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poem of the Dietrich cycle. Dietrich is pictured as and honoured guest at Etzel's (Attla's) court. Suspecting that Kriemhild is planning treachery, he rides out to meet the Burgundians on their approach and warns them to be on their guard. But the catastrophe is inevitable, and when, at last, the fighting begins at the banquet, he determines to hold aloof. Out of friendship for Etzel he escorts him and Kriemhild in safety from the banqueting hall, but firmly refuses to yield to Kriemhild's entreaties to take her side in the conflict. His followers, however, become involved through the hot-headedness of Wolfhart, and all are slain except old Hildebrand, who returns wounded to tell his master the news. Now Dietrich has no choice but to avenge his Amelungs. Donning his armour, he goes forth to fight the two surviving Burgundian heroes, whom he delivers bound to Kriemhild. In spite of his request that their lives shall be spared, Kriemhild has Gunther slain in the hope of learning from Hagen the hiding-place of the Nibelung treasure. But when Hagen sees Gunther's head before him, he exclaims that the secret is now known to God and himself alone, and that she shall never know it. In her fury Kriemhild seizes his sword -- once Siegfried's -- and in presence of Etzel, Dietrich, and Hildebrand, strikes off his head. Hildebrand
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(perhaps in the original version, as in the Thidrekssaga, Dietrich), enraged to see as brave warrior die so shameful a death, springs forward and kills her too. Then, according to the Klage, leaving Attila's court full of mourning for the death of so many valiant men, Dietrich and Hildebrand, themselves weighed down with sorrow, set out for Bern.

This connection of Dietrich with the Nibelungen catastrophe is not only finely motivated and interesting in itself, but is also important as having brought about a change in the general outline of the Dietrich saga. For, having lost all his followers except Hildebrand, Dietrich could no longer be supposed to have eventually recovered his own by force of arms. Hence it is that in all the extant medieval poems (except Ermenrichs Tod) his return, if alluded to, is represented as taking place without opposition and after Ermenrich's death.

Slow to anger, but terrible and invincible in the rage of battle, loyal and generous to vassals and friends, steadfast in misfortune, Dietrich possessed just the qualities to make him a favourite with the soldiery and peasantry who formed the audiences of the wandering minstrels; and although the Dietrich saga was never wrought into a complete epic like the Nibelungenlied, there is no doubt that, like Siegfried
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in the Rhine country, Dietrich was by far the most popular hero of saga in south-eastern, and perhaps also in north-western, Germany. From the time of his introduction into the Nibelungenlied he and Siegfried would naturally be thought of as contemporaries during their youth, and the motive of a contest between the two invincible heroes would readily suggest itself to singers in search of something new with which to secure the interest of their hearers. As a matter of fact we have three distinct treatments of this them. In the Thidrekssaga, Siegfried, as the banner-bearer of King Isung of Bertangaland, fights with and is overcome, though only through trickery, by Dietrich; in Biterolf a great battle between the Rhenish heroes, among them Siegfried, and the Austro-Bavarian heroes, among them Dietrich, ends in the defeat of the former; in the Rosengarten zu Worms (Der grosse Rosengarten) Kriemhild's twelve champions, including Siegfried, are one by one worsted in single combat by twelve of Etzel's knights under the leadership of Dietrich. The last two stories may safely be assigned to Austro-Bavarian authors jealous for the fame of their national hero, while in the first an Austro-Bavarian original seems to have been tampered with in Siegfried's favour by a northern redactor.

In addition, however, to what may be termed
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its own organic development, a great and popular saga has the power of attracting to itself other less developed sagas and shorter epic songs, the contents of which eventually form episodes in the complete saga. We have already seen how the primitive story of mortal conflict between father and son was, in Germany, attached to the Dietrich saga and became an episode in the return from exile. Similar episodes, originally foreign to the saga, occur in the later poems of the cycle in the narratives of Alphart's death and of the tragic fate that befell Etzel's sons and Dietrich's brother.

For the latter story there is historical foundation in so far as one of Attila's sons did actually fall in a battle with the Goths, and no doubt the event once formed the subject of epic songs. In course of time, however, it was connected with Dietrich's unsuccessful attempt to reconquer his kingdom with the help of Attila's Huns, and it appears both in the Rabenschlacht and in the Thidrekssaga as an episode of the battle of Ravenna. The death of Dietrich's brother did not form part of the original story, but was added later, perhaps to relieve Dietrich of any suspicion of having failed to take due care of the young princes, and to smooth the way to Etzel's forgiveness.

Etzel, we are told in the Rabenschlacht, had
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equipped an army of Huns to assist Dietrich in his expedition, and his two sons, Ort and Scharf, begged for permission to take part in the campaign. Their mother Helche was most unwilling to let them go, for in a dream she had seen them carried off and slain by a dragon; but their importunity, together with Dietrich's pledges for their safety and the example be set by taking with him his youthful brother Diether, finally won her consent. Italy reached, it was decided to leave the three young princes at Bern(Verona) under the care of the aged Elsan; but scarcely had Dietrich marched on towards Ravenna, where Ermenrich was encamped, than they contrived to escape. Having persuaded their guardian by dint of coaxing and entreaties to ride out with them into the open country, they set off at a gallop before his stiff limbs were in the saddle, and when he reached the city gate they were nowhere to be seen. His shouts brought no reply, and a thick mist settling over the fields hid the runaways from pursuit.

In high spirits over their successful dash for liberty, the headstrong youths rode on all day till night overtook them on a lonely heath only a few miles, though they did not know it, from Ravenna. The next morning, when the mists had dispersed, they were admiring
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the beauty of the scene, when they spied riding towards them a knight in full armour. It was Witege, as Diether quickly saw, and they at once determined to taunt him with his desertion from Dietrich and challenge him to fight. Unwilling to stain his hands with the blood of mere striplings, Witege patiently bore their reproaches and did all in his power to dissuade them from their purpose, but was at last attacked by Scharf and forced to kill him in self-defence. Ort now rushed tin to avenge his brother, but though he fought valiantly he was no match for Witege. In vain did the latter, during a pause for rest, exhort his opponent to give up the unequal contest; before long Ort had shared his brother's fate. There was now only Diether left. Determined either to avenge his comrades or to die himself, he fought with Witege throughout the day, but at last he, too, was overcome, and the three youths all lay dead among the heather.

Wounded and exhausted, Witege lay down to rest not far from the scene of the conflict, but before long Dietrich, who had meanwhile gained a decisive victory came upon the scene. At first he was overwhelmed by grief, and flung himself down beside the dead bodies, but then came the thought of vengeance. The wounds, he saw, must have been made by Witege's sword Mimung,
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and just as he noticed this a cry arose from his followers, for not far away was Witege himself mounting his horse to escape. A hot pursuit followed, in which Dietrich soon outdistanced his companions, but even then no taunts or insults could induce the fugitive to turn and face his former lord. On they raced till they reached the seashore, and Dietrich was at last on the point of securing his vengeance, when Witege disappeared before his very eyes, spirited away by the mermaid Wachilde, his ancestress.

A somewhat similar story to this, possibly indeed an imitation of it, is that of Alphart's death, frequently alluded to in the poems of the cycle, but told in detail only in Alpharts Tod. The poem opens with a declaration of war carried by Heime from Ermenrich to Dietrich. As soon as the messenger had ridden off again, a council of war was held, and Alphart, the most promising of the younger warriors, and beloved alike by young and old, offered to go out and watch for the enemy's approach while Dietrich collected his forces. In vain did his brother Wolfhart and his uncle Hildebrand endeavour to dissuade him; he claimed the right to be given an opportunity of proving his valour, and at last won Dietrich's permission to undertake the dangerous duty.

Full of confidence in his strength and prowess, he donned his armour, girt on his sword, and rode
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off to a hill commanding the road by which Ermenrich must advance. Before long he saw approaching one of Ermenrich's knights with a company of eighty men, and eagerly challenged him to single combat. As they came together at full gallop, Alphart's lance passed through his opponent's body, and of the eighty men at arms who attempted to avenge their leader eight only escaped and returned wounded to the main army.

For a time no other of Ermenrich's knights would venture to face the young and unknown warrior, but at last Witege volunteered to go. On the way his courage sank, but to have turned back would have brought him lifelong disgrace, and he soon found himself on the corpse-strewn hill. A short parley ensued, in which Alphart reproached Witege for his disloyalty to Dietrich, and then the combat began. Witege quickly discovered that his opponent's prowess had been by no means exaggerated by the fugitives. He was unhorsed at the first shock, and, after a sharp fight on foot, found himself stretched on the ground beneath his shield, and entirely at Alphart's mercy. The latter, however, chivalrously refrained from taking advantage of his foe; but, as he paused, Witege's friend Heime, who had secretly followed and watched the fight, rushed out from behind a tree, and made the impudent sugges
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tion that the combat should be broken off, Alphart returning to Bern, and he and Witege telling Ermenrich they had failed to find their enemy. "God forbid!" cried Alphart indignantly; "unless Witege become my prisoner, the fight must go on."

Heime thereupon stood aside, but Witege had no mind to face Alphart again alone, and begged his friend not to forsake him. At first Heime refused to sacrifice his honour by helping Witege against his youthful opponent; but finally the argument that, when his friend was slain, he would surely meet the same fate, proved effective, and after Alphart had rejected a final offer of peace, an unequal contest began.

Alphart defended himself manfully for a time against his enemies, but at last, feeling his arm grow weary, he cried: "If you murder me here, Witege and Heime, two to one, you will sin against God, and be disgraced for ever." "He speaks truly," said Heime to his friend; "I withstand him alone." But Witege would be persuaded, and the fight continued as before. Alphart now slung his shield on his back, and felled his foes by turns with mighty blows, but even his great strength failed at last. Once more he reminded them of their unknightly conduct, and offered even yet to forget it if they would but meet him singly; but Witege again refused,