these
wonder-flowers stepped lovely maidens, rosy as dawn and white as day,
and about twelve years old. All these thousands of charming beings
raised their voices together and competed with the birds in song,
swaying up and down in charming lines, singing and laughing in the
cool shade. They were dressed in red and white, like the flowers from
which they were born; but if sun rays fell on them, they would fade
and die. They were only children of the woodland shade and the
summer, and lived no longer than the flowers, which May brings to
life and Autumn kills. In this wood Alexander and his host pitched
their tents, and lived through the summer with the little maids. But
their happiness only lasted three months and twelve days:

When the time came to an end, our joy passed away too; the
flowers faded, and the pretty girls died; trees lost their
leaves, springs their flow, and the birds their song; all
pleasure passed away. Discomfort began to touch my heart with
many sorrows, as day by day I saw the beautiful maidens die, the
flowers fade: with a heavy heart, I departed with my men.

This fairy-like tale, with its blending of human and plant life, is
very poetically conceived; but it is only a play of fancy, one of the
early steps towards the modern feeling.

The battle scenes, as well as other scenes in this poem, are bold and
exaggerated. Armies meet like roaring seas; missiles fly from both
sides as thick as snow; after the dreadful bath of blood, sun and
moon veil their light and turn away from the murder committed there.

Hartmann von der Aue, too, did not draw real Nature, but only one of
his own invention.

For example, the wild forest with the magic spring in _Iwein_:

I turned to the wilds next morning, and found an extensive
clearing, hidden in the forest, solitary and without husbandmen.
There, to my distress, I descried a sad delight of the
eyes--beasts of every kind that I know the names of, attacking
each other.... this spring is cold and very pure; neither rain,
sun, or wind reach it; it is screened by a most beautiful lime
tree. The tree is excessively tall and thick, so that neither sun
nor rain can penetrate its foliage, winter does not injure it,
nor lessen its beauty by one hair; 'tis green and blossoming the
whole year round.... Over the spring there is a wonderfully fine
stone ... the tree was so covered with birds that I co