Meister Eckhart’s magic shoes

In sermon #15 of the Paradisus anime intelligentis, Meister Eckhart mentions two magic shoes:

Nû schrît, edeliu sêle, ziuch ane dîne schrittschuohe, daz ist verstantnisse und minne.

(Now go, noble soul, put on your walking boots, i.e., understanding and love.)

Sturlese & Vinzent, 250–251

This edition calls the shoes “walking boots”, but Meister Eckhart called them “schrittschuohe” in Middle High German. This is the ancestor of the German word for ice skates! The schritt- is from the Old High German scrītan, which can mean both stride and glide.

Does that mean Eckhart’s magic shoes are really ice skates? Stay tuned…

Reference

Loris Sturlese and Markus Vinzent. 2019. Meister Eckhart, the German Works: 64 Homilies for the Liturgical Year. 1. De tempore. Leuven: Peeters. The sermon in question is Homily 14* (S 90).