No. 19: King Orfeo
[There are 11 articles attached to the Recordings & Info page about King Orfeo (Sir Orfeo) including the 1886 article by George Lyman Kittredge (Sir Orfeo). There are no authentic US versions of this ballad. A song titled "Orpheo" or "King Orpheo" sung by R. E. Lee Smith and his brother Thomas P. Smith, which they claimed to have learned in Zionville, NC, 1912 was at one time considered to be a version of "King Orfeo." Although the name "King Orpheo" appears in the first verse of the text, the song is identified as "The Whummil Bore." (see text in US versions)
There are two known older published English texts; 1. Child A from the singing of Andrew Coutts and 2. the Lyle text- 21 couplets with interleaved refrain. The Lyle text was originally printed in The Shetland News, 25 August 1894, where it was described as having been noted from oral recitation by Bruce Sutherland at Gloup fishing station, North Yell, in 1865. Lyle quotes it from Patrick Shuldham-Shaw, 'The Ballad "King Orfeo," ' in Scottish Studies 20, 1976, 124-6.
There are two traditional English versions that have been collected from singers: 1. John Stickle in 1947 and 2. Kitty Anderson in Shetland in 1955.
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (There are no footnotes)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A.
5. "Additions and Corrections"
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: Sir Lionel
A. Roud Number 136: King Orfeo (18 Listings)
B. King Orfeo- Joseph J. MacSweeney 1918
C. Sir Orfeo- George Lyman Kittredge 1886
D. Syr Orfeo- The Scottish Antiquary
E. Cohesion in King Horn and Sir Orfeo
F. Artifice and Artistry in Sir Orfeo- Lerer 1985
G. Classical Threads in "Orfeo"
H. Notes on the Sources of "Sir Orfeo"
I. "Sir Orfeo", the Minstrel, and the Minstrel's Art
J. Sir Orfeo and the Sacred Bonds of Matrimony
K. The Significance of Sir Orfeo's Self-Exile
L. Sir Orfeo: A 'Kynges Noote'
2. Sheet Music: King Orfeo (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
3. US & Canadian Versions (There are no US & Canadian Versions)
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative
A. The Leisure Hour, February 14, 1880, No 1468: Folk-Lore from Unst, Shetland, by Mrs. Saxby, p. 109.
Mr. Edmondston, from whose memory this ballad was derived, notes that though stanzas are probably lost after the first which would give some account of the king in the east wooing the lady in the west, no such verses were sung to him. He had forgotten some stanzas after the fourth, of which the sub stance was that the lady was carried off by fairies; that the king went in quest of her, and one day saw a company passing along a hill side, among whom he recognized his lost wife. The troop went to what seemed a great "ha-house," or castle, on the hillside. Stanzas after the eighth were also forgotten, the purport being that a messenger from behind the grey stane appeared and invited the king in.
We have here in traditional song the story of the justly admired mediaeval romance of Orpheus, in which fairy-land supplants Tartarus, faithful love is rewarded, and Eurydice (Heurodis, Erodys, Eroudys) is retrieved. This tale has come down to us in three versions: A, in the Auchinleck Manuscript, dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century, Advocates Library, Edinburgh, printed in Laing's Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, 'Orfeo and Heurodis,' No 3; B, Ashmole Manuscript, 61, Bodleian Library, of the first half of the fifteenth century, printed in Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, 'Kyng Orfew,' p. 37; C, Harleian Manuscript, 3810, British Museum, printed by Ritson, Metrical Romancees, II, 248, 'Sir Orpheo.' At the end of the Auchinleck copy we are told that harpers in Britain heard this marvel, and made a lay thereof, which they called, after the king, 'Lay Orfeo.' The other two copies also, but in verses which are a repetition of the intro duction to 'Lay le Freine,' call this a Breton lay.
The story is this (A). Orfeo was a king [and so good a harper never none was, B]. One day in May his queen went out to a garden with two maidens, and fell asleep under an "ympe" tree. When she waked she shrieked, tore her clothes, and acted very wildly. Her maidens ran to the palace and called for help, for the queen would go mad. Knights and ladies went to the queen, took her away, and put her to bed; but still the excitement continued. The king, in great affliction, besought her to tell him what was the matter, and what he could do. Alas! she said, I have loved thee as my life, and thou me, but now we must part. As she slept knights had come to her and had bidden her come speak with they king. Upon her refusal, the king himself came, with a company of knights and damsels, all on snow-white steeds, and made her ride on a palfrey by his side, and, after he had shown her his palace, brought her back and said: Look thou be under this ympe tree tomorrow, to go with us; and if thou makest us any let, we will take thee by force, wherever thou be. The next day Orfeo took the queen to the tree under guard of a thousand knights, all resolved to die before they would give her up: but she was spirited away right from the midst of them, no one knew whither.
The king all but died of grief, but it was no boot. He gave his kingdom in charge to his high steward, told his barons to choose a new king when they should learn that he was dead, put on a sclavin and nothing else, took his harp, and went barefoot out at the gate. Ten years he lived in the woods and on the heath; his body wasted away, his beard grew to his girdle. His only solace was in his harp, and, when the weather was bright, he would play, and all the beasts and birds would flock to him. Often at hot noon-day he would see the king of fairy hunting with his rout, or an armed host would go by him with banners displayed, or knights and ladies would come dancing; but whither they went he could not tell. One day he descried sixty ladies who were hawking. He went towards them and saw that one of them was Heurodis. He looked at her wistfully, and she at him; neither spoke a word, but tears fell from her eyes, and the ladies hurried her away. He followed, and spared neither stub nor stem. They went in at a rock, and he after. They alighted at a superb castle; he knocked at the gate, told the porter he was a minstrel, and was let in. There he saw Heurodis, sleeping under an ympe tree.
Orfeo went into the hall, and saw a king and queen, sitting in a tabernacle. He kneeled down before the king. What man art thou? said the king. I never sent for thee, and never found I man so bold as to come here unbidden. Lord, quoth Orfeo, I am but a poor minstrel, and it is a way of ours to seek many a lord's house, though we be not welcome. Without more words he took his harp and began to play. All the palace came to listen, and lay down at his feet. The king sat still and was glad to hear, and, when the harping was done, said, Minstrel, ask of me whatever it be; I will pay thee largely. "Sir," said Orfeo, "I be seech thee give me the lady that sleepeth under the ympe tree." "Nay," quoth the king, "ye were a sorry couple; for thou art lean and rough and black, and she is lovely and has no lack. A lothly thing were it to see her in thy company." "Gentle king," replied the harper, it were a fouler thing to hear a lie from thy mouth." "Take her, then, and be blithe of her," said the king.
Orfeo now turned homewards, but first presented himself to the steward alone, and in beggar's clothes, as a harper from heathendom, to see if he were a true man. The loyal steward was ready to welcome every good harper for love of his lord. King Orfeo made himself known; the steward threw over the table, and fell down at his feet, and so did all the lords. They brought the queen to the town. Orfeo and Heurodis were crowned anew, and lived long afterward.
The Scandinavian burden was, perhaps, no more intelligible to the singer than "Hey non nonny" is to us. The first line seems to be Unst for Danish
Skoven årle grön (Early green 's the wood).
The sense of the other line is not so obvious. Professor Grundtvig has suggested to me,
Hvor hjorten ban går årlig (Where the hart goes yearly).
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
Mr. Edmonston, from whose memory this ballad was derived, notes that though stanzas are probably lost after the first, which would give some account of the king in the east wooing the lady in the west, no such verses were sung to him. He had forgotten some stanzas after the fourth, of which the substance was that the lady was carried off by fairies, that the king went in quest of her, and one day saw a company passing along a hillside, among whom he recognized his lost wife. The troop went to what seemed a great "ha-house," or castle, on the hillside. Stanzas after the eighth were also forgotten, the purport being that a messenger from behind the grey stane appeared and invited the king in.
We have here in traditional song the story of the medieval romance of Orpheus, in which fairy-land supplants Tartarus, faithful love is rewarded, and Eurydice (Heurodis, Erodys, Eroudys) is retrieved. There are three versions of this tale (edited respectively by Laing, Select Remains of the Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, No. 3; Halliwell, Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, p. 37; and Ritson, Metrical Romancees, n, 248). See the critical edition by O. Zielke, Breslau, 1880.
Child's Ballad Text A.
Version A Child 19- King Orfeo
The Leisure Hour, February 14, 1880, No 1468, p. 109. Obtained from the singing of Andrew Coutts, an old man in Unst, Shetland, by Mr. Biot Edmondston.
1. Der lived a king inta da aste,
Scowan ürla grün
Der lived a lady in da wast.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
2. Dis king he has a huntin gaen,
Scowan ürla grün
He's left his Lady Isabel alane.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
3. 'Oh I wis ye'd never gaen away,
Scowan ürla grün
For at your hame is d'ol an wae.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
4. 'For da king o Ferrie we his daert,
Scowan ürla grün
Has pierced your lady to da hert.'
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
* * * * *
5. And aifter dem da king has gaen,
Scowan ürla grün
But whan he cam it was a grey stane.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
6. Dan he took oot his pipes ta play,
Scowan ürla grün
Bit sair his hert wi d'ol an wae.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
7. And first he played da notes o noy,
Scowan ürla grün
An dan he played da notes o joy.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
8. An dan he played da g'od gabber reel,
Scowan ürla grün
Dat meicht ha made a sick hert hale.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
* * * * *
9. 'Noo come ye in inta wir ha,
Scowan ürla grün
An come ye in among wis a'.'
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
10. Now he's gaen in inta der ha,
Scowan ürla grün
An he's gaen in among dem a'.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
11. Dan he took out his pipes to play,
Scowan ürla grün
Bit sair his hert wi d'ol an wae.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
12. An first he played da notes o noy,
Scowan ürla grün
An dan he played da notes o joy.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
13. An dan he played da g'od gabber reel,
Scowan ürla grün
Dat meicht ha made a sick hert hale.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
14. 'Noo tell to us what ye will hae:
Scowan ürla grün
What sall we gie you for your play?
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
15. 'What I will hae I will you tell,
Scowan ürla grün
An dat's me Lady Isabel.'
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
16. 'Yees tak your lady, an yees gaeng hame,
Scowan ürla grün
An yees be king ower a' your ain.'
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
17. He's taen his lady, an he's gaen hame,
Scowan ürla grün
An noo he's king ower a' his ain.
Whar giorten han grün oarlac
Additions and Corrections
P. 216 a, first paragraph. The Bodleian copy, B, also refers to the lay of Orpheus at the end. G. L. K. So the Lai de l'Espine, Roquefort, Poésies de Marie de France, I, 556, v. 185, and Floire et Blanceflor, ed. Du Méril, p. 231, v. 71: Zielke, Sir Orfeo, p. 131.
For correspondences between Sir Orfeo and the Irish epic tale of the Wooing of Etain. see Kittredge, in The American Journal of Philology, VII, 191 ff.
P. 217. The first half of the Norse burden is more likely to have been, originally, what would correspond to the Danish Skoven [er] herlig grön, or, Skoven herlig gronnes. In the other half, grün forbids us to look for hjort in giorten, where we are rather to see Danish urt (English wort), Icelandic jurt: so that this would be, in Danish, Hvor urten him grönnes herlig. (Note of Mr. Axel Olrik.)
P. 215. The relations of the Danish 'Harpens Kraft,' and incidentally those of this ballad, to the English romance are discussed, with his usual acuteness, by Professor Sophus Bugge in Arkiv for nordisk Filologi, VII, 97 ff., 1891. See II, 137, of this collection.
P. 215. Professor Sophus Bugge maintains that the Scandinavian ballad 'Harpens Kraft' shows acquaintance with the English romance, and indeed, like the English ballad, is derived from it. (Arkiv för nordisk Filologi, VH, 97 ff., 1891.)