This strophe, "So wol dir meie," is designated 51,29 in the Lachmann system and is strophe 3 of song 42 in Maurer. It appears on folio 61v of the Carmina Burana ms., and it CB 151/151a in Hilka-Schumann. The ms. has five strophes of a Latin song, wioth neumes over the first two strophes, then one strophe of Walther's song, with neumes on the first line and on one word of the second line.

It is clear that the neumes on the first line of the German strophe agree with those on the Latin strophe; the scribe wrote only enough of them to indicate that the melody was the same. The metrical form of the gwo songs is the same, and in this case they even have the same subject, spring. There can be little doubt that the melodies were the same.

The few variations are interesting and merit comment. Line one of the second Latin strophe has no neume on the syllable so-, but a virga occurs in both parallel places, so we may assume one here too. Line one of the German text has a virga on the syllable wie, where both Latin lines have a cepalicus. This is probably a scribal error. In the same line, the German word scheidest

Another strophe of the same song (51,37) occurs as CB 169a; it is also preceded by another Latin song, CB169, with the same meter. But there are no neumes on either song. they were not necessary once they had been given for this song.

Gennrich suggested in 1942 that a song by Gautier d'Espinal, Quant je voi l'erbe menue (R. 2067, Ms. Paris Bibl. Nat. f. fr. 20050, fol. 54v) could supply a melody for this song by Walther (Melodien 186-87). He transcribed it in triple rhythm in the second rhythmic mode. Maurer (Birkner) then used this transcription (with no indication of rhythm) in his edition of Walther's songs, and in 1962 Kippenberg, after comparing the neumes with the notes in the manuscript for Gautier's song, concluded: "Obgleich es kaum möglich ist, an Hand der Neumen blosse Abweichungen in der Verzierungsweise von solchen der Melodiestruktur sicher zu unterscheiden, so besteht doch grosse Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass den Liedern in der Tat dieselbe Melodie zukommt" (181).

Aarburg, however, had pointed out in 1956 that the two songs did not have the same rhyme scheme, which made the contrafacture doubtful (Melodien 43). And according to Sylvia ranawake, Gautier d'Espinal is "nachweisbar 1232-1272" (19), which means, of course, that it is highly unlikely that Walther borrowed any melodies from him, for Walther probably died about 1230. This is simply another example of the power of Grnnrich's overenthusiasm. Although Gautier's melody probably did not exist in Walther's lifetime, the similarity of meter in the two songs made Gennrich's suggestion plausible, and it was taken up not only by Maurer (Birkner), but also by René Clemencic (115).

Furthermore, comparison of the neumes with Gautier's melody shows no more than occasional correspondence.

Useful discussion of the relationship between the Latin songs and the German strophes appended to them in this manuscript are provided by Bützler (102-108) and in the commentary to the songs in the Carmina Burana collection of Clemencic, Müller and Korth. In the latter, Müller suggests that the German strophes are not mere appendages, sops to those in the audience who could not understand Latin, but are rather the models for the Latin songs. The German songs would would have had well-known melodies and metrical forms, so a poet could compose a song in Latin for the same melody and form, and finish his performance of that song by putting in a strophe or two of his German model to show the audience what he ahd accomplished (196).