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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the more bizarre of the early Arthurian romances, given a sympathetic translation and useful notes. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2022/03/28/great-rap-battles-of-medieval-germany/
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
I’m reading Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach (I guess I don’t believe in light reading these days?), translated from Middle High German because I sadly do not speak that. Written in the early 1200s or thereabouts, it’s loosely based on the Story of the Grail by Chretien de Troyes, but with a lot more sass. Wolfram had some serious attitude, and he’s pretty hilarious, as Middle High German poets go.
Update: Still ambling through Wolfram von Eschenbach. I really love this guy, though. Fantastic name aside (I really want to name a pet Wolfram), he’s also just hilarious and not at all a bad writer. Still, anything translated from 13th century Middle High German is bound to be a little on the heavy side, I think, and it’s taking me forever to get through it.
Update: Still ambling through Wolfram von Eschenbach. I really love this guy, though. Fantastic name aside (I really want to name a pet Wolfram), he’s also just hilarious and not at all a bad writer. Still, anything translated from 13th century Middle High German is bound to be a little on the heavy side, I think, and it’s taking me forever to get through it.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 Stars.
Not great, not terrible. A bit too meandering for my taste and Parzival himself did have too easy a job with the grail in the end, considering how epically he failed in the first place (where he turned out to be a little shitty, character-wise, truth be told). However, he is, of course, the hero of the tale and in medieval literature the heroes always find a simple solution presented to them, somehow. It's actually almost frustrating. Full disclosure: I'm sure I'll properly hate this behemoth of a book in a couple months' time as I'm writing part of my thesis on it - yeay.
Not great, not terrible. A bit too meandering for my taste and Parzival himself did have too easy a job with the grail in the end, considering how epically he failed in the first place (where he turned out to be a little shitty, character-wise, truth be told). However, he is, of course, the hero of the tale and in medieval literature the heroes always find a simple solution presented to them, somehow. It's actually almost frustrating. Full disclosure: I'm sure I'll properly hate this behemoth of a book in a couple months' time as I'm writing part of my thesis on it - yeay.
slow-paced
dnfd at 33%
i couldn't - i just couldn't. not even for school
i couldn't - i just couldn't. not even for school
Earlier this year I read the Niebelungenlied. That one was a real slog. Parzival is better but still probably mostly for the student of medieval literature. It's not an easy read.
The usual conventions are present here. Every knight is dressed in shining armor. Every lady is either a queen or a princess. Everyone is always clothed in finery more magnificent than the world has ever known. Every victory, every tragedy, every teeny tiny step is greater than any that came before.
It's four hundred pages of unrelenting hyperbole.
But at least there's a clear voice on this one. I think I would rather like ol' Wolfram, who inserts himself into the story now and again, usually in a self-deprecating manner. Some of the incidents he recounts are memorable.
In the end, though, it's still a slog. It's still one joust after another, each one very much like the others and each with a curious lack of detail or tension. After a while, the reader just wants to be done with it. I've put off reading Parzival for forty years and more. Now I've read it.
Check.
The usual conventions are present here. Every knight is dressed in shining armor. Every lady is either a queen or a princess. Everyone is always clothed in finery more magnificent than the world has ever known. Every victory, every tragedy, every teeny tiny step is greater than any that came before.
It's four hundred pages of unrelenting hyperbole.
But at least there's a clear voice on this one. I think I would rather like ol' Wolfram, who inserts himself into the story now and again, usually in a self-deprecating manner. Some of the incidents he recounts are memorable.
In the end, though, it's still a slog. It's still one joust after another, each one very much like the others and each with a curious lack of detail or tension. After a while, the reader just wants to be done with it. I've put off reading Parzival for forty years and more. Now I've read it.
Check.