This new motif index, published entirely in English, catalogues and accesses all the important narrative motifs in secular narrative literature written in German from the 9th to 14th centuries. The Motif Index of German Secular Narratives not only provides a complete catalogue of all the occurrences in each individual work of medieval literature of widespread narrative patterns, but also provides a sophisticated system of indexing and referencing to make it possible to access and research the individual motifs across different works. Volumes 1 to 5 present genre-based catalogues of motifs arranged by work in alphabetical order: 1. Matiere de Bretagne Part 1, 2. Matiere de Bretagne Part 2, 3. Oriental and Miscellaneous Romances/Chansons de Geste, 4. Heroic Epic/Maere and Novellas, 5. Romances of Antiquity. For each passage relevant to the history of a motif a concise paraphrase of the content is given, together with the relevant Thompson classification. Volume 6 provides three valuable indexes: 1. a central index of motifs using Thompson’s classification system, which enables the reader to identify all relevant texual occurrences at a glance, 2. an index of all key-words belonging to the naming of a particular motif, and 3. an index of all names quoted. Volume 6 is accompanied by a powerful CD-ROM which greatly enhances the search potential of the work.