A New Origin of Monsters

Though we have discussed in class the lack of obvious monsters in this text, I want to address a certain paragraph that appears to shed some light on the idea of monsters and where they can be found. Though the Saracens in Baghdad are not depicted as the monstrous, it appears the label has been placed on another distant ethnic group. It is an easy to overlook the account where one reads of where Malcreatiure is from, but in the description, there is a good amount of information that depicts the monstrousity of people in a foreign land.

In Wolfram’s explanation of Malcreatiure, he begins with the story of creation in which Adam advises the women to “avoid numerous herbs that would deform human offspring and so dishonour his race” (263). In this background of Malcreatiure, we receive interesting news: Feirefiz has traveled to India where he has won land. Here in India, there are “many such people […] whose appearance was deformed and no denying it – wild, outlandish features did they display” (263)!

It is interesting to note that the Saracens in Baghdad are civilized courtly people, but there still exists people that appear monstrous – they are just in Southeast Asia. Though we have this integration of other races in this story, we find another realm where people appear deformed. Wolfram’s integration of the Biblical story of Adam helps to reinforce religious reasoning for their appearance, making the deformed heathens in the wrong.

The Queen of Secundille (leader in India) also lacks religion and instead, is extremely wealthy and does not appear to be in need. However, her attempts for further information on Anfortas and the Gral sends a multitude of gifts his way, including Cundrie and her brother, Malcreatiure. In this passage, we understand the origin of these two “human wonders” who are monstrous. It appears our main ‘monsters’ in this story actually come from India, and they are not scarce.

I want to also quickly note that Feirefiz, though he is the eldest son of Gahmuret and the genuine king, travels to ‘othered’ lands such as India for conquest. Though Feirefiz does travel to Europe later, it appears that Feirefiz’s outward appearance does not give him the right to claim his lands his father left. Instead, he must conquer his own place, and he has found a land that he can gain control. Of course, the land he conquers, India, is a land filled with deformed people.

Though I agree that Wolfram is trying to allow for a more encompassing text here in terms of race, he appears to still be confined by the attitudes of certain ‘others’ in his vision. Feirefiz is able to conquer a kingdom, but it is a land with many deformed and considered monstrous people. Is this because Feirefiz is a heathen and that’s the best he will be able to conquer? How will he fare when faced with a European like Parzival? I guess that’s for our next reading…