won, and their captives, Hartmut
and Ortrun; and on reaching Matelan they were warmly welcomed by Hilde, who
was especially rejoiced to see her daughter once more.

"The queen drew near to Gudrun. Could any one outweigh
The joy they felt together, with any wealth or treasure?
When they had kissed each other their grief was changed to pleasure."
_Gudrun_ (Dippold's
tr.).

[Sidenote: A fourfold wedding.] Shortly after their return home a fourfold
wedding took place. Gudrun married her faithful Herwig, Ortwine espoused
Hildburg, Siegfried consoled himself for Gudrun's loss by taking the fair
Ortrun to wife, and Hartmut received with the hand of Hergart, Herwig's
sister, the restitution not only of his freedom but also of his kingdom.

At the wedding banquet Horant, who, in spite of his advanced years, had
lost none of his musical skill, played the wedding march with such success
that the queens simultaneously flung their crowns at his feet,--an offering
which he smilingly refused, telling them that crowns were perishable, but
that the poet's song was immortal.

"The aged minstrel drew his harp still closer to his breast,
Gazed at the jeweled coronets as this thought he expressed:
'Fair queens, I bid you wear them until your locks turn gray;
Those crowns, alas! are fleeting, but song will live alway.'"
NIENDORF (H.A.G.'s tr.).

CHAPTER III.

REYNARD THE FOX.

Among primitive races, as with children, animal stories are much enjoyed,
and form one of the first stages in literature. The oldest of these tales
current in the middle ages is the epic of Reineke Fuchs, or Reynard the
Fox. This poem was carried by the ancient Franks across the Rhine, became
fully acclimated in France, and then returned to Germany by way of
Flanders, where it was localized.

After circulating from mouth to mouth almost all over Europe, during many
centuries, it was first committed to writing in the Netherlands, where the
earliest manuscript, dating from the eleventh or twelfth century, gives a
Latin version of the tale.

[Sidenote: Origin of animal epics.] "The root of this saga lies in the
harmless natural simplicity of a primeval people. We see described the
delight which the rude child of nature takes in all animals,--in their slim
forms, their gleaming eyes, their fierceness, their nimbl