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maiden from their clutches, as in the Fasolt episode of the Eckenlied and in Etzels Hofhaltung (cf. p. 25). Possibly the composer of Virginal did not know the story in its original simple form; but, in whatever form he did know it, he undoubtedly added to and altered it very extensively in order to produce for court circles a sort of imitation of the Arthurian romances. The result is a, for the most part tedious, serious of adventures and festivities loosely strung together and containing numerous self-contradictions, which may, however, be due to alterations made by later redactors.

As Virginal consists of upwards of 14,000 lines, space does not permit of a full account of its contents being given, and the following brief indication of the chief episodes must suffice. News comes to Bern that the maiden Queen Virginal of Jeraspunt is hard put to it to defend her realm against the Saracen Orkise, and has been forced to pay annual tribute in the shape of a maiden from her court. Dietrich and Hildebrand set out to free her from her oppressor. In the forest they separate, and Hildebrand comes upon one of Virginal's maidens who has just been brought to the spot agreed upon with the Saracen and left for him to carry off. Soon he appears, fights with Hildebrand, and is slain. Mean
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while Dietrich has become embroiled with a number of Orkise's followers, but Hildebrand comes to his help and the infidels are put to flight. The maiden then hastens back to Virginal's court with the good news, and the queen sends by the dwarf Bibung a cordial invitation to their deliverers. But they are destined to meet with many adventures before reaching Jeraspunt. They are attacked by dragons, from the jaws of one of which they rescue a knight named Rentwin. After exterminating the whole brood, they accompany Rentwin to his father's castle, where they rest and make merry till their wounds are healed. They then set out for Jeraspunt, accompanied by their late hosts, and Dietrich in his eagerness rides on ahead of his companions. But he loses his way and arrives near the castle of Duke Nitger. Meeting one of the duke's giants, he asks his way to Virginal's court, but as he turns to retrace his steps, the giant fells him with his steel club and carries him off as a prisoner to the castle. Duke Nitger, who is actually more afraid of his giants than they are of him, has to take charge of Dietrich pending his ransom. Meanwhile, however, the giants make attempts on Dietrich's life, and it is only thanks to the kindness of Nitger's sister that their plans are foiled. At last Hildebrand,
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with a large army from Bern and other realms whose rulers were friendly to Dietrich, arrives before the castle. The giants, twelve in number, are slain by twelve of the besiegers' champions (one of whom was Dietrich, set free for the purpose), and Nitger having been pardoned for his sister's sake, all set out for Jeraspunt. On the way they engage in further combats with dragons and giants, but finally arrive safe and sound at Virginal's castle, where they are welcomed enthusiastically and entertained by a long round of festivities. According to Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt and Dietrich und seine Gestellen, Dietrich takes home Virginal to Bern as his bride.

In the Eckenlied, Siegenôt, and Virginal, giants are Dietrich's principal opponents, but in Laurin (or Der kleine Rosengarten) and in Goldemar we see that tradition ascribed to him equally marvelous adventures in dwarf-land. Possibly both these poems are based on one and the same ancient myth of the capture of a maiden by dwarfs, or elves, and her eventual release by a hero who makes her his wife. If such was the theme of the original story, it appears to have been more closely adhered to in Goldemar than in Laurin; but as we possess only fragments of a Goldemar poem, by a certain Albrecht von Kemenaten, and a couple of
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allusions in later medieval literature, we know nothing of the details of the story. We can infer, however, that Dietrich, having fought with and overcome Goldemar, married the maiden he had rescued.

In Laurin the original story is complicated by the introduction of the rose-garden motive. Like Kriemhild in the Rosengarten zu Worms (cf. p.31) the dwarf-king possesses a wonderful rose-garden in which he takes especial pride, and all who have as yet entered the garden have been conquered by the dwarf and punished by the loss of a hand and a foot. Thither, in consequence of Hildebrand's taunts, Dietrich rides in company with Witege; but while the former is too much impressed by the beauty and fragrance of the flowers to despoil the garden, the latter ruthlessly rides in on horseback and hacks at and tramples down the bloom-covered bushes. Laurin appears, only three spans high, but magnificently mounted and armed, and at the first charge flings Witege from his saddle. Thereupon Dietrich, to save his vassal from paying the usual penalty, takes upon himself all responsibility for the damage done, and challenges the dwarf to fight.

Meanwhile old Hildebrand, knowing the difficulties and dangers in store for his master, had followed with a number of Dietrich's men,
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and arrived upon the scene just as Dietrich and Laurin were levelling their lances for the charge. On his advice, Dietrich, instead of thrusting in knightly fashion, brought his weapon heavily down on his opponent's head; but before he could repeat the blow the dwarf put on his tarn-kappe (a cloak which rendered the wearer invisible, like that won by Siegfried from the dwarf Alberich in the Nibelungen story) and Dietrich now received wound after wound from his unseen foe. But again Hildebrand came to his help. After persuading Laurin to decide the contest by a wrestling match, he secretly advised Dietrich to wrench off the girdle that gave his adversary the strength of twelve men, and the dwarf soon found himself at Dietrich's mercy. He had just given up all for lost when he noticed among the bystanders Dietleib of Styria, whose sister Künhild he had carried off. Up to that moment none knew by whom, or whither, she had been spirited away, and when Dietleib heard himself appealed to by the dwarf as this brother-in-law he was so overjoyed at discovering a trace of his sister, and so anxious to find and release her, that he intervened on Laurin's behalf, and Dietrich was at last persuaded to spare his life.

Laurin now invited them all to accompany him into the mountain and inspect his treasures. It
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was not without fear of treachery that they followed him, but once inside they forgot all danger in wondering at the wealth that surrounded them, in drinking the delicious mead and wine set before them, in watching the dances and tournaments, and in listening to the music and songs of their host's subjects. One by one Dietrich and his men were overcome by the strong wine, and when all were helpless Laurin had them disarmed, bound, and cast into a deep dungeon. There they would probably have lain till they perished of hunger, had not Künhild set free her brother, who was imprisoned apart from the rest, and brought him all the weapons. He at once hurried to his companions' dungeon and set them free, but it was only after a hard fight, in which they were helped by Künhild's counter-charms against the magic of the dwarfs, that they overcame Laurin and his followers.

The remainder of the poem, telling of the return to Bern with the dwarf-king as their prisoner, of Künhild's departure for Styria with her brother, of Laurin's treatment during his captivity, his eventual conversion to Christianity, his reconciliation with Dietrich and his return to his own kingdom, is evidently of comparatively late origin; and of still later is the continuation in which we read how Walberan collected an immense army of dwarfs and marched to Bern to
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set Laurin free, but on his arrival found Dietrich and Laurin reconciled.

With Laurin we conclude our survey of the poems of the Dietrich cycle, and there remains only the prose Thidrekssaga, to which occasional reference has been made, but which has so far received no further notice. The Thidrekssaga was originally composed in Norway about the middle of the thirteenth century by an Icelandic saga-writer, who drew his material from songs and stories then current in North Germany. His work was recast and largely expanded by one or more redactors, and is, in its present form, a rich treasury of Germanic saga. In it a number of the Germanic sagas have been brought into connection with the Dietrich saga and each other; but in spite of this it has frequently preserved features of the original sagas that are wanting in the South German epics.

The Thidrekssaga opens with what professes to be an account of Dietrich's ancestry, beginning with the history of his grandfather Samson, the hero of a Frankish saga. Samson, we learn, left two sons, Ermenrich and Dietmar (to retain the Middle High German forms of the names for the sake of clearness and uniformity), the latter of whom was Dietrich's father. Then follows an account of Dietrich's youth, in which we are told of Hildebrand's arrival at Dietmar's court during
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Dietrich's seventh year, of the close friendship that grew up between Hildebrand and Dietrich; further how Dietrich forced the dwarf Alberich to give him his sword Nagelring, how he slew the giant couple Grim and Hilde, and how he fought a duel with Heime, spared his life, and enrolled him among his followers.

At this point, a digression introduces the Wilkina saga, stories of the Slavonic king Wilkinus and of the warfare of Osantrix, king of Wilkina-land, with Attila. Then follows the Wieland (Wayland Smith) saga, Wieland being made the son of Wade (the Wate of the Gudrun epic, and the Wade of Middle English literature), and the Dietrich saga is resumed.

Witege, like Heime, comes to Bern to try his prowess against Dietrich. In the duel he is at first outmatched, but on receiving from Hildebrand his own sword Mimung, which the latter had secretly exchanged for another, he presses Dietrich hard. He spares his life, however, on Hildebrand's intervention, and becomes, like Heime, one of Dietrich's companions. To retrieve his disgrace Dietrich rides out alone in search of adventures, slays Ecke, vanquishes Fasolt, whom he takes into his service, and kills an elephant and
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a dragon, rescuing from the latter Hildebrand's kinsman Sintram, with whom he returns to Bern.

Dietrich's fame continues to attract one hero after another to Bern, the arrival of Dietleib providing the opportunity of working in the story of Biterolf and Dietleib, and the duel of the latter with Walter of Aquitaine. In course of time King Dietmar dies and is succeeded by Dietrich, who becomes the ally of Attila in a new war with Osantrix. Shortly after returning home he engages in another expedition to assist his uncle Ermenrich in punishing Rimstein, by whom the tribute due had been refused.

Here a new digression is made to bring in the ancestry, birth, and youthful exploits of Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen saga, up to his installment as standard-bearer to King Isung of Bertangaland. Hearing of Siegfried's prowess, Dietrich sets out with twelve chosen warriors to Bertangaland, where a series of duels takes place between his and Isung's champions. Last of all Dietrich meets Siegfried, who, however, stipulates that his opponent shall not use Witege's sword Mimung. For two days they fight without either wounding the other, but on the third day Dietrich, deceiving Siegfried by a quibble, uses Mimung and gains the advantage, whereupon Siegfried exchanges from Isung's into his service. On the way home they visit Worms, and the opportunity