Quoth Parzival, 'Now, I think me that never such thing might be, And 'twere better thou shouldst keep silence, than tell such a tale to me! For who should have borne the father, whose son, as thou sayest, reft 545 Maidenhood from his father's mother? Such riddle were better left!' But the hermit again made answer, 'Now thy doubt will I put away, O'er my falsehood thou canst bemoan thee if the thing be not truth I say, For the _Earth_ was Adam's mother, of the _Earth_ was Adam fed, And I ween, tho' a man she bare here, yet still was the Earth a maid. 550 And here will I read the riddle, he who robbed her of maidenhood Was Cain the son of Adam, who in wrath shed his brother's blood: For as on the Earth, so stainless, the blood of the guiltless fell, Her maidenhood fled for ever! And true is the tale I tell. For wrath of man and envy, thro' Cain did they wake to life, 555 And ever from that day forward thro' his sin there ariseth strife.' 'Nor on earth shall aught be purer than a maiden undefiled, Think how pure must be a maiden, since God was a Maiden's Child! Two men have been born of maidens, and God hath the likeness ta'en Of the son of the first Earth-Maiden, since to help us He aye was fain. 560 Thus grief alike and gladness from the seed of Adam spring, Since He willed to be Son of Adam, Whose praises the angels sing. And yet have we sin as our birthright, and sin's pain must we ever bear, Nor its power may we flee! Yet pity He feeleth for our despair, Whose Strength is aye linked with Mercy, and with Mercy goes hand in hand, 565 And for man, as a Man, He suffered, and did falsehood by truth withstand.' 'No longer be wroth with thy Maker! If thou wouldst not thy soul were lost-- And here for thy sin do penance, nor longer thus rashly boast, For he who, with words untamèd, is fain to avenge his wrong, His own mouth shall, I ween, speak his judgment ere ever the time be long. 570 Learn faith from the men of old-time, whose rede ever waxeth new, For Plato alike and the Sibyls in their day spake words so true, And long years ere the time had ripened His coming they did foretell Who made for our sin's Atonement, and drew us from depths of Hell. God's Hand from those torments took us, and God's Love lifted us on high, 575 But they who His love disdainèd, they yet in Hell's clutches lie!'