Book IX

. p. 262, where the nature of the MS. in which Kiot found the story of Parzival and the Grail is stated. It certainly seems clear that Wolfram _had_ a source of information other than the poem of Chrêtien de Troyes; his other statements as to contemporary events and contemporary literature are perfectly accurate, and we do not find him inventing feigned names for other writers of the day; it therefore seems somewhat unreasonable to conclude, simply because we know nothing of Kiot's work, that Wolfram here, and in other passages, is, to put it mildly, inventing an elaborate fiction. The fact of the great popularity obtained by Chrêtien's version of the Grail legend is quite enough to account for the disappearance of a version which, for some reason or other (very probably its curious account of the Grail), had failed to attract the popular fancy.

Page 240, line 363--'_If Turnus thou fain wouldst be_.' An allusion to the _Æneid_ of Heinrich von Veldeck, where Turnus reproaches Tranzes for cowardice, and is answered in much the same strain as Liddamus answers Kingrimursel.

Page 240, line 387--'_Nay, why should I be a Wolfhart?_' This passage to line 398 is an allusion to the great German epic, the _Niebelungenlied_, the various lays composing which seem to have been brought into order and welded into a literary whole about this time. Wolfram's version of the cook's appeal to Gunther varies slightly from the received text and probably represents an older form.

Page 241, line 407--'_Sibech ne'er drew a sword_.' This is an allusion to the story of Dietrich von Berne, parts of which were incorporated in the _Niebelungenlied_, where, however, this special incident is not to be found. Ermenrich was uncle to Dietrich and Emperor of Rome; Sibech, who seems to have been as faithless as he was cowardly, to avenge a personal injury, counselled the Emperor to a course which brought about the ruin of himself and his people.

Page 242, line 452--'_The wood Læhtamreis_.' Tamreis, as we find from

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