Foreword by the Author

 to the German Edition

 

 

W

olfram von Eschenbach assures us that his dramas are true, i.e. that they correspond to reality. He knows that what he has to report is unbelievable; hence he endeavours to inform us that everything took place as he presented it. In Willehalm, he says he neither inserted nor altered anything in the history related as a true story in France. In Parzival, he assures us that he only says what Kyot says; what the latter related in French, he relates in German.

            The truth of this reference to Kyot, Wolfram’s source, is cast in doubt by present-day Wolfram researchers. Kyot is assumed is to be a mere figment of Wolfram’s imagination and not a historical figure. Parzival is therefore dealt with as a fairy-tale, while Willehalm is regarded as a saga.

            There is only one scholar within the field of Wolfram research today who is convinced that Kyot is not a fictitious character and that Wolfram is telling the truth: Dr. Herbert Kolb, (the late) Professor for Old High German at the University of Düsseldorf (Germany).* In his philological research work Munsalvaesche Herbert Kolb has conclusively proven that the Kyot-is-fiction theory cannot be upheld in the face of scientific conscience. Dr. Joachim Bumke, his (former) colleague at the University of Cologne, mentions Kolb’s maverick position in this research field in his work Die Wolfram von Eschenbach-Forschung seit 1945,** noting that Kolb did not succeed in making much of an impression on his peers with his work.

            This silent attitude on the part of his fellow Wolfram researchers in no way diminishes the value of Herbert Kolb’s work. Fifty years before his time, Rudolf Steiner by means of his spiritual research reached the same results as did Herbert Kolb through philological deliberations. Rudolf Steiner emphasized that Kyot’s existence must be taken into account, but this made no impression either on the followers of the Kyot-is-fiction theory. However, Rudolf Steiner’s Wolfram research has not remained entirely without consequences, in as far as the historicity of the Grail tradition was recognized within the circle of his students. Rudolf Steiner’s research – especially his localization of the Sigune site in the Hermitage of          Arlesheim, Switzerland – resulted moreover in the fact that the Goetheanum was not built just anywhere, but quite consciously in the historical Grail area of the Parzival period.

            As a student of Rudolf Steiner, I was since my early days aware of the truth of Wolfram’s epics. Rudolf Steiner designated the 9th century as the historical Parzival period. I only came across the doubt of present-day researchers when I began, relatively late, studying Wolfram von Eschenbach in more detail, and in this context the findings of the more current Wolfram research as well.

            My introduction to the philological research was made through Samuel Singer, a Wolfram researcher from Bern, Switzerland from the first quarter of the 20th century. I was able to spontaneously confirm his assumption that Wolfram describes Oransch according to the model of a town he knew, because I was already familiar with this town. The congruity between Wolfram’s description and the medieval French town of Orange in the Provence prompted me to also look for and visit other places described by Wolfram in the geographical reality and to compare them in detail with Wolfram’s original text.

            When Wolfram’s claim to be telling the truth was confirmed time and again in one scene of action of Willehalm and Parzival after the other, I decided to make the results of my research available to a select circle of Wolfram researchers. I turned to the representative of the faculty for Old High German Studies at the University of Basle, Prof. Heinz Rupp. I approached someone from the Historical Faculty there and saw the (late) archeologist Hagen Biesantz at the Goetheanum, School for Spiritual Science in Dornach.

            In Germany, I wrote to the president of the Wolfram von Eschenbach Society, Werner Schroeder, Professor at the University of Marburg (Germany), and to Walter Johannes Schröder, Professor at the University in Mainz (Germany). I was unable to reach Prof. Joachim Bumke and Prof. Herbert Kolb for the time being.

            In the person of the president of the Académie d’Alsace, Camille Schneider, I found an expert in the field of French philology who showed an interest in my work.

            Soon Mr. Robert Schmidt, a co-worker of Prof. Hagen Biesantz, contacted me. Mr. Schmidt’s field of interest was also the 9th century, especially the Alcuin Bible from Moutier-Grandval (Switzerland). He turned out to be an enthusiastic associate, who managed to circulate copies of my research report among anthroposophical researchers in such a way that within a short time a circle of interested persons was formed. Mr. Schmidt also suggested that the report be published and took all the necessary steps for this to be implemented. My sincere thanks go to him for his work.

            I am also thankful to the (former) president of the General Anthroposophical Society, Mr. Rudolf Grosse, for his decisive support in favour of publishing this book.

            I would also like to sincerely thank my co-worker, Frau Lisbeth Müller, for her enduring support during the incubation time of this manuscript and for her typing work.

            In the mean time, I have reached Prof. Bumke in Cologne and via him also Prof. Kolb in Düsseldorf. Prof. Kolb submitted an initial reaction:

 

The starting point and basis of your research, namely to take the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach seriously and literally receive all my sympathy; I consider it to be the only valid way of scientific research… I welcome your concrete attempt to examine the scenes of action of the poetic plot and to historically verify it with respect to historical figures. This is, after decades of a mere fictional appraisal of Wolfram’s poetic work, a step in the right direction.

 

            I sincerely thank Prof. Kolb for his basic reaction and hope that his fellow experts may now also take up his work Munsalvaesche as a basis for unbiased research.

            Finally, I thank the Philosophical-Anthroposophic Press (Goetheanum Verlag) in Dornach. I hope that this publication can appeal to a greater circle of researchers who will venture to do justice to the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach as a historian too and rediscover his epics – on a historio-geographical background – from a new angle.

 

Riehen-Basle, Switzerland, May 1973                                                                  Werner Greub


* Since this Foreword was written, Dr Herbert Kolb has passed away; the same is true of Rudolf Grosse, Hagen Biesantz and Werner Greub himself. Whether the other persons mentioned here are still alive is not known to me.

** On p. 31 of this book under the category General Research nothing more is mentioned of Werner Greub's work than the title. This seems to corroborate a letter I received from Dr Herbert Kolb on May 17, 1985, in which he writes that Greub's work "has received little or no attention from the experts. This sort of 'reception' is with respect to my own book about Wolfram von Eschenbach not entirely unknown to me… "