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Knight of the week
Joshua Santana:
Take your time sir John, well done on your thread.
Sir John of Felsenbau:
In winter, I (Ulrich) rode on a visit to the land in which sat my Frowe, thinking back and forth as I could find a messenger to tell her my will. The summer (1225) came again with its beautiful days. I rode joyfully to Carinthia, Carniola, and Istria. In Trieste, the Count Meinhard hosted a tournament in which I myself broke 15 lances and learned that a tournament would be held in Bressanone. When I arrived, I was warmly welcomed and friendly, the knights was a dear guest. A beautiful joust happened – but during a joust with Herr Uolschalk of Bolzano one of Ulrich’s fingers was seriously wounded, and in his anxiety to save it he offered a surgeon a thousand pounds for a cure. The treatment was unsuccessful, so off to the home of the inexorable went a new the story of unflinching devotion, the loss of a finger in a tournament.
The knight passed the summer (1225) in Steierland (Styria) under arms, and after pleasant experiences he sent his messenger again, only to have his suit repelled with the same coldness and decision as before. The report was even more discouraging, for the lady, who had been told of his losing a finger in her service, had now learned that he still had it; nor was she moved by the assurance that it was almost useless.
Ulrich responded by having a friend hack off the finger and sent it to the lady in a green velvet case. She was so impressed by his show of devotion that she sent back a message that she would look at it every day. With such a speech, he came to me, and I was glad of her heart. But then came another message that he should not believe that he was closer to his goal, because I keep the finger. His effort is lost on me." The news saddened, but did not cast down. Poor Ulrich became terribly downcast, sang a song of dreary winter, and when the next summer 1226 came went again in quest of tourneys, breaking innumerable lances in honor of his lady-love.
Secretly, I (Ulrich) want to steal from the country and as a pilgrim who makes his journey to Rome. But I will - this winter it should be - stop me to Venice and stay there until May. There I will prepare myself well, as befits a queen.
Preperation for the Venusfahrt
Now a large idea visits this sanguine gentleman. Gone to Rome on a pilgrimage, that is what he will pretend. It is to Venice that he goes— cautiously, so as not to be observed. He arrayed himself in the garb of a pilgrim, left his castle Lichtenstein, and wandered on foot out of the country. When he came to Venice he stopped at a small tavern.
There he spends the winter, and ordered to be secretly prepared for him twelve white ladies' dresses, thirty fine chemise-sleeves, three white velvet cloaks, and two ladies' head-dresses adorned with pearls. He then engaged twelve foreign servants who did not know his name, dressed them all in white clothes, bought white helms, shields, and a hundred white spears for himself and his followers, and white saddles, bridles, and dressings for his horses ; and thus prepared, sent thirty days before his own departure a messenger with an open letter to all the knights of Lombardy, Austria, Bohemia, etc., telling them that on the 24th of April 1227 the Goddess of Love, Venus, would arise from the Venetian sea and travel northward to Bohemia.
(To be continued)
(In case I failed to mention...Ulrich uses "break a lance" to mean "Joust")
Sir John of Felsenbau:
Venusfahrt
When spring came, he rode on horseback, dressed in his gorgeous female attire of velvet and satin; white silk gloves covered his hands, white sleeves his arms, and a thick white veil his face. His helmet decorated with a rather large female torso representing the goddess Venus in a flowing gown, holding in one hand an arrow (symbolizing love) and a torch in the other hand. The helmet towered on his head, from which two long pearl-embroidered braids hung down to his waist. He was preceded by his twelve squires, all dressed in white and carrying a white banner; two white-dressed maids, and a half-dozen or so of fiddlers, trumpeters, and flute-players.
The narrative of this '' Venus-journey '' is prolonged, detailed, and tedious. Wherever the knight goes, numerous contestants are awaiting him, in this idle age when no one had anything to do. Some of these, also, assume disguises, one as a monk, another in female costume, his shield and spear aesthetic with flowers. But the travelling combatant (Ulrich) is always the winner.
The first day to Treviso, the second day of the Piave River, the third to Sacile, the fourth to St. Odorico ,the fifth to Gemona ,the sixth to Chiusaforte , the seventh to Thoerl (ze the gate), the eighth day until Villach. There they rested the ninth day.
The tenth day he comes to Feldkirchen , the eleventh to St. Veit , the twelfth to Friesach , the thirteenth to Scheufling , the fourteenth of Judenburg , the fifteenth to Knittelfeld, the sixteenth to Leoben , the seventeenth to Kapfenberg, the eighteenth to Mürzzuschlag , the nineteenth to Gloggnitz . The twentieth day it remains there.
On the twenty days they come to Neunkirchen , on the twenty to Wiener-Neustadt (Niwenstadt), on the twenty-third to Traiskirchen ,on the twenty-fourth to Vienna, where it remains the twenty-fifth day. On the twenty-sixth they stayed in Kornneuburg (Niuwenburg) on the twenty-seventh Mistelbach , on the twenty-eighth in Feldberg, on the twenty-ninth day it is on the other bank of the Thaya (Tye) in Bohemia. There, their journey has an end and they rode back to Liechtenstein.
On one of the days he had gone to a retired place for a bath, and his attendant had gone to bring a suit. While thus left quite alone and unprotected, a lady sent by her servant a suit of female garments, a piece of tapestry, a coat, a girdle, a fine buckle, a garland, a ring with a ruby red as a lady's sweet mouth, and a letter. To receive such a gift from a lady not one's love was treason.
The Venus-journey ended, and Ulrich counted up the results: he had broken three hundred and seven lances (won 307 jousts) and defeated all comers.. (To break a lance means to Joust) At any rate, the next visit of the messenger brought a bitter dismissal, with cruel charges of inconstancy. She would always hate him, and never hold him dear; she was angry with herself for giving him a ring; she bade him return it at once.
(to be continued)
B. Patricius:
That is awesome Sir John. It's funny, not even a week has passed since my lady and I and her two-year old enjoyed "A Knight's Tale." After watching the bonus features, we had to look up and see if a "Sir Ulrich Von Lichtenstein" ever existed in history because of how well done and plausible the rest of the story was. It's nice to see even more detail into that fine Knight
Sir John of Felsenbau:
Glad you like it, I still have more on this particular knight. Thejn I'll have to find something else to post.
Sir John of Felsenbau
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