We next have Roland's sorrow, the construction of his hermitage at Rolandseek, [24] whence he continually overlooks the island of Nonnenwoerth 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 thrilling adventures on the way.
The greatest of all the German epics is undoubtedly the Nibelungenlied,--of which we give a synopsis,--which is often termed the Iliad of Germany, while "Gudrun" is considered its Odyssey.

This folk epic relates how Hagan, son of a king, was carried off at seven years of age by a griffin.