'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR'_ Chapter 11 of the book 'How the Grails Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Historian' by Werner Greub _ Willehalm Institute For Anthroposophy as Grail Research and Social Organics

14/07/2021 'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR'/ Chapter 11 of the book 'How the Grails Sites Were Found
Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Histo…
4th March 2018 'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING

ARTHUR'/ Chapter 11 of the book
'How the Grails Sites Were Found -
Wolfram von Eschenbach as a
Historian' by Werner Greub
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HIUeBpgKufU/WpxndKe_oGI/AAAAAAAAE88/5qbZ_dm6enIQp4DgMk9BRVSqTiQ5vV6FgC
LcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B5%2B%252833%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Note by the Publisher and Translator Robert J. Kelder: This interdisciplinary

research report by the Swiss anthroposophist Werner Greub (1909-1997) is a
translation of "Wolfram von Eschenbach und die Wirklicheit des Grals" that was
published in 1974 by the Goetheanum, School for Spiritual Science in Dornach,
Zwitserland. This English translation was first published by the Willehalm
Institute Press Foundation in Amsterdam in manuscript form in 1999 and as a
book in 2013 . Part I entitled Willehalm-Kyot with a number of introductions of
previous editions can be read here [http://www.willehalm.nl/] under the rubric Grail
Sites. Chapters 12 "Shastel marveil - Klingschor's Magic Castle
[http://willehalminstitute.blogspot.nl/2018/03/terre-de-salvaesche-chapter-12-from-
how.html] " and 13 "Terre de salvaesche - Land of the Grail
[https://willehalminstitute.blogspot.com/2018/03/terre-de-salvaesche-chapter-12-from-
how.html] " can be read elsewhere on this blog. The plate numbers refer to the
book version. A new edition is in the making.
***
In this second part of our research report examining

Wolfram von
Eschenbach’s credibility we would now like to locate, one after the
other,
some additional scenes of the Parzival plot.
We have found Montpellier in the south of France to be

the place where the
Willehalm and Parzival plots converge. This mingling of the
Wolfram epics
on historical grounds was presented in the first part of our
research entitled
Kyot-Willehalm. The town of Komarzi in the land of Brubant,
speaking in the
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14/07/2021 'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR'/ Chapter 11 of the book 'How the Grails Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Histo…
Willehalm terminology, and the town of Pelrapeire in the land

of Brobarz,
using the words of Parzival, were identified as Montpellieret, a
quarter of
present-day Montpellier in the south of France. In the
Kyot-Willehalm report
we looked ahead to the town of Graharz in Parzival, which
is not mentioned
in the Willehalm plot. Graharz, the city of Grenoble in
Graisisvaudan,
belongs exclusively to the domain of Parzival.
Pelrapeire-Montpellier and
Graharz-Grenoble will now serve as our points of
departure, from which we
want to advance further into the Parzival geography.
Parzival riding from
Nantes via Graharz came to Pelrapeire. From
Pelrapeire-Montpellier he then
sent Condwiramurs’ besieged assailant back along
the same route in the land
of Bertane to Arthur’s court.

It is generally assumed that this Bertane is Bretagne
or Brittany in France
with its capital Nantes corresponding to the city with
the same name on the
Loire. We will first put these accepted identifications to
the test. We have
been successful in our examination of a generally accepted
identification, that
of Graharz as Grenoble, to the extent that not the city of
Grenoble, but indeed
the valley in which Grenoble lies, namely Wolfram’s
Graswaldane, has
already been identified by the Wolfram research, and rightly
so according to
our considered opinion, as the present-day region of
Graisisvaudan.

Identifying the land of Bertane as Bretagne and the
town of Nantes as its
namesake on the river Loire, which has been undertaken
purely on semantic
grounds, is, as we have already pointed out in our
Kyot-Willehalm report, not
as convincing however from a geographical viewpoint.
Why Wolfram’s Bertane is not Bretagne
Why Wolfram’s Bertane is not to be found in Bretagne

shall now be made
clear. If Parzival would have ridden from Nantes on the Loire
to Grenoble
and from there to Montpellier, he would have had to first ride in a
south-
easterly direction to Grenoble and from there turn, at a right angle to
this
route, to Montpellier. He would thus have made a long detour, which could
perhaps be justified by the fact that Herzeloyde had first sent her son to
Gurnemanz to be trained as a knight, before moving on to Montpellier in the
region of his uncle Kyot. That Herzeloyde did indeed advise her son to seek
counsel by Gurnemanz emerges from P. 169:11-12, where Parzival explains
that
his mother sent him to Grenoble. Parzival says at that point to
Gurnemanz:
If my mother had not advised me to come here

that day when I left her.
Parzival’s ride to Grenoble to Gurnemanz’ court was

therefore no mere
accident. Herzeloyde had described the teacher whom her son
found in
Grenoble so vividly that upon meeting him there Parzival recognized
him by
his grey hair. Parzival says to Gurnemanz (P. 162:28-30):
My mother told me to accept advice

from any man with grey hair.
Clamide and Kingrun had no grounds for making such a

possible detour via
Graharz. They therefore did not take the road to Arthur via
Graharz-
Grenoble, but via Lower-Lyon. If Arthur were really to be found in
Brittany,
the route via Lyon would be an enormous detour. The direct route from
Montpellier to Nantes would not have led in a north-northeast direction via
Lyon, but northwest via Limoges to Nantes and into Bretagne.
In the first part of our research, we pointed to the

distance, according to
Wolfram’s description, separating the town of Graharz
from Nantes. Nantes
on the Loire is about 600 km. from Grenoble. Wolfram’s
Nantes, however,
cannot be more than 120 km. away.

This is why the equation hitherto of Nantes with
Bertane in the northwest of
France cannot be correct. We are hence forced to
find new arguments on the
basis of which the posi-tion of the land of Bertane
and its capitol Nantes can
be deduced.
Wolfram’s place names do not at first glance offer us

much, unless one
recognizes Muntane Cluse as a geological-geographical concept
pointing to
the chains of the Jura Mountains. Cluses are narrow gorges, short
cross-
valleys in the folds of the Jura Mountains. 120 km. north of Grenoble we are
indeed in the middle of this
fold. The Jura folds enclose the whole northwest
border of Switzerland and
extend a long way into France. There are hundreds
of such cluses in this area
and it is therefore not easy to find the one at the
entrance of which Arthur
defended his capital Nantes – in which he "dicke
saz" (often resided; P. 548:25).
We know he guarded his headquarters there,
because Wolfram reports that a whole
company of guards was once taken
captive in Muntane Cluse (P. 382:24). Arthur
does not always reside in his
capital Karidoel Castle in Nantes. Depending on
the season of the year, he
also resides in Dianazdrun, Schamilot (Camelot) or
in his hunting lodge
Karminal in Brizljan Forest. This is situated in the land
of Bertane where
Kingrun, who was sent by Parzival to Cunneware von Lalant,
finds Arthur’s
army (P. 206:8). But there is still another town where Arthur
occasionally
spends some time: Bems on the Korka. Of this town it is said that
it lies in the
land of Lower (P. 610:15). Bertane apparently embraces part of
the land of
Lower = Lyon. To the north, Lyonnais extends beyond Macon. If our
assumption is right, we ought to look for Arthur in an area lying 120 km.
north
of Grenoble in the chains of the Jura Mountains or in the valley of the
Saone.

Where Is King Arthur’s Camelot Castle?
After we believed, on the basis of geographical and

local historical studies, to
have found Bems on the Korka in Beaune on the Côte
d’Or, Dianazdrun in
Dijon, Camelot in Champmol and Nantes in Nantua, we set out
for this region
in order to get to know it firsthand. The assumption that

Dianazdrun referred
to a town in which a Diana cult was practiced during Roman
times was not
confirmed, i.e. the Roman museum did not provide any grounds for
it. The
Roman name of Dijon, on the other hand, retains in Wolfram’s corruption
a
touch of the original Castrum divionense: Dianazdrun-Divio castrum.
Another
one of Wolfram’s indications points even more clearly to Dijon.
Arthur stayed
in Dianazdrun during Whitsuntide of the year 841. That is
where Clamide met him
on June 5, Whitsunday 841 (P. 216:14). The
possibility may hence not be
discounted that on the Day of Ascension 848 in
Bems he was like-wise underway
to Dianazdrun, where he apparently used to
celebrate Whitsuntide. But now
Wolfram says Artûs was gein Schamilôt
(Arthur had gone to Camelot; P. 822:7). It must be assumed that he continued
his journey, which was interrupted in Bems, to Dianazdrun after the events in
Joflanze. In this case Wolfram would have to say: Artûs was gein Dîanazdrûn
(Arthur had gone to Dianazdrun). However, he says that he journeyed to
Camelot.

Where then is Camelot? Schamilot is mentioned only
once in Parzival and
without any geographical context. In Dijon, however, a
geographical
reference can be found. There, one runs into Chartreuse, a large
Carthusian
monastery, at the west end of the city, the former seat of the Dukes
of
Burgundy and presently the psychiatric clinic of Champmol, where the
famous
Moses fountain by Claus Suter is situated (Plate 31). Camelot can
only be
Champmol.
ecBXEuOS1bU/WpwryGcWdSI/AAAAAAAAE5I/1pFIQB3JwtYsqimYqolbmvrPKagNL7NEgC
EwYBhgL/s1600/Parzival%2Bafb.%2B3%2B%252831%2529.jpg]
Plate 31. “Camelot can only be Champmol in Dijon.”
In Nantua, there are some clues pointing to Wolfram’s

Nantes; in Carolingian
times there was a Royal Court in Nantua and Charles the
Bald was buried
there. During the Reichstag of Aachen in the year 817, Louis
the Pious
acknowledged that Nantua was subordinate directly to the Emperor. The
Nantua cloister is rightly said to be the older sister of Cluny. There are
remains
of a turret – Tour de la Late – (Plate 32) from the 9th century, which
may have
been a part of Arthur’s headquarters.
[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lDRDMoimttI/WpwtD75KpbI/AAAAAAAAE5U/fT6W2-
W_MnUOkR7GfbBmo5tP9fOeixN6wCLcBGAs/s1600/Parzival%2Bafb.%2B4%2B%252832
%2529.jpg]
Plate 32. Turret remains from King Arthur’s Castle in Nantua his Capital
Today, Nantua lies at the end of a moraine lake of the

same name. In the days
of Arthur the lake extended beyond Nantua (Plate 33).
rE204K5opXI/WpwuBXmLtmI/AAAAAAAAE5c/srqYOHz2hL0D8YQrBKfv0zQL7hRPLr2JwC
Plate 33. “During King Arthur the lake extended beyond Nantua.”
Through the alluvium of the Merloz stream the

south-easterly part of the lake
was pushed – past Nantua – towards the
north. This position at the lake is
still visible from the construction of the town. The banks of the lake extended
as far as the present Rue Dr Mercier. The town was situated above this road
and
extended up-wards along the slope until the old Chemin de ronde, to Rue
de la
Late and Route d’Apremont. According to a saga, Nantua was founded
by the
Merovingian bishop Saint-Amand of Maastricht, who is said to have
spent his old
age here.
Wolfram makes a
very revealing comment in this context. After Parzival had
mounted Ither’s
horse and had been trained by Yvaneten in the use of his
spear, he looked like
a splendid knight. Wolfram tells us that no shield maker
or painter could have
depicted him, so well he sat mounted on his horse here.
This charming
comparison is above all interesting due to the fact that
Wolfram is not
satisfied in bringing in any old shield maker: it had to be a
schiltaere (painter/ shield maker) from
Kölne (Cologne) or Mâstrieht
(Maastricht). Now it is not known that the shield
makers of Maastricht were
in the 9th century literally the best designers or
painters of armor. The fact
that Wolfram here in Nantua mentions a shield maker
from Maastricht is
therefore noteworthy to say the least. Mâstrieht is mentioned only once in
Parzival (P. 158:14), thus of
all places in Nantua, which according to the
legend was founded by Saint Amand
of Maastricht. The comparison with the
schiltaere
von Mâstrieht seems less far-fetched upon the assumption that
Wolfram wove
a historio-geographical allusion to this scene of action in his
Parzival.

I would not mention this peculiar connection between
Maastricht and Nantua,
if this couched reference to a historio-geographical
situation were a unique
occurrence in Wolfram’s oeuvre. Yet, Wolfram often

draws the material for
his similes from the geographical region he happens to
be describing. It is
therefore quite justified to draw conclusions concerning
the scenes of the
action from his comparisons. In this sense, he mentions the
Rhine, which
flows past the Plimizoel
not far from Arthur’s army camp, while
characterizing the knight Segramor and
mentioning by way of a graphic
comparison with a thorny bush the exact name of
the locality in which the
scene with the three drops of blood takes place by
replacing the more
common term thorny bush with the local term dornach.

We regard Nantua as Bertane the capital of the land of Arthur and ask
ourselves whether
the names of two passes leading into this area, Terre de
Nantua, are not
reminiscent of a previous name: Terre des Berthinats. One of
the passes to the
west of Terre de Nantua is called Col de Bérthiant today and
the other to the
south of Nantua Col des Bérantin.

By a fisherman acting as his guide, Parzival was
brought to a place from
where Nantua could be seen. We identify this spot as
the village presently
called Cluse at the lower end of lake Nantua. From
there, Parzival rode on
alone. He rode across (P. 144:18)
a meadow not too broad.
Nantua lies in a cluse-like Reculée, at the bottom of

which lies the lake (Plate
34).
[https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CvDYy8VsR2s/WpwvmVQcB1I/AAAAAAAAE5s/-
Yk3TyPdgycMChyezqcqfUGHwAPGqgnegCLcBGAs/s1600/Parzival%2Bafb.%2B6%2B%2
52834%2529.jpg]
Plate 34. “Parzival was guided by a fisherman to a place where
Nantua could be seen.”
Between the mountain and the lake, a small strip of

even land stretches
toward the town. I had often driven on this road through
the cluse as one
rainy night I was driving again from Bourg-en-Bresse and Col
de Bérthiant to
the place Cluse on the “meadow not too broad” leading to
Nantua. The rain
was pouring down and visibility was low. It was impossible to
orientate
oneself from the surrounding countryside and so I had to observe the
signposts. A place-name sign emerged. It could only be Cluse. A car coming
from
the opposite direction blinded me. It passed by and gone was the sign.
Apparently a quick glance must have covered the post: Cluse. Something else
however was written on it. I could have sworn it read Muntâne-Clûse. But
that
was completely impossible. I immediately stopped and went back: the
signpost
read Montréal-la-Cluse (Plate 35).
Dwef68bx4KU/WpwvLsjyb2I/AAAAAAAAE5w/ixVAqFw1S3wakDb9GEzeSfIkbQNL2R9HAC
EwYBhgL/s1600/P.%2B7%2B%252835%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 35. “I
immediately went back: the signpost read Montréal-la-Cluse.”
Critics will rightly object that this is wishful

thinking. Hunches and
reminiscences relating falsely read signposts to Parzival
sites are insufficient
proof for drawing reliable conclusions. As sober critics
have already noted,
there is an enormous difference between Wolfram’s Willehalm and Wolfram’s
Parzival. That Willehalm is based on historical events is apparent at first sight
and consequently confirmed as well in the Kyot-Willehalm report [Part 1 of
the first volumeof the Grail trilogy]. The attempt,
however, so it is argued, to
now also turn Wolfram’s Parzival into a historical account goes much too far.
Parzival has after all always been
recognized as an epic poem or Arthurian
romance based on experiences of the human
soul that are universally and
eternally valid. Wanting to relate these to a
concrete historio-geographical
reality comes down to profaning this most
beautiful, ethically high-standing
literary work of art. To degrade this noble
material to the level of an account
of historical events of the 9th century is

reprehensible. I would naturally
answer this criticism by saying that the
nobility of Parzival does not have to
suffer from the discovery that this ideal manual for auto-didactics did not
have to be composed, because it once corresponded to a historical reality.
We do realize, however, that our arguments in view of the

scarcity of
Wolfram’s references to topographical conditions in the land of Bertane are
rather limited. But we beg
our reader to be patient; the most important
criterion for securing the
geographical position of Bertane is
left out as long
as we restrict ourselves to dealing only with Wolfram’s direct
references to
this single area. The few clues that Wolfram gives about Bertane itself would
never be enough for
locating this land in Europe. Armed with only these
minor references to the
land of Bertane, we could just as
well look for Arthur
in the Swabian Alps or in England. That we seek him in the
Jura Mountains,
however, is not due to the absolutely insufficient direct clues about
this land,
but to Wolfram’s references about Orange and Alischanz. Both of
these sites
can be localized without any problem. From there, we advanced via
Willehalm’s place of retirement in Saint-Guilhelm-le-Désert and the town of
Montpellier and further via Grenoble and Lyon to this region. The reason we
are
looking for Bertane in the Lyonnais, in Burgundy and Franche Comté is
that the
route from Pelrapeire to Arthur – from Montpellier in the direction of
Lyon or
Grenoble and then a half-day’s ride beyond these two towns – leads
exactly into
the region that we are investigating.
We are sorry too that Wolfram reveals so noticeably

few geographical details
about the land of Bertane,
making it impossible to clearly match any locality
in this region with his
descriptions, as was the case with Oransch or
Alischanz. Everything remains
vague here, but nevertheless probable. In the
Jura and Burgundy, one even feels
somehow that this region is more likely to
be Wolfram’s Bertane than Bretagne. But feelings are no real arguments for a
reliable geographical identification of the Parzival
landscapes. One is
therefore called upon to be patient and to suspend judgment
until better
arguments are found.

Another important opportunity for comparison is still
outstanding. We do not
know yet where Wolfram’s Grail area must be looked for.
Whether Bertane is
really situated in
the Jura or somewhere else will ultimately depend on where
Terre de salvaesche
is located. The Brizljan Forest lies
inside Bertane
(according to P.
206:5-9) and at the same time directly in front of Terre de
salvaesche. As long
as the location of Terre de salvaesche remains open, we
would wait and reserve
judgment.
Locating Wolfram’s Bearosche
While doing reconnaissance in this probable Arthurian

country, one can
nevertheless suddenly stumble across places so accurately
described by
Wolfram that they can be identified without fail. We refer to Bearosche and
Schampfanzun. Both of these scenes of action in Parzival belong to
the so-
called Gawain episode. One would not look for them in the land of
Bertane
from the outset. It is thus all the more a pleasant surprise to find a
pearl of
Wolfram’s landscape description in this otherwise so barrenly
described
region. Bearosche has
indeed a unique setting and Wolfram describes this
town situated between two
cluses in the loop of a navigable river so
accurately, that a present-day
visitor to this town cannot be left in doubt that
he is in Bearosche. Even the name Bearosche
is significant. The beautiful
rocks of both cluses are the most striking
feature of the relief of this site.
Before it reaches the town, a river flows
through an elongated valley that is
blocked at the east of the town by a plateau-like
cross ridge. The river now
breaks through – avoiding this cross ridge – the
last fold of the French Jura
mountains, forms an almost circular meander loop
around the town and cuts a
second time through the same Jura fold in a cluse
and finally continues
flowing beyond the cross ridge in the old elongated
valley again. This
geological configuration is only possible in Jura and, at
that, only by the last,
lowest fold. Such a phenomenon caused by erosion occurs
more often in this
area, but nowhere else in the world. This unique topography,
described
professionally by our expert Wolfram von Eschenbach, forms the
touchstone
for the assumption that – next to Willehalm – Wolfram’s Parzival
too must be
an exact factual account. Whoever has difficulties acknowledging
that
Wolfram’s Parzival is not based
on poetic imagination, but on real conditions,
should visit Bearosche. In Bearosche, the present town of Besançon on the
river Doubs, one
could come around to acknowledging the truthfulness of
what Wolfram is saying
(Plate 36).
rswFL6l_g80/Wpwx2MMvvMI/AAAAAAAAE58/Mo52SPuQdHwvZjK3At_Fr5ikIWUk2eluwCL
cBGAs/s1600/P.%2B8%2B%252836%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 36. “The
relief of Besançon alone ought to convince one that Wolfram espouses the
truth.”
The relief of Besançon alone ought to convince one

that Wolfram espouses
the truth when he assures:
I am not telling you lies.
In the first part of our research report we tried to

prove why Wolfram is so
certain of his case that he can say (P. 827:9-10):
From Provence to Germany

the true facts were sent to us.
Wolfram does not tell us where Bearosche is. His exact description of the
topographic conditions,
however, permits us to locate it and thereby also
demonstrating that we are
apparently looking for Wolfram’s land of Bertane
at the right place.
Whoever is interested in our theme and wants to put

himself in a competent
position to partake in the discussion will feel the need
to verify our findings
in this landscape. One is perhaps closer to Besançon
than Orange or
Alischanz. It is
certainly one of the most interesting sites from the viewpoint
of Wolfram
research and a visit to this town therefore, situated on the route
from Basle
to Burgundy, might be worth one’s while. In order to facilitate the
excursion,
we now point out the most important places of the landscape on a
map and give
some commentary.
[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dTjDouAT0HY/WpwykCwEb-
I/AAAAAAAAE6E/mACje63RzKoRz4w2loDdTY04SUzqhSthACLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2Bkaart
%2B3.jpg]
Map of Besancon
Gawain comes from the southeast, from the direction of

Pontarlier,
Bahtarliez, Paterlies or Panterliez – that is how Wolfram
appears to translate
these names – or from Punterlü,
which is how this place name was translated
in the late Middle Ages in German.
Through the forest Bois d’Aglans, along
the old Roman road, he rides towards
the marshy bottom of the valley Marais
de Saone. From the east – from the

direction of the Bourgondian Port, thus
from Basle – the army under the command
of Meljanz von Liz is making its
way to Besançon along the southern edge of the
marshland towards La Vèze.
Gawain has already left the forest of Aglans.
Halfway between the hill of
Aglans and the Moulin du Pontot he spies the army
(map [1]).
Wolfram describes this situation in P. 339: 15 et

seqq. The expression grunt
(low
ground) for the marshy plain of Saone is accurate. Meljanz must not
have
crossed this marsh on the old Roman road between Saone and Morre.
This road
would have lead him to Morre, down into the valley of the river
Doubs and in
front of the bricked-up gate Porte taillé. He avoided the
marshland by going
south and reached on that road the plateau of Monts des
Buis, a strategically
correct place from where to begin the march on
Bearosche. This route and the marching area are well chosen. The
hills of
Buis proved to be ideal for marching and the plateau in front of it
an ideal
battlefield. Down in the valley, on the road leading along the Doubs
into the
town there would be no maneuvering ground. Meljanz would have walked
into an ambush there. Gawain takes the same route as Meljanz.
At P. 350:17 he is standing on the hill of Chapelle des

Buis (map [2]). From
that vantage point, he surveys the plateau in front of him
on which the army
is marching towards the town (Plate 37).
PCHweGF9TIM/WpwzYNdFL2I/AAAAAAAAE6Q/tvfII9JjRrABj2H5MHgW9NbIMoGh_c8qQC
Plate 37. “From Chapelle de Buis Gawain observes
Meljanz’ army advancing.”
U2m5Yx8ewY8/WpxNF5YiSGI/AAAAAAAAE7A/Az1ePQsi_3szg7-VeADz9-
YJn7i4Yv4qwCLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2Bkaart%2B2%2B%2528Bearosche%2529.jpg]
On this open countryside sloping slightly downwards in

the direction of the
town is where later the fighting took place (map [3]).
Beyond this plan
(plateau) between two cluses lies the hill with the citadel of
Besançon. The
hill rises at the most narrow spot, as it were, at the neck of
the river loop that
embraces the town. This arrested isoclinic crest of the
last Jura fold climbs
steeply from the plateau uphill, and on the other side of
the citadel slopes
down-hill towards the town at the bottom of the valley (map
[5]). The town
itself, seen from Chapelle des Buis, lies hidden behind the hill
and the citadel
(map [6]). On the right side of the hill, the Doubs can be seen
flowing
through the cluse. On the left side of the castle, through the cluse in
which the
Doubs flows back again into the elongated valley, a part of the town
in the
valley can be made out and beyond the town the place where the Roman
bridge was once situated (map [7]). Gawain now rides down to the plateau
and
passes through Mel-janz’ army camp. At the most narrow spot of the
plateau
where it forms a saddle or col and becomes a hill with the castle on
top,
Gawain is faced with the choice of either going up the hill to the gate of
the
citadel (Plate 38) or downhill to the Doubs towards the town gate (P.
351:17):
Gawain turned towards the town.
[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7LJcDuqSaEs/Wpw0Sg4D3GI/AAAAAAAAE6Y/snMQci9A-
vYOOWMr6Z9zQ-
B63PURoRMuwCLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B10%2B%252838%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 38.
“...wether to ride to the citadel of Bearosche or to the town gate?”
He comes down on the road leading from Morre along the

river towards the
town. Here an almost vertical layer of limestone from the
fold mountain runs
from the river up towards the citadel forming a natural town
wall (Plate 39).
gdE4GAAgZxM/Wpw1e2VNWKI/AAAAAAAAE6k/aSMTopvu2ZgCWslbDUj1Bwzwy2MfF_Ph
ACLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B11%2B%252839%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 39. “Gawain reaches the road along the river

Doubs.”
The rock wall has a small split which on both sides

was carved out by the
Romans into a sizeable street. This “Porte taillé” (Plate
40) is the town port of
which Wolfram says that it is bricked-up (P. 351:23,
24):
Gawain rode up to the gate, and there

he was vexed at what the townspeople had done:
They had not spared the cost,
but had walled up all their gates.
zAQNqmkV8ks/Wpw10gEUrbI/AAAAAAAAE6s/3b8qbeHT7CMCCo8F8uKaPocsix7-
Li_7wCLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B12%2B%252840%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 40.
“Gawain was vexed because the town gates were walled up.”
When Gawain sees that he cannot get through there, he

rides back again to
where he came from (P. 352:2):
Gawan rode up the hillside.
Now he finds himself back on the col between the plateau

and the hill from
where shortly before he had come down. What to do now?
Wolfram says (P.
352:3-4):
unfamiliar though he was with the way

until he came to the castle.
Gawain therefore rides from that spot, marked with the

figure [4] on the map,
on the old Ro-man road up towards the citadel. He halts
at the foot of the
ancient wall. Behind him he looks beyond the col down below
out onto the
gently sloping plain where Meljanz’ army is approaching. On the
hillside in
front of him between the col and the castle, there are apparently
no assailants.
Gawain is totally alone in this no-man’s land. He has decided to
do battle on
the side of the townspeople. That is why he approaches the castle
right down
to the wall (Plate 41).
uqYiHOFCSks/WpxNvsySC8I/AAAAAAAAE7I/l3YAxuOR_acbxQihVmJlaHd5xZzSRTQ9ACE
wYBhgL/s1600/P.%2B13%2B%252841%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 41. “Gawain approaches the castle right down to

the wall.”
He hears what is being said about him in the defense

tower. It is not
surprising that his presence directly at the foot of the wall
can no longer go
unnoticed. The scene described by Wolfram in P. 352 now unfolds.
From
here, Gawain also overhears the conversation between Obie and Obilot (P.
358:16 [5]). P. 354:5 et seqq. describe how the town is faring. Wolfram
describes the position of the town as seen from Chapelle des Buis [2]. He
mentions the navigable river (Doubs) and the bridge on the outskirts of the
town (P. 354:7). The Roman origin of the bridge is well characterized with
the
words steinîn grôz (large stones).
The ancient bridge must still have been
intact in the 9th century. Today all
that remains are its fundaments lying under
the Battant Bridge [7].

The topography of the site is made beautifully visible
from the scene in which
Obie alarms Scherules, the viscount of the town. He is
not up in the citadel
but down in the valley. The squire, who on orders from
Obie is hurrying to
Scherules, must go down to the town. Wolfram knows this
quite well. He says
(P. 361:15):
The squire went down and reported.
And now Scherules rides up to Gawain. From the citadel

he would have to
ride through or even slightly down through the port of the old
wall to
Gawain. From the town, however,
he had to first climb up the citadel and
then beyond this castle step out to
Gawain. Wolfram therefore says quite
rightly (P. 361:19):
He rode up to the place where Gawain sat.
After Gawain entered the castle through the ancient

gate, both of them ride
together from the height of the citadel (P. 362:18):

going down the valley.
Lippaut, contrary to Scherules, held court up in the

citadel [5]. There he asks
Obilot where she has been. She answers (P. 368:15):

Father, I came down from the castle.
(She was down by Gawain, in the town). This back and

forth between up and
down is described by Wolfram every time precisely
according to the actual
conditions (Plate 42).
[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MYFmTwUNH7s/WpxOUfM-
4CI/AAAAAAAAE7U/X4Swf1_12G008nOcjr7XG8_vsah84ubwgCLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B14%
2B%252842%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 42. “Obilot was down below in the town with
Gawain.”
Wolfram’s knowledge of the locality is also reflected

in his positioning of the
bridge. The latter lies, not within range of the
enemy, outside the town (P.
354:7):
not on the side where the enemy lay.
The crossing-point across the Doubs is also in the

hands of the townspeople
[7] (P. 377:1):
The army encamped on the other side of the bridge,

crossed over before the day came
and entered the city of Bearosche.
Whoever reads Wolfram’s account once more of the

events in Bearosche –
after having looked around in the area – will get the
impression that the writer
of this account must have been thoroughly informed
about the conditions in
and around Bearosche and have been an expert on the
relief of the environs of
Besançon.
Gawain’s route from Bearosche to Shampfanzun
That Bearosche may unreservedly be equated with

Besançon becomes
apparent upon follow-ing Gawain from there in the countryside
on his way to
Schampfanzun. After having said goodbye to Obilot, Gawain turns
southward
into the area of Joux, the big forests (P. 397:26):
Gawain’s path led upward toward a forest.

and (P. 398:10, 11):
Long and broad was the forest

through which he had to make his way.
as well as (P. 398:26):
high mountains and many a marshy moor
characterize the countryside that Gawain had to pass

through before reaching
Schampfanzun.
In an age when one still travelled by foot or on

horseback as during the times
of Gawain, the region of the Canton of
Pontarlier, Wolfram’s Bahtarliez (P.
301:19), was described astonishingly
similar to the way it is done in Parzival.
In his travel report, Milius, who like Wolfram knows how to characterize
accurately, summarizes his impressions of a journey to this region in the year
1818 as follows:
“From Besançon to Ornans the land abounds with rocks;

the east side,
especially the Canton of Pontarlier is full of high, almost
totally arid cliffs
(Plate 43); there are also several swamps of which five are
very large.”
[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0IJTQgcH3rU/WpxPPVtbkNI/AAAAAAAAE7k/sJArowKibaonJh
1hUNGJEwNUlCsJXRRrwCEwYBhgL/s1600/P.%2B15%2B%252843%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 43. “The Canton of Pontarlier is full of high, almost totally arid cliffs.”
Today the swamps are largely drained. But what Milius

could still say 150
years ago corresponds approximately to what Wolfram had to
say about
Gawain’s route from Bearosche to Schampfanzun (P. 398:26-27):
high mountains and many a marshy moor

he had traversed on his way there.
By one of the marshes Gawain encounters Vergulaht.

This could have been at
the marshy lake between Pasquier and les Baraques by
the river Anguillon
south of Andelot. From a soggy pond there one can still see
Mont Rivel (Plate
44) on top of which Champagnole castle once stood.
E3utemvW6XE/WpxP3QbDC9I/AAAAAAAAE7s/EVC0kTWNvBoSWu2wiQnGnx0tCOcbeua5
QCLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B16%2B%252844%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 44. “Mont Rivel on top of which Champagnole Castle

once stood.”
Whether Mont Rivel was Wolfram’s Monte Rybele cannot

be ascertained
geographically. There is only a faint echo from the name of the
river
Anguillon, which could have given Wolfram’s land Askalun its name (P.
398:23), but it is certainly within reach of Wolfram’s translation practice.
More striking is the similarity between Champagnole and Wolfram’s
Schampfanzun

One is inclined to associate the morass nearby
Anguillon (Askalun), Mont
Rivel mountain
(Monte Rybele) and the town of
Champagnole
(Schampfanzun) with the
seat of Wolfram’s Vergulaht, were it
not that
Wolfram mentions the proximity to the sea here (P. 399:22). A sea in
the
region of Jura is obviously out of the question. There are, it is true, several
moraine lakes
in this Région des Lacs nearby the watershed between the
rivers Ain and Doubs,
but not a sea.
The assumption that Wolfram uses the concept sea for a

lake does not bring
us any fur-ther, because Champagnole does not lie by the
sea. An inspection
in Champagnole reveals however that, apart from the missing
sea or lake, all
of Wolfram’s other geographical refer-ences to Schampfanzun
are completely
in harmony with the region around Champagnole. A geological
assessment of
this Campagnola of Champagnole definitely suggests that there
used to be a
moraine lake in this area.
The natural dam of this lake has in pre-historic
times been carried away
through erosion. The river Ain cut a deep gorge in
the Jura limestone beside the

morass draining the lake behind it. The
bottom
of the lake became the Campagnola, the plain of Champagnole, which has
been eroded by the Ain to such an extent that the river valley lies 30 meters
below the former bottom of the lake.
Field Research on the Dried-up Lake Champagnole
Here we come for the first time across a striking

discrepancy between
Wolfram’s references and the geographical reality.
Since we are after all maintaining that Wolfram is

telling the truth, we would
now have to conclude: thus Wolfram’s Schampfanzun
is not the same as
Champagnole. This is impossible for us; not only because
all the other details
are correct, but above all because the route described by
Wolfram – from
Bearosche-Besançon to Schampfanzun-Champagnole – cannot lead
down to
the lake, but only up to Champagnole situated on a high-lying plateau
500
meters above the lake.
A survey of the outlets from the basin of Champagnole

then revealed that in
the gorge west of Champagnole, where the Ain engraved
itself deep into the
limestone rocks of the Jura mountains, there are still
unscarred remains of a
rock fall dating back to historic times. The scar on the
rock fall at the plateau
of Bois du Fays is still clearly visible. If this rock
fall occurred between the
6th and 8th century, the boulders would have completely
filled up the narrow
gorge, damming the Ain up to a level of 530 meters above
the lake. If this
were the case, the surface of the lake would have almost
reached the level of
the high-lying terrace on which Champagnole is situated.
In that way, the
town really did lie near a stretch of standing water. A dam of
not more than
30 meters must have formed a reservoir behind the area where the
rocks had
fallen down, a reservoir that, until the erosion of the material
lying in the
gorge emptied it again, could have been there for several
centuries.
If geological-historical studies were to confirm this

assumption, the
discordance be-tween the present situation and the position as
described by
Wolfram in his Parzival would disappear, leaving only his use of
the concept
mer = sea instead of sê = lake.
We will establish in the course of our inquiry that

Wolfram also uses the
concept mer in another region, even though there could
only have been a lake
there. In that other region it can indeed be demonstrated
that even old
tributaries with standing water are today still called mar, mär
or mer in the
dialect. In that way, for example, the village of Märkt am Rhein
on the Rhine
below Basle did not receive its name from being a market place,
but as a
village lying on an old tributary of the Rhine, a mär. The concept mer
seems
to have had a different meaning in the Middle Ages than it does today.
This term is also found in the Song of the Nibelungs.
Heinz Ritter deals with
the trans-formation of this concept in an essay about
the move of the
Nibelungs to Soest. He writes: “The name ‘Märe, Möre, Mär’ is
used
everywhere on the Lower Rhine. Similar to the High German ‘Meer’ (sea),
the word ‘Mar (Mer, Maer)’ came in the course of time to denote standing
water,
inland lake and then swamp.” Ritter then
quotes Julius Leithäuser:
“Middle High German mare; East Frisian mar, mare =
small stream, drain;
Dutch, mare, maer, meer = stretch of water, inland lake,
basin.” Heinz Ritter
also quotes
Dittmaier: “Probably in Old Low German mari, meri, in Old
Saxon meri = shallow
stretch of water, swampy area, the former tributaries of
the Rhine were also
denoted as such.”

Even though we have now established the distinct
possibility that
Champagnole was situated at a mer = a basin and that we have
to fully admit
that Wolfram is right, I consider the rock fall and the
temporary dam of the
Ain more probable that the use of the concept mer for a
basin without
standing water. The course of the road around the sack-like
stretch of land
that we present as lake (see map [5]) only makes sense, when it
is considered
to be the former lakeside road. Until the edge of a basin-like
deep was eroded
at some point to such a degree that the water could be drained
away
completely, it must have been filled with water. The name mer would
afterwards have been used for the drained, former mer = stretch of standing
water.
ECPaUQMSZWw/WpxRhCMKjpI/AAAAAAAAE8U/vSLoGFKOit0Kw-P_qTr-J6Ej6CinT-
RcQCLcBGAs/s1600/Kaart%2BChampagnole.jpg]
Map of Dried-up Lake of Champagnol
In Wolfram’s age the concept “stretch of water”

(German: Gewässer) was
probably not yet used for a drained stretch of formerly
standing water,
probably not even for the intermediate condition: swamp -
morass. Wolfram
always uses his concepts with great subtlety. He would not
denote a morass
with the word mer (lake) and by another morass – lying directly
nearby –
speak of a muor (morass). Wolfram also speaks of a marshy pond in
today’s
sense (P. 400:20):
to a swamp-like pond.
The marshy pond mentioned here is the pond in which

Vergulaht lost his
horse. This pond is located – not as we assumed at first –
at Pasquier-Les
Baraques [3]. From Les Baraques, Mont Rivel can be seen very
well, but not
the place at the southern slope of the mountain where the ruins
of the Mont
Rivel Castle are located.
But according to Wolfram’s references the castle
should be visible from the
pond.
Reconnaissance done in Champagnole gradually convinced

me that this
marshy pond from which the castle can well be seen, is to be found
west of
Champagnole near the farms of l’Etang (the pond) and les Isles (the
islands)
[4]. The old bottom of the lake, the Campagnola of Champagnole, was
separated at l’Etang by a moraine from the dammed Ain. The pond was not
drained
into the Ain yet, but to the west into the Anguillon. Islands jutted out
from
the pond described by Wolfram. The names l’Etang and les Isles are
reminiscent
of Wolfram’s muorigen tîch (marshy pond, Plate 45).
dfw4ut7gZss/WpxQIvShUYI/AAAAAAAAE7w/5Oc3yMRkXLQBbc69nCO0G1DTt7ZneVH3w
CLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B17%2B%252845%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 45. L’Etang and les Iles, marshy ponds in front
of Mont Rivel
We have marked the topographical conditions of

Gawain’s time on a present-
day map in the way that they can be reconstructed
from Wolfram’s
references. The map is cut out along the contour line of 530
meters giving the
impression of a lake that is no longer there.
Note how there are important streets running along the
bank of the assumed
lake. At the narrowest spot, at Champagnole there may have
been a ferry.
Noteworthy also is, as mentioned, a road into the Reculée vers le
Cul [5].
Today the route D 74 goes from
Ney in a south-western direction straight
across the former bottom of the lake
to the foot of the mountain Bois de
Champlarron. Other roads run dead straight
across the old bottom of the lake
towards the south and at a right angle
towards the east and west (somewhat
hidden from view on our map by the
simulated lake). Beside that, there still is
the now minor road that, following
the contour line of 530 m., runs around
the whole sack [5]. This road can only

be the remainder of the former
lakeside road.
After this historical-linguistic excursion into the

concepts mer and muor, we
have come to believe that the Wolfram texts can be
verified. We would
therefore uphold our conviction that Schampfanzun is Champagnole.
Locating Brizljan Forest and the River Plimizoel
What we have not found yet are Brizljan Forest and the
river Plimizoel that
according to Wolfram are situated in Bertane as well (P.
206:6-8):
…had arrived in the land of Bertane

and found King Arthur.
Wolfram does not tell us where this part of the land

of the Berteneisen can be
found. But
find it we should, because from this forest one arrives directly at
Terre de salvaesche,
so that by finding this forest the Grail area would at the
same time be found
(P. 286:10-13):
We are nearing the host of

Anfortas,
which rides out from Munsalvaesche
to defend the forest in combat.
We shall now attempt to get at least some idea as to

where to find this area. It
has already been said that it is not geographically
ascertainable whether Mont
Rivel, this imposing moun-tain crowned by
Champagnole castle, is
Wolfram’s Monte
Rybele. This is because Wolfram gives no geographical
references as to what
the castle looked like or where it can be found. Wolfram
mentions the name
solely in connection with a tale about Kahenis and
Gymele from Mont Rybele (P.
573:15-19):
His pillow was not much

like the one that Gymele
of Monte Rybele,
the sweet and wise,
put under the head of Kahenis
so that on it he slept away his chance for fame.
Now, we have at least some experience with the way

Wolfram translates
French names into Middle High German. Gymele could have
been, provided
she stems from Mont Rivel, a rela-tive of Kahenis and Antikonie
from
Schampfanzun. The name Monte Rybele, it is true, is not mentioned in
connection with Vergulaht. There, only Schampfanzun is mentioned. Here, in
the
geographical reality of Champagnole, however, Schampfanzun and Monte
Rybele are
situated directly next to each other.

Wolfram leaves us in no doubt as to where Vergulaht’s

castle stood in
Champagnole. He says this with the single word ûf (up). At the moment that
he utters
this, Vergulaht finds himself at the tîch
(pond), the present-day
Etang-des-Iles, at an elevation of 540 m. above sea
level. The place
Champagnole lies also on this height. The ruins of Mont Rivel
Castle,
however, are 750 m. above sea level. If Vergulaht’s castle were to be
found in
the town of Cha-pagnole – and not immediately next to it, but 200 m.
above
Champagnole on Monte Rybele – Wolfram would have Gawain say that he
should go to Antikonie în (inside).
But Wolfram points upward. From P.
402:20 emerges that Antikonie is to be found
up in the castle:
Sir, you see Schanpfanzun:

up there is my sister, a maiden.
ûf as adverb pertaining to the site means clearly up

there on Mont Rivel [2].

Unfortunately – only unfortunately for geographers –
Gawain does not
describe the position of the castle upon his arrival at Mont
Rybele. Neither
does he say anything essential concerning the construction of
the castle.
Wolfram alludes rather to another build that captivates Gawain:
that of the
beautiful Antikonie. The geographer nevertheless hears something
that allows
him to locate the castle on Mont Rivel. Wolfram says clearly enough
that
Atikonie was oben ûffe (up
there).

Kahenis and the Town of Puntrut, Wolfram’s Punt
Interesting too is that in connection with Gymele from

Monte Rybele
Wolfram points to Kahenis. Kahenis is the man who, together with
his family,
pays a yearly visit to Trevrizent on Good Friday. Gymele once put
him to bed
so softly (P. 573:16 et seqq.) that she could well have become his
wife later
on. In this case, Kahenis and Vergulaht are relatives. Kahenis would
form the
connecting link between the families from Schampfanzun and
Munsalvaesche. Both families are related. Gahmuret’s sister is the mother of
Vergulaht and Antikonie and possibly also of Gymele, because like Vergulaht
and his sister she too is from Monte Rybele. Gandin is the common ancestor
of
Vergulaht’s family from Schampfanzun and Gahmuret’s family from
Bealzenan.
Parzival and Vergulaht share the same grandfather: Gandin.

Shortly before Gawain, Parzival too was in
Schampfanzun and committed his
relative Vergulaht – without knowing about this
relation – to quest the Grail.
We will not ponder on all the consequences of
this thought and restrict
ourselves to the geographical viewpoints by asking if
with Gymele and
Kahenis, whether through relation or friendship, a geographical
link between
Schampfanzun and Terre de salvaesche can be found as well.

Kahenis is a Punturteis. In Jura, not too far from
Champagnole, in the
northwest corner of Switzerland there is a town with the
French name of
Porrentruy. Its German name is Pruntrut. Wolfram (P. 682:8)

calls this town
the
water-buttressed city of Punt.
That is where Kahenis the Punturtois lives. Checking

out this reference soon
discloses that the old part of the town of Porrentruy,
built on a mountain ridge
between a small stream and an even smaller tributary,
could never have been
a water buttress. The differences in height that the town
walls had to
overcome were much too big to ever have the moat filled with
water. But
when for love of Wolfram one keeps searching, one discovers in the
lowest
part of the town, beyond the bridge over the tributary, a side street
running at
a right angle to the main street of the old town, of which the two
rows of
houses form a small enclosed suburb. Behind the second row of houses
juts a
rock wall crowned by a castle. This Jura rock wall forms a natural town
wall
that is stronger than the artificial town walls of the other three sides
of the
town with their corresponding moats. There could never have been a moat
in
front of this fourth side. To what extent Wolfram was nevertheless justified
in
speaking of a water buttress emerges from the whole structure. This suburb,
Faubourg
de France, was once enclosed by three city towers. One tower,
Porte de France
(Plate 46), in the east of the suburb is still standing; another
one, in the
west of the suburb, has been dismantled.
[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SYQ2UaPpnSc/WpxQ1yPzQwI/AAAAAAAAE8A/SaK-
CDoFuuE8hvrT7MB89qrXQbLw9Q2NgCLcBGAs/s1600/P.%2B18%2B%252846%2529%2
Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 46. The Port de France in Puntrut – Wolfram’s
Punt
The town wall once ran in the south along the length
of the suburb and the
stream. A third tower stood in the center, which could be
reached by crossing
a bridge. In the north and west, thus on the two small
sides of the town, the
walls ran directly on to the rock wall situated behind
the town. As a natural
fortification, this vertical limestone cliff was able to
offer much better
protection than the three artificial town walls with the
water-filled moats. In
front of Porte de France and its two turrets, between
which the tower leads
into the town, is an open square today between the rock
wall and the stream.
Here the artificially constructed part of the moat, once
filled with water with
a bridge spanning it, must have been located. In the
west, the structure must
have been the same. Wolfram’s town Punt was situated
between the two
towers. It leaned against the cliff and was surrounded on the
three remaining
sides by water. Wolfram’s term Wasserfeste (water-buttressed) is therefore

justified.
In the train of thought that led us from Champagnole

(Plate 47) to Porrentruy
(Plate 48) we have purposely neglected a distinction
that Wolfram makes.

Ar3iQrp_BxI/WpxRJYLxu6I/AAAAAAAAE8M/28vjgDTWZusodAq5wkepDhGd9PXRw_9BAC
Plate 47.
Champagnole, Wolfram’s Schampfanzun
[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--
ZRGvfIPtLU/WpxSQIhIfrI/AAAAAAAAE8k/TBZTvVNITwIR077bSh5NgNZmFAqyjCvQgCLcBG
As/s1600/P.%2B20%2B%252848%2529%2Bkleur.jpg]
Plate 48.
Pruntrut/ Porrentruy, Switzerland, Wolfram’s Punt
Our point of departure was Ka-henis, but we have now

basically described
Brandelidelin’s town. Wolfram differentiates namely between
two Punturtois:
Brandelidelin (P. 682, 10 and 15) is the Punturtois who down in
the water-
buttress of Punt is crowned king (count) of the town. Kahenis, the
other
Punturtois (P. 457:11-13), used to be prince of all the Punturtois and
resided
in his castle high above the town. Having given up the sword, he now
seems
to be in retreat in order to help recompense, like Trevrizent, the escapades
of
his successor. Urian has now taken his place as reigning monarch, but the
latter is not described by Wolfram as a great model of knighthood (P. 526:21).
In this way, we have been led inside an area of the

land of Bertane to an old
Arthurian
knight (P. 449:9) who in northwest Switzerland, 150 km. northwest
of the
capital Nantua, served King Arthur. Setting out from Pruntrut, Kahenis
makes
his visit on Good Friday to Trevrizent. Unfortunately, Wolfram does
not tell us
how far Kahenis had to ride in order to get from Punt to Terre de
salvaesche.
Kahenis has set up his tent – probably in Brizljan Forest – in the
neighborhood
of Trevrizent. Possibly he rides on horseback and with
packhorses or travels
with a wagon, only making his pilgrimage to Trevrizent
on foot after having set
up camp so as not to unnecessarily give way the
latter’s hidden habitat. The
Grail guards of Munsalvaesche too made a
preliminary stop in front of the
forest before going on a journey. The viscount
of Karchobra gave the Grail guards
a chance to equip themselves for expedi-
tions. Afterwards, they returned to him
again with their entourage and went
from there al eine (alone) through Soltane
Forest up to Munsalvaesche (P.
497). It may therefore not simply be concluded
that, since Kahenis makes the
whole journey on foot, Terre de salvaesche cannot be too far from Punt.
Measuring the Distance from Wolfram’s Nantes to Brizljan Forest
The train of thought concerning Kahenis has yielded us

another region in the
realm of Arthur, but not the desired Brizljan Forest yet.
Brizljan Forest and the hunting lodge Karminal, which

are situated in this part
of the land of Bertane, are in the direct
neighborhood of Terre de salvaesche.
Parzival rides through this region on his way to Arthur. By analyzing
Wolfram’s
references to Parzival’s ride, we can calculate the approximate
distance from
Nantua to this region. Wolfram says that Herzeloyde gave her
son a bad horse.
Such a horse in the hands of an inexperienced rider can be
made to gallop only
with great difficulty. Driven by his unbridled desire to
get to Arthur quickly
and with the aid of a small whip, Parzival could
probably keep his horse at
least at a trot. In this way, he could travel 14-18
km. per hour. After a
journey of roughly 12 hours, he came to the fisherman
where he spent the night.
We want to allow him an average speed of 16 km.
per hour and assume that he
covered 12 x 16 km. = 192 km. per day. Early in
the next morning, Parzival
pushes on, but he is now handicapped by the fact
that the fisherman must
accompany him on foot. We can hardly concede both
of them more than 6 to 8 km.
per hour. Taking an average and reckoning 7
hours from sunset to noon gives us
7 x 7 = 49 km. The whole ride would
therefore amount to a realistic distance of
241 km. When marking this stretch
on a map, starting from Nantua, we must
consider that the selected distance is
too long, for a rider must avoid
obstacles underway and make detours. The
distance through the air corresponding
to the distance done on horseback may
well measure 10 percent less. We
therefore need to look for Parzival’s point
of departure on the map 217 km.
away from Nantua. Unfortunately, we do
not know from which direction he came.
Hence, it seems we have not gained
much. But we know now that Brizljan Forest
lies within a circle extending in
the north to the southern Vosges mountains,
embracing in the east the
Walliser Alps, in the south touching Mont Venoux in
Provence and in the
west Puy de Dôme in the French central massif.
One thing however is certain, Wolfram’s Brizljan

Forest can in no way lie in
Bretagne. This is three times as far.
Respecting Wolfram’s references and
including the bad horse and inexperienced
rider in our calculations makes it
impossible for Parzival to have ridden in
one and a half days from Bretagne
to Nantua.
Nevertheless, it must be said that Wolfram researchers

– and in our opinion
rightly so – equate the name of the Brocéliande-Brésilien
in Bretagne with
the name Brizljan. Both names do indeed correspond perfectly.
It must be
recognized that King Arthur’s forest has apparently been correctly
identified
there. But this is no doubt the forest of that other King Arthur who
resided in
Nantes on the Loire.
The King Arthur Tradition
The Arthurian tradition has lasted for centuries. The

bearer of that tradition
always assumed the name Arthur. Once, there really was
an Arthur in Nantes.
But this Arthur from Nantes on the Loire is another Arthur
than the one from
Nantua in Jura. If Nantes on the Loire once was a seat of
Arthur, then there
must also have been a Brizljan Forest in the land of
Bertane, which at that
time was present-day Bretagne or Brittany. We have
explained in our Kyot-
Willehalm report that from the time before the birth of
Christ until Wolfram’s
chronicles there have always been Arthurian knights
upholding and
cultivating the Arthurian tradition. Every century there was
somewhere in
Western Europe a King Arthur bearing the tradition and twelve
Arthurian
knights bearing the traditional names. The place where Arthur dicke
sass
(often resided) was always called Nantes and the hunting lodge Karminal
was
always situated in a forest that was given the name Brizljan. Here and
there,
these names became common property of the indigenous people, surviving
as
geographical names up to the pre-sent. This was the case in Nantes on the
Loire and this indeed also happened in Nantua during the period of the no
less
historical Arthur that Wolfram von Eschenbach is relating to us. The
name
Nantua clearly points to a former Arthurian capital.

Since Wolfram’s references clearly allude to this town
of Nantua in the Jura
and definitely not to Nantes on the Loire, we must
designate this Arthurian
town as Arthur’s seat of the 9th century.
We are specifically not looking in Wolfram’s Parzival

for anyone of the many
possible Arthurian landscapes of the first nine
centuries, but the one and only
Arthurian landscape of the 9th century, because
Wolfram von Eschenbach
happens to be only describing this specific landscape.
Parzival’s Giant Ride
But where then is this Brizljan Forest of the 9th

century? The mathematician
would say: try to find the distance from another
fixed point and then cut the
desired locality.

This is indeed possible. Wolfram gives us the
necessary clues allowing us to
analyze another one of Parzival’s rides and
determining the geographical
position of Brizljan Forest.

Here is the corresponding train of thought: the forest
lies directly in front of
Terre de salvaesche.
While Arthur was staying at the Plimizoel, he forbade
his Round Table to fight
in order to prevent a battle with Anfortas’ army
happening by mistake. Terre de salvaesche was defended in a
mobile fashion.
Nobody knew exactly where he could be challenged. Arthur says
at the
Plimizoel in Brizljan Forest (P. 286:10):
We are nearing the host of Anfortas

which rides out from Munsalvaesche
to defend the forest in combat.
Since we do not know where the castle lies,
things might well go hard with us.
Over the Plimizoel and through Brizljan Forest also

rode Parzival when he
came from Pelrapeire
on September 19, 842 to visit his mother. Of Parzival’s
gigantic ride it is
said (P. 224:23 et seq.):
On that day he rode so far

that a bird could only fly with difficulty
have flown all that way.
If the story has not deceived me,
the did not travel nearly so far
on the day when he shot Ither nor, later
when he came from Graharz
to the land of Brobarz.
In this second ride too there is a hidden spatial

reference. We must calculate
Wolfram’s mes-sages concerning the ways and means
of Parzival’s ride into
km. and then mark the estimated distance from Montpellier.
Wolfram compares Parzival’s giant ride with the flight

of a bird (P. 224:24-
25):
that a bird could only fly with difficulty

have flown all that way.
If we accept Wolfram’s reference, we have the following

means of
comparison: in August 1968, 154 homing pigeons were brought by plane
from Vienna to Basle. The pigeons took 10½ hours to fly back from Basel to
Vienna. The distance by air is 680 km. The average speed of the pigeons thus
amounts to 64.75 km. per hour.

Parzival’s ride would therefore, if it lasted about

the same time, have covered
a distance of some 680 km. This obviously raises
the question how this is at
all possible. We have com-parisons for answering
this question too: Roman
authors praised dispatch-riders who covered more than
300 km. per day. An
emperor is even reported to have managed this stretch with
a wagon. But this
was only possible by a repeated change of horses. A preceding
courier
alarmed the relay stations in advance, so that fresh horses were
already
harnessed upon the emperor’s arrival.

In our horseless times today we cannot realize anymore
what amazing feats
horses are capable of. We are not used to seeing a horse in
full gallop
reaching, granted only over small stretches, up to 90 km. an hour.
A 10-hour
ride could not be maintained that way. Riders from antiquity rode
their 300
km. not in a full but a much slower and energy-saving gallop. If they
covered
the 300 km. in ten hours, they maintained an average hourly speed of 30
km.

Now from Graharz to Pelrapeire, Parzival – already as
an inexperienced rider
– needed only half of the time that Condwiramurs’
couriers required.
Condwiramur confirms this to Parzival in P. 189:25-26:
“If anyone else had told me this

I would not believe it,
that it could be done in one day.
Whenever one of my messengers has ridden there,
the swiftest has never taken less than two days.”
We may assume that a year and a half later Parzival

was an even better rider
and that Ither’s wonder horse – if he could really schuften (make it sweat) –
rides twice as fast as a
dispatch-rider even over longer stretches. We want to
stick to Wolfram’s reference
and allow Parzival an average speed of 60 km.
per hour. Parzival left
Montpellier in the middle of the morning (P. 491:26-
29):

I had ridden
many a mile that day.
I had left Pelrapeire
about mid-morning,
and that evening I was worried
as to where I could find lodging for the night.
Towards the evening he arrived at lake Brumbane (P. 225:2):
By evening he came to a lake.
This must have taken him about ten hours. By assuming

an hourly average of
only 60 km. – which is more realistic than the 65 km. of
the homing pigeons
– we are taking Wolfram’s additional comment about
Condwiramurs’
dispatch-rider into consideration without contradicting his

comparison with
the flight of birds.
In addition, we reckon 10 percent again for deviations

from the shortest
distance and diminish the distance by air by this much. The
desired distance
required for drawing our compass therefore comes to 540 km.
When we take
this distance as the radius of our compass with Montpellier as
central point
and enter it on the same map on which we marked the dis-tance
Nantes-
Brizljan, then our problem has been solved geometrically. The desired
site
lies at the point of intersection of the two lines.

[1] on the map is the center of Nantua and [2] that of
Montpellier. We draw
the curve and note that the solution is not definite.
There are two points of
intersection and accordingly two locations 540 km. from
Montpellier and 270
km. from Nantua.
One possible location lies in northeast France in the

Faucilles near Epinal [3].
The other possibility, marked by the more eastern
point of intersection, is the
region of Basle on the upper Rhine [4]. Both
locations satisfy the conditions
given by the two Parzival rides.

In order to reach a definite result we must compare
both routes – Montpellier
to Epinal and Montpellier to Basle – with Wolfram’s references
to Parzival’s
great ride.
The geometric construction gives us the following: The

Brizljan Forest is to
be found in north-eastern France, in the southern part of
the Vosges
Mountains or on the Upper Rhine in the region of Basle. The forest
in any
case lies north of the previously reconnoitered area of the land of
Bertane. Of
all the hitherto identified landscape-points the one coming nearest
to a
possible location of the Brizljan Forest is Punt, the town of Kahenis,
which
we located in the Swiss Jura as the town of Porrentruy. Pruntrut lies
closer to
Basle than to Epinal.

On the basis of a geometric construction we have now
located two landscape
points and have learned that the eastern point, Basle,
lies closer to the land of
Bertane.

These few indications are enough to prompt us to look
for the Brizljan Forest
in the region of Basle and to do some research in that
area.
We do not want to create the impression thereby that
the location of the
Brizljan Forest can be determined exactly by way of mathematics.
This would
only be so if Wolfram had supplied exact figures for the length of
both rides,
which is not the case. We were therefore forced to reconstruct the
distances
Montpellier-Brizljan and Nantua-Brizljan from Wolfram’s scarce
references
and estimate their lengths. We have analyzed Wolfram’s comparison between
the flight of birds and the great ride and the two smaller rides – from Ither
(Nantua) to Grenoble and from there to Montpellier – and all further
circumstances as realistically as possible. Mistakes are nevertheless possible.

The rides could have been longer or shorter than assumed, causing a change
in
the point of intersection of both circles. A general direction in which to
conduct our search has in any case been marked out, even though our
distances
may not be quite right. An increase in the ride from Montpellier
past Nantua
always leads us in the direction of the Vosges Mountains
If our estimates were too short, the ride leads in

fact further to the north, to
Lorraine or, on the other side, into the Black
Forest. If the distances were
estimated to be too long, and therefore should in
reality be smaller, we reach
the region of Vesoul-Langre in the west, while on
the way east we come into
the Swiss Jura near Porrentruy, thus in an area
already identified as being a
part of the land of King Arthur. Greater or
smaller errors in our estimates can
change the situation considerably, but not
fundamentally. In order to locate
the site in spite of approximate distances,
we must search in a
correspondingly greater area.
Certain in any case is that, in spite of possible

margins of error, Bretagne is
out of the question. Wolfram’s references are, it
is true, not absolute, but still
accurate enough to definitely eliminate
Bretagne.
_z9ogNSFyrM/WpxSyz7rhSI/AAAAAAAAE8s/7WG3bI00O4AqEWhXQOGATisKjxJFT7yngCL
cBGAs/s1600/P.%2Bkaart%2Bcirkel%2BFR.jpg]
Map of South-west France with Nantua as the Center
Wolfram’s references to Parzival’s turbo ride point

clearly to Basle. Favoring
the region of Basle are, next to the proximity to
Punt, the following
considerations: on his way back from Montpellier, Parzival
takes about the
same route that he once took on his way to Montpellier. But he
has no reason
now for stopping in Grenoble to visit Gurnemanz or Arthur in
Nantua. He can
pass by Grenoble on the right and ride via Lyon. Up to Lyon, the
route to
Basle and to Epinal is the same. Past Lyon, however, he must decide:
either
proceed to the left in the direction of Epinal or to the right toward
Basle.

Wolfram says that the route leads through marshland.
This has to be an
impressive and extensive swamp, in any case decisive for the
ride, for
otherwise Wolfram, given his scarce references, would not point so
distinctly
to that marshland. The geographer recognizes this marsh to be the

extensive
lake and marsh landscape of Les Dombes north of Lyon.

This points to the direction that Parzival took after
having passed Lyon.
Parzival would not have ridden through this swampy region,
if his goal did
not lie in this direction behind it. In his hurry to get to his
mother he could not
afford making any detours.

Had the region of Epinal been his goal, he would have
had to pass by the
Dombes on the right and would have reached his goal via
Macon and Chalon
along the river Saone much sooner. But if his goal were the
region of Basle,
he would from Lyon have to approach the north-western edge of
the Jura
straight through the Dombes or, as Wolfram says durchez moos (through
swamps, P. 224:20).

Riding on this prominent cross-country line at the
foot of the north-western
Jura Mountains, he can orientate himself about the
rest of the journey without
only once having to ask for directions. The
borderline between the plateau of
Bresse and Jura is so prominently marked that
Parzival can make no
mistakes. By following the contours of this landscape he
comes – through the
area between Bourg and Nantua via Lons-le-Sanier, Besançon
and
Montbéliard – safely through the Bourgondian Port and reaches Basle on the
Rhine.

After having reconstructed Wolfram’s ride in large
stages, we would now like
approach this ideal route from Pelrapeire into
Brizljan Forest from another
aspect.

Parzival is taking this route for the first time. His
ride to Nantua led him
through the Jura plateau of Franches Montagne. From
Nantua he turns to the
Rhone and Savoyen. From Graharz to Broharz he stayed –
probably until
Montélimar – on the eastern bank of the Rhone and in the
neighborhood of
Pont-Saint-Esprit crossed over to the west bank on the side of
the valley.

On the great ride on September 19, 842 he stayed the
whole stretch until Lyon
on the west side of the Rhone. From there, he follows
the northern foothills of
the Jura Mountains. This implies that the whole route
of this second ride was
absolutely new to Parzival. He can-not find it by
himself. Someone who
knew the route exactly had given him directions. If
Par-zival had had to ask
for directions in stages, he would have needed more
time. In addition,
Wolfram says that Parzival was not forced to find his way
from one place to
another (P. 224:21):
For no one’s hand guided it.
Thus, Parzival rides 600 km. on an unknown route

without speaking to
anyone and reaches his destination safely. Only an expert
can manage such a
feat – or someone who has been properly instructed by an

expert.

How should we understand this geographic phenomenon?
The solution to the
riddle lies with Kyot. Kyot-Willehalm, the old strategist
and great authority
on the geography of the whole of Western Europe is behind
this miracle. In
our report Kyot-Willehalm we drew atten-tion to Willehalm’s
broad
education, but above all to his occupation as Mazegoge (teacher) of
knighthood. As a teacher, Kyot is in a
position to give his students, in this
case Parzival, instructions on what
route to take, which the latter, who had not
yet completely overcome his tumpfheit (dumbness) can understand and
follow all the way. Kyot may not utter a word too much or too little to him.
Starting
from Montpellier, Willehalm-Kyot had traversed this road
many times himself
visiting Schoysiane or bringing Sigune to his sister-in-
law. Let us imagine
what the instructions of this authority were on the route
to Herzeloyde.
Standing on the citadel of Montpellier and looking towards
the northeast, he
could have said something like this to the husband of his
niece:
“Here towards the east you see open country and there in the north the
Garrigues Mountains. Behind them lie the Cevennes Mountains rising up, as
it
were, out of the plain. Drive through this plain, but stay close to the
mountains. Don’t ride on the hard road, but stay on the smooth countryside
always going straight ahead towards that most distant mountain that you can
see
rising up from the plain. Ride over hedge and ditch past the mountains on
your
left until you reach Lover (Lyon). There, the swamps flowing from the
east come
close to the mountains and absorb the large Saone River from the
north. Past
Lyon, you are to leave the guideline on your left that led you
hitherto. You
cross the Saone and pass through the valley in the region of the
vast
marshland. Ride right through this swamp towards the mountain that you
see
rising from the plain. This marshland lies halfway on your road to
Soltane.
Beyond the swamp, you will see the mountain range on your right
that will lead
you further. Ride on through the middle of the plain and the
mountains. This
will get you safely to the Rhine.”
We have derived these instructions from Wolfram’s

references and
embroidered them some-what more than necessary. The route was
selected so
soundly and characterized so accurately by Kyot that he would only
have had
to say: Ride always on the plain. Keep the mountain range on your left
until
Lyon. Cross the valley by the marshland and afterwards keep the mountain
range on your right. This gets you to Barbigoel
on the Rhine.

This
journey is described in an even more concentrated manner by Kyot in
Wolfram’s
translation. He only gives the bare minimum, but even in
Wolfram’s translation
we recognize the marshland of Les Dombes beyond
Lyon to be a significant
landmark on the route that Parzival traversed in his
great ride. He does not
ride up along the Saone towards Epinal, but durchez
mos (through the marshland) implying that after passing through the swamps
he continues along the Jura Mountains to Basle. About this road and the ride,
Wolfram says indeed only (P. 224:19-21):
The horse pulled the dragging reins

over fallen trees and through marshy land,
for no one’s hand guided it.
If we are now prepared to look for the Brizljan Forest

at the southern end of
the Upper Rhine lowland plane, in the region of Basle,
we still need to
examine an extensive area in order to locate this forest, this
most distant point
in the land of King Arthur. Wolfram’s further refer-ences to
this forest do not
refer to Bertane, but to the neighboring land of Terre de
salvaesche.

Besides that, Wolfram’s references to the land of
Bertane yield no clues for
finding Brizljan Forest. We have to leave the land of
Bertane and explore
Terre de salvaesche. We must therefore first analyze Wolfram’s
references to
Terre de salvaesche in order to all the more certainly locate
from there
Brizljan Forest nearby.
A Review of the Land of Bertane
But before doing this, we will first give a review of

the land of Bertane:

The region around Basle bordering on the land of
Bertane is directly
connected with the hitherto identified sites north of this
land of Arthur. In
connection with the Arthurian sites Nantua = Nantes;
Montréal-la-Cluse =
Montane Cluse; Beaune = Bems; Dijon = Dianazdrun;
Champagnole =
Schampfanzun; Pontarlier = Bahtarliez; Porrentruy-Pruntrut = Punt
(Land of
the Punturtois), all lying in the former Kingdom of Burgundy, it seems
that
the chance of locating the Brizljan Forest in Jura (map [4]) is much more
probable
than in the region of the other point of intersection [3] near Epinal.
The
Vosges Mountains or the Black Forest would likewise round off the land
of
Bertane in a much more adverse way than the northwest corner of the
Swiss Jura.
We therefore set out for Basle.

“Stop!” a mathematician could now say, “What’s the
hurry? First you bring in
geometry and then you base your apparent preference
for the region around
Basle by saying that Pruntrut, the town of Kahenis, lies
between Nantua and
Basle, which means that the land of Bertane seems to extend
beyond Pruntrut
towards Basle. But Dianazdrun = Dijon in Bertane also lies on
the road
running from Montpellier to Epinal. Even Bearosche that you identified
as
Besançon lies in the land of Bertane and, as a matter of fact, also on a
line
from Nantua to Epinal.”

Our mathematician is right in as far as both points of
intersection come into
equal consideration. We would thus have to explore both
regions. Yet, we
want to be guided in the first instance by Wolfram and not by
a geometric
construction. We analyzed both Parzival’s rides in order to find
clues that
make our search of the countryside easier. Wolfram has no need of

geometric
constructions. He knows where the Brizljan Forest lies, where the
River
Plimizoel sewet (broadens) and
where to find Barbigoel without such
constructions. It is therefore revealing
to hear from Wolfram in what direction
Meljanz von Liz, who sets out with his
army from Barbigoel to Bearosche, is
marching. He has no grounds for not taking
the shortest route. From his
deployment area in front of Bearosche it can
therefore be gleaned where he
came from.

Were Barbigoel around Epinal, then Meljanz would have
to approach the
town of Be-sançon from the north. He would then come to the
northern bank
of the Doubs, of all places the Roman bridge of which Wolfram
says that it
does not lie on the wall facing the enemy. Had Meljanz
nevertheless wanted
to march up on strategic grounds east of the town, he could
have crossed the
Doubs northeast of the town in order to get to the plateau of
Buis over the
hills of the southern bank. Even in this very improbable case, he
would not
have had to go around the marshland of the Marais de Saone from the
south.
It may therefore be said with all certainty that the army Gawain ran
into was
not underway from Epinal. Seen geographically it is quite clear:
Wolfram
describes Meljanz’ deployment in front of Bearosche exactly in the way
that
Meljanz would have to march up if he were setting out from Basle to
Besançon. This is also the reason why we – following Wolfram – must look
for
Barbigoel in the region of Basle, not in Epinal.

In this case, Barbigoel would have to be identified as
Basle. We do not want
to take this step, however, without the philologists and
say that Wolfram
denotes Barbigoel as seat of the bishop. Epinal is no such
diocese. The area
of this other point of intersection of our two circles was
part of the diocese of
Toul. Wolfram would in this case have to replace
Barbigoel with Toul. In the
other case, Barbigoel would read Basle, which is
not a lot more convincing.
However, Wolfram could have derived its name from
other names. Basilea,
but Robur and Arialbinium too, are Roman-Celtic names of
localities within
the present-day municipal area of Basle. The identification
Arialbinium =
Barbigoel is not very obvious at first sight, yet it is more
probable than the
alternative: Toul = Barbigoel. A philologist, now knowing
that Barbigoel can
be found in the geographical reality, will possibly discover
the real derivation
in the future. Wolfram’s Barbigoel cannot be identified,
seen purely
geographically, as any other place than the city of Basle in
Switzerland. From
this it follows that the Plimizoel river is to be identified
as the river Birs
flowing in the Rhine by Basle and broadening out by Karchobra
=
Münchenstein into a lake.

Brizljan Forest would therefore have to lie on the
shores of the Birs,
stretching from Münchenstein via Arlesheim to Dornach. The
hunting lodge
Karminal too would have to be located in this northern region of
the land of
Bertane.

These geographical deliberations shall now be examined

in detail with the aid
of Wolfram’s references to Terre de salvaesche in order
to establish whether
or not they are right.
***
The following chapter "Terre de salvaesche - Land of the Grail

[http://willehalminstitute.blogspot.com/2018/03/terre-de-salvaesche-chapter-12-
from-how.html] " can be read here.
Posted 4th March 2018 by Willehalm

Labels: Camelot, Grail Sites, King Arthur, Parzival, Werner Greub, Wolfram von
Eschenbach
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&#39;BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR&#39;_ Chapter 11 of the book &#39;How the Grails Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Historian&#39; by Werner Greub _ Willehalm Institute For Anthroposophy as Grail Research and Social Organics

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&#39;BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR&#39;_ Chapter 11 of the book &#39;How the Grails Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Historian&#39; by Werner Greub _ Willehalm Institute For Anthroposophy as Grail Research and Social Organics

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14/07/2021 'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR'/ Chapter 11 of the book 'How the Grails Sites Were Found

Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Histo…

4th March 2018 'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING

Note by the Publisher and Translator Robert J. Kelder: This interdisciplinary

In this second part of our research report examining

We have found Montpellier in the south of France to be

Willehalm terminology, and the town of Pelrapeire in the land

Why Wolfram’s Bertane is not Bretagne

Why Wolfram’s Bertane is not to be found in Bretagne

If my mother had not advised me to come here

Parzival’s ride to Grenoble to Gurnemanz’ court was

My mother told me to accept advice

Clamide and Kingrun had no grounds for making such a

In the first part of our research, we pointed to the

Wolfram’s place names do not at first glance offer us

After we believed, on the basis of geographical and

in order to get to know it firsthand. The assumption that

In Nantua, there are some clues pointing to Wolfram’s

Today, Nantua lies at the end of a moraine lake of the

Through the alluvium of the Merloz stream the

occurrence in Wolfram’s oeuvre. Yet, Wolfram often

a meadow not too broad.

Nantua lies in a cluse-like Reculée, at the bottom of

Between the mountain and the lake, a small strip of

Critics will rightly object that this is wishful

of historical events of the 9th century is

We do realize, however, that our arguments in view of the

We are sorry too that Wolfram reveals so noticeably

Locating Wolfram’s Bearosche

While doing reconnaissance in this probable Arthurian

The relief of Besançon alone ought to convince one

I am not telling you lies.

In the first part of our research report we tried to

From Provence to Germany

Whoever is interested in our theme and wants to put

Gawain comes from the southeast, from the direction of

de Saone. From the east – from the

Wolfram describes this situation in P. 339: 15 et

At P. 350:17 he is standing on the hill of Chapelle des

On this open countryside sloping slightly downwards in

Gawain turned towards the town.

He comes down on the road leading from Morre along the

Plate 39. “Gawain reaches the road along the river

The rock wall has a small split which on both sides

Gawain rode up to the gate, and there

When Gawain sees that he cannot get through there, he

Gawan rode up the hillside.

Now he finds himself back on the col between the plateau

unfamiliar though he was with the way

Gawain therefore rides from that spot, marked with the

Plate 41. “Gawain approaches the castle right down to

He hears what is being said about him in the defense

The squire went down and reported.

And now Scherules rides up to Gawain. From the citadel

He rode up to the place where Gawain sat.

After Gawain entered the castle through the ancient

Lippaut, contrary to Scherules, held court up in the

(She was down by Gawain, in the town). This back and

Wolfram’s knowledge of the locality is also reflected

not on the side where the enemy lay.

The crossing-point across the Doubs is also in the

The army encamped on the other side of the bridge,

Whoever reads Wolfram’s account once more of the

'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR'_ Chapter 11 of the book 'How the Grails Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Historian' by Werner Greub _ Willehalm Institute For Anthroposophy as Grail Research and Social Organics

'BERTANE - THE LAND OF KING ARTHUR'_ Chapter 11 of the book 'How the Grails Sites Were Found - Wolfram von Eschenbach as a Historian' by Werner Greub _ Willehalm Institute For Anthroposophy as Grail Research and Social Organics