Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iv. (1855). =Minna and Brenda=, two beautiful girls, the daughters of Magnus Troil, the old udaller of Zetland. Minna was stately in form, with dark eyes and raven locks; credulous and vain, but not giddy; enthusiastic, talented and warm-hearted. She loved Captain Clement Cleveland; but Cleveland was killed in an encounter on the Spanish main. Brenda had golden hair, a bloom on her cheeks, a fairy form, and a serene, cheerful disposition. She was less the heroine than her sister, but more the loving and confiding woman. She married Mordaunt Mertoun (ch. iii).--Sir W. Scott, _The Pirate_ (time, William III.). =Minna von Barnhelm.= A wealthy girl who is engaged to Major von Tellheim, a Prussian soldier. He loses his fortune, is wounded and suspected of dishonor, and from regard for Minna strives to break the engagement. Everything is righted, and they marry.--G. E. Lessing. =Minneha´ha= (“_the laughing water_”), daughter of the arrow-maker of Daco´tah, and wife of Hiawatha. She was called Minnehaha from the waterfall of that name between St. Anthony and Fort Snelling. From the waterfall, he named her Minnehaha, Laughing Water. Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, iv. (1855). =Minnesingers=, the Troubadours of Germany during the Hohenstaufen period (1138-1294), minstrels who composed and sung short lyrical poems--usually in praise of women or in celebration of the beauties of nature--called _Minne_, or love songs. The names of nearly three hundred of these poets have come down to us, including all classes of society, the most famous being Dietmar von Aist, Ulrich von Lichenstein, Heinrich von Frauenlob, and above all Walther von der Vogelweid (1168-1230). Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strasburg, and Hartmann von der Aue are also classed among the Minnesingers, but their principal fame was won in the field of metrical romance. ⁂ The story runs that Vogelweid bequeathed his worldly all to a Wurtzburg monastery upon condition that they should feed the doves at noon every day upon his grave. The multiplying birds aroused the avaricious alarm of the abbot, who forbade the daily distribution. “Time has long effaced the inscriptions On the cloister’s funeral stones, And tradition only tells us Where repose the poet’s bones. But around the vast cathedral By sweet echoes mutiplied[TN-12] Still the birds repeat the legend And the name of Vogelweid.” H. W. Longfellow, _Walter von der Vogelweid_ 186-. =Mino´na=, “the soft blushing daughter of Torman,” a Gaelic bard in the _Songs of Selma_, one of the most famous portions of Macpherson’s _Ossian_.