As Kundry attempts to renew her endearments, he pushes her away with loathing but a moment later the new compassion extends even to her and he promises to give her deliverance, if she will show him the way to Amfortas. She is Klingsor's agent, however, and she cannot but cry aloud in this crisis for aid. The magician appears on the steps of the castle, bearing the sacred lance, which he hurls at Parsifal but the holy weapon hangs suspended over the pure youth's head. He seizes it and makes with it the sign of the cross. The castle falls as if overthrown by an earth quake, the garden withers to a desert and the ground is scattered with faded flowers, while Kundry lies prostrate amid the ruins.
Many years pass before the beginning of the third act but evil years they have been, for misfortune has fallen upon the knights of the Holy Grail. The wound of Amfortas never has healed. The light of the Grail has not been allowed to cast its benignant glow upon the knights, for its guardian has not had the courage to incur the agony attendant upon uncovering it. The sacred food has been withheld and the aged Titurel, whom the holy light had kept alive, has perished in despair.
These years Parsifal has spent wandering through the world in search of Amfortas. Many have tried to wrest from him the sacred lance, but have failed. As the cur tain rises we see again the precincts of the Grail. It is spring and early morning, the morning of Good Friday. Gurnemanz, grown very old, comes from his hermit's hut. He hears a noise in the thicket near by and pressing aside the branches discovers Kundry, lying there in a half stupor. He arouses her and she, responding to his inquiry as to what she would have, utters but the words " Serve! Serve! " She enters the hut but coming forth again fetches water from the sacred spring. Suddenly a stranger is seen approaching clad in black armor, his visor down and in his hand a spear. He plants the spear in the earth, removes his helmet and kneels in prayer. Both Gurnemanz and Kundry recognize him as the " pure fool " now grown to man's estate. To his marveling auditors Parsifal imparts the tidings that he has brought back the sacred weapon undefiled. The old man tells him that once again on that day are the knights to assemble in the temple as they did of yore and that once more they hope to see the holy light, for Amfortas has promised to perform for the funeral rite of Titurel the long-neglected office, whatever may be the cost to himself.
The humble Kundry bathes the feet of Parsifal with water from the sacred spring and dries •them with her hair. He, knowing her heart, baptizes her, and as she falls to the ground weeping in gratitude, he kisses her gently on the forehead. Habited like the guardians of the Grail and bearing the sacred spear in his hand, he proceeds to the temple, whither is borne Amfortas on his litter and whither the knights bring in solemn procession the dead body of Titurel. When the coffin is opened and the knights realize how their aged King longed for the light and died because it was withheld, they break forth into lamentations and press upon Amfortas renewing their impor tunities for the revelation of the Grail. In anguish their suffering leader refuses and, tearing open his garment, he bids them plunge their swords into his bleeding wound and kill him, so that they then may unveil the Grail them selves. But Parsifal enters and touching the wound with the sacred spear that made it, bids Amfortas " be whole, absolved and atoned." He also bids him to consider his suffering blessed, for through it divine pity and the might of knowledge have been given to a fool. Then Parsifal, destined henceforth to be the guardian of the Grail, shows the knights the sacred spear which he brings back to them and now places on the temple's altar. While he uncovers the chalice and kneels before it, a white dove descends from heaven and hovers above his head. Kundry, gazing at the holy sight, sinks lifeless to the ground, her redemption complete, while the voices of knights and angels mingle in praise of the Redeemer.
The idea of " Parsifal," called by one writer an " inspired dramatic Te Deum," first was suggested to Wagner by the epic poem of Wolfram von Eschenbach, while searching for material for " Tannhauser." Evidently, the theme lay but partly dormant in his mind, for fifteen years later, while at Zurich, he drew up the first sketch of the opera. But not until another interval of twenty years had elapsed, was it finished at Bayreuth. Thus it may be regarded as the result of thirty-five years of reflection and as the embodiment of a mellow and deliber ately developed philosophy. It is considered by many to be Wagner's masterpiece, while others go a step farther and call it the most marvelous and impressive achievement in the history of music.