 | Title: Parsifal's Page Author: Gerald Morris Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pages: 232 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Piers (or Pierre, as he wants to be called) is desperate to become a page to escape the dirty, tedious labor of his father;s black-smith shop. So when a knight shows up and says he's on "the quest," Piers begs to go along. Surprisingly his father lets him, and soon he is off on a series of adventures he never dreamed possible. However, Piers's knight quickly runs into some difficulties and is slain by an odd character named Parsifal, who is on his own quest to become a knight. Piers has no other choice but to throw his lot in with Parsifal. Parsifal is unlike anyone Piers has ever met and doesn't behave "knightly" at all, but slowly Piers begins to realize that being a knight has nothing to do with shining armor and winning jousts. As their journey continues, Piers and Parsifal are drawn into the Quest for the elusive Holy Grail. They find that to achieve this quest they must learn more than knighthood: they most learn about themselves. No knight's story has been told more often than Parsifal's, but no one else has ever told his story quite like Gerald Morris does in his fourth Arthurian novel, another tour de force of humor, action, magic and, as always, true love. |
After
the high of Savage Damsel, for me it
would be difficult for the next book in the series to top or meet my
expectations. This may account for the somewhat ambiguous way I feel about Parsifal’s Page. For me, it has its ups
and downs. There are parts I like a lot, and parts I’m kind of “meh” on;
there’s nothing that I outright dislike about it but it doesn't sparkle for me
the way Squire, Knight, Lady and Savage Damsel do.
Spoilers, etc…
I
believe Morris is mishmashing several different versions of the
Parsifal/Perceval legend here, as well as adding some more side adventures from
Malory. Morris has returned to telling the story from an original character’s
perspective, in this case a character younger than any we've yet encountered in
his Arthurian universe. Piers/Pierre (he sorts this out over the course of the
story) is eleven years old when the book begins, and ends up almost by accident
a page to untried warrior Parsifal. We briefly met Parsifal in The Squire, His Knight and His Lady, and
now it’s time for his famous Grail Quest tale to be told. There will be another
one when we get to Galahad later in the series but this story belongs to
Parsifal.
The Plot
This book is divided unofficially into
two parts. Part one begins with Piers (he wants to be called Pierre, so for
this section I’ll humor him, which Morris does not), a boy living with his
noble mother and blacksmith father who dreams of adventure like in his mother’s
stories of life at court. Yes, cue the Disney music swell and the “I want
adventure in the great, wide somewhere…” because that’s pretty much the mood
you get. Pierre just knows he wants more than being a lowly blacksmith like his
dad. He wants to get out and go on adventures. He has no idea what “adventure”
entails, other than it’s grand and exciting and “better” than his current life.
I actually find Pierre kind of annoying in this section. Possibly because his attitude about people comes too close to that of the utterly reprehensible Lyonesse from Savage Damsel for my taste. He not only is deceived by physical appearances as Lynet was, but he’s deceived by appearance of status, and he’s slow to amend his judgments even when he comes to like the people in question. So despite the fact that the first knight he serves is an idiot and an awful person who tries to overthrow Arthur singlehandedly—about the only thing he has to recommend him is he’s a distant relation of Arthur—Pierre regrets coming to serve the much nicer, if naïve, Parsifal, because he sees Parsifal as an ignorant nobody. Unlike Lynet, who admits she made a mistake in judgment when she sees Gareth fight, Pierre spends months with two men who train Parsifal: Sir Guirnemains, who trains Parsifal in manners, and Jean le Forestier (aka Lancelot), and does not figure out which of their tutelage is worth more. He persists in thinking Sir Guirnemains is the superior instructor when it’s obvious Jean!Lance really, really knows what he’s doing with weapons. I get that Pierre has no way of knowing the guy is freaking Lancelot, but still…which one of them actually taught Parsifal how to use a sword? I mean, what eleven-year-old medieval boy, when confronted by the choice of which is more important to being a knight between dancing and swordplay, picks dancing? It shows how little Pierre knows about what the job of a knight is, and how completely taken in he is by appearances. Some of the advice Pierre gives Parsifal, such as how to treat a lady, is good enough, but some of it, like discouraging him from asking questions, turns out is not so great.
This book is really where you start to
notice how intertwined all the previous stories are, a trend that will continue
through the rest of the series. Kind of “where are they now?” or “whatever
happened to…” tidbits. For example: Parsifal becomes the Red Knight because he
acquires the armor of the slain Knight of the Red Lands from the previous book.
So once Parsifal has been trained, it’s
time for him to take on his first real adventure. He almost effortlessly rescues
and marries the incomparable Queen Conduiramour (Connie for short), much to the
chagrin of Pierre because none of this matches with his mother’s stories of
great knightly deeds. It was “too easy” and therefore “boring” for Parsifal’s
poor, suffering page. Never mind that he gets to serve a King and Queen instead
of a lowly nobody now.
Luckily for Pierre, for once
Parsifal agrees with him. He sets out again, ostensibly to bring his mother to
live with him and Connie but really he’s looking for adventure. It’s at this
point the Grail Quest appears. Parsifal and Pierre come across a strange castle
where all sorts of inexplicable things happen as per the original legend.
Parsifal remembers Pierre’s teachings and asks no questions, though both he and
Pierre are bursting with curiosity. Turns out this was a test, and all he had
to do was ask a question and he would have passed. By staying silent, he
failed. He and Pierre are kicked to the curb, and once he realizes his failure,
he sends a guilt-ridden Pierre away.
Thus begins part two of the book.
Piers (note the name change—the difference between part one Pierre and part two
Piers is pretty stark) teams up with Gawain and Terence to look for Parsifal so
they can bring him back to Arthur’s court to be knighted and so Piers can
apologize to Parsifal for steering him wrong. Piers is amazed by the
camaraderie between this unusual pair and wonders if he was also wrong in the
distant way he treated Parsifal when all Parsifal wanted was a friend. The trio
learns some background on what went on in the Grail Castle and the history of
the perpetually wounded Fisher King who rules it. Turns out Parsifal is the son
of the King’s sister, while Terence was raised by the King’s brother who,
demoralized by looking for the King’s cure, became a hermit. The third member
of the group who originally set out to cure the King, the armorer Trebuchet, is
still missing. Terence, finding his foster father is near death, stays behind
to care for him in his last days. Gawain and Piers travel on together alone.
Gawain
and Piers have some fun adventures together, during which Piers learns what it
really means to be a knight. He also slowly comes to realize there might have
been more to his supposedly humble blacksmith father than he ever thought, and
that more of his teachings rubbed off on Piers than he knew. The two end up in
the Other World, where Piers acquires a magical garland that could help
Parsifal find the Grail Castle again. They return to the World of Men without
having found Parsifal.
Parsifal, in all his wanderings,
finds them. Now broken and bitter and longing only to return to Connie, he
reluctantly allows Piers to join him again. They wander for some time until
Piers tries to get Parsifal to use the garland.
Parsifal refuses, but the garland works anyway and leads them back to
the Grail Castle where Parsifal finally gets to ask The Question and heal his
uncle. He refuses kingship of the Grail Castle in order to go home to Connie.
His last quest, with Connie beside him this time, is to inform his mother,
Terence’s foster father, and Trebuchet that their King has been healed.
However, they find the first two have already died. The group, which now
includes Parsifal, Connie, Terence, Nimue and Ariel (Nimue’s chatty original-Morris-character
daughter) takes Piers back to his parents. When they arrive, Piers confirms his
suspicions that his father is in fact Trebuchet himself. Like Parsifal,
Trebuchet has settled down with a mortal woman he loves and does not want to
return to the Other World without her. So he, Piers and his wife move to
Parsifal’s castle to serve Parsifal and Connie. Piers, now technically old
enough to be a squire (he began the story at eleven and ends it at about fourteen;
having apparently gone through puberty he is unrecognizable even to his
parents), decides he would rather his father teach him to be a smith, a life
he’s realized is just as honorable as being a knight.
The Characters
Parsifal:
The legendary character of Percival is often referred to “The Perfect Fool”.
This doesn't mean that he’s slow-witted, but that he is so unworldly that he
asks questions and does things he has no idea he shouldn't do. It’s not always
a bad thing, but it can be in some circumstances. This is how Parsifal was in Squire, Knight, Lady and thus he is for
most of the beginning of the book. Pierre finds his propensity to do or say
whatever comes to mind exasperating and constantly tries to correct him.
Parsifal willingly learns his lessons and becomes more refined and dignified
because he believes Pierre’s lectures that this is how a knight should behave.
However, he finds he’s learned the lessons too well when they reach the Grail
Castle and there are times when one should
ask questions. He is absent for most of part two while Piers tries desperately
to find him and make up for the mistake that forever shattered the cheerful,
open man Parsifal once was. Even at the end of the book the cheerful Parsifal
who greeted everyone he met with a smile has not returned, a thought-provoking
but quiet symbol of lost innocence.
Conduiramour:
Parsifal’s long-suffering wife, she is a young queen who is wise beyond her
years and beloved by all her people. She is not really a woman of action like
Eileen or Lynet, but she is really likable with a quiet sense of humor. I wish
she were in this more because I really find her character intriguing and she
gets some pithy lines.
Gawain:
Piers’s “knight master” in part two, it’s fun to spend more time with him after
his almost total absence from Savage
Damsel. He and Terence are still amusing to watch in their brotherly
bickering. Piers comes to care for him in a student-mentor kind of way, though
Piers is learning more about life and human interaction from Gawain than how to
be a knight.
Kai:
A major subplot of this book is Kai’s “romance” with a lady named Connoire.
Most of this takes place off-screen and begins with a misunderstanding. The
pair are attracted to each other but as usual for a Gerald Morris romance
disguise it by bickering. Unfortunately, Kai, being a rougher article to begin
with, isn't as good at witty banter as Gaheris or Terence and ends up getting
slapped. He slaps Connoire in return, and this is witnessed by Parsifal.
Thereafter Parsifal sends defeated enemies to honor Connoire, leading Connoire
and Kai to believe Parsifal is in love with her. Both of them berate Parsifal
when he reappears, much to Parsifal’s surprise as he had just been sending the
knights to her as a convenient way to get rid of them. In a shocking twist,
once Kai finds out Connoire isn't interested in Parsifal he proposes on the
spot. She accepts but in Arthur’s words “I’m not sure whether I just witnessed
a challenge or a proposal.” Because Kai is the seneschal he doesn't get to go
on adventures so we never see a story really and truly focused on him (though
he is a major character in at least one subsequent Tale and continues to be
awesome), which is too bad because I’d like to see more of the pair of them.
Lancelot:
Still in disguise as a woodcutter in the woods. He manages to semi-bring
himself out of retirement to teach Parsifal sword fighting and jousting while
Parsifal helps him with his woodcutting. The times when Parsifal complains that
he’s never beaten “Jean” are funny because of course we the readers of the
previous books know perfectly well it’s Lancelot. No one can beat him; even
when it’s mentioned he and Gawain cross weapons in other books he always wins.
And of course wild-looking “Jean” is another opportunity for Pierre to be all
judgy when it’s obvious to the readers he’s missing something major.
Nimue:
The Lady of the Lake returns after a two-book absence. She is still good and
kind and beautiful, and appears at a castle in the Other World to take care of
Piers and Gawain when one of their adventures leaves both of them injured. She
now has a daughter with Merlin, although Merlin is only mentioned by his Welsh
name so if you didn’t read Morris’s Author’s Note at the end you’d miss it.
Ariel seems to be about the same age as Piers, though since time runs
differently in the Other World it’s impossible to guess her real age. Her name
might or might not be a reference to the Little Mermaid because like her mother
she is a water sprite (no tail, she just swims really well). Piers has a crush
on her but it’s hard to guess whether she feels only friendship or something
more.
Arthur:
Pierre would have respected him even if he’d been an awful person. Luckily for
him Arthur is the best king ever so Piers still continues to respect him after
he grows up a little.
There
are lots of other Malory and Perceval-legend characters, but I’m not as familiar
with them so I will not talk about how they compare to the original and other
retellings. I’ll leave those to Story.
Guinevere,
Dinadan, Gareth, Sagramore, Griflet and Bagdemagus all are mentioned or make
cameo appearances.
Overall
There
are things I like about this book and overall it’s a fun adventure, but the
whole thing is kind of disjointed upon reading it again after some time away.
The parts with Gawain and Kai are enjoyable but I am less invested in the new
characters than I feel I should be after spending a whole book with them.
Three
stars.
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