Rosa Regina Glaser at age seventeen, 1931

Once his name is revealed, the calamity begins.

—LOHENGRIN SAGA

 

Based on an ancient myth, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s thirteenth-century poem Parzival lauds the heroic deeds of the swan knight Lohengrin, who followed the Rhine River to Kleef, a small city on the German–Dutch border near Nijmegen, where he defended the honor of a noblewoman named Elsa. They married and were happy together, but Lohengrin forbade Elsa to ask about his origins and real name. Years later, unable to contain her curiosity, Elsa asked the forbidden question and thereby mired herself in misfortune.