Seven royal brothers came from England to woo the seven daughters of the king of the Harz mountains, the fame of whose beauty had penetrated even to the English court. These princesses were called the Sunbeams of the mountains; and when the English princes arrived in the Felsenburg of their royal father, they found assembled there princes and nobles from Saxony and Thuringia, Franconia and Bohemia, from the banks of the Danube and the amber coasts of the sea.
But the Sunbeams loved the English princes, and promised to go with them to their father's court.
Then the German wooers were enraged, and said, "Not without combat will we permit these strangers to rob us of the glory of our land."
The brothers seized sword and shield, but the princesses rushed into their arms and hindered the combat. At midnight, when the full moon shone, each brother, with his affianced bride behind him on his fleet steed, fled toward the rocky shores of England.
Suddenly the affrighted maidens see the glitter of arms in the faint moonlight.
"What is that that glitters below on the plain?" they cry.
"Fear not," said the youths, "'tis the waves of the Bode."
"What is that whistling in the forest?"
"The thrushes sing in the shadows of the foliage."
"Do you hear the rustling in the thicket?"