183.—The Giant and the Tailor.
In Ziska, pp. 9-13, and belongs to the same group as The Valiant Little Tailor, No. 20.
184.—The Nail.
From a story in the Büchlein für die Jugend, pp. 71, 72. A similar thought occurs in a saying in Freidank 79. 19-80. 1.
ich hore sagen die wîsen[1]
ein nagel behalte ein îsen
ein îsenz ros, ein ros den man
ein man die burc, der strîten kan:
ein burc daz lant betwinget,
daz ez nâch hulden ringet.
der nagel der ist wol bewant
der îsen res man burc unt lant
solher êren geholfen hât
dà von sîn name sò hôhe stât.
From a story in the Büchlein für die Jugend, pp. 71, 72. Hans at School, pp. 100-103, in Vogl's Grossmütterchen, should be compared.
186.—The True Sweetheart.
From Upper Lusatia. See Haupt's Zeitschrift, 2. 481-486.
Written down from oral tradition in the neighbourhood of Osnabrück; for more particular information, see Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, 1. 381-383. Firminich has included it, see 1. 210, 211. Het Wetloopen tüschen den Haasen und den Swinegel up de Buxtehuder heid, in Bildern von Gustav. Sus. Düsseldorf (no year). A translation of the Low-German text is added in High-German. De Swienegel als Wettrenner. A Low-German story, newly illustrated and provided with a short epilogue by J. P. T. Leyser, Hamburg (no year). Klaus Groth relates it in a beautiful poem in Quickborn, pp. 185-189. The extreme antiquity of the story is incontestable, for in Haupt's Zeitschrift, 398, 400, Massmann has published an old German poem containing a 13th century version of it, in which the cunning fox is deceived by
- ↑ I hear wise folks say that a nail may save a horse-shoe—a shoe a horse; a horse a man; a man who can fight,—a fortress; a fortress may compel a land to sue for mercy. The nail therefore is well spent, which helped the shoe, the horse, man, fortress, and land to such honour, so its name should stand high.
