THE KING'S MIRROR 3 



Table. A little later came another cycle of poems based 

 on the heroic tales of classical antiquity. The twelfth 

 century witnessed a parallel movement in Germany, 

 which at first was largely an imitation of contemporary 

 French poetry. The poets, however, soon discovered 

 literary treasures in the dim world of the Teutonic past, 

 in the tales of the Nibelungs, in the heroic deeds of 

 Theodoric, and in the exploits of other heroes. 



Thus in the first half of the thirteenth century there 

 was a large body of French and German verse in circu- 

 lation. The verses were borne from region to region and 

 from land to land by professional entertainers, who 

 chanted the poems, and by pilgrims and other travelers, 

 who secured manuscript copies. In the course of time 

 the new tales reached the Northern countries, and it 

 was not long before/the Northmen were eagerly listening 

 to the stories of chivalrous warfare, militant religion, 

 and tragic love, that they had learned in the southlands^ 



The Northern peoples thus had a share in the fruitage 

 of the later middle ages; but they also had a share in 

 their achievements. Politically as wpll a 

 the thirt-mith fpntnry wn* Q "Ta,t 



rmvifm fmiintrimi The Danish kingdom rose to the high- 

 est point of its power under Valdemar the Victorious, 

 whose troubled reign began in 1202. Valdemar succeeded 

 in extending the territories of Denmark along the entire 

 southern coast of the Baltic Sea; but the greatness was 

 short-lived : after the defeat of the Danes by the North 

 Germans at Bornhoved in 1227, the decline of Danish 

 imperialism began. In Sweden, too, men dreamed of 

 conquest beyond the sea. Under the leadership of Earl 



