Chivalry and Paradise

There again spoke Parzival:
May Chivalry for beloved prize—
Plus the soul’s Paradise—
Be hunted with shield and with spear:
Then Chivalry was ever my desire!
I battled wherever I found battle,
So that my warlike hand
Gained me praises.
Is God wise to battles?
Then he shall name me there,
So there they acknowledge me:
There my hand never battle forbore.

In that passage (IX:471:30-472:11) from the German Arthurian romance Parzival (1220), the selfsame knight Parzival tells his uncle the knight-turned-holyman Trevrizent, in very martial terms, that pursuit of Chivalry and of Paradise are one and the same. (Perhaps somewhat like Wittgenstein’s later equation of Ethics and Aesthetics?) Accordingly, Parzival honestly proclaims that he never shunned battle, and likewise, that any warlike god would favour him for being such an ardent & acclaimed knight, worthy to join his approving Paradisal peers. (Much like a valiant & valued viking wanted Wotan to favour him and to bring him into the Asgardian army—the god riding horse & wielding spear, the Jungian archetypal Ur-Ritter.) ~

Adapted excerpt from German Chivalry (Fritz Maes; 2018).