which have their scene of action in Oriental lands, especially in India
or Persia, or which introduce persons and things from those countries.
To indulge this fondness for Oriental scenery poets do not hesitate to
violate historical truth. Thus Charlemagne and his paladins are sent to
the Holy Land in the "Pèlerinage de Charlesmagne"[27] and in the poem
called the "Karl Meinet," a German compilation of various legends about
the Frankish hero.[28] Purely Germanic legends like those of
Ortnit-Wolfdietrich and King Rother were orientalized in much the same
manner.[29] As might be expected, it is in the court-epic and
minstrel-poetry (_Spielmannsdichtung_) where this Oriental tendency
manifests itself most markedly. A typical poem of this kind is "Herzog
Ernst." The hero, a purely German character, is made to go through a
series of marvelous adventures in the East some of which bear a
striking resemblance to those of Sindbad.[30] The later strophic version
(14th century) and the prose-version of the _Volksbuch_ (probably 15th
century) localize some of these adventures definitely in the _fernen
India_.[31] Probably under the influence of this story the author of the
incompleted "Reinfrit von Braunschweig" (about 1300) was induced to send
his hero into Persia, to meet with somewhat similar experiences.[32]
Heinrich von Neustadt likewise lays the scene of Apollonius' adventures
in the golden valley Crysia bordering on India.[33] In the continuation
of the Parzifal-story entitled "Der Jüngere Titurel," which was written
by Albrecht von Scharffenberg (about 1280), the Holy Grail is to be
removed from a sinful world and to be carried to the East to be given to
Feirefiz, half brother to Parzifal.[34] The meeting of Feirefiz with the
knights furnishes the poet an opportunity of bringing in a learned
disquisition on Prester John and his _drī India die wīten_, and finally
this mythical monarch offers his crown to Parzifal, who henceforth is
called _Priester Johanni_. In the poem of "Lohengrin", of unknown
authorship, the knight when about to depart declares he has come from