" And again she pleaded: "Drink now, beloved, thy
strength is diminishing fast." But he, eager to win her only by his own
effort, staggered on and reached the summit, only to sink to the ground
and expire. The maiden, throwing herself on his lifeless body, kissed
his eyes and lips and died with him.
We recognise in this simple tale the new form of love, mutual devotion,
and the thought of the consummation of this love, the _Love-death_,
which was not definitely realised until six hundred years later. It
originated in the Celtic soul, as the worship of woman originated in the
Romanesque (the Teutonic soul shared in the development of both). It was
a dream of the suppressed Celtic race, spending its whole soul in dreams
and producing visions of such depth and beauty that even we of to-day
cannot read them without being profoundly moved.
Next there are three love-letters written in Latin by a German woman of
the twelfth century. In very touching words she tells her lover that the
love of him can never be torn out of her heart.
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