the boots have vanished. In a story in The Thousand and One Nights (10, 302) there is a contention for a cap which makes its wearer invisible, a drum, and a bed. Compare the Indian story in Somadeva's collection, 1. 19, 20 (comp. the Berlin Jahrb. für deutsche Sprache, 2. 265); also an Arabian story in the Continuation of the Thousand and One Nights, 563-624 (see Val. Schmidt's Fortunat, pp. 174-178); a Norwegian story in Asbjörnsen, pp. 53, 171; and a Hungarian in Mailáth and Gaal, No. 7.
The preceding incident of the pledging away the child to the Devil in ignorance and over-haste, occurs very frequently as an introduction to these stories (see note to No. 55). Here it has a christian application. The likeness to Siegfried begins at the point where the youth is pushed forth upon the water (compare Wilkina Sage, chap. 140, 141, which alone has this circumstance.) The princess whom he delivers is, according to the German saga, Kriemhild on the Drachenstein, elsewhere however, especially according to the Norse saga, Brünhild, for in aid of Gudrun (i.e. Kriemhild), he does there, as in the Nibelungen, nothing. The dragon who keeps her imprisoned, is suggested in our story by the princess herself having become a snake. The overcoming the spirits by silence is an ancient and important feature (see Altdän. Lieder, p. 508.) The Gold Mountain which the hero wins, is the mountain with the treasures of gold, the Hoard, which, according to the Lied, Siegfried also won on the Drachenstein; even the wishing-rod of the Hoard (Nibelungen, 1064) appears here as a wishing-ring. The power of invisibility which was conferred by Siegfried's Tarnhaut (Cloak of Darkness), Nibel. 337, and the change of form in the Norse saga appear here in the youth's disguise as a shepherd, which enabled him to enter the town without being known, and is still more clearly seen afterwards in his invisibility by reason of the mantle, and his transformation into a fly. (Loki thus transforms himself, and the Indian Hanuman reaches Sita in the same way. Polier, 1. 350). Most remarkable of all is the much more circumstantial account of the partition of the treasure which corresponds almost entirely with the ancient obscure one (Nibel. 88-96), and throws light on it. The Nibelungen warriors disagree, as they do here, and call Siegfried in as divider. The magic sword is the noble sword Balmung; Siegfried too receives this first, and then goes away with what he has gained without making any division. This magic power of the sword is important, for just as all heads fall before it, all living beings are turned to stone by the Aegir helmet (Hildegrein), which, according to the Norse saga, was likewise part of the "Hoard." In the youth's relations with the Queen, we have also a hint of Siegfried's relations with Brünhild. She, as in the Norse saga, knows that misfortune will befall him if he leaves her, and there is something
