Fisher King

The Fisher King (Old French: roi peschierres; French: Roi pêcheur; Welsh: Brenin Pysgotwr), also called the Wounded King or Maimed King (Old French: Roi Méhaigié; French: Roi blessé, Welsh: Brenin Clwyfedig) is the guardian of the Grail Castle in legends about the Holy Grail. According to Robert de Boron, he was a son of Veronica, the sister of Joseph de Berimathie (Joseph of Arimathea). According to Chrétien de Troyes he is a maternal uncle of Perceval. In the verse epic "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach, written between 1200 and 1210, he is called Amfortas (also Anfortas).

In Perlesvaus, the anonymously written sequel to the unfinished Grail novel (Li Contes del Graal) by Chrétien de Troyes, he is Josue, a son of Glais and brother of Alain, the father of Perlesvaus (Parzival). His descendants here are Aminadap, Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor, Pelleams (the lame king) and Pelles, who becomes the grandfather of Galahad through Lancelot.

The Tale of the Fisher King by Chrétien de Troyes

Asking questions in the right way, i.e. not with the mind but with the heart, is the necessary prerequisite in the present consciousness-soul age for an initiate to reveal spiritual truths. Parzival fails to ask the crucial question about the cause of Amfortas suffering and the meaning of the Holy Grail.

„I have mentioned on another occasion how we find the literarily still best figure of Parzival's approach to the Castle of the Holy Grail in Chrestien de Troyes, in Christian of Troyes; how there it is represented to us that, after having endured long odysseys, Parzival comes to a lonely region, where he first finds two men: the one rowing a boat, the other fishing from the boat; how, by asking the people, he is directed to the Fisher King; how he then meets the Fisher King in the Grail Castle. Then how the Fisher King, an elderly man who has become weak and must therefore stay on his bed of rest, hands him the sword, which was a gift from his niece, in conversation. Then, as first a squire appears in the hall, carrying a spear which is bleeding - the blood runs down to the squire's hand - a virgin appears with the Holy Grail, which is like a kind of bowl. But such radiance shines from what is in the Grail that all the lights of the hall are over-lit by the light of the Holy Grail, just as the stars are over-lit by the sun and the moon. And then we learn how in this Holy Grail is that on which the old father of the Fisher King, who is in a special room, feeds himself, who needs nothing of what is so abundantly served at the meal at which the Fisher King and also Parzival take part. They feed on earthly food. But every time a new course is served - as we would say today - the Holy Grail passes by again into the chamber of the father of the Fisher King, who is old and who only gets nourishment from what is in the Grail. Parzival, who has been told by Gurnemanz on the way there that he should not ask too many questions, does not ask why the lance bleeds, does not ask what the bowl of the Grail means - he did not know the name, of course. He was then bedded down for the night - as Christian of Troyes says - in the same room where all this had taken place. He had made up his mind to ask the next morning, but there he found the whole castle empty, no one there. He called for someone. No one was there. He dressed himself. Only his horse was ready downstairs. He thought that the company had gone out hunting, and he wanted to ride after them to ask about the miracle of the Grail. But as he rode over the drawbridge, it sped up so fast that the horse had to jump to save itself from falling into the moat of the castle. And he found nothing of all the company he had found the day before in the castle. Then Christian of Troyes tells how Parzival rides on and in a lonely forest area finds the image of the woman with the man in her lap whom she is weeping for. It is she who first means to him how he should have asked, how he has deprived himself of experiencing the effect of his asking about the great mysteries that have come to him. We know, after Christian of Troyes, that he went through many more wanderings and that on a Good Friday he came to a hermit called Trevericent; we know that he was told by him how he was cursed because he had failed to bring about what could have been a redemption for the Fisher King: to ask about the miracles of the castle. He then receives many a lesson.“ (Lit.:GA 149, p. 85f)

The Significance of the Fisher King

„In the original Grail legend, the ruler of the castle is a Fisher King, a king over a fisher folk. Another was also with a people of fishermen, who only did not want to be king of these fishermen, but something else among these fishermen; who disdained to rule over them like a king, who brought them something else than the ruling king: the Christ Jesus. It is thus indicated that the deviation of the Fisher King - for that is actually Amfortas in the original legend - that this deviation of the Fisher King is the one that goes to one side. He is not quite worthy, so to speak, of receiving salvation through the Grail. He is not worthy for the reason that he wants to rule his fisher folk by means of power; he does not only allow the spirit to rule among these fisher folk.

At first, Parzival is not so far inwardly open that he asks in a self-confident way: Why the Grail? - What does it need now? - In the case of the Fisher King it was necessary for him to put aside his personal interest and make his interest as wide as the interest of the general humanity in the Christ Jesus. In the case of Parzival it is necessary that he should raise his interest above mere innocent contemplation to the inner understanding of what is the same in every man, what belongs to all mankind, the gift of the Holy Grail. Thus, in a marvellous way, between Parzifal and Amfortas or the original Fisher King, hovers in the midst the ideal of the Mystery of Golgotha.“ (Lit.:GA 145, p. 125f)

Modern adaptations

In T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem «The Waste Land», the Fisher King also plays an important role. The film «The Fisher King», released in 1991, also deals with this theme.

Literature

• William A. Nitze, Glastonbury and the Holy Grail, Modern Philology 1/2. 1903, 247-257.
• Louise Gnädinger, Rois Peschiere / Anfortas. Der Fischerkönig in Chrestiens und Wolframs Gralsdichtung, Georges Güntert u.a. (ed.), Orbis Mediaevalis, Bern 1978, 127-148 ISBN 3-7720-1421-6
• Rudolf Steiner: Welche Bedeutung hat die okkulte Entwicklung des Menschen für seine Hüllen (physischer Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib) und sein Selbst?, GA 145 (2005), ISBN 3-7274-1450-2 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Christus und die geistige Welt. Von der Suche nach dem heiligen Gral, GA 149 (2004), ISBN 3-7274-1490-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.