EPICS AND ROMANCES
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
FRONTISPIECE.
INTRODUCTION.
Legend is not history; but in legend we find embodiedhistorical truths, manners and customs of past ages, beliefsand superstitions otherwise long forgotten, of which history itselftakes no account. Legend has preserved for us, maybe inromantic dress, maybe under altered names and circumstances,stirring pictures of heroes and heroines, who once have lived andsuffered, fought and conquered, or have faced death with trustfulcourage; pictures, too, of men of equal prowess, as strong in evilas in might, who, victorious for a time, have yet ever met a strongerpower than theirs, stronger in virtue, stronger in might.
As we write, the shadowy forms of terrific Alboin raising alofthis goblet fashioned from royal skull; the noble Siegfried withhis loved Chriemhild and the jealous Brunhild; brave KingDietrich; the gentle, patient Gudrun and her beauteous motherHilde, all flit before the mind, framing themselves into a vividpicture, such as must have lived in the imagination of our earlyforefathers, stirring them on to noble actions, restraining them8from evil working. Thus has good in all ages fought against ill,and all races of men have sung its victory in strains but slightlyvarying. And so will it ever fight, no matter how our moreelaborate ideas of what is good or evil may vary: the nationalways glorifies the great and noble according to its own unreasoningreason.
This volume contains the principal hero-lays of the six greatepic cycles of the Teutonic Middle Ages, and to them we haveadded the great mythical Carolingian cycle, which centred roundthe persons of Charlemagne and his heroes. The latter is mostlyof Romance origin, and was comp