ntain fastness of Geroldseck. Diedrich rests in the mountains of
Alsace, his hand upon his sword, waiting till the Turk shall water his
horses on the banks of the Rhine. On the Gruetli, where once they met to
swear the oath which freed their country, lie the three founders of the
Swiss Federation in a cleft of the rock. The Danes have appropriated
Olger, who, Grimm says, really belongs to the Ardennes; and in a vaulted
chamber under the castle of Kronburg he sits, with a number of warriors
clad in mail, about a stone table, into which his beard has grown. A
slave who was condemned to death received pardon and freedom on
condition of descending to ascertain what was beneath the castle; for at
that time no one knew, and no one could explain the clashing of armour
sometimes heard below. He passed through an iron doorway and found
himself in the presence of Olger and his men. Their heads rested on
their arms, which were crossed upon the table. When Olger lifted up his
head the table burst asunder. "Reach me thy hand," he said to the slave;
but the latter, not venturing to give his hand, held out an iron bar
instead, which Olger squeezed so that the marks remained visible. At
length letting it go, he exclaimed: "It gladdens me that there are still
men in Denmark!"[159]

But of all the great names appropriated by this myth, the one which has
thus been made most famous is that of Frederick Barbarossa. When he was
drowned in crossing the river Calycadmus in Asia Minor, the peasants of
Germany refused to believe in his death, and constantly expected him to
return. Poems which go back to the middle of the fourteenth century, or
within a century and a half of Frederick's death, prove the existence of
a tradition to this effect. More than this, they contain allusions to
some of the details about to be mentioned, and foretell his recovery of
the Holy Sepulchre. The Kyffhaeuser in Thuringia is the mountain usually
pointed out as his place of retreat, though other places also claim the
honour. Within the cavern he sits at a stone table, and rests his head
upon his hand. His beard grows round the table: twice already has it
made the circuit; when it has grown round the third time the emperor
will awake. He will then come forth, and will hang his shield on a
withered tree which will break into leaf, and a better time will dawn.
Gorgeous descriptions are given of the cavern. It is radiant with gold
and jewels; and though it is a cavern de