Monsalvat: the Parsifal homepage | Bibliography

Bibliography

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1. Western Source Literature
2. Buddhist Literature
3. Writings of Richard and Cosima Wagner
4. Historical and Biographical
5. Mythology
6. Concerning Parsifal

• Title, author, translator or editor, publication date, publisher, city. Description.

Source Literature

See also: Appendix 1: Bibliography of Critical Works and of Major Texts of the Grail Legend in Loomis. Please note that, where an English translation is referenced, it might not be the only one available.

• Contes populaires des anciens Brétons, Théodore Claude Henri Hersart de la Villemarqué,, 1842,, Paris. Wagner's source for the story of Peredur. Wagner's Bayreuth library includes three other books by Villemarqué.
• Mabinogion or The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, unknown, tr. Jeffrey Gantz, 1976, Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth UK. A collection of eleven prose tales from the Welsh oral tradition, including a version of Peredur. The earliest manuscript dates from about 1325.
• Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach, 1980, tr. A.T. Hatto, Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth UK. There are several other good modern editions available. Wolfram's Parzival is widely (but perhaps wrongly) regarded as the primary source of Wagner's poem. The edition that Wagner studied in 1859 was a modern German edition by San-Marte (Magdeburg 1836). His Dresden library contained Karl Lachmann's (MHG) edition (Berlin 1833) and the modern German edition by Simrock (1842). Wagner read one or both of these in 1845. His Bayreuth library also contains a later edition (1857) of Simrock's translation and one by Karl Bartsch (1871).
• Parceval-Studien, San-Marte,,, Waisenhaus Verlag, Halle. One of Wagner's supplementary sources for his version of the Grail legend.
  • Vol. 1: German translation of Guiot de Provins, with commentary and glossary.
  • Vol. 2: Commentary on religion and the Grail in Wolfram von Eschenbach.
  • Vol. 3: The Grail knights.
  Wagner's Bayreuth library includes several other books by San-Marte, including his translation (from latin) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Brittanniae and his life of Wolfram von Eschenbach.
• Perceval le Gallois, compilation, 1866-71, tr. Ch. Potvin, Société des Bibliophiles de Mons. Seven volumes. Modern French text of Perceval and the Continuations, with Perlesvaus. See Wagner's Bayreuth Library for details.
• Perceval: The Story of the Grail (Perceval ou il Conte du Graal) or Perceval li Gallois, Chrétien de Troyes, 1982, tr. Nigel Bryant, D.S. Brewer, Cambridge UK. Bryant's slightly abridged edition incorporates large parts of the Continuations, in which various authors (or editors) attempted to complete Chrétien's unfinished romance. Perceval was one of Wagner's sources for his version of the Grail legend.
• Joseph d'Arimithie published as Le Roman de l'Estoire dou Saint Graal, Robert de Boron, ed. W.A.Nitze, 1927, Les Classiques français du moyen-âge, Paris. Parts of the text were translated by M. Schlauch and published in Medieval Narrative, 1928, NY. The Modena-manuscript prose versions of de Boron's Joseph and Merlin, together with the Modena Perceval have recently been translated into English: Merlin and the Grail, Nigel Bryant, 2001, D.S.Brewer, Cambridge UK.
• Didot Perceval also known as Perceval le Gallois tr. as The Romance of Perceval in Prose, tr. D. Skeels, 1961, Univ. of Washington Press, DC. The book was named for a Parisian bookseller who owned one of the manuscripts. In French prose of the early 13th century, this work is presented as a continuation of Robert de Boron's Joseph and Merlin. It ends with an early version of the Mort Artu. The Didot text is a rather garbled version of the more consistent and complete text to be found in the Modena manuscript referred to above.
• Perlesvaus, Le Haut Livre du Graal or The High History of the Grail, unknown, tr. S. Evans, 1903, 1969 reprint, James Clarke, Cambridge UK. Loomis describes this translation as inaccurate. Probably (especially if it is the first volume of Potvin's compilation) one of Wagner's supplementary sources for his version of the Grail legend. Text (English).
• The Quest of the Holy Grail (Queste del Saint Graal), unknown, 1969, P.M. Matarasson, Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth UK. From a literary viewpoint the most perfect story of the Grail, completed about 1225. Part of the Vulgate Cycle, and thus one of Malory's sources for his version of the Quest.
• Sir Gawain at the Grail Castle, compilation, tr. J.L.Weston, 1903, Nutt (Arthurian Romances no.6),. This compilation includes three versions of the episode: that which Weston called the Bleheris version, part of the First Continuation to Perceval; the German poem Diu Crône (The Crown); and the version from the Prose Lancelot.
• St. John Damascene: Barlaam And Ioasaph,, G.R. Woodward and H. Mattingly, 1914, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA. The story of Barlaam and Josaphat, which Wagner added to his Dresden library (now in Haus Wahnfried) in a modern German translation re-published in 1843, was an important source for the second act of Parsifal. Online text.

Buddhist Literature

• Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme indien, Eugène Burnouf, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1844. The book that inspired Wagner's Die Sieger. Wagner's Bayreuth library contains two other books by Burnouf: Le lotus de la bonne loi and his translation of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ.
• Die Religion des Buddha und ihre Entstehung, Carl Friedrich Köppen,, Berlin, Schneider, 1857. Read by Wagner in 1858; he found it "unedifying".
• Buddha, sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde, Hermann Oldenberg,, Berlin, 1881. Read by Wagner in late 1882. Present location of his copy unknown.
• Buddha : His Life, His Doctrine, His Order, English translation of the above by William Hoey. Modern edition: Pilgrims Book, Delhi, 1998.
• A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development, Robert Spence Hardy, London, 1853. Another of the books recommended by Schopenhauer. Probably the source of Wagner's spear that stops in mid-air. Modern edition: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1995.
• Sutta Nipáta or dialogues and discourses of Gotama Buddha : translated from the Páli, with introduction and notes, M. Coomára Swámy, Trübner, London, 1874. Wagner's studies of Buddhism continued with this translation of Suttas from the Pali canon.
• Indische Skizzen, Albrecht Weber, Berlin, Dümmler, 1857. Of particular interest interest in this book, of which a copy is present in Wagner's Bayreuth library, is the 1856 lecture Über den Buddhismus. In Weber's view the Buddha was both a religious and a social reformer, a view that Wagner might have found consistent with his view of Jesus as expressed in Jesus von Nazareth. In this lecture Weber expressed the opinion that the concept of karma was brought to India by the Aryan invaders, i.e. that it was part of the Vedic tradition from the beginning.
• Richard Wagner und Indien, G. Lanczowski, in H. O. Günther, Indien und Deutschland, Frankfurt a.M., 1956. Lanczowski argued that some of Wagner's later works, especially his Tristan und Isolde, were essentially Buddhist in outlook. His arguments are not developed and mostly superficial. Lanczkowski failed to see that, at least before 1874, Wagner's interest in Buddhism focussed on the northern (Maháyána) tradition.
• Richard Wagner och den indiska tankevärlden, Carl Suneson,, 1985, Almqvist & Wiksell International: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis (Stockholm Oriental Studies vol.13), Stockholm. ISBN 91-22-00775-X. Suneson's monograph is the only extended treatment of all aspects of Wagner's interest in Indian literature and religions.
• Richard Wagner und die Indische Geisteswelt,, Brill Academic Publishers Inc., Leiden, 1989. German translation by Gert Kreutzer of the above.
• Richard Wagners Buddha-Projekt "Die Sieger": Seine ideellen und strukturellen Spuren in "Ring" und "Parsifal", Wolfgang Osthoff, Arkiv für Musikwissenschaft 40:3, 1983, p 189-211. A lecture given in the Villa Wesendonk on the 100th anniversary of Richard Wagner's death.
• Richard Wagner's Buddha-Project "Die Sieger" ("The Victors"): its traces in the ideas and structure of "The Ring" and "Parsifal", English translation of the above with minor revisions (and some errors) by William Buchanan, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, 1996.
• Richard Wagner und der Buddhismus: Liebe -- Tragik, Urs App, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, 1997. A lecture given in the Villa Wesendonck on the 140th anniversary of Wagner's prose sketch for Die Sieger.
• The Buddhist Nirvana and its Western Interpreters, Guy R. Welbon, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1968. In particular the chapter entitled, Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche on Nirvana.

Writings of Richard and Cosima Wagner

• Das Braune Buch: Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1865-1882, Richard Wagner, ed. Joachim Bergfeld, 1975, Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag, Zürich.
• The Diary of Richard Wagner: The Brown Book, Richard Wagner, tr. George Bird, 1980, Victor Gollancz Ltd., London.
• Cosima Wagner: Die Tagebücher 1869-1883 (2 vols hb., 4 vols pb.), Cosima Wagner, ed. Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack, 1976-7, Piper, Munich and Zurich.
• Cosima Wagner's Diaries (2 vols), Cosima Wagner, tr. Geoffrey Skelton, 1978-80, Wm. Collins Sons and Co. Ltd., London.
• Mein Leben, Richard Wagner, ed. Martin Gregor-Dellin, 1976,, Munich.
• My Life, Richard Wagner, tr. Andrew Gray ed. Mary Whittall, 1983, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge UK. A translation of Mein Leben.
• Religion and Art, Richard Wagner, tr. Wm. Ashton Ellis, 1994 reprint, Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London. Volume VII of Richard Wagner's Prose Works.
• Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, Richard Wagner, tr. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington, 1987, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., London.
• König Ludwig II. und Richard Wagner: Briefwechsel, Richard Wagner and King Ludwig II, ed. Otto Strobel, 1936,, Karlsruhe.
• Richard Wagner an Mathilde Wesendonk: Tagebuchblätter und Briefe 1853-1871, Richard Wagner, ed. Wolfgang Golther, 1914,, Leipzig. Letters to Mathilde Wesendonk.
• Richard et Cosima Wagner: Lettres à Judith Gautier, Richard and Cosima Wagner, ed. Léon Guichard, 1964,, Paris. Letters to Judith Gautier.

Historical and Biographical

• The Dream King, Wilfrid Blunt,, 1970, Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London. A short biography of Ludwig II for the English reader. Sections of the book are unashamedly plagiarised from Ernest Newman's biography of Richard Wagner.
• The Darker Side of Genius: Richard Wagner's Anti-Semitism, Jacob Katz,, 1986, Brandeis Univ. Press, Hanover and London. Discusses Wagner's place in the history of anti-Semitism and the importance of anti- Semitism in the life and works of Richard Wagner.

Mythology

• The Quest of the Holy Grail, Jessie L. Weston,, 1913: 1990 reprint, The Banton Press, Largs Scotland.
• From Ritual to Romance, Jessie L. Weston,, 1920: 1993 reprint, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ.
• Die Graalslegende in psychologischer Sicht, Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz,, 1960, Walter Verlag AG, Olten. This study is the result of a thirty year long investigation into the Grail legend by Emma Jung, which was left unfinished on her death in 1955. The book was completed by M-L von Franz. In the Grail legend, a unique blend of fairy-tale and Christian legend, Emma Jung found a reflection of fundamental human problems and the dramatic psychic events which form the background of our Christian culture.
• The Grail: from Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol, R.S. Loomis,, 1963, Univ. Wales Press/Columbia Univ. Press, Cardiff/NY.
• Creative Mythology, Joseph Campbell,, 1968, Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth UK.
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell,, 1972, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ.
• Le Regard Eloigné, Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1983, Librairie Plon, Paris. Contains short essays on the Ring and Parsifal from a structuralist viewpoint.
• The View From Afar, Claude Lévi-Strauss, tr. Joachim Neugroschel and Phoebe Hoss, 1985, Basil Blackwell Ltd., London. A translation of Le Regard Eloigné.
• The Grail Legend, Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, tr. Andrea Dykes, 1998, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton NJ. See above.

Concerning Parsifal

Books entirely about Parsifal

• Parsifal et l'opéra wagnérien, E. Hippeau,, 1883,, Paris.
• Thematic Guide Through the Music of Parsifal, Hans von Wolzogen, tr. J.H. Cornell, 1889, G. Schirmer, NY. Translated from the original Thematischer Leitfaden durch die Muzik zu R. Wagners Parsifal, 1882.
• Parsifal de Richard Wagner: légende, drame, partition, M. Kufferath,, 1893,, Paris.
• Die Sage von heiligen Gral in ihrer Entwicklung bis auf Richard Wagners Parsifal, E. Wechsler,, 1898,, Halle.
• Parsifal und der Gral in deutscher Sage des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit, W. Golther,, 1911,, Leipzig.
• Introduction à l'étude de Parsifal, V. d'Indy,, 1937,, Paris.
• Dokumente zur Entstehung und ersten Aufführung des Bühnenweihfestspieles Parsifal, ed. Martin Geck and Egon Voss,, 1970, Mainz. Volume XXX of Richard Wagner: Sämtliche Werke. For an overview of this project see pages 590-592 in the WWV.
• Wagners Parsifal: Kriterien der Kompositionstechnik, Hans-Joachim Bauer,,1977, Musikverlag Emil Katzbichler, Munich and Salzberg.
• Parsifal de Richard Wagner: Opéra initiatique, J. Chailley,, 1979,, Paris.
• Parsifal: Texte, Materialen, Kommentar,, ed. Attila Csampai and Dietmar Holland, 1980, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH (rororo opernbücher), Reinbek bei Hamburg. ISBN 3-499-17809-5.
• Richard Wagner: Parsifal: Cambridge Opera Handbook,, ed. Lucy Beckett, 1981, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge UK. Lucy Beckett's account of the reception history of Parsifal and Arnold Whittall's insightful comments on the score are the parts of this book that will be most useful to the reader. Some commentators have found Beckett's discussion of Wagner's sources so incomplete as to be misleading, however, and her focus on what she saw as the Christian message of the drama, to the exclusion of other ethical and religious messages in the work, presents the work as through a distorting lens.
• Richard Wagner: Parsifal,, ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, 1982,, Munich.
• Parsifal: Ein Filmessay, Hans Jürgen Syberberg,, 1982, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich. For those who were wondering what the film was all about.
• Parsifal: Erlösung dem Erlöser?, Versuch einer anderen Deutung, R. Klier,, 1985, Druck Vorländer, Siegen. A thought-provoking reexamination of Parsifal, with cartoons by Matthias Kringle.
• Parsifal: Opera Guide 34,, ed. Nicholas John, 1986, John Calder Ltd./Riverrun Press Inc., London/NY. Some of the essays in this collection contain factual errors and the others are simply impenetrable. The most interesting of them is a high-level analysis of the music by Robin Holloway. There is a useful thematic guide and a libretto, with Andrew Porter's singable translation, indexed to the thematic guide.
• Parsifal Reception in the Bayreuther Blätter, Mary A. Cicora, 1987, Peter Lang, Frankfurt a.M., Berne and New York.
• Das Weltüberwindungswerk: Wagners Parsifal: ein szenisch- musikalisches Gleichnis der Philosophie Arthur Schopenhauers, Ulrike Kienzle,, 1992, Laaber-Verlag. This book approaches the "Schopenhauerian parable" both from the viewpoint of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung and from a Christian angle. Its main failure is to neglect other works by Schopenhauer that are more directly relevant to Wagner's subject. The Buddhist aspects of the text are ignored.
• Wagner's Parsifal: The Journey of a Soul, Peter Bassett,, 2000, Wakefield Press, South Australia. A balanced and highly readable introduction to Parsifal and its sources. Includes a free translation of the poem (libretto) into English.
• NEW! A Pagan Spoiled: Sex and Character in Wagner's Parsifal, Anthony Winterbourne,, 2003, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press and Associated Univ. Presses, Madison and London. When the author is not trying to substantiate Nike Wagner's claim that Geschlecht und Charakter -- the ultimate work of fin-de-siècle misogynism written by the deranged Otto Weininger -- is the theoretical underpinning of Wagner's last drama, he makes some interesting observations about Parsifal. Unfortunately his pursuit of Nike Wagner's red herring tends to reduce the author's credibility. But it's a good read.

Books containing useful chapters or essays about Parsifal

• Music Criticisms 1846-99, E. Hanslick, ed. & trans. H. Pleasants, 1963,, London.
• Das Geheimnis der Form bei Richard Wagner, Alfred Lorenz,, 1966 reprint,,Tutzing. Originally published in Berlin, 1926. Four volumes of which volume 4 concerns "Parsifal".
• Revue wagnerién,,, 1885-8 reprinted 1971,, 3 volumes.
• The Legends of the Wagner Drama, Jessie Laidlay Weston,, 1900, Ch. Scribner's Sons, New York.
• Wagner Nights, Ernest Newman,, 1949, Pan Books Ltd., London.
• Richard Wagner's Music Dramas, Carl Dahlhaus, tr. Mary Whittall, 1979, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge UK. Contains a fascinating analysis of Parsifal. Translated from Richard Wagners Musikdramen, 1971.
• Acts, Wolfgang Wagner, John Brownjohn, 1994, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.
• Wagner, Michael Tanner,, 1996, Harper Collins, London.
• The Wagners : The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty, originally: Wagner Theater (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt a.M. and Leipzig, 1999), Nike Wagner; English translation by Ewald Osers and Michael Downes, 2001. Nike Wagner's superficial and misguided ideas about her great-grandfather's music dramas are revealed in this compilation of musico-dramatic criticism, family history and self- promotion.

Selected articles presenting different perspectives on Parsifal

• Wagners erste Parsifal-Entwürfe, P.Sakolowski, in Richard-Wagner Jahrbuch, 1906, p.317-26.
• Zu Entstehungsgeschichte des Bühnenweihfestspieles Parsifal, A. Prüfer, in Bayreuther Festspielenführer, 1911, p.152-71.
• Zur Quellenkunde des Parsifal, R. Petsch, in Richard-Wagner Jahrbuch, 1912, p.138-61.
• Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Parsifal, W. Altmann, in Richard-Wagner Jahrbuch, 1912, p.162-8.
• Die Grundlagen der Parsifal-Dichtung, A. Heuss, in Die Musik, 1912-13, p.206-21 and 323-33.
• The Cradle of the Parsifal Legend, M. Unger, in Musical Quarterly, 1932, p.428-42. A speculative theory that the legend originated in Persia, supported by mistranslation of Persian sources.
• Zur Partitur des Parsifal, T. Adorno, in Moments Musicaux, 1964, p.52-7.
• Von Meyerbeers Robert der Teufel zum zweiten Aufzug Parsifal, Walter Keller, in Tribschener Blätter, 1971, p.6-12. English translation in Wagner, 1992, p.83-90.
• Parzival und Parsifal oder Wolframs Held und Wagners Erlöser, Peter Wapnewski, in Richard Wagner: von der Oper zum Musikdrama, ed. S. Kunze, 1978, p.47-60, Berne and Munich. See also the book by the same author, Der traurige Gott, 1980, Munich.
• Parsifal: Facing the Contradictions, Barry Millington, in Musical Times, 1983, p.97-8.
• Jüdische Theosophie in Richard Wagners Parsifal: Vom christlichen Antisemitismus zur ästhetischen Kabbala, Wolf-Daniel Hartwich, in Richard Wagner und die Juden, ed. D. Borchmeyer, A. Maayani and S. Vill, Stuttgart and Weimar, 2000, p. 103-122. Hartwich seeks to demonstrate the influence of esoteric Jewish teachings on Parsifal.
• Parsifal under the Bodhi Tree, Derrick Everett, in Wagner, 2001, p.67-92. For all its faults, this is a useful guide to the Buddhist ideas in Wagner's Parsifal.