dreaming of the mystic Mother of God, the unfailing
Star of the Sea, who guides the anxious mariner to home
and safety. Of the narrative poems on the life of Mary
the best is the Three Lays of the Maid, written about 1170
by a South German priest named Wernher, of whom
nothing definite is known. It is noteworthy for its fine
blending of religious symbolism with chivalrous senti-
ment. The Virgin was also the theme of much lyric verse
in the form of the Leich--a longish tribute of praise,
divided into strophes of unequal length and varying
metre. The best production in this kind, down to the
time of Walter von der Vogelweide, is a Marienleich,
which seems to have been composed for the use of the
nuns in the Hessian convent of Arnstein. It is very
uneven in poetic quality, but has passages of noble and
delicate beauty.

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