he exacted tribute from his playmates to procure clothes, his first
appearance in his uncle's palace, his bold seizure of meat and drink
from the royal table to satisfy his mother's needs, Charlemagne's
forgiveness of his sister for the sake of her spirited boy, the
episode regarding the giant warrior in the Ardennes, the fight with
Oliver, the ambush at Roncevaux, and end with Roland's death and the
punishment of the traitor Ganelon. But later legends claim that
Roland, recovering from the wounds received at Roncevaux, returned to
Germany and to his fiancée Aude, who, deeming him dead, had meantime
taken the veil. We next have Roland's sorrow, the construction of his
hermitage at Rolandseek, [24] whence he continually overlooks the
island of Nonnenwörth and the convent where his beloved is wearing her
life away in prayers for his soul. This cycle concludes with Roland's
death and burial on this very spot, his face still turned toward the
grave where his sweetheart rests.

In the Langobardian cycle[25] also is the tale of "Rother," supposed
to be Charlemagne's grandfather, one of the court epics of the Lombard
cycle. In King Rother we have the abduction by Rother of the emperor's
daughter, her recovery by her father, and Rother's pursuit and final
reconquest of his wife. The next epic in the cycle, "Otnit," related
the marriage of this king to a heathen princess, her father's gift of
dragon's eggs, and the hatching of these monsters, which ultimately
cause the death of Otnit and infest Teutonic lands with their progeny.
Then come the legends of Hug-Dietrich and Wolf-Dietrich, which
continue the Lombard cycle and pursue the adventures of Otnit to his
death.

The legend of Herzog Ernst is still popular, and relates how a duke of
Bavaria once made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and lived through endless