ONCE ROTHER HAS ESTABLISHED his false bona fides through subterfuge and won the praise and loyalty of so many of the exiles and vassals in Constantinople through a display of military might and extravagant generosity, he is in the perfect position of strength to achieve his double goal: the rescue of his messengers and the acquisition of his desired bride. At this point in the narration the bride, who has heretofore been only a nameless object, whose fate is discussed and decided by others, assumes an active role in her own courtship. She begins what amounts to a counterquest, that of the bride for the groom, in which she, too, follows the traditional quest structure, paralleling that of Rother's own, but the details are adjusted to fit her own circumstances. In the bridal quest the bride is usually a passive figure — as she is in the later courtly romance — since its structure is based upon a view of the quest solely from the wooer's perspective. Although the intended bride can occasionally assume the role as mediator between her father and her wooer, similar to that played by the bride's mother — if she appears at all in the narrative — seldom is she extensively portrayed as someone who actively plans for and, through her actions, contributes to her own successful courtship (Schmid-Cadalbert 1985, 86). Whether this is an innovation in the written version of König Rother or was already part of its source is difficult to determine.