Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

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He is taken to the castle, where he witnesses Amfortas unveil the shining light of the Grail during communion.

 

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When the lad appears confused by what he has witnessed, Gurnemanz dismisses him as just a fool and sends him out with a warning to hunt geese, if he must, but to leave the swans alone.

 

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Klingsor conjures up Kundry, waking her from her sleep. He calls her by many names: First Sorceress (Urteufelin), Hell's Rose (Höllenrose), Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry.

 

 

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She is now transformed once again into an incredibly alluring woman, as when she once seduced Amfortas. Klingsor observes that Parsifal is approaching and summons his enchanted knights to fight the boy.

 

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Klingsor watches as Parsifal overcomes his knights, and they flee. Klingsor sees this young man stray into his Flower-maiden garden and calls to Kundry to seek the boy out and seduce him, but when he turns, he sees that Kundry has already left on her mission.

 

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The triumphant youth finds himself in a wondrous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flower-maidens.

 

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They soon fight and bicker among themselves to win his devotion, to the point that he is about to flee.

 

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But then a voice calls out, "Parsifal!" He now recalls this name is what his mother called him when she appeared in his dreams.

 

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The Flower-maidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave him and Kundry alone.

 

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As they kiss Parsifal suddenly recoils in pain and cries out Amfortas' name: he feels the wounded king's pain burning in his own side and now understands Amfortas' passion during the Grail Ceremony. Filled with this compassion, Parsifal rejects Kundry's advances.

 

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Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally calls on her master Klingsor to help her. Klingsor appears and throws the Spear at Parsifal, but it stops in midair, above his head.

 

Parsifal takes it and makes the sign of the Cross with it and departs.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Many years later. Gurnemanz is now aged and bent.

 

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He hears moaning near his hermit's hut and discovers Kundry unconscious in the brush.

 

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Looking into the forest, he sees a figure approaching, armed and in full armour. The stranger wears a helmet and the hermit cannot see who it is. Gurnemanz queries him and chides him for being armed on sanctified ground and on a holy day, but gets no response.

 

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Finally, the apparition removes the helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes the lad who shot the swan, and joyfully sees that he bears the Holy Spear.

 

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Parsifal relates how he wandered for years, unable to find a path back to the Grail.

 

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He had often been forced to fight, but never wielded the Spear in battle.

 

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Gurnemanz tells him that the curse preventing Parsifal from finding his right path has now been lifted, but that in his absence Amfortas has never unveiled the Grail, and lack of its sustaining properties has caused the death of Titurel. Parsifal is overcome with remorse, blaming himself for this state of affairs.

 

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Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel's funeral, and that Parsifal has a great duty to perform. Kundry washes Parsifal's feet and Gurnemanz anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognizing him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion, and as the new King of the Knights of the Grail.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Parsifal looks about and comments on the beauty of the meadow. Gurnemanz explains that today is Good Friday, when all the world is renewed.