ABSTRACT
Parallel to the long Introduction, this chapter returns to the fundamental question of what trails and trailing really mean for medieval protagonists in a variety of romances and epic poems, including the lais by Marie de France, the anonymous Reinfried von Braunschweig, the alliterative Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but also in travelogues such as those by Marco Polo or the former slave Johann Schiltberg. The real focus here, however, rests on how to interpret medieval maps and charts, and especially mappae mundi, such as those in Hereford and Ebstorf. Those graphic projections can no longer be interpreted as analogues to modern maps; instead they are outlines of the trails which the individual can take throughout the world and which will ultimately lead him/her to God. Even the much more specific portolans thus prove to serve less for detailed or concrete geographic guidance along the coastlines, but as outlines of human trailing.
