As the title suggests, German Hero-Sagas and Folk-Tales is divided into two parts. In the first section, Barbara Leonie Picard retells in condensed, third-person prose four celebrated medieval Germanic epic narratives: Gudrun, Dietrich of Bern, Walther of Aquitaine, and the Nibelungenlied. Originally employing elaborate medieval strophic forms and composed variously in Middle High German or Old Norse, Picard’s modern adaptations masterfully capture much of the authentic atmosphere associated with the epic milieu....