Side by side did they sit together, and neither forgot the grace Of courtesy, to the other, each knight fain had yielded place. Then the heathen spake, 'My brother, wilt thou sail with me to my land, Then two kingdoms, rich and powerful, will I give thee into thine hand. Thy father and mine, he won them when King Eisenhart's life was run, 275 Zassamank and Assagog are they--to no man he wrong hath done, Save in that he left me orphaned--of the ill that he did that day As yet have I not avenged me, for an ill deed it was alway. For his wife, the queen who bare me, thro' her love must she early die, When she knew herself love-bereavèd, and her lord from her land did fly. 280 Yet gladly that knight would I look on, for his fame hath been told to me As the best of knights, and I journey my father's face to see!' Then Parzival made him answer, 'Yea I, too, I saw him ne'er; Yet all men they speak well of him, and his praises all lands declare, And ever in strife and conflict to better his fame he knew, 285 And his valour was high exalted, and afar from him falsehood flew. And women he served so truly that all true folk they praised his name, And all that should deck a Christian lent honour unto his fame, For his faith it for aye stood steadfast, and all false deeds did he abhor, But followed his true heart's counsel--Thus ever I heard of yore 290 From the mouth of all men who knew him, that man ye were fain to see, And I ween ye would do him honour if he yet on this earth might be, And sought for fame as aforetime--The delight of all women's eyes Was he, till king Ipomidon with him strove for knighthood's prize, At Bagdad the joust was ridden, and there did his valiant life 295 For love's sake become death's portion, and there was he slain in strife; In a knightly joust we lost him from whose life do we spring, we twain; If here ye would seek our father, then the seas have ye sailed in vain!'