rich and Hildebrand soon came face to face with the
self-styled unconquerable guardian of the ice queen. He had been hiding
during the fray, and now implored them to hasten forward, as his mistress
was besieged by Jambas. The magician's son was anxious to secure Virginal
and all her maidens, but his principal aim was to appropriate the great
carbuncle shining in the queen's crown, as it gave the possessor full power
over the elements, the mountains, and all who ventured within reach of
them.

Thus urged to greater speed, the heroes toiled upward faster and faster,
and soon came near the glittering castle of Jeraspunt, and the besiegers.
The latter were on the point of overpowering the garrison and gaining
possession of the queen. When Dietrich saw her on the battlement, wringing
her hands in despair, he rushed impetuously forward, crying that he had
come to save her. He struck right and left, and did such good execution
with his sword that the mountains shook, the icebergs cracked, and great
avalanches, rolling down into the abysses, carried with them the bodies of
the slain which he hurled down from the drawbridge.

[Sidenote: Rescue of the ice queen.] In a very short time the enemy was
completely routed, and Dietrich was joyfully welcomed by Virginal, who,
touched by his devotion, consented to forsake her glittering castle,
relinquish her sway over the mountains, and to follow him down into the
green valley. Their wedding was celebrated in Jeraspunt, which was all hung
in bridal white; and the ice queen and her maidens wore misty veils and
crowns of glittering diamonds, which sparkled and flashed and lit up the
whole scene with fairylike splendor. Some versions of the story tell,
however, that the queen soon grew homesick down in the green valley, and,
deserting her hero husband, returned to her palace on the mountain top,
where she still rules supreme.

Dietrich's numerous adventures soon became the theme of the wandering bards
and minstrels, and thus the rumor of his courage came to the ears of Heime,
the son of the northern stud keeper Studas. After distinguishing himself at
home by slaying a dragon, this youth obtained from his father the steed
Rispa and the sword Blutgang, with which he set out to test Dietrich's
courage, vowing that he would serve him forever if conquered by him.

"King Tidrick sits intill Bern;
He rooses [boasts] him of his might;
Sae mony has he in battle cow'd,
Baith k