Parzival Read Free Page A

should care to retrieve the king’s cup, I stay here waiting for him to come.”
    Promising to relay the Red Knight’s message, Parzival went on toward the city. By the time he entered the city gates, he had drawn quite a crowd. He feared for his little mount, who was being shoved this way and that. She stumbled to her bony knees more than once, and each time she fell, Parzival was forced to dismount and pull her to her feet as the mob roared with laughter.
    When the raucous procession had forced its way into the courtyard of the castle, knights and nobles came tumbling out the doorways to see the cause of the disturbance.
    Parzival called out to them all, “God keep you! That is what my mother told me to say.” He had to yell to be heard above the jeering of the crowd. “But which of you is Arthur? I see many Arthurs here! Where is the one who will make me a knight?”
    Iwanet, a page about Parzival’s age, took pity on the boy. He ran forward and took the reins of the nag and bade Parzival to dismount. “The king is not out here in the courtyard,” he said. “I will take you in to see him as soon as I have stabled your horse.”
    “My mother bade me give a special greeting to Arthur and his lady!” yelled Parzival, still trying to make himself heard over the noise of the crowd. “And I have another message as well. A knight that I met outside the city says he is waiting for someone to come and fetch the king’s cup. Can that mean he wants to fight? Oh, yes, and he’s sorry, too, that he spilled wine upon the queen. He was dressed in red. I wish I had such armor.”
    Iwanet grabbed Parzival by the arm and dragged him away from the hoots of the crowd and into the castle. There the mocking ceased, for those within looked past his fool’s rags. The boy they saw was of such beauty and noble bearing that most suspected at once that he was the son of a king in disguise.
    “God keep you, sir, and your lady, too,” Parzival said when he came into the king’s presence. “My mother told me to give you a special greeting.”
    “What do you want from me, my lad?” Arthur asked, his voice as kindly as his bearing.
    “Make me a knight!” the boy said at once. “It feels like years since I determined to become one. I can’t wait any longer. And I don’t ask anything of you but your leave. A knight I met upon the road into the city has wonderful red armor, which I should love to have. If I can’t take his, then I shan’t take anything from the king.”
    “My lad,” the king said, “that knight you speak of would not easily give up his armor. He is very powerful. Indeed, he is making my life miserable because he thinks I have not given him his due. I can’t send an untried boy against Sir Ither, the Red Knight.”
    But Arthur had a wily counselor named Sir Kay, who whispered in the king’s ear. “Send out the boy, my lord. He and Ither will just knock about a bit. The boy has to learn about these things if he is to be a knight.” In truth, Sir Kay cared about neither Sir Ither’s nor Parzival’s life.
    “I do not want the boy to be killed,” said the king. But seeing how determined the boy was, he finally gave him leave to go.
    Parzival was racing out of the castle when a strange thing happened. There was a princess in the court, the sister of those same brothers, Orilus and Lahelin, who had stolen the kingdoms of Parzival’s father. This princess had sworn not to laugh until she met the noblest knight in the land—the winner of many jousts. When she saw Parzival running out of the court in his sackcloth clothes and cowhide leggings, she laughed out loud without thinking.
    Sir Kay was enraged. The princess had refused to laugh at all the noble knights who had sought her favor, and now she had laughed at this foolish boy. “You have shamed the court!” Sir Kay shouted, grabbing her by the hair. “You have made a fool of yourself and all of us by your unseemly behavior.” When a young knight sprang