Chapter XX: Appendix: B

THE PROPER NAMES IN 'PARZIVAL'

One of the marked peculiarities of Wolfram's poem is the number of proper names with which it abounds, there being scarcely a character, however insignificant the rôle assigned, that is left unnamed. In the other versions of the Perceval legend this is not the case, consequently there are a vast number of names occurring in the _Parzival_ to which no parallel can be found elsewhere, and which are no unimportant factor in determining the problem of the source from which Wolfram drew his poem. It would be impossible in a short Appendix to discuss the question in all its bearings, but the following classification, based on Herr Bartsch's article on _Die Eigen-namen in Wolfram's Parzival_, will give some idea of the wide ground they cover:--

I. Names belonging to the original legend, and met with, with but little variation, in all versions. To this class belong the names of Pendragon, Arthur, Guinivere, Perceval, Gawain, Kay, Segramor; and the names of such places as Karidöl=Carduel=Carlisle, Cumberland, Waleis, Norgals, Dianasdron.

II. Names derived from a French version of the story, which may be divided into two classes:

(_a_) Names of which we find an equivalent in existing French
sources, notably Chrêtien, whose poem offers so close a
parallel to the _Parzival_; examples of this class are
Gurnemanz=French, _Gornemant_; Peirapär=_Beau-repaire_;
Klamidé=_Clamadex_; Kingron=_Aguigrenon_; Trebuchet;
Meljanz de Lys; Lippaut=_Tiebaut_; Gramoflanz=_Guiromelans_
or _Guiremelanz_.

(b) Names formed by a misunderstanding of a French original:
such are Soltane, from forest _soutaine_=solitary; Orilus
de Lalande, from _Li orgueillous de la lande_; and
similarly, Orgeluse of Logrois, from _La orguelleuse de
Logres_; Gringuljet, the name of Gawain's horse, from _Li
gringalet_, which is explained as meaning _cheval maigre
et alerte_. Ligweiz-prelljus, is _Li guez perellous_, the
Ford Perilous; and a notable instance of this class is the
curious name Schionatulander, which is either '_Li joenet
de la lande_,' 'The youth of the meadow,' or '_Li joenet
à l'alant_,' 'The youth with the dog,' in allusion to the
cause of the knight's death. Whence Wolfram took this name
is unknown.

III. Names borrowed or quoted from other romances of the time, of those to which Wolfram alludes most frequently we know the _Erec_ and _Iwein_ of Hartmann von Aue; Eilhart's _Tristan_; Heinrich von Veldeck's _Æneid_, Chrêtien de Troye's _Cligès_, and _Le Chevalier de la Charrette_; and the _Niebelungenlied_ and _Dietrich Sage_. He also refers to other romances which have not come down to us, such are the allusions to adventures connected with Gawain in Book VI.; and to the death of Ilinot, son of King Arthur, of whom we know nothing. (The names derived from these romances are all noted, and their source given as they occur in the text.) Book I. contains some distinctly German names, such as Eisenhart, Hernant, and Herlindè, Friedebrand of Scotland and Heuteger, the source of these is doubtful, some occur in the Gudrun cycle, but it seems probable that in both instances they were derived from a common source, and, belonging as they do to a North Sea cycle, they may have reached the poem either through a French or a German medium.

IV. Names of places and people connected with Wolfram himself, such as Abenberg, Wildberg, Erfurt, the Count of Wertheim, Herman of Thuringia, etc. These were, of course, introduced by Wolfram, and could not have existed in his French source.

V. Classical and mythological names such as Antikonie=Antigone, Ekuba, Secundilla, Plato and the Sibyls, Pythagoras, etc., Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Amor, Cupid, Lucifer, Ashtaroth, and other of the fallen angels.

VI. Oriental names. In Book IV. we have the Arabic names of the seven planets, a curious coincidence, in view of the alleged Arabic source of the Grail-myth as given in Books VIII. and IX. Names of cities such as Alexandria, Bagdad, Askalon. This latter is of course equivalent to _Escavalon_ in the French versions, and the real name is doubtless Avalon, but it is by no means improbable that the change was made not by a misunderstanding, but by one who knew the Eastern city, and it falls in with the various other indications of crusading influence to be traced throughout the poem. We may add to these the names of Oriental materials such as Pfellel and Sendal. But when all these have been classified, there still remains a vast number of names undoubtedly French in origin, yet which cannot be referred to any known source, and many of which bear distinct traces of Romance or Provençal influence. Such names are Anfortas, French, _enfertez_=the sick man, with Prov. ending _as_; Trevrezent, Prov. _Treu_=peace, _rezems_=redeemed. Schoysiane, Prov. _Jauziana_, her husband is Kiot of Katelangen, _Guiot_=_Guy_ of _Catalonia_. The son of Gurnemanz, Schenteflur, is Prov. _gente-flors_, fair flower. The name of Parzival's wife, Kondwiramur, Bartsch derives from _Coin de voire amour_, Ideal of true love; an interpretation which admirably expresses the union between the two. Itonjè, Gawain's sister, is the French _Idonie_, in Chrêtien she is Clarissant. The knight slain by Lähelein at Brimbane is Libbèals of Prienlaskors, Libbèals being simply the old French _Li-beals_--_le bel_, and probably no more a proper name than Orilus, whilst his country seems derived from Prov. _priendre las cortz_, to seek the court. The long lists of conquered kings given in Book XV. contain many names of Greek or Latin origin, which have passed through a French source, and many others of distinctly Romance form. It is impossible to suppose that a German poet _invented_ these names, and the only reasonable explanation seems to be that Wolfram drew largely, if not exclusively, from a French poem now lost, and that the language in which that poem was written partook strongly of a Provençal character, the term Provençal being applied, as Bartsch points out, not only to Provençal proper, but to the varying forms of the Langue-d'oc.

NOTES

NOTES

(_A few Notes signed A. N. are due to Mr. Alfred Nutt._)