their fame. These romances furnish an interesting field of inquiry; but it is of great extent, and one into which it is not prudent for him to trust himself who does not pretend to sufficient acquaintance with the subject to enable him to speak with confidence; the English reader, too, has fortunately a great store of valuable information on the subject in the "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities," a book which has never received the support it deserves. A few observations on the most distinguished works of this sort seemed, however, proper, in order to fill up our sketch of the national literature of this singular period; and in the few extracts that will be made, the translations are in substance (though with some freedom of alteration) borrowed from that book.

The period in which is laid the historic basis of most of the Teutonic traditions adopted by the poets of the 12th and 13th centuries, extends as far back as that of Attila and the Hunnic conquest. That they were in substance tales which had formed the burden of popular songs in and probably long previously to the Carlovingian dynasty, seems highly probable; particularly since the discovery of the precious fragment of Hildibrant and Hathubrant, which has been before noticed as actually connecting and identifying the older traditions with the rifacciamenti of the Suabian times. These and similar stories had probably been preserved in Ostrogoth, Longo

bard, Francic and Saxon song; they had been popular at the court of Theoderic, and afterwards at that of Charlemagne ; and the same subjects found their way into the Sagas of Scandinavia, where many of them now exist in nearly the same form as in the Suabian romances.

The "Nibelungen Lied," or "Song of the Nibelungen," is not only the most ancient in date, but the most perfect in its epos and execution. Almost every thing in the story is in proper keeping. The manners, tone, thoughts and actions are in unison, and bear testimony to an antiquity far beyond that of the present dress of the poem and if anachronisms in facts or allusions sometimes appear, they are rather to be attributed to the remodelling and dressing up than to the substance of the fable. Its author can only be conjecturally fixed upon. It appears that Pelegrin bishop of Passau, who died in 991, collected the then current legends of the Nibelungen, which he committed to writing in the favourite Latin tongue, with the assistance of his scribe Conrad, whose name has occasioned the Suabian poem to be sometimes ascribed to Conrad of Wurtzburg, who lived long after. The present poem is most likely, to a great extent, founded on this Latin version.

Whoever was the author, his powers are undoubtedly of a very high order; he belongs, apparently, to the middle of the twelfth century; and from inter

nal evidence, Henry of Ofterdingen is thought to have the fairest claim, though the probable time of his life does not exactly agree with this hypothesis. Some of the descriptive passages in the poem are written with considerable spirit; as, for instance, the appearance of Crimhilt;

Nu gie diu minnechliche
Also der morgen rot
Tüt üz den trüben wolchen;

Da schiet von maneger not
Der si da trüg' in herzen,
Unt lange het getan;
Er sach die minnechlichen
Nu vil herlichen stan.

Ja luhte ir von ir waete

Vil manech edel stein,

Ir rosen-rotiu varwe

Vil minnechlichen schein :
Ob' iemen wunschen solde,
Der chunde niht geiehen,

Daz er ze dirre werelde

Het' iht schöneres gesehen.

Sam der liehte mane

Vor der sternen stat,
Der schin so lüterliche
Ab' den wolchen gat,
Dem stunt si nu geliche

Vor maneger vrowen güt;
Des wart da wol gehöhet

Den zieren helden der müt.

Now came that lady bright,
And as the rosy morn
Dispels the misty clouds,

So he who long had borne

Her image in his heart
Did banish all his care,
As now before his eyes

Stood forth that lady fair.

From her embroider'd vest
There glitter'd many a gem,
While o'er her lovely cheek
The rosy red did beam;
Whoe'er in raptur'd thought
Had imag'd lady bright,
Confess'd that lovelier maid
Ne'er stood before his sight.

And as the beaming moon

Rides high the stars among,
And moves with lustre mild
The mirky clouds along;
So, midst her maiden throng,
Up rose that matchless fair;
And higher swell'd the soul
Of many a hero there.

Next in value are the pieces usually passing under the general title of the "Helden-buch," or "Book of Heroes." The greater part is attributed to the unwearying hand of Wolfram of Eschenbach, the review of whose life and works would in fact embrace almost every branch of the literature of his age. One of the pieces, entitled "Laurin, the Dwarf King," or "The Little Garden of Roses," is the work of his cotemporary Henry of Ofterdingen, and might be selected as the most sprightly and elegant specimen of this class of ancient romantic fiction. Nothing can be more airy and romantic than some of the descriptions

which it contains; and it may perhaps be added, that it also derives very considerable interest from the circumstance of its embodying much of the leading machinery of our ancient popular stories, such as the magic girdle, the tarn-cap or invisible hat*, &c.

Similt, the heroine of the poem, sallies forth with Dietlieb her brother to revel in the festive jollity of spring under the linden-tree in the forest. In the midst of their gaiety she is carried off by the little king, who avails himself of the aid of his tarn-cap, which has the power of rendering its wearer invisible, and bears off his prize to his retreat :

He bore her to his cave

Where he ruled in royalty

O'er hill and valley wild

With his little chivalry.

Dietlieb and his knights pursue; and in their inquiries after the pygmy king, are informed of his exploits and power. They learn, especially, that his great pride is in a magnificent garden of roses, round which is

* For a great deal of valuable information on these points I must again refer to the excellent preface of the editor of Warton. The little collection of " German Popular Stories," which he has thought worthy of his notice, only touched on a subject highly interesting no doubt, but requiring for its full development a depth of research far beyond my means: I would gladly leave it in the able hands into which my friend "the editor's " preface shows that it has fallen.