I96 NORDIC BALLADS

In 1311

From Spiegelberg fast riding came
Lippold, a mighty warrior's name;
his sword, two ells and one half long,
was sharp, his harness bright and strong.

His helm weighed seven and half a pound,
with pearls bespattered and with gold,
his golden-gleaming shield was round,
he bestrode his horse in hosen bold.

He came to Brunswick, to the town,
at the Golden Lion gat him down;
he met his company, his own,
to every man was full well known.

'From Spiegeiberg have I come here,
I bring you news of goodly cheer!
On us new-fangled fines they lay!'
They all thought good what he did say!

(Liliencron 6.)

The common centre of these Nordic ballads, if there were one
centre, would thus seem to have been the northern parts of
Germany, and the first area of diffusion to have been the rim of
land round the North Sea from Jutland to East Anglia. To the
above indications we may add that the Low German Dietrichs Saga,
now extant in an Old Norse translation of the early thirteenth
century, is of peculiar importance for the transmission of epic
material both to Scandinavia and to Germany. The similarity of
style between Danish and German ballads is such as to suggest a
common fount and origin, and there was undoubtedly at a later
date a considerable influx of German ballads (such as Tannhduser,
The Count of Rome, and The Castle in Austria) into Denmark and
Sweden. What the Saxon poet sang to Knut Lavard in 1131 was
'Grimhild's notorious treachery to her brothers', that is, the matter
of the Nibelung epos. The same matter is repeated in the Danish
ballad of Grimhild's Revenge, but as a much later borrowing from
Germany.

On the other hand, there are considerable difficulties in the way
of tracing the whole Nordic ballad effort to one original centre of
inspiration. The chief of these is the lateness of the indubitably
German ballads. The style declares itself in Denmark fully a cen-
tury before it is certainly to be found in Germany. In the latter,