¹For centuries the so-called Agate Bowl (4th century C.E., ca. 29 inch.), one of the inalienable heirlooms of the House of Habsburg at the Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg in Vienna, was held to be the Holy Grail.  It had come into Habsburg possession through Charles the Bold of Burgundy (1433-1477).  This medieval treas-ure was not positively identified until 1951 when during a careful cleaning a new reading of the inscription revealed that it merely contained the signature of the artist and not the falsely assumed name of Christ.
²King Gahmuret’s son.
³The advice given is significant only in part. The caution against muddy fords seems almost a joke, but Parzival takes the advice about women very seriously without understanding it at all. Parzival accuses the Red Knight (Ither) of ‘perhaps’ being Llewelyn, again revealing his ignorance.
⁴Parzival shows that he is very unsophisticated.  It was unknightly to use a javelin against a man, but Parzival keeps his word and kills Ither with it.
⁵Jeschute belongs to the class of courtly ladies whom Wolfram despises.
⁶French for ‘squire.’
⁷plaine: plains.
⁸javelot:  he uses a javelin, a hunting spear, instead of the courtly sword and lance. David Blamirez points out in Characterization and Individuality in Wolfram’s ‘Parzival’ [1966] that “the gabilôt becomes the emblem of Parzival's total ignorance of courtly etiquette” (p. 142).
⁹Gurnemans represents all that is best in the chivalric world, and his advice is sound, but, for a man with Parzival’s mission, insufficient. It is interesting to note, however,  that Gournemans does not dismiss Parzival without elaborating on the theme of conjugal love: “man und wîp diu sint al ein; / als diu sunn diu hiute schein, / und ouch der name der heizet tac. / der enwederz sich gescheiden mac: / si blüent ûz eime kerne gar” (173: 1-5) [“Mann und Frau sind völlig eins — / wie die Sonne, die heut schien / und das, was man als >Tag< bezeichnet / Hier läßt sich keins vom andren trennen: / aus einem Kerne blühn sie auf!” Bernd Lampe points out in Parzivâl: Gralssuche und Schicksalserkenntnis [1987] (p. 202) that it is precisely Parzival's love for Conduir-amour that will ultimately enable him to return and claim the Grail.  After the meeting with Gurnemans, Parzival does not mention his mother's advice again.
¹⁰The procession of women is much more elaborate than in the same scene in Chrétien’s poem.  It may be reminiscent of Eastern or Mozarabic rites.
¹¹According to Wolfram, who first uses the word,  ‘Achmardi’ is green and gold-brocaded silk.
¹²Repanse de Joie—one who rewards with joy?—is a name invented by Wolfram.  It will be noted that at this point we are told little more, indeed less, about the Grail than Parzival himself could observe.  We do not yet know that it is a stone.
¹³The »cornucopia« motif is very common in association with the Grail, but it is not mentioned by Chrétien.
¹⁴forsch:  bold
¹⁵suivants:  French for ‘attendants’
¹⁶défaitage:  defeat
¹⁷la sorcière:  the sourceress;  her education appears to be somewhat eclectic;  of the seven liberal arts she apparently only knows dialectic, geometry, and astronomy (see p. 12, fn 1).
¹⁸beau gens:  beautiful people
¹⁹Lasur:  lapis lazuli
²⁰brocart:  brocade
²¹Muli:  mule, offspring of a jackass and a mare. Because she is so ugly she falls considerably short of the courtly ideal of beauty;  no self-respecting knight would ever wish to vie for her (314:10).
²²Parzival is, of course, referring to God, and his remarks are blasphemous.  He is guilty of pride in his belief that his deeds must induce God to consider him favorably.
²³Templar:  so named from occupying quarters near the site of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.  The Templars were members of a religious military order established by the Crusaders at Jerusalem in 1118 to protect pilgrims and the Holy Sepulchre.
²⁴The Parzival manuscripts also contain the readings ‘lapsit exillis,’ that is, ‘lapis ex coelis,’ stone from heaven.  ‘Lapis exilis’ is most likely the correct reading in that it suggests ‘thin, modest,’ referring to the magic stone in the Alexander legend which is said to have come from paradise and whose purpose it is to remind the great conqueror of the impermanence of life.  Thus, Wolfram’s Grail may also be viewed as a symbol of Christian humility.
²⁵The idea of the Grail’s being revivified by the bringing of a wafer on Good Friday by a dove  (the resemblance to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is obvious) is found only in Wolfram’s poem.  He places great emphasis on the Grail’s power to sustain life on earth, but only as a result of heavenly power.
²⁶Although the neutral angels are mentioned by Dante in Inferno 3:34-69, little was written about them in the Middle Ages, and certainly no source is known for what Wolfram says about them here.
²⁷cri de guerre:  battle cry
²⁸Tjosteur: jouster
²⁹from French «orgeilleuse», meaning haughty
³⁰A Jew killed a bull by whispering into its ear the name of his God.  St. Sylvester revived it by whispering the name of Christ.  The story of the raising of Lazarus is found in Jn 11.
³¹Secundille was the pagan wife of Fairefis and was queen of ‘India.’