Cundrie la Surziere
Cundrie la Surziere (often also Cundrîe) is a literary figure in the Artus story ( Li Contes del Graal ) and from Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach . The addition la surziere (French) has often been translated as the witch . In Wolfram's story, however, there are no references to Cundrie's magic actions, which is why it is probably more of a mock name in the sense of old witch .
In the story, Cundrie is a gift from Queen Secundille of India. She and her brother Malcreatiure were given to the Grail King Anfortas as a present. Cundrie's appearance is extraordinarily ugly, and no knight has ever ridden into battle for her. The ugliness is the result of descent from the daughters of Adam who had incurred sin. The internal wrongness of the Adams daughters is reflected in the external wrongness of their offspring (including Cundrie and Malcreatiure). On the other hand, Cundrie has enormous knowledge and is very learned. She has knowledge of the worlds of the Orient and the Occident and can therefore inform Parzival about his half-brother Feirefiz.
However, there is a second character named Cundrie, who is a daughter of the Norwegian king Lot and his wife Sangive and thus the sister of Gawan. According to the story, Cundrie was kidnapped as a child along with her mother Sangive, her grandmother Arnive and her sister Itonje by the magician Clinschor (Klingsor), who wanted to take revenge on Gawan for the disgrace he had suffered. The liberation by Arthur and Gawan was followed by the politically motivated marriage of Cundrie to Lischoys, the Duke of Gowerzin.
Cundrie with Wolfram von Eschenbach
In the Parzival, Cundrie acts as the Grail messenger , she serves the Grail Knights and the Grail King Anfortas , brings messages between the Knights and the callings in the Grail community.
Cundrie becomes the main supporting character in the sixth book with “Parzival's curse”: Before the assembled knights, she reveals that Parzival is the son of the respected knight Gahmuret, suggesting a relationship between Arthur and Parzival. Above all, however, she denounces Parzival's alleged heartlessness and his explainable failure on the Grail Castle of King Anfortas and tries to make him socially impossible as the unworthy offspring of his father and his family by calling him “out of line”. As a key figure, Cundrie triggers Parzival's year-long search for the Grail .
After all, it is also Cundrie who brings Parzival the call to the Grail King and the news that his wife Condwiramurs and his son Lohengrin are also called to the Grail community.
Opposites to other characters
Cundrie already stands out from other female figures in Parzival through her characterization: boar teeth, dog nose, long, shaggy black hair and ears like a bear stand in clear contrast to the always embellished ladies of the Arthurian court. Though ugly by nature, Cundrie dresses in the style of French fashion. Furthermore, the narrator warns on the one hand against her loose mouth, on the other he praises her high education. These opposites are the most striking feature of the figure and can be recognized in each of her two appearances: while Cundrie curses Parzival at the beginning, at the end of his journey she is ready to beg his forgiveness.
Cundrie's character traits initially form a direct opposition to Parzivals. If Parzival is venerated as a handsome boy, no man would break a lance for Cundrie. On the other hand, Cundrie shines with a high level of education and moral steadfastness - qualities that Parzival neglected due to his upbringing.
Kundry with Richard Wagner
This basic motif is later taken up by Richard Wagner in Parsifal . Here the figure of Cundrie la Surziere is transformed into Kundry, the messenger of the Grail. The knights of the grail and squires fear her as witches and sorceress. Because again and again she falls mysteriously into somnambulistic sleep and disappears for some time. She is then under the demonic influence of the magician Klingsor, who is in possession of the holy lance he has stolen, which alone could save the king Amfortas. Kundry must be willing to Klingsor in order to seduce the knights of the grail, and later also Parsifal, with her charm.
Wagner invents another facet for the fate of Kundry: she is condemned to ever renewed rebirth, she says, because she laughed under the cross of Jesus . An aspect that never appears in the Arthurian legend and Parzival von Eschenbach and reminds us of the legends of the Eternal Jew . The “pure fool” Parsifal can, however, resist the seduction of Kundry and thus break the spell. Klingsor's magic realm withers, Kundry sinks down as if dead. After a long search, Parsifal finally finds his way back to the Grail area, where, on Good Friday morning, Kundry also woke up from a death-like sleep. Parsifal gives her baptism and frees her from all previous guilt. She accompanies him to the temple, where he heals the sinful King of the Grail Amfortas with the recovered spear and takes over his office. At the sight of the flashing grail she dies the redeeming death that has been longed for for centuries.
Wagner does not include Kundry in the family structure of the knightly world around King Arthur, but it plays a decisive role. Similar to the literary work, it gives essential impulses for the plot. Kundry is the only female main character in Wagner's Parsifal ; she is sung by a soprano or mezzo-soprano . At the premiere in 1882 at the Richard Wagner Festival in the Festspielhaus , the role was designed by Amalie Materna , in the 1950s Martha Mödl became famous in this role, later also Régine Crespin . From 1983 Waltraud Meier sang Kundry in Bayreuth for ten years. In the summer of 2006 Evelyn Herlitzius first appeared in this role in Bayreuth.
See also
literature
- Joachim Bumke: Wolfram von Eschenbach. 8th, completely revised edition, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-476-18036-0 (= Metzler Collection, Volume 36).
- Michael Dallapiazza: ugliness and individuality. Approaches to overcoming the ideality of the beautiful in Wolframs von Eschenbach's “Parzival”. In: DVJS 58, 1985.
- Andrée Kahn Blumstein: The Structure and Function of the Cundrie Episodes in Wolfram's "Parzival". In: German Quarterly , 51: 2 (1978: Mar.)
Web links
- monsalvat.no: Kundry (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Dallapiazza: ugliness and individuality . In: DVJS 58, 1985.
- ↑ Karl J. Keppler: The laugh of women. The demonic in the feminine. Goethe - Wagner - Thomas Mann. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, p. 75.
- ^ Rudolf Kreis: Nietzsche, Wagner and the Jews. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1995, p. 97.