THE MESSENGER'S WOOING EXPEDITION (S.-C. §B.1) having failed, the wooer must himself undertake the journey (S.-C. §C.2). In Bari King Rother wonders what has become of his messengers: a year has passed with no word. When his courtiers suggest that he must do something to learn their fate, he spends three days and nights sitting silently upon a stone (lines 447–50) in heartsick contemplation. This pose is a symbolic representation of sad reflection reminiscent, for example, of Charlemagne's contemplation of the bodies of his dead vassals in the contemporary Rolandslied (lines 565–78) and later immortalized by Walther von der Vogelweide in his poem, “Ich saz ûf eime steine” (I sat upon a stone, 8,4–27). Rother comes to the realization that he himself must go to Constantinople to learn their fate. Indeed, he has no alternative, for if his status has in some way been successfully challenged by Constantin, he must either continue to press his wooing of Constantin's daughter or admit that his status is not equal to the latter's, thus rendering him unworthy of her (Zimmermann 1993, 64–65). Rother also has an obligation to his messengers, and he must demonstrate his loyalty to those who have put themselves at risk in his service (Neuendorff 1982, 165). This obligation is not merely a moral one; it represents the element that binds lords and vassals, from both directions, in the feudal relationship.