angevin urged on his brother Parzival and spurred to the attack. But Cundrie seized his bridle, and his joust was checked. Then quickly turning to her lord Parzival, ‘You will soon be able to recognize their shields and pennons! ‘ the shaggy maiden said. ‘They are a Gral company, no others, who have halted there. They are ready to serve and obey you in all things.’
‘In that case let the fight be broken off,’ said the noble Infidel.
Parzival asked Cundrie to ride along the path towards them. She did so and told them what happiness had come to them, at which all the Templars dismounted on to the grass and, removing their helmets, received Parzival on foot. His greeting was a blessing to them. They also received black-and-white Feirefiz. Then, in tears yet with every sign of joy, they rode up to Munsalvæsche.
The newcomers found a great multitude of people there: fine old knights in number, noble pages, many men-at-arms. The mournful Household had good cause to rejoice at their coming! Feirefiz Angevin and Parzival were well received on the flight of steps leading up to the Palace, into which they then all went.
Here, according to custom, lay a hundred large round carpets, each with a cushion of down on it and a long quilt of samite. If the pair went about it tactfully they could find seats somewhere or other till their armour was taken from them …
A chamberlain now went up to them bringing them robes of equal splendour. All the knights present sat down, and many precious cups of gold – not glass – were set before them. After drinking, Feirefiz and Parzival went to the sorrowful Anfortas.
You have already heard all about his reclining instead of sitting, and how richly
his bed was adorned. Anfortas now received the pair joyfully, yet with signs of anguish, too.
‘I have suffered torments of expectation, wondering if you were ever going to restore me to happiness. Now, the last time, you left me in such a way that if yours is a kind and helpful nature you will show remorse for it. If you are a man of reputation and honour, ask the knights and maidens here to let me die, and so end my agony. If you are Parzival, keep me from seeing the Gral for seven nights and eight days – then all my sorrows will be over! I dare not prompt you otherwise. Happy you, if people were to say you succoured me! Your companion here is a stranger: I am not content that he should stand in my presence. Why do you not let him go to take his ease?’
Parzival wept. ‘Tell me where the Gral is,’ he said. ‘If the goodness of God triumphs in me, this Company here shall witness it!’ Thrice did he genuflect in its direction to the glory of the Trinity, praying that the affliction of this man of sorrows be taken from him. Then, rising to his full height, he added: ‘Dear Uncle, what ails you?’
He Who for St Sylvester’s sake bade a bull return from death to life and go, and Lazarus stand up, now helped Anfortas to become whole and well again. The lustre which the French call ‘fleur’ entered his complexion – Parzival’s beauty was as nothing beside it, and that of Absalom son of David, and Vergulaht of Ascalun, and of all who were of handsome race, and the good looks conceded to Gahmuret when they saw the delightful sight of him marching into Kanvoleiz – the beauty of none of these was equal to that which Anfortas carried out from his illness. God’s power to apply his artistry is undiminished today.
No other Election was made than of the man the Gral Inscription had named to be their lord. Parzival was recognized forthwith as King and Sovereign. If I am any judge of wealth, I imagine no one would find a pair of men as rich as Parzival and Feirefiz in any other place. The Lord and Master and his guest were served assiduously.
Parzival Page 42
