Dolorous Stroke
The Dolorous Stroke is a
Grail Quest
.
The stroke is usually described as being to the king's thighs: this has been taken as a euphemism for the
genitals, which are explicitly stated to be the location of Anfortas's wound in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. In the Post-Vulgate Cycle, Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and later works based on them, the stroke is delivered by Sir Balin
. He ignores an "unearthly voice" warning him off, strikes the king when he is deprived of his weapon, and thinks that the stroke is justified.
References
- Richard W. Kaeuper, Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe, 1999.
