sins." When she is missing too long, a
misfortune surely is in store for the knights. She preserves for them
by the opposing forces of her nature the true and good in their
consciousness and purpose. With that he tells them Klingsor has
established on the other side of the mountain, toward the land of the
Arabian infidels, a magic garden with seductively beautiful women to
menace them by enticing the knights there and ruining them. In the
attempt to destroy this harbor of sin the king had carried away the
wound and lost the lance which, according to the revelation of the
Grail, only "the simple fool knowing by compassion" could recover.

Suddenly cries of lamentation resound in the sacred forest. A wild
swan slowly descends and dies. Shield-bearers bring forward a handsome
youth whose harmless, innocent demeanor inspires involuntary interest.
He is recognized by the arrows he carries as the murderer of the bird
which had been flying over the lake and which had seemed to the king,
about to take his bath, as a happy omen. Gurnemanz upbraids him for
this deed of cruelty. The swan is doubly sacred to the Grail. It is a
swan also that conducts Lohengrin to the relief of innocence! "I did
not know," Parsifal replies. The universal lamentation however touches
his heart and he breaks his bow and arrows. He knows not whence he
came, knows neither father nor name. The only thing he knows is that
he had a mother named "Sad-heart." "In forest and wild meadows we were
at home." Gurnemanz perceives however by his manner and appearance
that he is of noble race, and Kundry, who has seen and heard
everything in her constant wanderings confirms the impression.

"Thus he was the born king
Who had the aspect of a lordly youth,"

says Chiron to Faust of the young Herakles. As his father had been
slain in battle, the mother had brought him up in the wilderness a
stranger to arms--foolish deed--mad woman! Parsifal relates that he
had followed "glittering men" and after the manner of the vigorous
primitive peoples, had led the wild life of nature, following only
natural instincts. Gurnemanz reproaches him for running away from his
mother and when Kundry states that she is dead, Parsifal furiously
seizes her by the throat. It is the first feeling for a being other
than himself, his first sorrow. Again Gurnemanz upbraids him for his
renewed violence but remembering the prophecy and the finding of the
secret passage to the castle, he