Parzival, the hero of a metrical romance, by Wolfram von Eschenbach (twelfth century).  Parzival was brought up by a widowed mother in solitude, but when grown to manhood, two wandering knights persuaded him to go to the court of king Arthur.  His mother, hoping to deter him, consented to his going if he would wear the dress of a common jester.  This he did, but soon achieved such noble deeds that Arthur made him a knight of the Round Table.  Sir Parzival went in quest of the holy graal, which was kept in a magnificent castle called Grallburg, in Spain, built by the royal priest Titurel.  He reached the castle, but, having neglected certain conditions, was shut out, and, on his return to court, the priestess of Graal-burg insisted on his being expelled from the court and degraded from knighthood.  Parzival then led a new life of abstinence and self-abnegation, and a wise hermit became his instructor.  At length he reached such a state of purity and sanctity that the priestess of Graalburg declared him worthy to become lord of the castle, having been "made perfect by suffering" (Rev. vii. 14; Heb. ii. 10). 
    This, of course, is an allegory of a Christian giving up everything in order to be admitted a priest and king in the city of God, and becoming a fool in order to learn true wisdom (see I Cor. iii. 18). (Reader's Handbook of Famous Names in Fiction, &c., Brewer, 1899)