Last updated "Zwergenkönig Laurin am Hof des Dietrich von Bern." 1926 Painting by Ferdinand Leeke depicting Laurin at Dietrich's court at the end of the poem.
Laurin or Der kleine Rosengarten (The Small Rose Garden) is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. It likely originates from the region of South Tyrol, possibly as early as 1230, though all manuscripts are later.[1]
The poem has five extant versions. In each, it concerns Dietrich's fight against the dwarfKing Laurin, which takes place when Dietrich and Witege destroy Laurin's magical rose garden. The heroes are subsequently invited into Laurin's kingdom inside a mountain when it is discovered that Laurin has kidnapped and married the sister of Dietleib, one of Dietrich's heroes. Laurin betrays the heroes and imprisons them, but they are able to defeat him and save Dietleib's sister. The different versions depict Laurin's fate differently: in some, he becomes a jester at Dietrich's court, in others the two are reconciled and become friends.
The Laurin was one of the most popular legends about Dietrich. Beginning in the fifteenth century, it was printed both as part of the compendium of heroic poems known as the Heldenbuch and independently, and continued to be printed until around 1600. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a variant of the poem was reimagined as a folk saga and became part of South Tyrolean popular folklore.
Summary
Laurin fights against Dietrich in the rose garden. SLUB Dresden M. Dresd. M. 201 fol. 276 v.
The Laurin exists in several versions (see "Transmission, versions, and dating" below). The oldest version of the tale (the so-called elder Vulgate version (ältere Vulgatversion), which the "Dresdner version" follows closely, begins with a conversation between Witige and Hildebrand. Witige says that Dietrich is the greatest hero of all time; Hildebrand objects that Dietrich has never experienced a twergenâventiure (dwarf-adventure). At that point Dietrich walks in and is very angered by Hildebrand's private criticism. Hildebrand tells Dietrich where he can find such an adventure: the dwarf king Laurin has a rose-garden in the Tyrolian forest. He will fight any challenger who breaks the thread surrounding his rose garden. Dietrich and Witige immediately set off to challenge Laurin; Hildebrand and Dietleib follow secretly behind. Upon seeing the beautiful rose-garden, Dietrich relents and decides that he does not want to harm anything so lovely. Witige, however, says that Laurin's pride must be punished, and not only breaks the thread, but tramples the entire rose garden. Almost immediately the dwarf Laurin, armed so wonderfully that Witige mistakes him for Michael the Archangel, appears, and demands the left foot and right hand of Witige as punishment for the destruction of the garden. He fights and defeats Witige, but Dietrich then decides that he cannot allow his vassal to lose his limbs, and fights Laurin himself. Initially, Dietrich is losing, but Hildebrand arrives and tells Dietrich to steal the dwarf's cloak of invisibility (helkeplein[2][4][lower-alpha 1]) and strength-granting belt[8][lower-alpha 2] then fight him on foot (the dwarf had been riding a deer-sized horse) wrestling him to the ground. Laurin, now defeated, pleads for mercy, but Dietrich has become enraged and vows to kill the dwarf. Finally, Laurin turns to Dietleib, informing him he had kidnapped and married the hero's sister Künhilt, so that he was now Dietleib's brother-in-law. Dietleib hides the dwarf and prepares to fight Dietrich, but Hildebrand makes peace between them.[10][11]
Dietrich and Laurin are reconciled, and Laurin invites the heroes to his kingdom under the mountain. All are enthusiastic except Witige, who senses treachery. In the mountain they are well received, and Dietleib meets Künhilt. She tells him she is being treated well and that Laurin has only one fault: he is not Christian. She wants to leave. Meanwhile, Laurin, after a feast, confides to Dietleib's sister that he wishes to avenge himself on the heroes. She advises him to do so. He drugs Witige, Hildebrand, and Dietrich and throws them into a dungeon. He tries to commit Dietleib to join his side, but locks him in a chamber when the hero refuses. Künhilt steals the stones that light the mountain and releases Dietleib. They then deliver weapons to the other heroes, and they begin a slaughter of all the dwarves in the mountain. In the end Laurin is taken as a jester back to Bern (Verona).[12]
In the "younger Vulgate version", the story of how Laurin kidnapped Dietleib's sister is told: he used a cloak of invisibility. Dietleib then goes to Hildebrand and reports the kidnapping. The two heroes set off, encountering a wild man who has been banished by Laurin. The wild man tells Hildebrand about Laurin and his rose garden, after which the heroes go to Bern. There follows the story as told in the older version. At the end, however, it is added that Dietrich accompanies Dietleib and his sister to Styria, where they stay with Dietleib's father Biterolf.[12]
In the so-called "Walberan" version, Laurin surrenders to Dietrich during their battle in the mountain. As Wolfhart and Witege prepare to slaughter all the inhabitants of the mountain, Laurin begs for mercy. Dietrich initially refuses, but Künhilt, Hildebrand, and Dietleib convince him to stop the killing. Laurin is taken as a prisoner to Bern, while the dwarf Sintram becomes Dietrich's vassal in command of the mountain. Once the heroes have returned to Bern, Künhilt begs Dietrich to treat Laurin well, as he has treated her well, and to convert him to Christianity. She is married to an unnamed noble and disappears from the story. Sintram, however, is disloyal, and sends for help from other dwarfs. Laurin's relative Walberan assembles a large army and declares war on Dietrich. Laurin tells Walberan's messengers that he is being treated well and begs Walberan not to damage Dietrich's lands. Walberan does as he is asked, but marches to Bern. Laurin attempts to negotiate with Walberan on Dietrich's behalf, and Walberan announces he and select warriors will fight Dietrich and his heroes in single combat. When Walberan fights Dietrich, Walberan is about to defeat Dietrich when Laurin and Laurin intervene—they reconcile Dietrich and the dwarf, and the poem ends with a courtly feast.[13]
The "Pressburg version" appears to parody Laurin: Hildebrand tells Dietrich about Laurin during a feast at carnival. Dietrich sets out with Hildebrand, Dietleib, Witege, Siegfried, and Wolfhart, before the text breaks off.[14]
Transmission, versions, and dating
The Laurin is transmitted in at least eighteen manuscripts, dating from the fourteenth century until the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in eleven printings dating from 1479 to 1590.[15] The text was first composed some time before 1300; Heinzle suggests it may have been composed before 1230, as it appears that Albrecht von Kemenaten may have known it when he composed his own poem about Dietrich and a dwarf king, Goldemar.[16] The poem may have been composed in Tyrol.[16] Victor Millet does not believe that it is possible to say when in the twelfth century and where the poem was composed.[17] Like almost all German heroic poems, it is anonymous,[18] but the "younger Vulgate version" claims the fictional poet Heinrich von Ofterdingen—who sings about Dietrich in a continuation to the poem Wartburgkrieg—as its author.[19]
There are five overarching versions, but due to the immense variability of the fantastical Dietrich poems, each manuscript can also be considered a version within these overarching five.[20] The five overarching versions are: the so-called "older Vulgate version" (ältere Vulgatversion); the "younger Vulgate version" (jüngere Vulgatversion), which can be further split into versions a and b; the "Walberan" version; the Dresdner Laurin; and the Pressburger Laurin.[21] The poem was also translated into Czech and Danish.[22]
Manuscripts with the older Vulgate version:
L3 (P, p): Graf von Schönbornsche Schlossbibliothek Pommersfelden, Cod. 54. Paper, middle of fourteenth century, from Erfurt(?). Contains various poems in rhyming couplets, including the Rosengarten zu Worms and Laurin.[23]
L4 (H, h): Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Ms. germ. 8° 287, Fragment I. Fragment of a parchment manuscript, fourteenth century, Middle German.[24]
L5 (f): Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, Ms. germ. 4° 2. Paper, second half of the fourteenth century, Rhine Franconian dialect. Contains various texts in rhyming couplets, including the Rosengarten and Laurin.[24]
L6 (b): Öffentliche Bibliothek der Stadt Basel, Cod. G2 II 73. Paper, first half of the fifteenth century, from Basel(?).[24]
L7 (Dess.): Stadtbibliothek Dessau, Hs. Georg. 224 4°. Paper, 1422, from Trier. Contains various poems in rhyming couplets, including the Rosengarten and Laurin.[24]
L8 (m): in two libraries: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, Cgm. 811, and Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Ms. germ. 8° 287, Fragment II. Paper, second quarter of the fifteenth century, from Wemding. In poor condition with great loss of text.[25]
L9 (v): Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Vienna, Cod. 2959. Paper, middle of fifteenth century, Bavarian. Collection of didactic love poems, but also includes Laurin.[26]
L10 (w): Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Vienna, Cod. 3007. Paper, 1472, Silesian dialect. Contains various poetic, pragmatic, and didactic texts. Contains the ending of Laurin according to the younger vulgate version.[26]
L13 (z): Domherrenbibliothek Zeitz, Cod. 83. Paper, fifteenth century, from Merseburg or Zeitz. Contains a Latin grammar and various German texts.[26]
L15 (r): Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, Cgm. 5919. Paper, beginning of sixteenth century, from Regensburg. Contains both pragmatic and poetic texts, including the Wunderer and Laurin.[26]
L16: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Vienna, Cod. 636. Parchment. Contains Latin text with a pen trial writing Laurin, probably written in the early fourteenth century.[26]
L17: vanished, possibly Bavarian parchment manuscript, probably from the fourteenth century. Contained Laurin and the Nibelungenlied, possibly other texts.[27]
L18: Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Krakow, Berol. ms. germ. 4° 1497. Paper, fifteenth century, in Upper German or Middle German. Contains spiritual texts and the Rosengarten and Laurin.[27]
Younger vulgate version:
L12 (s): Heldenbuch of Diebolt von Hanowe. Formerly Strasbourg City/Seminary Library, destroyed 1870.[28][26]
It is also found in several printings. The Younger vulgate version b (a metrical and stylistic reworking) is found in various printings after 1555.[29]
The "Walberan" version:
L1 (K): Arnamagnæanske Institut Copenhagen, AM 32 fol. Parchment, beginning of fifteenth century, from Venice in Bavarian dialect.[15]
L2 (M): formerly Archive of the Historischer Verein von Oberbayern, Munich, Manuscript Cahier I von 4° Nr. 6. Lost.[15]
The Dresdner Laurin:
L11 (ß): Dresdner Heldenbuch. Sächsische Landesbibliothek Dresden, Msc. M 201. Paper, 1472, from Nuremberg(?).[26][30][31]
The Pressburger Laurin:
L14 (α): formerly Cathedral Chapter Library Bratislava, lost. Breviary manuscript, on four empty pages the beginning of Laurin by a hand of the fifteenth century, Bavarian.[26]
Genre and interpretation
Dietrich and Witege destroy Laurin's rose garden. SB Berlin Inc. 2543
The choice to compose the poem in rhyming couplets rather than the stanzaic form typical for German heroic poetry means that the Laurin is written in the form typical of courtly romance.[17] The manner in which Dietrich sets out to fight Laurin is also very reminiscent of that genre, while the destruction of the garden has parallels to Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain and Hartmann von Aue's Iwein.[32] In this context, Dietrich's near refusal to spare Laurin must appear very negative, as must Dietrich and his heroes' newfound respect for Laurin once they discover he has kidnapped Künhilt.[33] Laurin himself indicates that he considers the destruction of his rose garden a breech of law, by which Witege especially is placed in a bad light.[34] The poem can be seen to deal with the senselessness of such knightly adventure.[35] Nevertheless, Laurin's characterization becomes increasingly negative as the poem progresses, although he is never shown to be entirely evil.[36] The various reworkings try to solve some of these ambiguities: in the Dresdner version, Laurin appears evil from the beginning; in the Walberan version, the humanity and dignity of the dwarf is instead placed in the foreground, causing Dietrich to spare him and suggesting that Dietrich was wrong to attack the rose garden.[37]
Metrical form
Except for the Dresdner Laurin, all versions of Laurin are composed in rhyming couplets. The "Dresdner Laurin" is composed in a variation of the "Hildebrandston" known as the "Heunenweise" or "Hunnenweise" (the Hunnish melody), in which there are rhymes at a mid-line caesura. Each line consists of three metrical feet, a caesura, then three additional feet.[38] Due to the survival of late medieval melodies among the Meistersingers, it is possible to sing these stanzas in the traditional manner of German heroic poetry.[38] This creates the following rhyme scheme: a||ba||bc||dc||d. Heinzle prints the following example from the Dresdner Laurin:[39]
Laurein der sweig stille; a || do sprach die kongein gemait: b 'vil edler konick, ich wille a || gewynen euch ein gelait, b so komen wir hin ausse. c || sol wir gefangen sein? d wir habent nimant dausse, c || weder zwerg noch zwergellein.' d
The stanza can also be understood to be made up of eight short verses, taking the caesuras as line endings.[40]
Relation to the oral tradition
A connection exists between this story and a Tyrolian Ladino folk-story in which the rose garden is the source of the morning-glow on the Alps, localized at the Rosengarten group.[41] Heinzle, however, while not dismissing this theory entirely, believes that, since this story is only attested from the 17th century onward, it is more likely to have been influenced by the text than the other way around.[42] Others have attempted to connect the rose garden to a cult of the dead, which Heinzle dismisses entirely.[43] A rose garden also plays an important role in another Dietrich poem, the Rosengarten zu Worms, which may have been inspired by Laurin.[44]
The first element of Laurin's name (Laur) may be derived from Middle High German lûren, meaning to deceive.[45] Alternatively, it may derive from a root *lawa- or *lauwa- meaning stone, also found in the name Loreley.[45]
Laurin is also connected to a legend about Dietrich's death. In the continuation to the Wartburgkrieg known as "Zebulons Buch," Wolfram von Eschenbach sings that Laurin told Dietrich that he only had fifty years to live. Laurin's cousin Sinnels, however, could allow Dietrich to live a thousand years. Dietrich and Laurin then jump into a fiery mountain (i.e. volcano) in order to reach Sinnels.[46] The tale is reminiscent of a story told of the historical Theoderic the Great by Pope Gregory the Great: Gregory reports that the soul of Theoderic was dropped into Mount Etna for his sins.[47] An unnamed dwarf is also responsible for taking Dietrich away after the final battle at Bern in the Heldenbuch-Prosa, telling him "his kingdom is no longer in this world."[48]
Medieval reception and modern legacy in South Tyrol
Fountain in Bolzano depicting Dietrich fighting Laurin
Laurin was a very popular text in the Middle Ages. Liechtenstein Castle in South Tyrol was decorated with frescoes based on the poem around 1400. Laurin's influence also extended beyond the German-speaking area. The Walberan manuscript L1, for instance, was likely produced by the German colony of merchants at Venice. The poem was translated into Czech in 1472, Danish around 1500, and printed in Middle Low German in 1560. The parallels to Walberan in Zebulons Buch discussed above also show an earlier reception of the poem in the thirteenth century.[49] The Jüngere Vulgatfassung continued to be printed in the early modern period, both as part of the printed Heldenbuch and separately.[29]
Through the rediscovery of the Laurin in the nineteenth century, the story of Dietrich and the dwarf king came to have a special meaning in the then Austrian region of South Tyrol, especially due to the works of travel journalist and saga-researcher Karl Felix Wolff.[50] In 1907, a Laurin fountain was erected in Bozen, showing Dietrich wrestling Laurin to the ground. After South Tyrol became part of Italy, the fountain survived in its original form until 1934, when unidentified persons likely acting under the inspiration of the Italian Fascist government, destroyed the fountain as a symbol of German supremacy over Italy.[51] When the fountain was finally rebuilt, conflict ignited over the fountain as a supposed symbol of the Germanic conquest of the original Ladin speaking inhabitants of the area.[52]
Lienert, Elisabeth; Kerth, Sonja; Vollmer-Eicken, eds. (2011). Laurin(2 vols). Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter. ISBN9783110258196. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
Translations
Into German:
Tuczay, Christa (1999). Die Aventiurehafte Dietrichepik: Laurin und Walberan, der Jüngere Sigenot, das Eckenlied, der Wunderer. Göppingen: Kümmerle. ISBN3874528413. (translates the Walberan version)
The Saga of Didrik of Bern, with The Dwarf King Laurin. Translated by Cumpstey, Ian. Skadi Press. 2017. ISBN0-9576-1203-6. (translates the Danish adaptation of Laurin)
The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The Nibelungenlied is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga.
Gudrun or Kriemhild is the wife of Sigurd/Siegfried and a major figure in Germanic heroic legend and literature. She is believed to have her origins in Ildico, last wife of Attila the Hun, and two queens of the Merovingian dynasty, Brunhilda of Austrasia and Fredegund.
Heldenbücher is the conventional title under which a group of German manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries has come down to us. Each Heldenbuch contains a collection of primarily epic poetry, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle, and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit. The Heldenbuch texts are thus based on medieval German literature, but adapted to the tastes of the Renaissance.
Wolfdietrich is the eponymous protagonist of the Middle High German heroic epic Wolfdietrich. First written down in strophic form in around 1230 by an anonymous author, it survives in four main versions, widely differing in scope and content, and largely independent of each other.
Der Rosengarten zu Worms, sometimes called Der große Rosengarten to differentiate it from Der kleine Rosengarten (Laurin), and often simply called the Rosengarten, is an anonymous thirteenth-century Middle High German heroic poem in the cycle of Dietrich von Bern. The Rosengarten may have been written as early as before 1250, but is securely attested by around 1300. It is unclear where it was written.
Þiðreks saga af Bern is an Old Norse saga that collects almost all Germanic heroic legends known from Germany into a single narrative. At the center of this narrative is the biography of the hero Dietrich von Bern.
Witege, Witige or Wittich or Vidrik "Vidga" Verlandsson is a character in several Germanic heroic legends, poems about Dietrich von Bern, and later Scandinavian ballads.
Alpharts Tod is an anonymous late medieval Middle High German poem in the poetic cycle of the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material. It may have written as early as between 1245 and 1300, but it is only transmitted in a single manuscript from around 1470 or 1480. The place of composition is unknown.
Goldemar is a fragmentary thirteenth-century Middle High German poem by Albrecht von Kemenaten about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic.
Dietrich von Bern is the name of a character in Germanic heroic legend who originated as a legendary version of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great. The name "Dietrich", meaning "Ruler of the People", is a form of the Germanic name "Theodoric". In the legends, Dietrich is a king ruling from Verona (Bern) who was forced into exile with the Huns under Etzel by his evil uncle Ermenrich. The differences between the known life of Theodoric and the picture of Dietrich in the surviving legends are usually attributed to a long-standing oral tradition that continued into the sixteenth century. Most notably, Theodoric was an invader rather than the rightful king of Italy and was born shortly after the death of Attila and a hundred years after the death of the historical Gothic king Ermanaric. Differences between Dietrich and Theodoric were already noted in the Early Middle Ages and led to a long-standing criticism of the oral tradition as false.
Sigenot is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. It was likely written in the Alemannic dialect area, no later than 1300.
Der Wunderer, or Etzels Hofhaltung is an anonymous Early New High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. The poem may have been written before 1300, but is not attested until the turn of the sixteenth century.
Virginal, also known as Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt, or Dietrich und seine Gesellen is an anonymous Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic. The poem was composed by 1300 at the latest, and may have been composed as early as the second quarter of the thirteenth century.
Germanic heroic legend is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period. Stories from this time period, to which others were added later, were transmitted orally, traveled widely among the Germanic speaking peoples, and were known in many variants. These legends typically reworked historical events or personages in the manner of oral poetry, forming a heroic age. Heroes in these legends often display a heroic ethos emphasizing honor, glory, and loyalty above other concerns. Like Germanic mythology, heroic legend is a genre of Germanic folklore.
The Jüngeres Hildebrandslied or Das Lied von dem alten Hildebrand is an anonymous Early New High German heroic ballad, first attested in the fifteenth century. A late attestation of Germanic heroic legend, the ballad features the same basic story as the much older Hildebrandslied, but was composed without knowledge of that text. Rather, it reworks the oral legend of the warrior Hildebrand and his fight against his son in accordance with late medieval and early modern taste. It is highly sentimentalized and focuses on Hildebrand's return home rather than the tragic conflict of the older tradition.
Dietrichs Flucht or Das Buch von Bern is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the legendary counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material and is closely related to, and always transmitted together with a second Dietrich poem, the Rabenschlacht. A Heinrich der Vogler is named as author in an excursus of the poem. Earlier scholarship considered him to be the author of Dietrichs Flucht and possibly also of the Rabenschlacht, however more recent scholarship believes he is only author of this excursus.
Die Rabenschlacht is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material and is closely related to, and always transmitted together with another Dietrich poem, Dietrichs Flucht. At one time, both poems were thought to have the same author, possibly a certain Heinrich der Vogler, but stylistic differences have led more recent scholarship to abandon this idea.
Das Eckenlied or Ecken Ausfahrt is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic.
Dietrich und Wenezlan is a fragmentary Middle High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It usually considered part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material, as it appears to cite Dietrich's exile at the court of Etzel described in the "historical poems" Dietrichs Flucht and the Rabenschlacht. The fragment of about 500 lines tells of Dietrich's challenge by Wenezlan of Poland, who has captured one of Dietrich's warriors. It is unclear whether the fragment was the main focus of a poem or a single episode from a longer poem.
Biterolf und Dietleib is an anonymous Middle High German heroic poem concerning the heroes Biterolf of Toledo and his son Dietleib of Styria. It tells the tale of Biterolf and Dietleib's service at the court of Etzel, king of the Huns, in the course of which the heroes defeat Etzel's enemies, including an extended war/tournament against the Burgundian heroes of the Nibelungenlied. As a reward for their services, Dietleib and Biterolf receive the March of Styria as a fief. The text is characterized by its comedic parody of the traditions of heroic epic.
Gillespie, George T. (1973). Catalogue of Persons Named in German Heroic Literature, 700–1600: Including Named Animals and Objects and Ethnic Names. Oxford: Oxford University. ISBN9780198157182.
Heinzle J (1985) [1977]. "Laurin". In Ruh K, Keil G, Schröder W (eds.). Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon. Vol.5. Berlin, New York: Walter De Gruyter. cols 625–630. ISBN978-3-11-022248-7.
Lienert, Elisabeth (2015). Mittelhochdeutsche Heldenepik. Berlin: Erich Schmidt. pp.130–134. ISBN978-3-503-15573-6.
Millet, Victor (2008). Germanische Heldendichtung im Mittelalter. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter. pp.332–370. ISBN978-3-11-020102-4.
Schönfelder, Emil; Kniebe, Rudolf; Müller, Peter, eds. (1920), "24. Aus dem Laurin", Lesebuch zur Einführung in die Ältere deutsche Dichtung, vol.1, Frankfurt-am-Main: Diesterweg, pp.206–209
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