Swarz-wîz and heiden: elements of acceptance in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Willehalm and Parzival

In this work the role of both race and religion in Christian and so-called heathen communities is examined as they appear in Willehalm and Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach.

Several characters in these works experience difficulty being accepted within the Christian communities in Germanic Europe for reasons which might be attributed either to their race or to their religion. Two major characters, Giburc from Willehalm and Feirefiz from Parzival, and two minor characters, Rennewart from Willehalm and Razalic from Parzival, were investigated. Although a number of factors--race, religion, relative beauty, and strength--appears to contribute to the characters' acceptance or non-acceptance in courtly society, in a majority of the cases, religion holds more significance for the acceptance of the characters in these works in their respective communities.