204 NORDIC BALLADS

Bishop, King Estmere, Sir Cawline, Lady Diamond, Blancheflour
and Jellyflorice. The first is related to the German Moringer cycle;
among the others there are some which may be romances invented
by the ballad poet. The style of all these ballads is only semi-
popular. The poet is consciously displaying his powers of inven-
tion and narration, and the whole group is scarcely to be distin-
guished, save on the ground of length, from the 'tail-rhyme'
romances, like Athelston and Chaucer's burlesque Sir Thopas,
which formed the staple of public entertainment in England. These
romances are much less prevalent in Scottish balladry, which is
distinguished for its close association with Denmark and Norway.
The influence of French romance was exerted strongly on Flan-
ders and the Netherlands in the German ballad area, and from
thence spread to the rest of the territory. There is the usual Flos
and Blancflos. The troubadour biography of Guilhem de Cabe-
stanh, which occurs also in the French twelfth-century romance of
the Castellan de Coney, gives material for the Flemish and Low
German ballad of Brennenberg. The Tristan legend is reflected in
the German Liebestod. One notices also, especially in Flanders, the
influence of the later French popular songs. There are many
which reproduce the cynical French view of marriage, describing
amorous intrigues in which the offender is held up for admiration,
or in which he is a monk or other religious person. The motif of
the vivandiere, always popular in France, is also encountered in
the Netherlands. It is a military motif. Among what may be called
songs of the professions—that is, songs in which the composer is
stated to be of some particular profession or status—Germany has
greatly developed those of the soldiery. First the songs of reiters
and landsknechts in the sixteenth century, then the songs of the
religious wars, and later the conscript lyrics of modern times.

The influence of literary conventions fixed by the troubadours
and trouveres is also noticeable, particularly in the ballad use of
the 'aubade'. Both Tannhduser and The noble Moringer have the
opening proper to an 'aubade', and that is true also of the ballad
refashioning of Pyramus and Thisbe (Abendgang). This is the less
surprising, since it is clear that both Minnesang and Meistersang
have affected the composition of love ballads. Tannhauser and
Heinrich von der Morung were poets about whom ballads were
composed, and Duke Ernest, The Knight from Steiermark, The
Count of Rome, &c., are 'master-songs' turned ballads. The literary