Parzival Who? From Sarnia Guiton, Sophia Services
You know – that knight in the early Middle Ages, who rode around Europe on his horse in search of the Grail, having fights with other knights and getting things wrong. Why would you read that story about him? It’s difficult; so many characters with strange names living a life we can’t relate to. What’s the point and why go in search of him when he’s obviously long since dead?!
But, hmm - why is his story studied in Waldorf schools in Grade 11 and in Waldorf teacher training programs? There must be some good reason…. Teachers always feel they don’t have enough time to cover all the material they think they should, so why is Parzival allowed precious time? It’s a unique story about growing up; about learning from our mistakes as we go through life. Parzival was actually a very important historical figure, whose woes and triumphs led us in our evolution of consciousness. Learning from our mistakes was not a capability in his time; it was a new concept and he led the way. We are still learning it. We can identify with him. He and his life are worth exploring.
The tour next April, In Search of Parzival, will do exactly that. There are few locations in the story that have been accurately identified; the Forest of Broceliande being one of them. We’ll go there. Many have been covered by parking lots and buildings, but the tour will go to the ones we can still find. We’ll also explore sites that are evocative of his times in the 9th century, starting in Wales. We’ll visit medieval castles of different types where the Lords and Ladies lived, and a reconstructed medieval village where the peasants lived. We’ll see a hermit island in a lake, man-made many hundreds of years ago. We’ll go to a basilica in France from Charlemagne’s time, and imagine knights riding horses into the church to be blessed before going into battle. In Spain we’ll visit a medieval costume museum to see how they dressed. Then there are the believed sites of Grail castles in northern Spain and southern France, and ancient French villages that would have been there in his time when France was actually only a very small area around Paris. A Roman meal! We’ll eat what Parzival ate and drank. In Slovenia we’ll visit castles historically known to have been built on top of the ruins of his father’s and grandfather’s. We’ll close the tour with a visit to Rudolf Steiner’s birthplace, whose wisdom brought this old story (three versions written by medieval authors) to us to learn from. Come with us on this journey; we can be thankful it’s not on horseback wearing armor! (Hmm - do we have our own ‘invisible’ armor?)
Take a look at the website www.sophiaservices.ca for further information and booking forms and please note the booking deadline of January 10.
You know – that knight in the early Middle Ages, who rode around Europe on his horse in search of the Grail, having fights with other knights and getting things wrong. Why would you read that story about him? It’s difficult; so many characters with strange names living a life we can’t relate to. What’s the point and why go in search of him when he’s obviously long since dead?!
But, hmm - why is his story studied in Waldorf schools in Grade 11 and in Waldorf teacher training programs? There must be some good reason…. Teachers always feel they don’t have enough time to cover all the material they think they should, so why is Parzival allowed precious time? It’s a unique story about growing up; about learning from our mistakes as we go through life. Parzival was actually a very important historical figure, whose woes and triumphs led us in our evolution of consciousness. Learning from our mistakes was not a capability in his time; it was a new concept and he led the way. We are still learning it. We can identify with him. He and his life are worth exploring.
The tour next April, In Search of Parzival, will do exactly that. There are few locations in the story that have been accurately identified; the Forest of Broceliande being one of them. We’ll go there. Many have been covered by parking lots and buildings, but the tour will go to the ones we can still find. We’ll also explore sites that are evocative of his times in the 9th century, starting in Wales. We’ll visit medieval castles of different types where the Lords and Ladies lived, and a reconstructed medieval village where the peasants lived. We’ll see a hermit island in a lake, man-made many hundreds of years ago. We’ll go to a basilica in France from Charlemagne’s time, and imagine knights riding horses into the church to be blessed before going into battle. In Spain we’ll visit a medieval costume museum to see how they dressed. Then there are the believed sites of Grail castles in northern Spain and southern France, and ancient French villages that would have been there in his time when France was actually only a very small area around Paris. A Roman meal! We’ll eat what Parzival ate and drank. In Slovenia we’ll visit castles historically known to have been built on top of the ruins of his father’s and grandfather’s. We’ll close the tour with a visit to Rudolf Steiner’s birthplace, whose wisdom brought this old story (three versions written by medieval authors) to us to learn from. Come with us on this journey; we can be thankful it’s not on horseback wearing armor! (Hmm - do we have our own ‘invisible’ armor?)
Take a look at the website www.sophiaservices.ca for further information and booking forms and please note the booking deadline of January 10.
