In the well-known myth of Ogier the Dane, immortalized by William Morris in the Earthly Paradise (London, 1869, vol. i., p. 625), the loadstone rock is an island in the far North. But this story is not one of the Scandinavian sagas, and belongs to the Carlovingian cycle of heroic poems, of which the chief is the Chanson de Roland; and Ogier le Danois is really not a Dane but an Ardennois.
In the Middle-High German epic of Kudrun, the adventures of the fleet of Queen Hilda when attracted by the loadstone mountain at Givers, in the North Sea, are narrated at some length. (See Kudrun, herausgegeben und erklärt von Ernst Martin. Halle, 1872.) One stanza will serve as a sample:
1126. Ze Givers vor dem berge | lac daz Hilden her.
swie guot ir anker wæren, | an daz vinster mer.
magnêten die steine | heten si gezogen.
ir guote segelboume | stuonden alle gebogen.
which may be rendered:
1126. At Givers before the mountain | lay Hilda's ships by.
Though good their anchors were, | upon the murky sea.
Magnets the stones were | had drawn them thither.