This knightly autobiography by Ulrich von Liechtenstein (a name familiar to anyone who has seen the film A Knight’s Tale, in which it is ‘borrowed’ by the hero) was written in the thirteenth century, and gives an account of the ‘journey of Venus’ which he undertook in 1226 in honour of his lady, in which he claimed to have broken 307 spears against all-comers in the space of a month! A record of a knight’s commitment to the ideals of courtly love, though never blind to some of its absurdities, it is full of lively episodes and good stories, some obviously exaggerated and polished up for effect, which shows how a real knight saw his ideal career in the jousting field. The result is one of the most vivid examples of chivalric literature to have come down to us.

Contents
     Introduction by Kelly DeVries
     The First Dance Tune
     The Second Dance Tune
     The Adventure of How Sir Ulrich First Spoke With His Lady
     The Fourth Dance Tune
     The Fifth Dance Tune
     The Adventure of How Sir Ulrich Lost His Finger
     The Adventure of How Sir Ulrich, Dressed as a Queen, Rode Tourneying
      Through  the Lands
     The Adventure of How Sir Ulrich Came as a Leper to His Lady and of How
       He Saw Her
     The Sixteenth Tune, a March
     The Twentieth Dance Tune
     The Twenty-First Dance Tune
     The Twenty-Eighth Dance Tune

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Interesting facts
The name Ulrich von Liechtenstein was assumed by the hero of the film A Knight’s Tale.

Ulrich's autobiography includes what must surely be one of the first recorded instances of cosmetic surgery, when he visits a doctor in Graz who will, in a short but graphic passage, remove his harelip.

Excerpt

From chapter 7, The Adventure of How Sir Ulrich, Dressed as a Queen, Rode Tourneying Through the Lands:

With care I followed his command;
he put a spear into my hand.
The governor began to dash
at me, another was so rash
that he raced out in front of him
(at this the governor was grim).
Sir Gundacker was the other’s name,
von St, and not unknown to fame.

This knight rode at me very fast.
The governor, though he’d been passed,
continued on, and I could see
both riders rushing down on me.
Now was the time to spur my horse
to charge with all his speed and force.
I missed the first, as I designed,
and broke my spear on him behind.

Where the helmet meets the shield
and the collar is revealed,
right on the throat the man was hit
so violently the collar split.
The noble almost lost his seat
and fell down at the horse’s feet.
We both, of course, regretted this
and wished my joust had been a miss.