Gemstone of Paradise: The Holy Grail in Wolfram's Parzival (review)

G. Ronald Murphy's contribution offers new perspectives on Wolfram's Parzival and also a great deal of inspiration for further criticism and research. Gemstone of Paradise stands, with Arthur Groos's Romancing the Grail, as one of the most important books on Wolfram, in any language, produced in the last few decades.

The familiar tone of the prologue, in which Murphy invites the reader to follow him on his quest through inclement weather and parking difficulties, is maintained throughout the book, lending it the character of an adventure in its own right. For those who are accompanying him on this adventure he promises to provide a full explanation to support the grand assertion "I have found Wolframs's Holy Grail stone, that is both what he meant in general and the actual one" (15). The work is then divided into seven chapters with an afterward and two appendices. Already in the prologue, Murphy states the over-arching theme of the work, namely that Wolfram "found a harmony between the crusaders' quest to free the Holy Sepulcher and the quest to find the Holy Grail" (11). The chapters that follow seek to substantiate this claim. Murphy's study of the Grail as "stone" remains far more central to this study than assertions of having found the physical Grail that Wolfram references.

The first chapter, "The Idea of the Holy Grail," provides an introduction to the Grail in Wolfram's Parzival and relevant resources that will be familiar to most scholars. At the same time, by associating the Grail as stone with portable reliquaries and altars, Murphy begins to lay the groundwork for the unique and highly convincing reading of the Grail that follows. He establishes a medieval concept of gems and stones that would have been familiar to Wolfram. The second chapter, "The World of Precious Stones," continues this discussion with a treatment of Augustine's commentary on the book of Genesis. Murphy notes that gemstones "enjoy a status almost as a natural sacrament" (42). Here Murphy explores the work of near-contemporaries, like Albertus Magnus, Hildegard of Bingen, Arnold the Saxon, and Bishop Marbode of Rennes, with regards to gem-lore. Hildegard's association of gems with the fallen angels and Arnold's discussion of gemstones adorning reliquaries are of particular interest for Wolfram's specific concept of the Grail as a stone.

Chapter three, "The Crusader's Quest," attempts to connect Wolfram's particular application of gem-lore to the immediate historical context of the composition. "I believe the events during Wolfram's lifetime, the Fourth Crusade most explicitly [. . .] may have opened Wolfram's eyes to the realization that the killing in a crusade was fratricide [. . .] a shedding of the blood of Christ, and that no grail-vessel for containing the Body and Blood of Christ, whether plate, cup, or even stone, would be obtained in his story without his Parzival going for it in concord and mutual respect with his non-baptized heathen brother" (75). Murphy expands the connection between a Grail of stone and reliquaries and portable altars to the most important "stone" and reliquary of the Middle Ages, the Holy Sepulcher. He draws from various crusading accounts and rituals and legends surrounding the Holy Sepulcher and the replicas of it made throughout Europe during this period (including one in Eichstätt contemporaneous with Wolfram). The information in this chapter offers new perspectives on a wide range of aspects of the Parzival, including for example the architecture of Trevrizent's hermitage. However, the over-reaching that characterizes many of the assertions in this work becomes a little distracting. We are told, after being provided excerpts from Robert de Clari's The Conquest of Constantinople, "these are the reports that also came to Wolfram" (78). Moreover, we are also consistently told throughout the work that Wolfram was profoundly impacted by the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Murphy does not adequately support either of these points...