Hildebrand, son of Herbrand, spake again: "Thine arms show that in this land thou couldst not gain A liberal leader or a royal friend. Now well away. Great God, fate's evil end! For sixty years, exile in stranger lands, Summer and winter with spear-darting bands, Never once leg bound within city wall, I come back by my own son's hand to fall, Hewn by his sword, or be his murderer,-- But if thy strength hold, thou canst readily Win of the brave his arms, spoil of the slain, When thine by right." Said Hildebrand, "Now, worst Of Ostrogoths be he who holds me back! My heart is for the fray. Judge comrades who look on, which of us wins The fame, best throws the dart, and earns the spoil." The ashen spears then sped, stuck in the shields With their keen points, and down on the white shields The heavy axes rang with sounding blows, Shattering their rims, the flesh behind stood firm. . . . --Tr. by Morley. In the second, or Middle High German Period, the heroic legends of early times were revived and formed the subject matter of many epic and semi epic poems. These legends have been classified into six several cycles of romances:[1] [1] Cf. Morley's "English Writers." Vol. III., pp. 152-4. 1. The Frankish cycle contains the stories of Siegfried, the Sigurd of the Scandinavian tradition. 2. The Burgundian cycle contains King Gunther. 3. The Ostrogoth cycle contains Dietrich, Theodoric, and Hildebrand. 4. The Hungarian cycle, to which belongs Attila or Etzel, and Rudiger. 5. The Lombard cycle, to which belong King Rother, King Otnit, and Wolfdietrich. 6. The North Saxon cycle, to which belongs the tale of Gudrun. The two most important of all the epics based upon these cycles are the Gudrun and the Niebelungenlied. The latter is the more comprehensive, national, and famous. It includes and unifies all the tales from the first four cycles of heroic legends.[1] The whole of German art, literature, and tradition is full of reflections of this poem. The best scholarship has concluded that the poem is not the work of a single author, but, like other folk epics, an edited collection of songs. The work was finished about 1190-1210. It consists of two greater parts, (1) the "Death of Siegfried" and (2) the "Vengeance of Kriemhild". [1] See Kluge, "Geschichte der Deutschen National-Literature," p. 33. From the "Niebelungenlied". The first song in the poem gives us Kriemhild's foreboding dream. KRIEMHILD'S DREAM. Stanzas 1-19. In stories of our fathers high marvels we are told Of champions well approved in perils manifold. Of feasts and merry meetings, of weeping and of wail, And deeds of gallant daring I'll tell you in my tale. In Burgundy there flourish'd a maid so fair to see, That in all the world together a fairer could not be. This maiden's name was Kriemhild; through her in dismal strife Full many a proudest warrior thereafter lost his life.