Here begins the story of a brave warrior and his amazing adventures. It is well worth paying attention and giving it due consideration, because it is a really inspiring tale of boldness and bravery. After all, there are plenty of stay-at-home types whose secret sorrow it is that they never dared to try out the hard but adventurous life of a warrior for themselves. They are the losers in this, as far as noble behavior is concerned, because they never suffered these hardships and, indeed, kept well clear of them, simply because that is the sort of people they are. People like that are forever saying that the kind of story I’m going to tell is all a pack of lies, and they make every effort to belittle and even to suppress tales like this, just as if they actually were nothing but lies. But people like that are really not worth bothering about. Decent honest warriors, on the other hand, don't take the slightest notice of their put-downs. They themselves will set out on hazardous journeys in strange lands to prove what they are, and will suffer the bad times with the good out there among the most outlandish peoples. They, of course, would not cast doubt on adventure stories of this kind, because they have themselves experienced that kind of thing. I’m telling you all this now so that you will pay proper attention to the story I am about to tell you, and because I have no intention of playing down the sufferings and hardships that had to be faced by Duke Ernst when he was driven out of Bavaria. [1–37]

It is well documented that Ernst, our hero, once ruled as duke of Bavaria, and took admirable care of both the poor and the rich in his lands, so that in all his deeds he was held in considerable esteem. The young man had ruled highly competently over the inheritance that his father had left him, until an emperor— with the full power of the empire behind him—drove him out and put such fear into many of Ernst's followers that they deserted him.