Klingsor is the magician who wounds Amfortas with the sacred spear in Richard Wagner’s Parsifal.
Klingsor is the opera’s principal antagonist. He uses the spear associated with Christ’s Passion to injure Amfortas, the Grail king, after Amfortas has become vulnerable to temptation. The wound leaves Amfortas unable to perform his duties without severe pain.
Klingsor’s realm is presented as a corrupt counterpart to the Grail community. His power includes the enchanted flower maidens, whose seduction threatens the knights. Parsifal eventually resists this temptation and takes the spear from Klingsor.
The character’s name and role derive from earlier Grail literature, especially Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, where the antagonist is called Klingsor. Wagner reshaped the material into a symbolic drama about compassion, desire, and redemption.