Wolfram von Eschenbach's monumental novel Parzival was written in the first decade of the 13th century. Preserved in several manuscripts, the novel was published already in 1477. In the following centuries, interest in Parzival gradually declined, and the book was almost forgotten. Its new edition (by H. Miller) appeared in 1744, but did not attract widespread attention, nor did the retelling of the novel in hexameters by Johann Jacob Bodmer (1698-1783) and published in 1753. The first scientific edition of Parzival was prepared by the largest German researcher K. Lachmann (1833), in 1870-1871. A new critical edition of the novel was published, carried out by K. Bartsch. In 1903, Albert Leitzmann prepared a new three-volume edition of Parzival, which was then reprinted several times. (Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival, herausgegeben von Albert Leitzmann, 5. Auflage. Halle, 1955).

Based on the edition of A. Leitzmann, this translation has been made. Considering the enormous size of the book (in some lists there are up to 25,000 verses), this translation is inevitably abridged. The translator sought to convey not only the main content of the novel, but also its stylistic features - an undoubted touch of improvisation, reflected in the deviation from the strict rhythmic pattern of the verse, in conversational intonations, repetitions, etc. When shortening the text, not a single significant episode of the book was omitted, in a number of places, instead of an exact translation, a short – poetic – retelling is given. These places are marked with dots. Wolfram's novel has not yet been translated into Russian in such a volume.