Klingsor

Klingsor or Klingsohr is a character from early medieval Germanic folklore. He appears prominently in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, where he appears as the villain of the story, a fallen knight turned sorcerer who opposes the hero's progress. He is also part of the Sängerkrieg legend.

History

Klingsor serves as a villain in the Sängerkrieg, where he appears as a troubadour and sorcerer from Hungary. Through dark arts, and allied with Heinrich von Ofterdingen, he defeats around fifty opponents during a troubadour tournament held in the Wartburg castle, but is finally defeated by Wolfram von Eschenbach, a historical figure inserted in the story, who sings songs. Christians to dissipate their satanic force. This legend is often conflated with that of Tannhäuser, with Klingsor serving as the antagonist who seeks and ultimately achieves the protagonist's downfall on the Venusberg (although not in Wagner's version, in which Klingsor does not appear at the tournament. although Wagner would later take on the character of Klingsor).

Eschenbach himself includes Klingsor in his romance Parzival. In it, Klingsor appears as a knight who, after falling in love with another aristocrat's wife, was caught with her and castrated by him. Klingsor then travels to Persia to learn magical arts, family disciplines because of his descent from the great Virgil of Naples, and upon his return creates a castle of illusions to take revenge on all men for the loss of his manhood. Only the hero Gawain manages to defeat him and end his threat.

In Richard Wagner's Parsifal, Klingsor was a knight of the Order of King Amfortas. Unable to control his own libido, he castrated himself, and for this act was expelled from the Order. Exiled to the desert, Klingsor magically built a land of pleasures there, full of devilish flowers, and since then he has tried to trap knights to populate his own kingdom. When Titurel, now an old man, handed over the sovereign's insignia to his son Amfortas, he in the ardor of youth attempted to combat the devil of Klingsor, to whose kingdom he headed, taking the Sacred Lance with him. However, seduced by a woman, he became a flower from hell and the spear fell into the power of Klingsor who stuck it in Amfortas's side, causing a wound that only the spear itself can heal. All those who tried to recover it from the hands of the witcher have also succumbed, but the Grail has prophesied that one day a pure man and great connoisseur of grief will arrive.

In popular culture

The German writer Hermann Hesse wrote the book Klingsor's Last Summer, in which the character who bears this name is a painter.

The Mexican writer Jorge Volpi wrote In Search of Klingsor, a novel that recounts the search for Klingsor, a leading physicist who, during the Third Reich, advised Hitler on scientific matters..

The Peruvian writer Clemente Palma used the pseudonym Klingsor to publish his short story "El día triste" (which was published in the book Cuentos malévolos) in the magazine Ilustración Peruana.