Book III Thinksheet Please answer question 7

1.  How does Wolfram’s version of this story compare to Chrétien’s?  Pick one element of the sections we have read and analyze the changes that Wolfram has made.  For example how do the two accounts of Parzival encountering the knights differ?  Or how does Wolfram adapt the encounter between Parzival and Jeschute?

2. On page 67 we find Parzival hunting birds very successfully, even naturally, and then weeping over his deeds.  What does this tell us about him as a character?  What type of boy is he?

3. On page 69 Herzeloyde talks to her son about God and good and evil.  Compare this section to the opening of the text.

4. What happens between Parzival and Jeschute?  How does he shame her?  What does this episode tell us about courtly love?  About gender relations?  What is the narrator’s take on Jeschute?  Her lover?  Parzival?  What details indicate this?

5.  On page 79 Parzival encounters a fisherman?  What does this episode tell us about class/rank in this text.

6. How does Parzival kill Ither?  What is so troubling about this episode?  How does this reflect on our understanding of knighthood?  Of Parzival’s character?

7. What are the lessons that Gurnemanz teaches Parzival?  From these lessons what can we learn about the values of the text?  How do these teaching compare to the values set out in the opening of the text?