Dictionary.net

A German poet; born at Kranichfeld, Saxe-Meiningen, Sept. 28, 1840. After studying natural science in Wurzburg, Leipsic, Freiburg, and Heidelberg, he lived as a tutor in Austria, last at Trieste (since 1870), where he devoted himself afterwards exclusively to writing. In 1885 he returned to Meiningen. He has most successfully cultivated the poetical tale, based upon ancient popular legends. Epics: "Zlatorog", a Slovenic Alpine legend (1875, 37th ed. 1892); "Horand and Hilda" (1879); "Lady Fair" (1881); "The Godfather of Death" (1884); "Emperor Max and his Huntsmen" (1888). Lyrics: "Songs of a Traveling Journeyman" (1878); "Minstrel's Songs" (1882); "From the Highway" (1882); "Traveling Songs from the Alps" (1883); "Adventures and Pranks Imitated from Old Masters" (1883); "Jug and Inkstand" (1887); "Thuringian Songs" (1891). He is also an excellent prose-writer, author of "False Gold" (1878), a historical romance of the 17th century; "Summer Legends" (1881); "Once upon a Time" (1889); "New Fairy Tales" (1894).