Which German knight and poet composed the medieval Arthurian romance Parzival?

Wolfram von Eschenbach composed the medieval Arthurian romance Parzival.

Wolfram was a German knight and poet active around the turn of the 13th century. His Parzival, written in Middle High German, follows the knight Parzival’s development from an inexperienced youth into a Grail hero. The poem contains roughly 25,000 lines and adapts material associated with the French romance tradition.

Parzival is especially important because Wolfram presents the Holy Grail as a stone rather than simply a cup. His work also connects the Arthurian world with the Grail kingdom of Munsalvaesche and its guardian knights.

Readers sometimes confuse Wolfram with Chrétien de Troyes, the French author whose unfinished Perceval, or the Story of the Grail, influenced Wolfram. Parzival is not a historical biography of a real knight; it is a major medieval romance combining chivalry, adventure, courtly love, and spiritual redemption.