Lohengrin

lo'en-grin, in German legend, the knight of the swan. He was the son of Parzival. Lohengrin is taken to Antwerp in a boat drawn by a swan. Here he weds a princess on condition that she shall never ask his name. She breaks her word and Lohengrin is borne away by the swan. The poem Parzival, written early in the thirteenth century by Eschenbach, mentions Lohengrin. In the latter half of the same century a poem called Schwanritter (Knight of the Swan) telling the story of Lohengrin, was written by Konrad von Wurzburg. Still another poem recounting the same legend was written in 1290 by an unknown Bavarian author. Wagner used the story as the subject for his great opera, Lohengrin.