Both Parzival and Willehalm show the highly innovative skill of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and his Titurel, too, is a unique work which, like Willehalm, defies generic description. The complex strophic form, four long lines of differing metrical patterns rhyming in pairs but with occasional additional internal rhyming and frequent enjambement, recalls the Nibelungenlied and some of the more metrically complex lyric poetry of the day, but it is uniquely intricate and, sustained over the 175 strophes which constitute the two fragments, it is a tour de force of poetic mastery. It is capable of conveying moments of high drama and tender lyricism, and both qualities are present to superb effect in this fragile, yet powerful work, the least well known of Wolfram's compositions, but a significant part of a complex oeuvre. Scholarship, with quite enough...
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Citation: Gibbs, Marion E.. "Titurel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 January 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14453, accessed 12 February 2026.]
