Parzival

Wolfram von Eschenbach

May 2021 · Naxos of America, Inc. · Narrated by Leighton Pugh

About this audiobook

The greatest of all the medieval romances about the Holy Grail, Parzival was written in the early 13th century. The narrative describes the quest of the Arthurian knight, Parzival, for the Holy Grail. His journey is filled with incident, from tournaments and sieges to chivalrous deeds and displays of true love. The poem influenced several later works, most notably Richard Wagner’s opera of the same name and Umberto Eco’s Baudolino. The text used in this recording is Cyril Edwards’s modern prose translation.

About the author

Leighton Pugh trained at LAMDA, after studying Modern Languages at Queen’s College, Oxford. Radio work includes the plays Murder by the Book and Scenes from Provincial Life for BBC Radio 4 and the voice of Heinrich von Kleist in the BBC Radio 3 documentary The Tragical Adventure of Heinrich von Kleist. Leighton has been in five productions for the National Theatre, most recently The Lehman Trilogy (NT Live 2018–19, New York, West End). For Naxos AudioBooks he has recorded, among other things, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Zola’s Germinal, Nana and L’Assommoir, and featured in Walton’s The Compleat Angler.