"I never help!" is her sullen retort, although a tremor, as if caused by a pang of bitter reproach, passes over her frame.
"If she wants to serve the Grail, why not send her to recover the Sacred Spear!" exclaims one of the _Esquires_ sarcastically; and the youths doubtless would have resumed their nagging of _Kundry_, had not mention of the holy weapon caused _Gurnemanz_ to give voice to memories of the events that have led to its capture by _Klingsor_. Then, yielding to the pressing of the youths who gather at his feet beneath the tree, he tells them of _Klingsor_--how the sorcerer has sued for admission to the Grail brotherhood, which was denied him by _Titurel_, how in revenge he has sought its destruction and now, through possession of the Sacred Spear, hopes to compass it.
Prominent with other motives already heard, is a new one, the =Klingsor Motive=:
During this recital _Kundry_ still lies upon the ground, a sullen, forbidding looking creature. At the point when _Gurnemanz_ tells of the sorcerer's magic garden and of the enchantress who has lured _Amfortas_ to his downfall, she turns in quick, angry unrest, as if she would away, but is held to the spot by some dark and compelling power. There is indeed something strange and contradictory in this wild creature, who serves the Grail by ranging distant lands in search of balsam for the _King's_ wound, yet abruptly, vindictively almost, repels proffered thanks, and is a sullen and unwilling listener to _Gurnemanz's_ narrative. Furthermore, as _Gurnemanz_ queried, where does she linger during those long absences, when harm has come to the warders of the Grail and now to their _King_? The Knights of the Grail do not know it, but it is none other than she who, changed by _Klingsor_ into an enchantress, lures them into his magic garden.
_Gurnemanz_ concludes by telling the _Esquire_ that while _Amfortas_ was praying for a sign as to who could heal him, phantom lips pronounced these words:
By pity lightened The guileless fool; Wait for him, My chosen tool.
This introduces an important motive, that of the =Prophecy=, a phrase of simple beauty, as befits the significance of the words to which it is sung. _Gurnemanz_ sings the entire motive and then the _Esquires_ take it up.