ABSTRACT
Books V and VI may be taken together because they jointly illustrate Parzival's first testing and failure on a new narrative level. His failure is made clear to us early on by the narrator, Parzival is given a number of early indications, but the full catastrophe strikes him only with Cundrie's arrival at the Round Table in Book VI. Two types of recognition are present: failure in intellectual recognition or moral perception at Munsalvaesche and a return to people earlier encountered in the other cases. Secondly, the first of these episodes contrasts with what immediately went before. Parzival's failure to recognise what is expected of him at Munsalvæsche differs markedly from his success in this respect at Pelrapeire. Anfortas's suffering is thus not completely invisible to Parzival, but much less easily visible than the narrator has made it to the liteners. Parzival's task is to grasp the significance of what he can see and act accordingly.
