Note 1 — From ‘Tristan,’ Book 24, lines 15522-15748: The ordeal of God.3

A sham battle between two troops of mounted knights.

2. That is, Duke Ernst; see above, No. xvii.

3. That is: We pay no attention to the decrees of the courts.

4. Helmbrecht has had his eyes put out by a magistrate.

5. Of the ‘bands’ or ‘rings’ on the cow’s horns. She was seven years old.

6. At the beginning of the poem Helmbrecht’s elaborately embroidered hood is described at length.

7. This is not to be understood as a mockery of religion. A dying person might be shrived by a layman if no priest was at hand, a bit of earth or grass being substituted for the holy host.