person
Christoph Rilke
the Cornet
also: der von Langenau, the von Langenau, Cornet Christoph Rilke, the Cornet, Christoph
The hero of the lay: a young standard-bearer (cornet) named for his estate of Langenau, who rides east against the Turks, loves for one night, and dies the next dawn carrying the burning flag. Rilke imagined him from a single line in his own family chronicle.
Reading notes
- The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke §1 Christoph
Christoph von Rilke, the cornet whose death is recorded here---the hero whose short life the lay unfolds.