He now felt quite a new life, and
henceforth whenever he grew wearied, he drew fresh strength
from the never-ebbing pitcher.
henceforth whenever he grew wearied, he drew fresh strength
from the never-ebbing pitcher.
Thomas Carlyle
org/access_use#pd-google
? 34
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
that by its flexibility, distinctness, depth, and earnest hearty
expressiveness, the German may place itself next to our own
language, if not altogether on a level with it: nay in the hands of
a Goethe, it may safely be named the most plastic, universal,
transparent and on the whole, most perfect medium for pictur-
ing forth the mind's work, of all modern tongues. Let it be re-
membered, however, that Goethe alone of modern men is thorough
master of it; and that in such a fire as his, a far poorer dialect
might fuse, and mould itself. Montaignell4 has made even the
French significant, nay humourous.
That the German Language must be rich in traditionary say-
ings, and all manner of fireside wisdom, the reader may have
already conjectured. By way of further illustrating the subject,
I shall here insert some slight specimens of their Proverb-philo-
sophy; hoping that the reader too is a lover of such lore. No
Proverb, especially no ancient one, but has a charm for us; its
very existence is proof that it has value: it is Philosophy without
school-apparatus; insight with unarmed vision; the sharp, certain
insight of a natural eye. It leads us back to old simple times, to
some rugged peasant Sage, under whose bonnet, in the turmoil of
Experience, the Thought formed itself, which has been kept alive
in other heads by its truth alone. A nation that has no Proverbs,
were there such a nation, could have no character; it may have
manufactured better or worse, but never have created. Let us
look a little into this common Treasury, or Alms-box, of the Ger-
man People, where many an unclaimed, rough-fashioned, antic,
yet golden coin or trinket lies stored. We choose the following
from a larger collection of Lessings, * under the title Altdeutscher
Witz und Verstand (Old-German Wit and Sense); almost at random,
or if with any preference, preferring such as could be translated
most readily.
Here are lessons on many useful virtues, Perseverance, Pa-
tience, Order, Love of Home, and what not;H! 5
fl] Von einem Streich
Fallt keine Eich.
By one Stroke
Falls no Oak.
[2] Mit vielen Streichen wird der Stockfisch lind.
With beating enough the Stockfish softens.
[3] Was nicht will werden ein Bildstock
Das werd' ein Sautrog.
What will not be a Ship's prow
May be a Sow's trough.
* Sammtliche Werke. B. XIII. S. 219. (Berlin, 1826).
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? TRADITIONARY LORE 35
[4] Besser ichts,
Sprach der Wolf, denn Nichts.
Better aught,
Said the Wolf, than naught.
[5] Wer antwortet auf unnu? tzes Gespey
Der macht uns einem Unglu? ck zwey.
He that answers useless tattle-spittle
Makes a great evil of a little.
? bj Hart gegen Hart
Nimmer gut ward .
Hard to hard (Durum et Durum non faciunt murum). H6
Lass fahren was nicht bleiben will,
Es sind der Mutter Kinder viel.
What will not stay let it go
There be mother's children many moe. *
Duck dich und lass voru? ber gahn,
Das Wetter will seinen Willen han.
Duck and let it pass, t
Weather ever wilful was.
[9] Zeit bringt Ro sen, nicht der Stock.
Time brings Roses; the stem helps.
? loj Wer will dass ihms geling,
Seh sefljbst zum Ding.
'The Master's eye fattens the Cattle. '
'Self bind self find. '
Borgen
Macht Sorgen,
Darum soll man nicht mehr verzehren
Als der Pflug kann ernehren.
Borrowing
Makes sorrowing,
So swill not and fill not
What thy Plough doth till not.
Biedermanns Erb liegt in allen Landen.
True man's heritage lies in all Lands.
* 'As good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. '
t Already better in Scotch: 'Jook (duck) and let the jaw (gu;
go by. '117
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? 36 HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERAUTRE
|l3j Mich d Unkt, ich halt, ich meyn, ich wa? hn, ich dacht,
Hat manchen guten Gesellen ins verderben gebracht.
Meseems, I fancy, I reckon, I suppose, I thought,
Has many a pretty man to ruin brought.
? l4j Sanct Nicolas bescheert die Kuh,
Giebt aber nicht das Seil dazu.
Saint Nicholas gives the Cow,
The halter for her find thou.
fl5] Ost oder West
Daheim ist das Best.
To the East, to the West,
Stay at Home is best.
[l6j Ein eigner Herd
Ist Goldes werth,
Ist er schon arm,
Er ist doch warm.
My own hearth,
Beyond money's worth:
Be it ne'er so poor,
I can sit and shut my door.
[l7] Dreytagiger Gast
Wird eine Last.
Three-days Guest,
To begone were best.
? l8| Hat Paul einen Schaden am Fuss,
Sanct Peter darum nicht hinken muss.
Tho' St Paul have a Corn in his toe,
Must St Peter therefore limping go?
? l9} Wer wird der Vo? gel halber die Saat unterlassen!
Would you leave Sowing because the Birds will pilfer it?
? 20] Wer nicht anspannt, dem kann man nicht verspannen.
Him that will not yoke, you cannot help with tracing.
(21^ Es ist kein Huhnlein also klein,
Es gatzget so viel als der Hahnen neun.
No Cockerel did I ever see,
But would outcackle old Cocks three.
? 22^ Herrengunst, Aprillen-wetter,
Frauenlieb und Rosenbla? tter,
Wu? rfel, Karten und Federspiel
Verkehren sich oft, wers glauben will.
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
37
Lord's favour, April weather
Women's love, and blown feather,
Cards, and dice, and falconers craft,
All change very oft. *
But enough of these wise saws: of which, indeed, both in
this and in other kinds, both from old and from recent days, it
were easy to swell the list without limits. If I mistake not, there
is to be traced, in these little things, an honest, solid character;
clear judgment; sometimes a sly humour; such as belong to genu-
ine Proverbs, and, in all manner of mere vulgar Pedantry, or
local Slang, are wanting.
Even more than the 'Old-German Wit and Understanding, '
does the Old-German Imagination distinguish itself: in many a
wondrous Superstition, and Tradition, of the primeval times,
still lingering in the memory of the people. The subject of their
Popular Traditions has of late years been zealously investigated
by the Germans; and indeed, glancing never so slightly into their
BuschingsHS and Grimms, ITM it will appear that no nation of us
has a larger or stranger assortment of such ware than they.
Neither is the labour of such investigation altogether so futile
and trivial as some fancy it. The very Nursery Tales, which
originate, could we trace them, in ages long prior to the Tale
of Troy divine, are a guidance, and faint light of History, in the
dim, entangled forests of Antiquity; as, for the Indian eye, the
posture of fallen branches, the moss of weathered bark, will in-
dicate the Cardinal points, when neither sun nor star is visible.
Old-world things are these which the Nurse, in rude phase re-
counts to her little auditory: things descended to her from high,
Oriental, mythological sources; her 'Thomas Hickathrift of
the Isle of Ely' 120 Was once some Scandinavian Hercules; and
many a Sivritl21 with his Tarnkappe has dwindled into a Jack
with his Coat of Darkness. Nay apart from all scientific or half-
scientific uses, are not the very phantasms and chimeras, were
they nothing more, which ,have now delighted or affrighted some
* Two Theologians of the sixteenth century have laboured, with
acceptance, in this field: Sebastian Franke, a contentious Ana-
baptist, whose Collection of Proverbs' (some of them given here)
dates 1541; and Johann Agricola (or rather Schnitter, Reaper)
whose Antinomian disputations are now well nigh forgotten; but
whose Gemeinen deutschen Spruchworter mit ihrer Auslegung
(German Proverbs with Exposition) published in 1528, are still
prized for their 'patriotic feeling, honest morality, and vigor-
ous diction. ' There is also a Lehmann's Florilegium, of which
I know not the date. -- This Johann must not be confounded with
Rudolf Agricola (Hausmann, Houseman), the father of Greek
Learning in Germany, who died a century earlier, was no kins-
man of his.
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? 38
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
sixty generations, us among the number, for their own sake
worth something?
The German system of Volksmahrchen (Popular Fable) is
not only the richest in Europe; but seems the focus and original
of whatever really antique Tradition exists in the other European
nations; as indeed it might naturally be, the main, at least the
victorious^,] element of their population having sprung from Ger-
many. A peculiar character of earnestness, of austerity, reigns
in these Volksmahrchen; not indeed mere blood and thunder, and
vulgar charnel-house horror; but a certain stern beauty, and si-
lent deep-rooted strength: they are German Imaginings; and seem
to look on us, like their authors in Tacitus, with oculi truces cae-
rulei. Sometimes, as in the Legends of Rvibezahl, * there is a
rough Humour: but this too is grave and the sign of gravity. Gen-
erally speaking, in that homeliness of guise, under that shaggy
coarse exterior, there is a certain depth and truth; grim linea-
ments of primeval Feeling and Thought look thro', which for us
also have their significance. For example, that famous Walpur-
gis-night, t or Witches' Sabbath, held on the summit of the Brock-
en, where, on Mayday-eve, Satan with his more important minis-
tering imps, and innumerable hags, and sorcerers, and abortions
* A Silesian Mountain-Spirit, of a mixed, yet on the whole
jovial and hearty character, and considerable energy; whom
certain, hospitable persons have endeavoured to naturalize in
England, under the title of Number nip (Counter of Turnips);L22
this being something like the signification of his German name,
Rubezahl. We had always understood that proper names were
sacred from Translation; that the horned Pan could not become
the horned All in this country, or Marcus Tullius Cicero be with
any propriety denominated Mr M. T. Vetch.
t The devout Lady Walpurgis, or Walpurga, has none but an
accidental concern with this Infernal 'Trade-dinner;' the con-
nexion, namely, that her name, in the German Calendar, falls
on the day when the same is held. She was of England, as hint-
ed above; went to Germany on missionary work; became first
Abbess of Hildesheim; died there, about 776, in the odour of
sanctity; and lies buried at Eichstadt, where her uncle Boni-
face was first Bishop, where her own bones are still venerated,
nay found useful in pharmacy, at least in farriery. For a cer-
tain oil, called Walpurgis-oil, is, to this day, employed, in
complex cases, by many a dog-leech and cattle-doctor in Catho-
lic Germany; with what effect is not said. But hear how the
Utilitarian Nicolai (base Phrygian Turk) rips up this matter,
and turns it inside out: 'At Eichstadt, ' says he (Reise , B.
9. )123. 'in a Benedictine Convent, lie the supposed remains
of St Walpurga, in a cave which you are shown. Out of this
cave sweats up a sort of moisture; whereupon Superstition gives
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
of Nature, meet to hold jubilee, and concoct business for the
coming year. Nay, Witchcraft itself, as we now have it, is a
Teutonic birth; at least a Hybrid between Germany and Judea;
which, also it'is to be hoped, like other hybrids, will have no
progeny.
But the Brocken, or Blocksberg , is truly the 'German Par-
nassus, ' or Olympus; a real mythological Mountain. Doubtless,
in the old Heathen times, it had been a sacred place, the scene
of many fearful rites; as indeed a Height so notable in itself must
have struck the rudest imagination. Scientifically considered,
the Brocken, as the pinnacle of the wild, shaggy Harz, encircled
with forests and chasms, based on the 'oldest rock of the Crea-
tion, ' and in its bosom holding silver and gold, is remarkable
enough. Still more if we take in its meteorological character:
it is the weatherglass of whole countries that lie round it; ac-
cording as the Brocken wears his cloud-bonnet, or smiles bare-
headed, it will be rain or sunshine. * Nay, on some occasions
if you ascend it at sunrise, an actual Spirit will appear to you in
the distance: your own Shadow, namely, painted on the wet, west-
ern canvas of clouds; reaching thro' mid heaven, the length of
Ophiuchus huge; yet moving as you move; dogging you with horrid
assiduity; till in the clearer sheetp] be there cockcrowing or none,
it 'dreamlike flits away. ' No wonder that the Blocksberg should
have been a Hellgate, and Devil's Mount from immemorial time!
The reader who has heard of all this, and perhaps read Faust al-
so, at least in Shelley's version, 126 will be astonished to learn,
that the march of intellect has reached even the Blocksberg: that
'an Inn built of granite, and 130 feet in length, ' now stands on the
crown thereof; so that while Satan and his minions are rioting in
out that it must proceed from the long-withered bones of Wal-
purga, and calls it an oil, tho' it neither burns, nor swims on
water, but mingles therewith; so that in all likelihood it is no-
thing else but the vapour from a neighbouring Brewery'! --Ach,
Gott! --Gibbon too discovers that St George (and the Dragon)
was no more than an extensive dealer in Bacon, who even be-
came bankrupt, not without suspicions of fraudulency. 124 'Such
is the lot of Loveliness i' th' world! '
* A like honour belongs to Criffel, in Galloway, at the mouth
of the river Nith; tho' except in the poetry of Allan Cunningham,
no witches that I can hear of now dance there. Some free-
masonry, it wouldappear nevertheless, does still subsist between
the Hill-spirits of that quarter, inert as they have now grown; for,
whether by Electricity or otherwise, as is well understood
'When Criffel his Cap hath got,
Skiddaw wots full weel of that. '
Of the magic Diamond that lies on or in Criffel I say nothing,
and know nothing. 125
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? 40
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
hellish orgies without, men calmly eat Gottingen sausages within.
But the whole Harz, with its mineshafts, its deep boundless
woods, its Horse-stairs, 127 its Maid's-Leaps, and other rock-
abysses, was once all peopled with Spirits. Here, for example,
is the Wild Man of the Harz, the tutelar Spectre of the region,
as he appeared to Altvater Martin, in Musaus' Tale of the Treas-
ure-digger:128 'I looked round, and saw, in the clear moonshine,
that a Figure stood by me, like a man with matted hair over all
his body; he had a long beard reaching below his navel; round his
head he wore a garland, about his loins an apron of oakleaves;
and held an uprooted Firtree in his right hand. '*
We cannot dwell much longer among these baseless Shadows,
which nevertheless proceed from a real tho' unseen Substance:
instead of description and discussion, I shall here present two
little samples of the Volksm'ahrchen itself, as they stand copied
with professed fidelity in Busching's Collection of such. 129 Both
relate to the Kyffhauser, also a mountain of the Harz, which dis-
trict indeed has furnished the best chapter in Busching's Volume.
It is to be premised that Kaiser Friedrich Rothbart (Redbeard,
Barbarossa) is understood to be still living, in a somnolent state,
in the interior of that same Kyffhauser, where a ruined Castle of
his still stands, the scene of these Traditions: 'he is said to have
taken refuge here with certain of his men; sits with them on a
bench at a stone table, leaning his head on his hand. He seems
reposing or sleeping; his red beard has grown thro' the table
down to his feet; he nods continually with his head, and winks,
as if he were not sleeping sound, or would soon awake. '
Our first Mahrchen bodies forth an Eastern, perhaps a Uni-
versal idea; which, indeed, as issuing from this its German home
or birthplace, has often found a local habitation and a name in
other countries; and seldom more happily than in the well-known
American or English version, which will occur to every reader. 130
'The Goatherd 131
'Peter Klaus, a Goatherd from Sittendorf, whose flock
browsed on the Kyffhauser, was wont to let them rest a while
towards evening, in a spot girt round with old ruins, that he
might count them there. For some days, he had observed that
* 'This, ' continues Musaus in a Note, 'is the wild Man on the
Harz Coins, which some have falsely taken for the Supporter
of the Brunswick Coat of Arms. He is the Spirit of the Harz,
as he here shows himself; and has given his name to a rich mine
therein, where the miners have often seen him. Frightful as
this Figure may have looked to Patriarch Martin, it is lovely
enough on the Harz Gulden, --when you are getting them in pay-
ment. '-- Formerly, it appears, Ducats were struck, with Ex
auro Hercyniae on the rim.
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
41
one of his finest goats, soon after arriving there, always
disappeared, and did not for a long time return. Watching
it more narrowlyf,] he noticed that it glided off thro' a little
cleft in the ruin. He crept after it, and found it in a cavity,
where it was briskly picking up grains of oats that fell one by
one from the roof of the place. He looked up; shook his head
at this oat-rain; but for all his gazing could make nothing of
it. At length he heard overhead the neighing and stamping of
some mettled steeds, out of whose mangers he concluded the
oats must be coming.
'So stood the Goatherd; amazed at finding stabled horses
in a quite uninhabited mountain; when a groom appeared, and
silently beckoned him to follow. Peter ascended some steps;
and, crossing a walled court, came to a recess encircled with
high precipitous rocks, all overhung with leafy brushwood,
thro' which some dim glimmering of light struggled down. Here
on a well-smoothed freph green, he found twelve grave-looking
Knights, not one of whom spoke a word, engaged at Ninepins.
Peter was silently stationed by the pins, to right them as they
fell.
'At first he performed his task with shivering knees, as by
stealth he looked at the long beards, and slashed doublets of
these noble Knights. By degrees, however, usage made him
bolder; he looked all round him with a free eye; and made bold
at last to help himself out of a pitcher that had been set by him,
full of finest-flavoured wine.
He now felt quite a new life, and
henceforth whenever he grew wearied, he drew fresh strength
from the never-ebbing pitcher. However, in the end, sleep
surprised him.
'On awakening he found himself once more in the green
spot amid the ruins, where his goats used to rest. He rubbed
his eyes, but could find neither goats nor dog; wondered at the
long-grown grass, at the bushes and trees which he had never
noticed here before. Not knowing what to make of it, he went
on thro' all the roads and tracks, where he was wont to rove
daily with his goats; but nowhere could he find any trace of
these. In the hollow he saw Sittendorf, and at length hastened
down to inquire after them there.
'The people whom he met about the village were all unknown
to him; were dressed otherwise, spoke otherwise, than his ac-
quaintances; moreover they all gazed at him, when he asked for
his goats; and caught themselves by the chin. Peter, at length,
almost involuntarily, did the like; and found to his amazement
that his beard was a foot long. He began to think himself and
the whole world about him enchanted; and yet he knew the moun-
tain he had just come from as the old Kyffhauser: the houses
too, with their gardens and front-plots, were mostly well known
to him. Some boys also, to the question of a traveller, answer-
ed "Sittendorf. "
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? 42
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
'In many doubts, he entered the village, and made for
his own cottage. He found it much wrecked; and at the door
lay a stranger ragged herdsboy, with a lean dog, that snarl-
ed at Peter when he spoke. He passed on thro' the opening,
which had once had a door; but within all was so waste and
empty, that, like a drunk man, he staggered out again, thro'
the back-door, and began calling on his wife and children.
But none heard him, no voice answered him.
'Ere long a crowd of women and boys gathered round the
inquiring Peter, with the long ice-gray beard; and asked him,
each faster than the other: what he was wanting? To ques-
tion strangers, beside his own house, about his own wife and
children, nay about himself, seemed so unheard of, that to
rid himself of these importunities, he bawled out any name
that came into his head. "Kurt Steffen! " The most were
silent, and looked at one another; at length an old woman
said: "He has lived these twelve years at the Sachsenburg;
thither you will not get today. "--"Velt Meier! "--"God rest
his soul! " said an old mother, bent over her crutch, "he
has lain fifteen years in the house he will never leave. "
'With a shudder Klaus recognised these women, all at
once grown old; but the humour for questioning them farther
had left him. Suddenly a young brisk woman pressed thro'
the gaping crowd, with a boy some twelvemonth old on her
arm, and a girl of four years in her hand; all three the very
picture of his wife. "What is your name? " cried he in won-
der. -- "Maria. "--"And your father's? "--"God rest him!
Peter Klaus: it is twenty years now since we sought him night
and day on the Kyffhauser, when his flock came home without
him: I was seven then. "
'The Goatherd could restrain himself no longer. "I am
Peter Klaus, " cried he, "and no other! " taking the boy from
his daughter's arm. For a moment all stood as changed to
stone; then voice after voice cried out: "Yes, it is Peter
Klaus ! Welcome neighbour, welcome after twenty years. " '
We shall now take a peep at Redbeard himself, the heart of
all these mysteries, as he sits there 'winking and nodding, ' with
his beard grown thro' the table. However, let us not suppose
that the Tradition dates no farther back than Friedrich Barbar-
ossa, that is, than six centuries and odd years. The notion of
great Princes, that were dear and beneficent to their people, be-
ing still alive, and destined to reappear, when times are at the
worst, and to right all that has been wronged, is a loyal, devout
imagination to be met with in many kingdoms, and originates in
a quite unknown antiquity. Thus long before Friedrich's day, the
great Karl (Charlemagne) with his Paladins was fabled to be hold-
ing court underground at Salzburg; from whom, no doubt, as the
memory of him grew dim among the German People, this kind
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
43
tale descended to Rothbart, as the next and probably the last
heir thereof.
'The Enchanted Kaiser. 132
'A Miner, of a pious and quiet town, went once, on the
third day of Easter, to the Kyffhauser. There, on the high
Watch-tower, he found a Monk sitting, with a long white
beard that reached down to his knee. At sight of the Miner,
the Monk closed a large Volume he was reading in; and said
kindly: "Come with me to Kaiser Friedrich; he has been
waiting for us this hour. The Dwarf has already brought me
the Springwurzel. "*
A cold shudder crept over the Miner's flesh: nevertheless
the Monk spoke so comfortingly to him that he went quite
cheerfully, and promised not to speak a word, let come what
* Literally, the Start-root. 133 This invaluable root, or fibre,
for it is of the smallest dimensions, can no more be dispensed
with in Treasure-digging than Wunschelruthe (Divining-rod), 134
and may perhaps be as old as it, that is, older than Tacitus'
day. For if the rod by its trembling point out where the Treas-
ure is, the Springwurzel must start all locks and bolts, natur-
al or preternatural, that secure it there. To Housebreakers,
especially to Bank-robbers, it were an invaluable acquire-
ment; for the most cunning Bramah-lockl35 yields to it like
water; nay at sight of it, the portals of the hugest, rustiest
Donjon, tho' for the first time in centuries, will burst wide open,
with a clangour like cannon-vollies. But how to procure it
is the great question. Take the advice of 'Neighbour Bias,
an ancient herdsman, ' in the above-cited Tale of Musaus:
'You manage it best, ' says he, 'by help of a Woodpecker.
Find his nest in the hollow of a tree, and after his young are
hatched, watch him when he flies out to seek food for them;
then drive a hard wedge into the opening he enters by. Hide
behind the tree till he returns at feeding-time: when he sees
his nest plugged up, he will scream and flutter round, and at
last suddenly take flight toward the west. This done, take
care to have a red scarlet mantle, or in fault thereof, go to
the shop and buy four ells of red cloth; hide this under your
coat, and wait all day, or even two days long, till the Wood-
pecker come back, with the Springwurzel in his bill. He will
touch the wedge with it, and this will fly out, like a cork from
a fermenting bottle: then be sharp, and spread your red mantle
under the tree; the woodpecker will think it is fire, will be
frightened for it, and let the Springwurzel fall. -- Is it now once
in your hand, forget not to tie a little piece of buckthorn wood
to it; for were you to lay it down by itself, it would fly away
and be lost. ' -- Musaus Volksmahrchen der Deutschen. V. 150--
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? 44
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
might. They now proceeded to an open space begirt with a
wall. The Monk here made a large cross, with his crosier,
and wrote some strange characters in the sand. Then he
read prayers, long and loud, from his large Book, none of
which however did the Miner understand. At last he struck
thrice with his crosier on the ground, and cried: Open!
There arose under their feet a muffled noise, as of dis-
tant thunder; the Earth shook beneath them. And now the
Miner with the Monk who had taken his hand sink|;] down, and
down, together with a space of ground so far as the circle
had marked out. They step off at the bottom; and the ground
again slowly mounts up. They were in a large vault.
The Monk advances with firm step; the miner with quiver-
ing knees behind him. They went along thro' some passages,
till it began to grow quite dark round them. Ere long, how-
ever, they came to a perpetual Lamp; and now saw that they
were in a spacious cloister. The Monk here kindled two
torches, for himself and his companion. They walk on; and
all at once find themselves before a large iron church-door.
The Monk prays; holds the Springwurzel, which no charm-
ed bolt can resist, to the lock, and cries: Open, door! And
with the crash of thunder, all the iron bars and locks start
out; and a round Chapel lies opened. The floor was smooth-
polished as a mirror, and whoever had not lived chaste and
devout (so the Monk said afterwards) broke both his legs here,
and never got back. The vaulted ceiling and the round walls
gleamed and flamed in the light of the torches. Great teethl37
of crystal and diamonds hung down, and between them still
greater of pure gold. On the one side stood a golden altar; on
the other a golden fount, with feet of silver. 138 The Monk
now beckoned his companion to stand right in the centre, and
to hold the torches one in each hand. He himself went for-
ward to a door all silver; knocked thrice with his crosier, and
the door sprang open.
'Straight opposite the door, on a golden throne, sat Kaiser
Friedrich; not hewn out of stone; no, but as he looked and lived;
a golden crown on his head, with which he continually nodded,
puckering his large eyebrows. His long red beard had grown
thro' the stone table before him, and reached down to his feet.
The Miner lost sight and hearing at the first glance of him.
'After a while the Monk came back, and in silence took his
companion away. The silver door shut of itself; the iron gate
dashed together with a horrid jar behind them. When they got
It is worthy of remark that the lively Compiler of the Causes
Cele~bres, whose son might be still living, mentions this Spring-
wurzel ~s a real scientific implement, or desideratum; and"
proof of what can be well proved otherwise, the imperfection of
men's Understanding. 136
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
45
back, along the cloister, to the outer vault, the circle of
ground again slowly sank: both stept on it, and were gently
borne aloft.
'Above ground the Monk gave his companion two little
bars of an unknown ore, which he had brought with him from
the chapel: these the Miner's descendants keep, in. memory
of the occurrence, to this day. '*
With which rather lame and impotent conclusion, we also,
like the Monk and Miner, must leave that enchanted region,
where, it is to be feared, we have truanted too long. Whether
those two Mahrchen are 'two little bars of an unknown ore, ' that
will keep for any time, may be doubted.
* Volks-Sagen, Mahrchen und Legenden, Gesammelt von
J. G. Busching[,j S. 320-333[actually, 327-31, 336-39]. -- Dr
Busching, our worthy Antiquarian, is son of the well-known
Geographer ;139 and himself, in this other province, not less
noted, and meritorious. Whoever wishes for true insight,
whether scientific or poetic, into the Popular Fable-world of
the Germans, will consult his Writings, and those of the Bro-
thers Grimm, as the best guides in that inquiry.
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? Chap[terJ IV140
[Modern Interest in Medieval Popular Poetry. The Two Main
German Monuments of Long-written Popular Poetry, Helden-
buch and Nibelungen Lied: Their Undetermined Antiquity and
Authorship. Account of the Former Monument, with Stress on
Siegfried as a Center of Northern Tradition]
IN 1757, the Swiss Professor, Bodmer, 141 printed an ancient
poetical manuscript under the title of Chriemhilden Rache und
die Klage (Chriemhilde's Revenge and the Lament); which may
be considered as the first of a series, or stream of publications
and speculations, still rolling on, with increased current, to
the present day. Not indeed that all these originated in so in-
significant a cause;their source, or rather thousand sources,
lay far elsewhere. In fact, a certain antiquarian tendency, a
fonder, more earnest looking back into the Past, began about
that time to manifest itself in all nations (for example, our own
Percy's Reliques): this was among the first distinct symptoms
of it in Germany; where, as with ourselves, it has produced and
is producing the most remarkable results. 142
Some fifteen years after Bodmer's Publication, which, for
the rest, is not celebrated as an editorial feat, C. H. Muller
had undertaken a Sammlung deutscher Gedichte (Collection of
German Poems from the 12th, 13th and 14th Centuries); 143
wherein, among other articles, he reprinted Bodmer's Chriem-
hilde and Klage, with a highly remarkable addition prefixed to
it, essential indeed to the right understanding thereof; and the
whole now stood before the world as one Poem, under the name
of the Nibelungen Lied, or Lay of the Nibelungen. Out of this,
ere long, proceeded innumerable new inquiries, and kindred
enterprises. For, much as the Poem, in the shape it here bore,
was defaced and marred, it failed not to attract observation:
to all open-minded lovers of Poetry, especially where a strong
patriotic feeling existed, the antique Nibelungen was an interest-
ing appearance. Johannes von Muller, in his famous Swiss His-
tory, 144 spoke of it in warm terms; and subsequently, A. W.
Schlegel, 145 thro' the medium of the Deutsche Museum, awaken-
ed a universal attention to it, which not only continues among
the Germans, but has now extended itself into neighbouring na-
tions .
In its own country, the Nibelungen has since been, investi-
gated, translated, collated, and commented upon, with the pa-
tient, unwearied fidelity characteristic of that people: be the
harvest great or not, the reapers have neither been few nor slug-
gish; we have versions, into the modern tongue, by Hagen, by
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? HELDENBUCH
47
Hinsberg, 1*6 Zeune, 147 Busching; Criticisms, Introductions,
Keys, and so forth by innumerable others, of whom we mention
only Docenl48 and the Brothers Grimm. By which means not
only has the Nibelungen been elucidated with all manner of re-
searches, but its whole environment also has come forth in
new light; the scene and personages it relates to, the other fic-
tions and traditions connected with it have attained a new im-
portance and coherence. Manuscripts that for ages had lain dor-
mant have issued from their archives into the light of day: Books
that had circulated only in mean guise for the amusement of the
people, have become important not to one or two virtuosos, but
to the general body of the learned: and now a whole system of
antique Fiction and Mythology discloses itself, shedding here
and there a real tho' feeble and uncertain glimmer over what
was once the total Darkness of the old time. No fewer than four-
teen ancient Traditionary Poems, all strangely intertwined, and
growing out of and into one another, have come to light among
the Germans; who now, in looking back, find that they too, as
well as the Greeks, have their Heroic Age; and round the pld
Valhalla, as their Northern Pantheon, a world of demigods and
wonders. Into this mighty maze of written Tradition, as we
have already done into the unwritten, which is but the cloud-fore-
court of that cloud-palace, it will be proper to look in passing.
Far be it from us, meanwhile, to venture rashly, or deeper
than is needful, into that Labyrinth; where we hear of winding
passages, or of Poems, 'containing a hundred thousand verses'
and 'se(ye ? ]nty-seven 149 thousand verses, ' as of a quite natural
affair! And no less confused, inextricable, are their windings,
than interminable. It is a Hall of Mirrors[,J that Cloud-palace;
where in pale light each Mirror reflects, convexly or concavely,
not only some real object, but the shadows of this in other Mir-
rors; which again do the like for it, in endless series; till, with
such reflection and re-reflection, the whole Immensity is filled
with dimmer and dimmer shapes; and no firm scene lies round
us, but a dislocated, distorted chaos, fades away on all hands
in the distance into utter Night. Only to some brave Von der
Hagen, furnished with indefatigable ardour, and a deep, almost
religious love, is it given to find some footing there, and see
his way. These Dukes of Aquitania, Etzel's Housekeepings, and
Dietrichs and Sigenots, we shall leave all where they are; re-
stricting ourselves to two, indeed chiefly to one, of those Works,
the Heldenbuch (Hero-Book), 150 and the Nibelungen Lied;l5l the
latter of which as a real Poem, apart from its antiquity, deserves
to be inquired into; the former as a long-established Popular Book,
and for the light it throws on the other. Such as desire further
information will find an intelligible notice of the whole series in
Messrs Weber and Jamieson's Illustrations of Northern Antiquities;*
* Edinburgh, 1814. 152
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? 48
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
and all possible furtherance in the numerous German Works
above alluded to; among which, Von der Hagen's writings, * tho'
not the readiest, are probably the safest guides.
Our first question naturally respects the age of these Tra-
ditions; to which question, however, no sure answer can be given.
It is known from History that Eginhart, the Secretary and happy
son-in-law of Charlemagne, compiled by order of that monarch
a collection of the Ancient German Songs; among whichQ 153 it
is fondly believed by antiquarians, this Nibelungen and the main
traditions of the Heldenbuch connected therewith, may have had
honourable place. Unluckily Eginhart' s Collection has quite
perished; and only his Life of the Great Charles, 154 in which
this circumstance stands noted, survives to provoke curiosity.
One thing is certain, Fulco Archbishop of Rheims, in the year
885, is introduced as citing certain 'German Books, ' to enforce
some argument of his, by instance of 'King Ermenrich's crime
towards his relations';t which King Ermenrich and his crime
are at this day part and parcel of the Heldenbuch, and presup-
posed in the Nibelungen. Later notices of a more decisive sort
occur in abundance. Saxo Grammaticus, 156 who flourished in
the twelfth century, relates that about the year 1130, a Saxon
minstrel, being sent to Iceland, with a treacherous invitation
from one royal Dane to another; and not daring to violate his oath,
yet compassionating the victim, sang to him, by way of indirect
warning, 'the Song of Chriemhilde's Treachery to her Brothers';
that is to say, the latter portion of our actual Nibelungen Lied.
To which direct evidences that these Traditions, in substance,
were universally known in the twelfth century, nay had been in
some shape committed to writing in the ninth, or rather in the
eightjh] -- we have still to add the probability of their being 'An-
cient Songs' even at that earliest date; all which, on a moderate
estimate, may carry us back into the sixth century; yet not far-
ther, inasmuch as certain of the Poetic Personages that figure
in them, belong intrinsically to the fifth.
Other and more open proof of Antiquity lies in the fact that
these Traditions are so universally diffused. There are Danish
and Icelandic versions of them, externally more or less withered
and distorted, yet substantially real copies; professing indeed
to be borrowed from the German: in particular, we have the
Niflunga and Wilkina Saga, 157 composed in the thirteenth cen-
tury, which, still, in many ways, illustrate the German Original.
Innumerable other Songs and Sagas point more remotely in the
same direction. It appears indeed that certain rhymed Tales
* His Grundriss zur Geschichte der Altdeutschen Poesie (Out-
line of a History of Old-German Poesy); his Editions of the
Nibelungen Lied and Heldenbuch; his Essay, Die Nibelungen,
ihre Bedeutung &c.
t Hagens Nibelungen. Einleit. S. VIII [actually p. DC]. 155
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?
? 34
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
that by its flexibility, distinctness, depth, and earnest hearty
expressiveness, the German may place itself next to our own
language, if not altogether on a level with it: nay in the hands of
a Goethe, it may safely be named the most plastic, universal,
transparent and on the whole, most perfect medium for pictur-
ing forth the mind's work, of all modern tongues. Let it be re-
membered, however, that Goethe alone of modern men is thorough
master of it; and that in such a fire as his, a far poorer dialect
might fuse, and mould itself. Montaignell4 has made even the
French significant, nay humourous.
That the German Language must be rich in traditionary say-
ings, and all manner of fireside wisdom, the reader may have
already conjectured. By way of further illustrating the subject,
I shall here insert some slight specimens of their Proverb-philo-
sophy; hoping that the reader too is a lover of such lore. No
Proverb, especially no ancient one, but has a charm for us; its
very existence is proof that it has value: it is Philosophy without
school-apparatus; insight with unarmed vision; the sharp, certain
insight of a natural eye. It leads us back to old simple times, to
some rugged peasant Sage, under whose bonnet, in the turmoil of
Experience, the Thought formed itself, which has been kept alive
in other heads by its truth alone. A nation that has no Proverbs,
were there such a nation, could have no character; it may have
manufactured better or worse, but never have created. Let us
look a little into this common Treasury, or Alms-box, of the Ger-
man People, where many an unclaimed, rough-fashioned, antic,
yet golden coin or trinket lies stored. We choose the following
from a larger collection of Lessings, * under the title Altdeutscher
Witz und Verstand (Old-German Wit and Sense); almost at random,
or if with any preference, preferring such as could be translated
most readily.
Here are lessons on many useful virtues, Perseverance, Pa-
tience, Order, Love of Home, and what not;H! 5
fl] Von einem Streich
Fallt keine Eich.
By one Stroke
Falls no Oak.
[2] Mit vielen Streichen wird der Stockfisch lind.
With beating enough the Stockfish softens.
[3] Was nicht will werden ein Bildstock
Das werd' ein Sautrog.
What will not be a Ship's prow
May be a Sow's trough.
* Sammtliche Werke. B. XIII. S. 219. (Berlin, 1826).
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? TRADITIONARY LORE 35
[4] Besser ichts,
Sprach der Wolf, denn Nichts.
Better aught,
Said the Wolf, than naught.
[5] Wer antwortet auf unnu? tzes Gespey
Der macht uns einem Unglu? ck zwey.
He that answers useless tattle-spittle
Makes a great evil of a little.
? bj Hart gegen Hart
Nimmer gut ward .
Hard to hard (Durum et Durum non faciunt murum). H6
Lass fahren was nicht bleiben will,
Es sind der Mutter Kinder viel.
What will not stay let it go
There be mother's children many moe. *
Duck dich und lass voru? ber gahn,
Das Wetter will seinen Willen han.
Duck and let it pass, t
Weather ever wilful was.
[9] Zeit bringt Ro sen, nicht der Stock.
Time brings Roses; the stem helps.
? loj Wer will dass ihms geling,
Seh sefljbst zum Ding.
'The Master's eye fattens the Cattle. '
'Self bind self find. '
Borgen
Macht Sorgen,
Darum soll man nicht mehr verzehren
Als der Pflug kann ernehren.
Borrowing
Makes sorrowing,
So swill not and fill not
What thy Plough doth till not.
Biedermanns Erb liegt in allen Landen.
True man's heritage lies in all Lands.
* 'As good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. '
t Already better in Scotch: 'Jook (duck) and let the jaw (gu;
go by. '117
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? 36 HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERAUTRE
|l3j Mich d Unkt, ich halt, ich meyn, ich wa? hn, ich dacht,
Hat manchen guten Gesellen ins verderben gebracht.
Meseems, I fancy, I reckon, I suppose, I thought,
Has many a pretty man to ruin brought.
? l4j Sanct Nicolas bescheert die Kuh,
Giebt aber nicht das Seil dazu.
Saint Nicholas gives the Cow,
The halter for her find thou.
fl5] Ost oder West
Daheim ist das Best.
To the East, to the West,
Stay at Home is best.
[l6j Ein eigner Herd
Ist Goldes werth,
Ist er schon arm,
Er ist doch warm.
My own hearth,
Beyond money's worth:
Be it ne'er so poor,
I can sit and shut my door.
[l7] Dreytagiger Gast
Wird eine Last.
Three-days Guest,
To begone were best.
? l8| Hat Paul einen Schaden am Fuss,
Sanct Peter darum nicht hinken muss.
Tho' St Paul have a Corn in his toe,
Must St Peter therefore limping go?
? l9} Wer wird der Vo? gel halber die Saat unterlassen!
Would you leave Sowing because the Birds will pilfer it?
? 20] Wer nicht anspannt, dem kann man nicht verspannen.
Him that will not yoke, you cannot help with tracing.
(21^ Es ist kein Huhnlein also klein,
Es gatzget so viel als der Hahnen neun.
No Cockerel did I ever see,
But would outcackle old Cocks three.
? 22^ Herrengunst, Aprillen-wetter,
Frauenlieb und Rosenbla? tter,
Wu? rfel, Karten und Federspiel
Verkehren sich oft, wers glauben will.
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
37
Lord's favour, April weather
Women's love, and blown feather,
Cards, and dice, and falconers craft,
All change very oft. *
But enough of these wise saws: of which, indeed, both in
this and in other kinds, both from old and from recent days, it
were easy to swell the list without limits. If I mistake not, there
is to be traced, in these little things, an honest, solid character;
clear judgment; sometimes a sly humour; such as belong to genu-
ine Proverbs, and, in all manner of mere vulgar Pedantry, or
local Slang, are wanting.
Even more than the 'Old-German Wit and Understanding, '
does the Old-German Imagination distinguish itself: in many a
wondrous Superstition, and Tradition, of the primeval times,
still lingering in the memory of the people. The subject of their
Popular Traditions has of late years been zealously investigated
by the Germans; and indeed, glancing never so slightly into their
BuschingsHS and Grimms, ITM it will appear that no nation of us
has a larger or stranger assortment of such ware than they.
Neither is the labour of such investigation altogether so futile
and trivial as some fancy it. The very Nursery Tales, which
originate, could we trace them, in ages long prior to the Tale
of Troy divine, are a guidance, and faint light of History, in the
dim, entangled forests of Antiquity; as, for the Indian eye, the
posture of fallen branches, the moss of weathered bark, will in-
dicate the Cardinal points, when neither sun nor star is visible.
Old-world things are these which the Nurse, in rude phase re-
counts to her little auditory: things descended to her from high,
Oriental, mythological sources; her 'Thomas Hickathrift of
the Isle of Ely' 120 Was once some Scandinavian Hercules; and
many a Sivritl21 with his Tarnkappe has dwindled into a Jack
with his Coat of Darkness. Nay apart from all scientific or half-
scientific uses, are not the very phantasms and chimeras, were
they nothing more, which ,have now delighted or affrighted some
* Two Theologians of the sixteenth century have laboured, with
acceptance, in this field: Sebastian Franke, a contentious Ana-
baptist, whose Collection of Proverbs' (some of them given here)
dates 1541; and Johann Agricola (or rather Schnitter, Reaper)
whose Antinomian disputations are now well nigh forgotten; but
whose Gemeinen deutschen Spruchworter mit ihrer Auslegung
(German Proverbs with Exposition) published in 1528, are still
prized for their 'patriotic feeling, honest morality, and vigor-
ous diction. ' There is also a Lehmann's Florilegium, of which
I know not the date. -- This Johann must not be confounded with
Rudolf Agricola (Hausmann, Houseman), the father of Greek
Learning in Germany, who died a century earlier, was no kins-
man of his.
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? 38
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
sixty generations, us among the number, for their own sake
worth something?
The German system of Volksmahrchen (Popular Fable) is
not only the richest in Europe; but seems the focus and original
of whatever really antique Tradition exists in the other European
nations; as indeed it might naturally be, the main, at least the
victorious^,] element of their population having sprung from Ger-
many. A peculiar character of earnestness, of austerity, reigns
in these Volksmahrchen; not indeed mere blood and thunder, and
vulgar charnel-house horror; but a certain stern beauty, and si-
lent deep-rooted strength: they are German Imaginings; and seem
to look on us, like their authors in Tacitus, with oculi truces cae-
rulei. Sometimes, as in the Legends of Rvibezahl, * there is a
rough Humour: but this too is grave and the sign of gravity. Gen-
erally speaking, in that homeliness of guise, under that shaggy
coarse exterior, there is a certain depth and truth; grim linea-
ments of primeval Feeling and Thought look thro', which for us
also have their significance. For example, that famous Walpur-
gis-night, t or Witches' Sabbath, held on the summit of the Brock-
en, where, on Mayday-eve, Satan with his more important minis-
tering imps, and innumerable hags, and sorcerers, and abortions
* A Silesian Mountain-Spirit, of a mixed, yet on the whole
jovial and hearty character, and considerable energy; whom
certain, hospitable persons have endeavoured to naturalize in
England, under the title of Number nip (Counter of Turnips);L22
this being something like the signification of his German name,
Rubezahl. We had always understood that proper names were
sacred from Translation; that the horned Pan could not become
the horned All in this country, or Marcus Tullius Cicero be with
any propriety denominated Mr M. T. Vetch.
t The devout Lady Walpurgis, or Walpurga, has none but an
accidental concern with this Infernal 'Trade-dinner;' the con-
nexion, namely, that her name, in the German Calendar, falls
on the day when the same is held. She was of England, as hint-
ed above; went to Germany on missionary work; became first
Abbess of Hildesheim; died there, about 776, in the odour of
sanctity; and lies buried at Eichstadt, where her uncle Boni-
face was first Bishop, where her own bones are still venerated,
nay found useful in pharmacy, at least in farriery. For a cer-
tain oil, called Walpurgis-oil, is, to this day, employed, in
complex cases, by many a dog-leech and cattle-doctor in Catho-
lic Germany; with what effect is not said. But hear how the
Utilitarian Nicolai (base Phrygian Turk) rips up this matter,
and turns it inside out: 'At Eichstadt, ' says he (Reise , B.
9. )123. 'in a Benedictine Convent, lie the supposed remains
of St Walpurga, in a cave which you are shown. Out of this
cave sweats up a sort of moisture; whereupon Superstition gives
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
of Nature, meet to hold jubilee, and concoct business for the
coming year. Nay, Witchcraft itself, as we now have it, is a
Teutonic birth; at least a Hybrid between Germany and Judea;
which, also it'is to be hoped, like other hybrids, will have no
progeny.
But the Brocken, or Blocksberg , is truly the 'German Par-
nassus, ' or Olympus; a real mythological Mountain. Doubtless,
in the old Heathen times, it had been a sacred place, the scene
of many fearful rites; as indeed a Height so notable in itself must
have struck the rudest imagination. Scientifically considered,
the Brocken, as the pinnacle of the wild, shaggy Harz, encircled
with forests and chasms, based on the 'oldest rock of the Crea-
tion, ' and in its bosom holding silver and gold, is remarkable
enough. Still more if we take in its meteorological character:
it is the weatherglass of whole countries that lie round it; ac-
cording as the Brocken wears his cloud-bonnet, or smiles bare-
headed, it will be rain or sunshine. * Nay, on some occasions
if you ascend it at sunrise, an actual Spirit will appear to you in
the distance: your own Shadow, namely, painted on the wet, west-
ern canvas of clouds; reaching thro' mid heaven, the length of
Ophiuchus huge; yet moving as you move; dogging you with horrid
assiduity; till in the clearer sheetp] be there cockcrowing or none,
it 'dreamlike flits away. ' No wonder that the Blocksberg should
have been a Hellgate, and Devil's Mount from immemorial time!
The reader who has heard of all this, and perhaps read Faust al-
so, at least in Shelley's version, 126 will be astonished to learn,
that the march of intellect has reached even the Blocksberg: that
'an Inn built of granite, and 130 feet in length, ' now stands on the
crown thereof; so that while Satan and his minions are rioting in
out that it must proceed from the long-withered bones of Wal-
purga, and calls it an oil, tho' it neither burns, nor swims on
water, but mingles therewith; so that in all likelihood it is no-
thing else but the vapour from a neighbouring Brewery'! --Ach,
Gott! --Gibbon too discovers that St George (and the Dragon)
was no more than an extensive dealer in Bacon, who even be-
came bankrupt, not without suspicions of fraudulency. 124 'Such
is the lot of Loveliness i' th' world! '
* A like honour belongs to Criffel, in Galloway, at the mouth
of the river Nith; tho' except in the poetry of Allan Cunningham,
no witches that I can hear of now dance there. Some free-
masonry, it wouldappear nevertheless, does still subsist between
the Hill-spirits of that quarter, inert as they have now grown; for,
whether by Electricity or otherwise, as is well understood
'When Criffel his Cap hath got,
Skiddaw wots full weel of that. '
Of the magic Diamond that lies on or in Criffel I say nothing,
and know nothing. 125
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? 40
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
hellish orgies without, men calmly eat Gottingen sausages within.
But the whole Harz, with its mineshafts, its deep boundless
woods, its Horse-stairs, 127 its Maid's-Leaps, and other rock-
abysses, was once all peopled with Spirits. Here, for example,
is the Wild Man of the Harz, the tutelar Spectre of the region,
as he appeared to Altvater Martin, in Musaus' Tale of the Treas-
ure-digger:128 'I looked round, and saw, in the clear moonshine,
that a Figure stood by me, like a man with matted hair over all
his body; he had a long beard reaching below his navel; round his
head he wore a garland, about his loins an apron of oakleaves;
and held an uprooted Firtree in his right hand. '*
We cannot dwell much longer among these baseless Shadows,
which nevertheless proceed from a real tho' unseen Substance:
instead of description and discussion, I shall here present two
little samples of the Volksm'ahrchen itself, as they stand copied
with professed fidelity in Busching's Collection of such. 129 Both
relate to the Kyffhauser, also a mountain of the Harz, which dis-
trict indeed has furnished the best chapter in Busching's Volume.
It is to be premised that Kaiser Friedrich Rothbart (Redbeard,
Barbarossa) is understood to be still living, in a somnolent state,
in the interior of that same Kyffhauser, where a ruined Castle of
his still stands, the scene of these Traditions: 'he is said to have
taken refuge here with certain of his men; sits with them on a
bench at a stone table, leaning his head on his hand. He seems
reposing or sleeping; his red beard has grown thro' the table
down to his feet; he nods continually with his head, and winks,
as if he were not sleeping sound, or would soon awake. '
Our first Mahrchen bodies forth an Eastern, perhaps a Uni-
versal idea; which, indeed, as issuing from this its German home
or birthplace, has often found a local habitation and a name in
other countries; and seldom more happily than in the well-known
American or English version, which will occur to every reader. 130
'The Goatherd 131
'Peter Klaus, a Goatherd from Sittendorf, whose flock
browsed on the Kyffhauser, was wont to let them rest a while
towards evening, in a spot girt round with old ruins, that he
might count them there. For some days, he had observed that
* 'This, ' continues Musaus in a Note, 'is the wild Man on the
Harz Coins, which some have falsely taken for the Supporter
of the Brunswick Coat of Arms. He is the Spirit of the Harz,
as he here shows himself; and has given his name to a rich mine
therein, where the miners have often seen him. Frightful as
this Figure may have looked to Patriarch Martin, it is lovely
enough on the Harz Gulden, --when you are getting them in pay-
ment. '-- Formerly, it appears, Ducats were struck, with Ex
auro Hercyniae on the rim.
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
41
one of his finest goats, soon after arriving there, always
disappeared, and did not for a long time return. Watching
it more narrowlyf,] he noticed that it glided off thro' a little
cleft in the ruin. He crept after it, and found it in a cavity,
where it was briskly picking up grains of oats that fell one by
one from the roof of the place. He looked up; shook his head
at this oat-rain; but for all his gazing could make nothing of
it. At length he heard overhead the neighing and stamping of
some mettled steeds, out of whose mangers he concluded the
oats must be coming.
'So stood the Goatherd; amazed at finding stabled horses
in a quite uninhabited mountain; when a groom appeared, and
silently beckoned him to follow. Peter ascended some steps;
and, crossing a walled court, came to a recess encircled with
high precipitous rocks, all overhung with leafy brushwood,
thro' which some dim glimmering of light struggled down. Here
on a well-smoothed freph green, he found twelve grave-looking
Knights, not one of whom spoke a word, engaged at Ninepins.
Peter was silently stationed by the pins, to right them as they
fell.
'At first he performed his task with shivering knees, as by
stealth he looked at the long beards, and slashed doublets of
these noble Knights. By degrees, however, usage made him
bolder; he looked all round him with a free eye; and made bold
at last to help himself out of a pitcher that had been set by him,
full of finest-flavoured wine.
He now felt quite a new life, and
henceforth whenever he grew wearied, he drew fresh strength
from the never-ebbing pitcher. However, in the end, sleep
surprised him.
'On awakening he found himself once more in the green
spot amid the ruins, where his goats used to rest. He rubbed
his eyes, but could find neither goats nor dog; wondered at the
long-grown grass, at the bushes and trees which he had never
noticed here before. Not knowing what to make of it, he went
on thro' all the roads and tracks, where he was wont to rove
daily with his goats; but nowhere could he find any trace of
these. In the hollow he saw Sittendorf, and at length hastened
down to inquire after them there.
'The people whom he met about the village were all unknown
to him; were dressed otherwise, spoke otherwise, than his ac-
quaintances; moreover they all gazed at him, when he asked for
his goats; and caught themselves by the chin. Peter, at length,
almost involuntarily, did the like; and found to his amazement
that his beard was a foot long. He began to think himself and
the whole world about him enchanted; and yet he knew the moun-
tain he had just come from as the old Kyffhauser: the houses
too, with their gardens and front-plots, were mostly well known
to him. Some boys also, to the question of a traveller, answer-
ed "Sittendorf. "
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? 42
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
'In many doubts, he entered the village, and made for
his own cottage. He found it much wrecked; and at the door
lay a stranger ragged herdsboy, with a lean dog, that snarl-
ed at Peter when he spoke. He passed on thro' the opening,
which had once had a door; but within all was so waste and
empty, that, like a drunk man, he staggered out again, thro'
the back-door, and began calling on his wife and children.
But none heard him, no voice answered him.
'Ere long a crowd of women and boys gathered round the
inquiring Peter, with the long ice-gray beard; and asked him,
each faster than the other: what he was wanting? To ques-
tion strangers, beside his own house, about his own wife and
children, nay about himself, seemed so unheard of, that to
rid himself of these importunities, he bawled out any name
that came into his head. "Kurt Steffen! " The most were
silent, and looked at one another; at length an old woman
said: "He has lived these twelve years at the Sachsenburg;
thither you will not get today. "--"Velt Meier! "--"God rest
his soul! " said an old mother, bent over her crutch, "he
has lain fifteen years in the house he will never leave. "
'With a shudder Klaus recognised these women, all at
once grown old; but the humour for questioning them farther
had left him. Suddenly a young brisk woman pressed thro'
the gaping crowd, with a boy some twelvemonth old on her
arm, and a girl of four years in her hand; all three the very
picture of his wife. "What is your name? " cried he in won-
der. -- "Maria. "--"And your father's? "--"God rest him!
Peter Klaus: it is twenty years now since we sought him night
and day on the Kyffhauser, when his flock came home without
him: I was seven then. "
'The Goatherd could restrain himself no longer. "I am
Peter Klaus, " cried he, "and no other! " taking the boy from
his daughter's arm. For a moment all stood as changed to
stone; then voice after voice cried out: "Yes, it is Peter
Klaus ! Welcome neighbour, welcome after twenty years. " '
We shall now take a peep at Redbeard himself, the heart of
all these mysteries, as he sits there 'winking and nodding, ' with
his beard grown thro' the table. However, let us not suppose
that the Tradition dates no farther back than Friedrich Barbar-
ossa, that is, than six centuries and odd years. The notion of
great Princes, that were dear and beneficent to their people, be-
ing still alive, and destined to reappear, when times are at the
worst, and to right all that has been wronged, is a loyal, devout
imagination to be met with in many kingdoms, and originates in
a quite unknown antiquity. Thus long before Friedrich's day, the
great Karl (Charlemagne) with his Paladins was fabled to be hold-
ing court underground at Salzburg; from whom, no doubt, as the
memory of him grew dim among the German People, this kind
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
43
tale descended to Rothbart, as the next and probably the last
heir thereof.
'The Enchanted Kaiser. 132
'A Miner, of a pious and quiet town, went once, on the
third day of Easter, to the Kyffhauser. There, on the high
Watch-tower, he found a Monk sitting, with a long white
beard that reached down to his knee. At sight of the Miner,
the Monk closed a large Volume he was reading in; and said
kindly: "Come with me to Kaiser Friedrich; he has been
waiting for us this hour. The Dwarf has already brought me
the Springwurzel. "*
A cold shudder crept over the Miner's flesh: nevertheless
the Monk spoke so comfortingly to him that he went quite
cheerfully, and promised not to speak a word, let come what
* Literally, the Start-root. 133 This invaluable root, or fibre,
for it is of the smallest dimensions, can no more be dispensed
with in Treasure-digging than Wunschelruthe (Divining-rod), 134
and may perhaps be as old as it, that is, older than Tacitus'
day. For if the rod by its trembling point out where the Treas-
ure is, the Springwurzel must start all locks and bolts, natur-
al or preternatural, that secure it there. To Housebreakers,
especially to Bank-robbers, it were an invaluable acquire-
ment; for the most cunning Bramah-lockl35 yields to it like
water; nay at sight of it, the portals of the hugest, rustiest
Donjon, tho' for the first time in centuries, will burst wide open,
with a clangour like cannon-vollies. But how to procure it
is the great question. Take the advice of 'Neighbour Bias,
an ancient herdsman, ' in the above-cited Tale of Musaus:
'You manage it best, ' says he, 'by help of a Woodpecker.
Find his nest in the hollow of a tree, and after his young are
hatched, watch him when he flies out to seek food for them;
then drive a hard wedge into the opening he enters by. Hide
behind the tree till he returns at feeding-time: when he sees
his nest plugged up, he will scream and flutter round, and at
last suddenly take flight toward the west. This done, take
care to have a red scarlet mantle, or in fault thereof, go to
the shop and buy four ells of red cloth; hide this under your
coat, and wait all day, or even two days long, till the Wood-
pecker come back, with the Springwurzel in his bill. He will
touch the wedge with it, and this will fly out, like a cork from
a fermenting bottle: then be sharp, and spread your red mantle
under the tree; the woodpecker will think it is fire, will be
frightened for it, and let the Springwurzel fall. -- Is it now once
in your hand, forget not to tie a little piece of buckthorn wood
to it; for were you to lay it down by itself, it would fly away
and be lost. ' -- Musaus Volksmahrchen der Deutschen. V. 150--
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? 44
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
might. They now proceeded to an open space begirt with a
wall. The Monk here made a large cross, with his crosier,
and wrote some strange characters in the sand. Then he
read prayers, long and loud, from his large Book, none of
which however did the Miner understand. At last he struck
thrice with his crosier on the ground, and cried: Open!
There arose under their feet a muffled noise, as of dis-
tant thunder; the Earth shook beneath them. And now the
Miner with the Monk who had taken his hand sink|;] down, and
down, together with a space of ground so far as the circle
had marked out. They step off at the bottom; and the ground
again slowly mounts up. They were in a large vault.
The Monk advances with firm step; the miner with quiver-
ing knees behind him. They went along thro' some passages,
till it began to grow quite dark round them. Ere long, how-
ever, they came to a perpetual Lamp; and now saw that they
were in a spacious cloister. The Monk here kindled two
torches, for himself and his companion. They walk on; and
all at once find themselves before a large iron church-door.
The Monk prays; holds the Springwurzel, which no charm-
ed bolt can resist, to the lock, and cries: Open, door! And
with the crash of thunder, all the iron bars and locks start
out; and a round Chapel lies opened. The floor was smooth-
polished as a mirror, and whoever had not lived chaste and
devout (so the Monk said afterwards) broke both his legs here,
and never got back. The vaulted ceiling and the round walls
gleamed and flamed in the light of the torches. Great teethl37
of crystal and diamonds hung down, and between them still
greater of pure gold. On the one side stood a golden altar; on
the other a golden fount, with feet of silver. 138 The Monk
now beckoned his companion to stand right in the centre, and
to hold the torches one in each hand. He himself went for-
ward to a door all silver; knocked thrice with his crosier, and
the door sprang open.
'Straight opposite the door, on a golden throne, sat Kaiser
Friedrich; not hewn out of stone; no, but as he looked and lived;
a golden crown on his head, with which he continually nodded,
puckering his large eyebrows. His long red beard had grown
thro' the stone table before him, and reached down to his feet.
The Miner lost sight and hearing at the first glance of him.
'After a while the Monk came back, and in silence took his
companion away. The silver door shut of itself; the iron gate
dashed together with a horrid jar behind them. When they got
It is worthy of remark that the lively Compiler of the Causes
Cele~bres, whose son might be still living, mentions this Spring-
wurzel ~s a real scientific implement, or desideratum; and"
proof of what can be well proved otherwise, the imperfection of
men's Understanding. 136
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
45
back, along the cloister, to the outer vault, the circle of
ground again slowly sank: both stept on it, and were gently
borne aloft.
'Above ground the Monk gave his companion two little
bars of an unknown ore, which he had brought with him from
the chapel: these the Miner's descendants keep, in. memory
of the occurrence, to this day. '*
With which rather lame and impotent conclusion, we also,
like the Monk and Miner, must leave that enchanted region,
where, it is to be feared, we have truanted too long. Whether
those two Mahrchen are 'two little bars of an unknown ore, ' that
will keep for any time, may be doubted.
* Volks-Sagen, Mahrchen und Legenden, Gesammelt von
J. G. Busching[,j S. 320-333[actually, 327-31, 336-39]. -- Dr
Busching, our worthy Antiquarian, is son of the well-known
Geographer ;139 and himself, in this other province, not less
noted, and meritorious. Whoever wishes for true insight,
whether scientific or poetic, into the Popular Fable-world of
the Germans, will consult his Writings, and those of the Bro-
thers Grimm, as the best guides in that inquiry.
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? Chap[terJ IV140
[Modern Interest in Medieval Popular Poetry. The Two Main
German Monuments of Long-written Popular Poetry, Helden-
buch and Nibelungen Lied: Their Undetermined Antiquity and
Authorship. Account of the Former Monument, with Stress on
Siegfried as a Center of Northern Tradition]
IN 1757, the Swiss Professor, Bodmer, 141 printed an ancient
poetical manuscript under the title of Chriemhilden Rache und
die Klage (Chriemhilde's Revenge and the Lament); which may
be considered as the first of a series, or stream of publications
and speculations, still rolling on, with increased current, to
the present day. Not indeed that all these originated in so in-
significant a cause;their source, or rather thousand sources,
lay far elsewhere. In fact, a certain antiquarian tendency, a
fonder, more earnest looking back into the Past, began about
that time to manifest itself in all nations (for example, our own
Percy's Reliques): this was among the first distinct symptoms
of it in Germany; where, as with ourselves, it has produced and
is producing the most remarkable results. 142
Some fifteen years after Bodmer's Publication, which, for
the rest, is not celebrated as an editorial feat, C. H. Muller
had undertaken a Sammlung deutscher Gedichte (Collection of
German Poems from the 12th, 13th and 14th Centuries); 143
wherein, among other articles, he reprinted Bodmer's Chriem-
hilde and Klage, with a highly remarkable addition prefixed to
it, essential indeed to the right understanding thereof; and the
whole now stood before the world as one Poem, under the name
of the Nibelungen Lied, or Lay of the Nibelungen. Out of this,
ere long, proceeded innumerable new inquiries, and kindred
enterprises. For, much as the Poem, in the shape it here bore,
was defaced and marred, it failed not to attract observation:
to all open-minded lovers of Poetry, especially where a strong
patriotic feeling existed, the antique Nibelungen was an interest-
ing appearance. Johannes von Muller, in his famous Swiss His-
tory, 144 spoke of it in warm terms; and subsequently, A. W.
Schlegel, 145 thro' the medium of the Deutsche Museum, awaken-
ed a universal attention to it, which not only continues among
the Germans, but has now extended itself into neighbouring na-
tions .
In its own country, the Nibelungen has since been, investi-
gated, translated, collated, and commented upon, with the pa-
tient, unwearied fidelity characteristic of that people: be the
harvest great or not, the reapers have neither been few nor slug-
gish; we have versions, into the modern tongue, by Hagen, by
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? HELDENBUCH
47
Hinsberg, 1*6 Zeune, 147 Busching; Criticisms, Introductions,
Keys, and so forth by innumerable others, of whom we mention
only Docenl48 and the Brothers Grimm. By which means not
only has the Nibelungen been elucidated with all manner of re-
searches, but its whole environment also has come forth in
new light; the scene and personages it relates to, the other fic-
tions and traditions connected with it have attained a new im-
portance and coherence. Manuscripts that for ages had lain dor-
mant have issued from their archives into the light of day: Books
that had circulated only in mean guise for the amusement of the
people, have become important not to one or two virtuosos, but
to the general body of the learned: and now a whole system of
antique Fiction and Mythology discloses itself, shedding here
and there a real tho' feeble and uncertain glimmer over what
was once the total Darkness of the old time. No fewer than four-
teen ancient Traditionary Poems, all strangely intertwined, and
growing out of and into one another, have come to light among
the Germans; who now, in looking back, find that they too, as
well as the Greeks, have their Heroic Age; and round the pld
Valhalla, as their Northern Pantheon, a world of demigods and
wonders. Into this mighty maze of written Tradition, as we
have already done into the unwritten, which is but the cloud-fore-
court of that cloud-palace, it will be proper to look in passing.
Far be it from us, meanwhile, to venture rashly, or deeper
than is needful, into that Labyrinth; where we hear of winding
passages, or of Poems, 'containing a hundred thousand verses'
and 'se(ye ? ]nty-seven 149 thousand verses, ' as of a quite natural
affair! And no less confused, inextricable, are their windings,
than interminable. It is a Hall of Mirrors[,J that Cloud-palace;
where in pale light each Mirror reflects, convexly or concavely,
not only some real object, but the shadows of this in other Mir-
rors; which again do the like for it, in endless series; till, with
such reflection and re-reflection, the whole Immensity is filled
with dimmer and dimmer shapes; and no firm scene lies round
us, but a dislocated, distorted chaos, fades away on all hands
in the distance into utter Night. Only to some brave Von der
Hagen, furnished with indefatigable ardour, and a deep, almost
religious love, is it given to find some footing there, and see
his way. These Dukes of Aquitania, Etzel's Housekeepings, and
Dietrichs and Sigenots, we shall leave all where they are; re-
stricting ourselves to two, indeed chiefly to one, of those Works,
the Heldenbuch (Hero-Book), 150 and the Nibelungen Lied;l5l the
latter of which as a real Poem, apart from its antiquity, deserves
to be inquired into; the former as a long-established Popular Book,
and for the light it throws on the other. Such as desire further
information will find an intelligible notice of the whole series in
Messrs Weber and Jamieson's Illustrations of Northern Antiquities;*
* Edinburgh, 1814. 152
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? 48
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
and all possible furtherance in the numerous German Works
above alluded to; among which, Von der Hagen's writings, * tho'
not the readiest, are probably the safest guides.
Our first question naturally respects the age of these Tra-
ditions; to which question, however, no sure answer can be given.
It is known from History that Eginhart, the Secretary and happy
son-in-law of Charlemagne, compiled by order of that monarch
a collection of the Ancient German Songs; among whichQ 153 it
is fondly believed by antiquarians, this Nibelungen and the main
traditions of the Heldenbuch connected therewith, may have had
honourable place. Unluckily Eginhart' s Collection has quite
perished; and only his Life of the Great Charles, 154 in which
this circumstance stands noted, survives to provoke curiosity.
One thing is certain, Fulco Archbishop of Rheims, in the year
885, is introduced as citing certain 'German Books, ' to enforce
some argument of his, by instance of 'King Ermenrich's crime
towards his relations';t which King Ermenrich and his crime
are at this day part and parcel of the Heldenbuch, and presup-
posed in the Nibelungen. Later notices of a more decisive sort
occur in abundance. Saxo Grammaticus, 156 who flourished in
the twelfth century, relates that about the year 1130, a Saxon
minstrel, being sent to Iceland, with a treacherous invitation
from one royal Dane to another; and not daring to violate his oath,
yet compassionating the victim, sang to him, by way of indirect
warning, 'the Song of Chriemhilde's Treachery to her Brothers';
that is to say, the latter portion of our actual Nibelungen Lied.
To which direct evidences that these Traditions, in substance,
were universally known in the twelfth century, nay had been in
some shape committed to writing in the ninth, or rather in the
eightjh] -- we have still to add the probability of their being 'An-
cient Songs' even at that earliest date; all which, on a moderate
estimate, may carry us back into the sixth century; yet not far-
ther, inasmuch as certain of the Poetic Personages that figure
in them, belong intrinsically to the fifth.
Other and more open proof of Antiquity lies in the fact that
these Traditions are so universally diffused. There are Danish
and Icelandic versions of them, externally more or less withered
and distorted, yet substantially real copies; professing indeed
to be borrowed from the German: in particular, we have the
Niflunga and Wilkina Saga, 157 composed in the thirteenth cen-
tury, which, still, in many ways, illustrate the German Original.
Innumerable other Songs and Sagas point more remotely in the
same direction. It appears indeed that certain rhymed Tales
* His Grundriss zur Geschichte der Altdeutschen Poesie (Out-
line of a History of Old-German Poesy); his Editions of the
Nibelungen Lied and Heldenbuch; his Essay, Die Nibelungen,
ihre Bedeutung &c.
t Hagens Nibelungen. Einleit. S. VIII [actually p. DC]. 155
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?
