Quoth Parzival, 'Well I know it this chapel and shrine! Of yore, As hither my wanderings led me, an oath on that shrine I swore; 470 And a spear, with fair colours blazoned, that did here by the altar stand I bare hence, and in sooth, I think me, right well did it serve my hand! Men say it much honour brought me, yet I wot not if it be so, For in thoughts of my wife had I lost me, and naught of the thing I know. Yet, unwitting, two jousts had I ridden, and two foemen I overthrew, 475 In those days all men gave me honour, nor sorrow nor shame I knew. Now, alas! is my sorrow greater than ever to man befell! Say, when did I bear the spear hence? The days of my wanderings tell!' 'It was Taurian,' quoth the hermit, 'who his spear in my care did leave, And much did he mourn its losing, and I with the knight must grieve. 480 And four years and a half and three days shall have passed since we lost the spear, Sir Knight, an my word thou doubtest, behold! it is written here!' Then he showed unto him in the Psalter how the time it had come and gone, And the weeks and the years he read him that silent and swift had flown. And he spake, 'Now first do I learn them, the days that I aimless stray, 485 And the weeks and the years that have vanished, since my joy hath been reft away.' And he spake, 'Now indeed me-seemeth that my bliss it was but a dream, For heavy the load of sorrow that so long hath my portion been!'