Note 764 — Chapter V · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF COMMUNAL POETRY (continued 3)
Reading edition
Volkslieder, I. 23. For the whole subject, see Uhland’s Abhandlung über die deutschen Volkslieder, pp. 17 ff. Suspicion has been expressed that these flytings are a late echo of the Vergilian eclogue through such a transmitting element as the mediæval Conflictus Veris et Hiemis and the song to the cuckoo:—
Salve, dulce decus cuculus per saecula, salve!
Comparison of the fragments, however, shows this suspicion to be groundless, and it is thoroughly discredited by Uhland, Kl. Schr., III. 24. See also Ebert, Christ. Lat. Lit., II. 69.