Then the hermit he looked on the Waleis, 'If a secret be not thy grief, 605 Right willing thy woe I'll hearken, I may bring thee perchance relief; Of some counsel may I bethink me such as yet to thyself dost fail!' Quoth Parzival, 'Of my sorrows the chiefest is for the Grail, And then for my wife--none fairer e'er hung on a mother's breast, For the twain is my heart yet yearning, with desire that ne'er findeth rest.' 610 Quoth his host, 'Well, Sir Knight, thou speakest, such sorrow is good to bear; If thus for the wife of thy bosom thy heart knoweth grief and care, And Death find thee a faithful husband, tho' Hell vex thee with torments dire Yet thy pains shall be swiftly ended, God will draw thee from out Hell-fire. But if for the _Grail_ thou grievest, then much must I mourn thy woe, 615 O! foolish man, since fruitless thy labours, for thou shalt know That none win the Grail save those only whose names are in Heaven known, They who to the Grail do service, they are chosen of God alone; And mine eyes have surely seen this, and sooth is the word I say!' Quoth Parzival, 'Thou hast been there?' 'Sir Knight,' quoth the hermit, 'Yea!' 620 But never a word spake our hero of the marvels himself had seen, But he asked of his host the story, and what men by 'The Grail' should mean? Spake the hermit, 'Full well do I know this, that many a knightly hand Serveth the Grail at Monsalväsch, and from thence, throughout all the land, On many a distant journey these gallant Templars fare, 625 Whether sorrow or joy befall them, for their sins they this penance bear!'