Knight of the Swan

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Lohengrin postcard around 1900 - unknown artist
Lohengrin postcard around 1900 - unknown artist
Helias, Brabant (16th century)
Helias, Brabant (16th century)

The story of the Knight of the Swan, or Swan Knight, is a medieval tale about a mysterious rescuer who comes in a swan-drawn boat to defend a damsel, his only condition being that he must never be asked his name.

Today, the story is probably best known as that of Lohengrin, son of the Grail knight Percival. The Lohengrin version forms the plot of Richard Wagner's opera of that name, which is based on the medieval German romance Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach.

However, the Knight of the Swan tale was originally attached to the family of Godfrey of Bouillon, first conqueror of Jerusalem in 1099, in the French chansons de geste known as the "Crusade cycle".[1]

The second version of this tale is thought to have been written by the Norman trouvère Jean Renart.

In Brabant the name of the Knight of the Swan is Helias.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Holböck, Married Saints and Blesseds, p. 147.

[edit] References

  • Holböck, Ferdinand (2002). Married Saints and Blesseds. Ignatius Press. ISBN 0898708435.