Wolfram von Eschenbach, “Gawain”

Monsters: From the Corners of the Earth to Under Your Bed



Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival (Bern, 1467), adapted by Johann Stemhein of Konstanz and commissioned by Jörg Fribürger. Manuscript. Cod. AA 91, Bürgerbibliothek, Bern, Switzerland  

“Gawain and The Perilous Bed & Gawain Overcoming the Lion” 

A two-page spread from the Berner Parzival showing Gawain’s epic quest, a fully original creation of Wolfram. In his side quest, Gawain enters a marvelous castle to seek the love of three maidens; but, in doing so he encounters the perilous bed, which wheels Gawain around as he is pelted by rocks—a mechanical and supernatural encounter! Still disoriented, the famous knight is then challenged by a lower-class man wielding a giant club. While not outwardly monstrous, his audacity to attack Gawain is monstrous. The unchivalrous man quickly retreats when he is outmatched, but he releases a starved, monstrous lion upon Gawain. Gawain bests the giant lion by chopping its leg off, but he is gravely wounded in return. However, the knight is resurrected, in a sense, by the three fair maidens.  

Gawain’s story is important here as it mirrors his original famous tale where he faces the Green knight, and Parzival’s own quest; where a knight is faced with an impossible challenge, and reborn as a better man through the trial. 

Sean Peek