GERMANY.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Keightley, Thomas
Von wilden getwergen han ich gehöret sagen Si sin in holren bergen; unt daz si ze scherme tragen Einez heizet tarnkappen, von wunderlicher art— Swerz hat an sime libe, der sol vil wohl sin bewart Vor slegen unt vor stichen. Nibelungen, Lied st. 342.
Of wild dwarfs I oft have heard men declare They dwell in hollow mountains; and for defence they wear A thing called a Tarn-cloke, of wonderful nature— Who has it on his body will ever be secure 'Gainst cutting and 'gainst thrusting.
The religion of the ancient Germans, probably the same with that of the Scandinavians, contained, like it, Alfs, Dwarfs, and Giants. The Alfs have fallen from the popular creed,[245] but the Dwarfs still retain their former dominion. Unlike those of the North, they have put off their heathen character, and, with their human neighbours, have embraced a purer faith. With the creed they seem to have adopted the spirit of their new religion also. In most of the traditions respecting them we recognise benevolence as one of the principal traits of their character.
The oldest monuments of German popular belief are the poems of the Heldenbuch (Hero-book) and the spirit-stirring Nibelungen Lied.[246] In these poems the Dwarfs are actors of importance.
In this last-named celebrated poem the Dwarf Albrich appears as the guardian of the celebrated Hoard which Sifrit (Siegfried) won from the Nibelungen. The Dwarf is twice vanquished by the hero who gains his Tarn-kappe, or Mantle of Invisibility.[247]
In the Heldenbuch we meet with the Dwarf-king Laurin, whose garden Dietrich of Bern and his warriors broke into and laid waste. To repel the invader the Dwarf appears in magnificent array: twenty-three stanzas are occupied with the description of his banner, helmet, shield, and other accoutrements. A furious combat ensues, in which the Dwarf has long the advantage, as his magic ring and girdle endow him with the strength of twenty-four men, and his Hel Keplein[248] (Tarnkappe) renders him invisible at pleasure. At length, by the advice of Hildebrand, Dietrich strikes off the Dwarf's finger, breaks his girdle, and pulls off his Hel Keplein, and thus succeeds in vanquishing his enemy. Laurin is afterwards reconciled to the heroes, and prevails on them to enter the mountain in which he dwelt, and partake of a banquet. Having them now in his power, he treacherously makes them all his prisoners. His queen, however, Ditlaub's sister, whom he had stolen away from under a linden, releases them: their liberation is followed by a terrific engagement between them and Laurin, backed by a numerous host of Dwarfs. Laurin is again overcome; he loses his queen; his hill is plundered of its treasures, and himself led to Bern, and there reduced to the extremity of earning his bread by becoming a buffoon.
In the poem named Hürnen Sifrit[249] the Dwarf Eugel[250] renders the hero good service in his combat with the enchanted Dragon who had carried off the fair Chrimhild from Worms, and enclosed her in the Drachenstein. When Sifrit is treacherously attacked by the Giant Kuperan, the ally of the Dragon, the Dwarf flings his Nebelkappe over him to protect him.
But the most celebrated of Dwarfs is Elberich,[251] who aided the emperor Otnit or Ortnit to gain the daughter of the Paynim Soldan of Syria.
Otnit ruled over Lombardy, and had subdued all the neighbouring nations. His subjects wishing him to marry, he held a council to consider the affair. No maiden mentioned was deemed noble enough to share his bed. At last his uncle Elias, king of the "wild Russians," says:—
"I know of a maiden, noble and high-born, Her no man yet hath wooed, his life who hath not lorn.
"She shineth like the roses, and the gold ruddý, She fair is in her person, thou must credit me; She shines o'er other women, as bright roses do, So fair a child was never; they say she good is too."
The monarch's imagination is inflamed, and, regardless of the remonstrances of his council, he determines to brave all dangers, to sail with a powerful army to Syria, where the maiden dwelt, and to win her or to die. He regulates his kingdom, and says to his uncle:—
As soon as May appeareth, with her days so clear, Then pray thou of thy friends all, their warriors to cheer, To hold themselves all ready; go things as they may, We will, with the birds' singing, sail o'er the sea away.
The queen now endeavours to dissuade her son, but finding her efforts vain, resolves to aid him as far as she can. She gives him a ring, and desires him to ride toward Rome till he comes to where a linden stands before a hill, from which runs a brook, and there he will meet with an adventure. She farther tells him to keep the ring uncovered, and the stone of it will direct him.
Obeying his directions, Otnit rides alone from his palace at Garda, continually looking at his ring:
Unto a heath he came then, close by the Garda lake, Where everywhere the flowers and clover out did break; The birds were gaily singing, their notes did loudly ring, He all the night had waked, he was weary with riding.
The sun over the mountains and through the welkin shone, Then looked he full oft on the gold and on the stone; Then saw he o'er the meadow, down trodden the green grass, And a pathway narrow, where small feet used to pass.
Then followed he downwards, the rocky wall boldlý, Till he had found the fountain, and the green linden-tree, And saw the heath wide spreading, and the linden branching high. It had upon its boughs full many a guest worthy.
The birds were loudly singing, each other rivalling, "I have the right way ridden," spake Otnit the king; Then much his heart rejoiced, when he saw the linden spread; He sprang down from his courser, he held him by the head.
And when the Lombarder had looked on the linden He began to laugh loud; now list what he said then: "There never yet from tree came so sweet breathing a wind." Then saw he how an infant was laid beneath the lind,
Who had himself full firmly rolled in the grass; Then little the Lombarder knew who he was: He bore upon his body so rich and noble a dress, No king's child upon earth e'er did the like possess.
His dress was rich adorned with gold and precious stone; When he beneath the linden the child found all alone: "Where now is thy mother?" king Otnit he cries; "Thy body unprotected beneath this tree here lies."
This child was Elberich, whom the ring rendered visible. After a hard struggle, Otnit overcomes him. As a ransom, Elberich promises him a magnificent suit of armour—
"I'll give thee for my ransom the very best harnéss That either young or old in the world doth possess.
"Full eighty thousand marks the harness is worth well, A sword too I will give thee, with the shirt of mail, That every corselet cuts through as if steel it were not; There ne'er was helm so strong yet could injure it a jot.
"I ween in the whole world no better sword there be, I brought it from a mountain is called Almari; It is with gold adorned, and clearer is than glass; I wrought it in a mountain is called Göickelsass.
"The sword I will name to thee, it is bright of hue, Whate'er thou with it strikest no gap will ensue, It is Rossè called, I tell to thee its name; Wherever swords are drawing it never will thee shame.
"With all the other harness I give thee leg armoúr, In which there no ring is, my own hand wrought it sure; And when thou hast the harness thou must it precious hold, There's nothing false within it, it all is of pure gold.
"With all the armour rich I give thee a helmét, Upon an emperor's head none a better e'er saw yet; Full happy is the man who doth this helmet bear, His head is recognised, a mile off though he were.
"And with the helmet bright I will give to thee a shield, So strong and so good too, if to me thanks thou'lt yield; It never yet was cut through by any sword so keen, No sort of weapon ever may that buckler win."
Elberich persuades the king to lend him his ring; when he gets it he becomes invisible, and amuses himself by telling him of the whipping he will get from his mother for having lost it. At last when Otnit is on the point of going away, Elberich returns the ring, and, to his no small surprise, informs him that he is his father, promising him, at the same time, if he is kind to his mother, to stand his friend, and assist him to gain the heathen maid.
When May arrives Otnit sails from Messina with his troops. As they approach Sunders,[252] they are a little in dread of the quantity of shipping they see in the port, and the king regrets and bewails having proceeded without his dwarf-sire. But Elberich has, unseen, been sitting on the mast. He appears, and gives his advice, accompanied by a stone, which, by being put into the mouth, endows its possessor with the gift of all languages. On the heathens coming alongside the vessel, Otnit assumes the character of a merchant, and is admitted to enter the port. He forthwith proposes to murder the inhabitants in the night, an act of treachery which is prevented by the strong and indignant rebukes of the Dwarf.
Elberich sets off to Muntabur,[253] the royal residence, to demand the princess. The Soldan, enraged at the insolence of the invisible envoy, in vain orders his men to put him to death; the "little man" returns unscathed to Otnit, and bids him prepare for war. By the aid of Elberich, Otnit wins, after great slaughter on both sides, the city of Sunders. He then, under the Dwarf's advice, follows up his conquest by marching for Muntabur, the capital. Elberich, still invisible, except to the possessor of the ring, offers to act as guide.
"Give me now the horse here they lead by the hand, And I will guide thine army unto the heathens' land; If any one should ask thee, who on the horse doth ride? Thou shalt say nothing else, but—an angel is thy guide."
The army, on seeing the horse and banner advancing as it were of themselves, blessed themselves, and asked Otnit why he did not likewise.
"It is God's messenger!" Otnit then cried: "Who unto Muntabur will be our trusty guide; Him ye should believe in, who like Christians debate, Who in the fight them spare not, he leads to heaven straight."
Thus encouraged, the troops cheerfully follow the invisible standard-bearer, and soon appear before Muntabur, where Elberich delivers the banner to king Elias, and directs them to encamp. He meanwhile enters the city, flings down the artillery from the walls, and when the Soldan again refuses to give his daughter, plucks out some of his majesty's beard[254] and hair, in the midst of his courtiers and guards, who in vain cut and thrust at the viewless tormentor. A furious battle ensues. The queen and princess resort to prayers to their gods Apollo and Mahomet for the safety of the Soldan The princess is thus described:
Her mouth flamed like a rose, and like the ruby stone, And equal to the full moon her lovely eyes they shone.
With roses she bedecked had well her head, And with pearls precious,—no one comforted the maid: She was of exact stature, slender in the waist, And turned like a taper was her body chaste.
Her hands and her arms, you nought in them could blame, Her nails they so clear were, people saw themselves in them; And her hair ribbons were of silk costly, Which she left down hanging, the maiden fair and free.