246 NORDIC BALLADS

in the pieces, reproduced by Liliencron, on the alliance of Bern and
Freiburg in 1243, the defeat of Ottokar II in 1278, or the battle of
Gollheim in 1298. The second of these begins In a spirited manner:

The banners and the host

began to take up post,

beat drums and trumpets blare,

troops, moving everywhere,

advance unwavering.

On the field a song men sing

'In God's name now march wej.

Many wept—credit me—

their sins and sinful life,

their children and their wife.

It is spirited and semi-popular, but it is not a ballad. It is not ever
in the form of a ballad, which is, in Germany, stanzaic. Th(
necessary qualities are present in the few lines concerning Lippolc
of Homboken (1311), which come from Low Germany, and in the
song of the Kerels (1328-9):

Now shall we of the Kerels sing,

folk of a wretched sort,
the lords they'll in subjection bring!—

a long, long beard they sport.
Their shoddy clothes are rent and torn,

upon their heads a hood to match,
askew their hats and caps are worn,
hosen and shoes show many a patch.
So curds and whey and bread and cheese

they eat and eat and eat all day;
and so the churl gets in a daze,

who eats and eats more than he may.

The great series of Swiss victories in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries gave rise to a series of stirring songs which had genuine
popular acceptance, as they celebrated Sempach (1386), Nafels,
Birs, Granson, Murten, Nancy, and the Swabian War of 1495-8.
They built up a sense of nationhood, of the invincibility of the pike-
men, and of professional soldiering. The Battle of Sempach (Erk-
Bohme 231) is one of the earliest of German ballads. It originated
in a little dialogue in couplets (Spruch) composed, apparently,
while the war still lasted. The Austrian invader threatens to hang
the insurgents, and the mavnr of SAw«a/»k ~«~i:------^- *