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and soon Alphart fell to the ground exhausted and defenceless. Then Witege thrust his sword through the slit in his armour. "Base cowards, men without honour!" cried the youthful warrior, and expired.

The three poems already summarised, Dietrichs Flucht, the Rabenschlacht, and Alpharts Tod, are based on the semi-historical tradition of Dietrich's expulsion, exile, and return; but all the remaining poems of the cycle are of a totally different character, and deal with his earlier adventures among giants, dwarfs, dragons, and other representatives of a debased mythology. It is not necessary to assume that the original hero of these stories was a mythical Dietrich. We have ample testimony of the historical Dietrich's popularity among the peasantry of nearly all parts of Germany, and know that among them stories of Dietrich were current for several centuries. It was among the peasantry, of course, that the ancient myths longest survived, and it is quite probable that some of the stories in question were actually myths, in which Dietrich had replaced the original hero. But however that may be, it seems clear that we owe the mythical Dietrich poems to wandering minstrels who turned to account the rustic myths and Dietrich stories, combined them as I t suited their purposes, and added to them similar episodes of their own invention.

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The mythical character of the stories on which some, at any rate, of the medieval poems are based is most evident in the various versions of Dietrich's victory over the giants Ecke and Fasolt. There can be no doubt that Ecke was a storm spirit, and the original myth a storm myth, representing the victory of natural forces friendly to mankind over the destructive fury of the elements. In Ecke himself, whose name is explained as meaning "The Terrifier," we clearly recognise a personification of the storm when we read how his passage through the forest brought the branches crashing from the trees, and how birds and beasts fled in terror at his approach. His brother Fasolt, too, reappears in a similar character in an old weather charm in which he is called upon to drive away the tempest; the three princesses in the castle of Jochgrimm, who send out Ecke on his quest of Dietrich, are no doubt, identical with the three ancient witches of the modern Tyrolese fairy tale, who brew bad weather on the summit of Jochgrimm mountain; and the maiden hunted through the forest by Fasolt and his hounds was once a wood-nymph fleeing from the storm.

The original conqueror of these storm giants must evidently have been not Dietrich, but some mythical hero or god, very possibly, as Uhland first suggested, Donar (the German name for
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Thor), the Thunderer, whose combats with the giants are well known from Scandinavian mythology. In that case we may suppose that after the introduction of Christianity into the district where the myth was current, the heathen god's place in the story was taken by Dietrich of Bern, whose popularity and traditional invincibility made him the best possible substitute.

Originating from a purely local Tyrolese myth, the story of the slaying of Ecke by Dietrich presumably struck the fancy of some wandering gleeman who worked it up into poetic form and sang or recited it to many fresh audiences as he continued his travels. At any rate, however it came about, the story was well known by the middle of the thirteenth century, not only in southern but also in northern Germany, where it found a new home, and whence, after being localised afresh in Westphalia, it was carried to Norway, to be made use of by the compiler of the Thidrekssaga. In the course of its wanderings it naturally underwent many alterations and received many additions, with the result that the High German versions till extant not only differ widely from the account given in the Thidrekssaga, but also vary considerably among themselves. The following brief account is broadly representative of the High German versions.

In the castle of Jochgrimm there dwelt three
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princesses, whose wooers were the giant brothers Ecke, Fasolt, and Ebenrot. Dietrich's fame having spread to Jochgrimm, one of the princesses, Seburg, sends out the youthful Ecke to bring Dietrich to their castle, dead or alive. She presents her chosen knight with a magnificent suit of armour and buckles it on with her own hands; a fine charger, too, she offers him, but as no horse could carry him in battle he sets off on foot. With huge strides he runs and leaps through field and forest, the animals fleeing in terror and the birds forgetting to sing.

On arriving at Bern, where at sight of his flashing armour the inhabitants seek safety in their houses, he learns from Hildebrand that Dietrich has ridden away to the Tyrol in search of adventure. He at once sets off in pursuit, and on the way comes across a knight lying grievously wounded by the roadside, the one survivor of four with whom Dietrich had recently fought. Ecke binds up his wounds, resumes his way, undaunted by the wounded man's earnest warnings, and not long after nightfall overtakes Dietrich in a gloomy forest lighted up only by the flashes from their armour. Hearing the clank of Ecke's weapons, Dietrich turned to see who was following him and to inquire his errand. The young giant's impetuous challenge, however, he declined to accept, and
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when Ecke tried to rouse him by recounting the virtues of the sword and armour he would win if victorious, Dietrich quietly declared that it would be madness on his part to fight against such weapons. But Ecke would not be denied; he strode along by Dietrich's side, endeavoring by taunts and insults to rouse his anger, and at length exclaimed that he was determined to fight even though God Himself should aid Dietrich. "It is clear that you are tired of life," replied the latter; "since you grant me God's help, your death is sure." The combat began, and lasted far into the next day; but at last Dietrich's battle-fury came upon him, and, closing with his opponent, he threw him to the ground. Though now in this enemy's power, Ecke obstinately refused all offers of mercy and even of comradeship, and Dietrich was compelled to give him the coup de grâce.

Dietrich now stripped him of his armour and cut off his head to take to the princess who had sent him on his fatal errand. Proceeding on his way, he came upon a water-fairy sleeping by a spring, and after she had dressed his wounds and warned him of the perils he would encounter, he set off for the land of the giants. One day, as he was riding through the forest, he came upon a maiden fleeing for her life from Ecke's brother Fasolt and his hounds.
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Dietrich at once took her under his protection, and, after overcoming her pursuer, made him swear allegiance and forced him to lead the way to Jochgrimm. More than once Fasolt tried to avenge his brother and regain his liberty by treachery; and as they arrived before the castle he all but succeeded, for there stood before the entrance two wonderful statues, fully armed, that struck at all who passed between. Not suspecting the trap, Dietrich rode straight on, and barely escaped the terrible blows meant to destroy him. Then, having slain Fasolt for this final act of treachery, he entered the castle, and made his way to the great hall where the three princesses were holding their brilliant court. "You wished to see Dietrich of Bern," he cried. "Here he is, and here the greeting of your messenger." And with that he flung Ecke's head at their feet, left the hall without further words, and rode home to Bern.

Dietrich was, however, not always so successful in his combats with the giants, for there existed an old and widespread tradition that he once fell into their power and was held captive until rescued by his followers. The oldest evidence of the existence of this tradition occurs as early as the ninth century in the second Waldere Fragment -- a remnant of an Anglo-Saxon version of the South German saga of Walter of Aquitaine
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-- where we are told that Widia (Witege) once set Dietrich free and enabled him to escape from the land of the giants. The story here referred to, or others like it, evidently lived on among the peasantry; for the conception on which it is based reappears in various forms in the Middle High German poems of Sigenôt, Virginal, and perhaps Laurin, all of which, like the Eckenlied, have developed from stories of Tyrolese origin. In Sigenôt and Virginal Dietrich is for a time the captive of the giants, in Laurin of the dwarfs. In Sigenôt, he is rescued by Hildebrand, in Virginal by a number of his followers, among them Hildebrand and Witege (though an allusion in Alpharts Tod seems to show that in the original of the Virginal story it was Witege alone who rescued both Dietrich and Heime), while in Laurin it is to the help of a maiden who had been carried off by the dwarf that Dietrich and his men owe their deliverance. This last motive appears also in Virginal, where the sister of Duke Niger, to whom the giants are subject, frustrates their attempts on their prisoner's life.

In the older version of Sigenôt, we read how Dietrich was one day riding alone through a forest near Bern when he came suddenly upon the giant Sigenot sound asleep. Being in search of adventures, he wakened the giant none too gently (with a kick, according to the later ver
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sions), whereupon Sigenot rose up, and recognising the slayer of his kinsman Grim, announced his intention of taking vengeance. Without more ado he felled Dietrich with his cudgel, carried him off through the forest, and cast him into a deep pit infested by snakes.

Meanwhile Hildebrand had set out in search of his master, and, as luck would have it, met Sigenot returning towards Bern. On learning his name and errand the giant attacked him furiously; but the old warrior defended himself valiantly until his sword was struck from his hand, whereupon Sigenot caught him up by the beard and carried him off ignominiously to share his master's fate. But at the mouth of the pit Hildebrand spied Dietrich's sword, and, snatching it quickly despatched his captor. Then, stripping off his clothes, he made a rope and lowered it into the pit. It broke, however, under Dietrich's weight, and it was only the friendly help of dwarf Eggerich, who showed him where to find a ladder, that at length enabled him to rescue the king from his undesirable quarters. who showed him where to find a ladder, that at length enabled him to rescue the king from his undesirable quarters.

The long and rambling poem known as Virginal, other versions of which exist under the titles Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt and Dietrich und seine Gesellen, appears to have for its ultimate basis a story including both Dietrich's captivity among the giants, as in Sigenôt, and his rescue of a