ABSTRACT
The word “sins” is used advisedly, since this is what Parzival and Trevrizent call the slaying of Ither—Trevrizent applying the word at this point to the causing of Herzeloyde’s death, too—and he also speaks of the omission of the Grail question in these terms, as well as using the term rather more indirectly of Parzival’s defection from God. Parzival is involved as well, almost through his sheer existence, in causing pain and suffering to others whether they be the birds that Herzeloyde in a fit of over protectiveness has killed to spare her son suffering. The motifs may be adopted and adapted, but not entirely at will, possessing as they do a life of their own. It is less a matter of asking what the poet was trying to do, though this dangerous topic must be brushed from time to time, than of examining the effect of what he has done and its implications.
