Georg and Ulrich are fighting over a piece of land. Their ongoing feud goes back three generations. In order to settle the matter, Ulrich's grandfather took Georg's ancestors to court. The lawsuit was settled and the courts decided that Ulrich's grandfather owned the land that Georg's ancestors were illegally poaching on. However, Georg's ancestors did not abide by the court's ruling. As a result, each successive generation continued to fight over the narrow piece of land in question.
The narrator notes that this piece of land is not that valuable in terms of game and hunting. This suggests that the ongoing feud has persisted because of stubborn family traditions. In other words, although the men are fighting over a piece of land, their feud is really about their refusal to be sensible and end the pointless fight:
The feud might, perhaps, have died down or been compromised if the personal ill will of the two men had not stood in the way . . .
Put in a dire situation, together, Georg and Ulrich finally agree to consider a friendship. It takes this kind of dramatic situation to break them out of this tradition of the feud.
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