[1] The "Vita Altmanni" relates that in 1065, when rumours of the approaching end of the world were rife, many people started on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem under the leadership of Bishop Gunther of Bamberg, and that Ezzo composed the poem on this occasion.
The opening strophe of the Vorau manuscript does not mention the pilgrimage, but simply states that the bishop ordered Ezzo to write the song.
The version found in Vorau is completed and consists of 34 strophes (because, as the text reminds the reader, Christ "lived among us thirty-three years ... and half of the thirty-fourth").
[5] Very popular during the later Middle Ages, the Ezzolied had a great influence on the poetry of Southern Germany, and is valuable as a monument of the poetical literature of the time.
[7] It was edited by P. Piper and Steinmayer (in Müllenhoff and Scherer "Denkmäler deutscher Poesie und Prosa aus dem VIII-XII Jahrhundert", Berlin, 1892).