Rosengarten zu Worms

Der Rosengarten zu Worms (the rose garden at Worms), sometimes called Der große Rosengarten (the big rose garden) to differentiate it from Der kleine Rosengarten (Laurin), and often simply called the Rosengarten, is an anonymous thirteenth-century Middle High German heroic poem in the cycle of Dietrich von Bern. The Rosengarten may have been written as early as before 1250, but is securely attested by around 1300. It is unclear where it was written.

While it combines characters from the traditions of the Nibelungenlied, Walter of Aquitaine, and the Dietrich cycle, the Rosengarten is usually considered one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) poems about Dietrich: these poems more closely resemble a courtly romance than traditional heroic epic. Occasionally, because it features Dietrich fighting against human opponents rather than giants or dwarfs, it is grouped together with the similar poem Biterolf und Dietleib as a separate group of Dietrich poems.^[1]

Scholars count four or five versions of the Rosengarten. The poem talks about a fight between the heroes of the cycle around Dietrich von Bern with those from the Nibelungen saga, which takes place in a rose garden at the city of Worms. The fight is motivated by Kriemhild's desire to test the mettle of her fiancé Siegfried against Dietrich von Bern. In the end, Dietrich and his warriors defeat the Burgundians including Siegfried. The poem is conventionally seen as a condemnation of Kriemhild and by extension her role in the Nibelungenlied. It is often further understood as a metaliterary text discussing the nature of heroic poetry.

The Rosengarten was a very popular poem and was included in the printed Heldenbuch, bringing its transmission into the sixteenth century.