[4] His family insists that he marry a niece of the Emperor and the clergy conclude that his lover is an emissary of Satan.
He eventually gives in to social pressure to marry, but on his wedding day a woman's leg thrusts itself through the ceiling of the church and shoots out a bolt of lightning.
[5] Thematically, Peter von Staufenberg may be classed as a variation of the legend of Melusine[4] or as belonging to the Knight of the Swan tradition.
[1] It is also a moralizing tale in the genre of the mirror of princes, possessing a clear message to young men of Egenolf's social class: a rash promise in the pursuit of sexual pleasure ends tragically through female vindictiveness.
[1] In 1588, an adaptation of Peter von Staufenberg by Bernhard Schmidt was published with an introduction by Johann Fischart.