The Ballad of "Lady Isabel and the False Knight" by Dr. Iivar Kemppinen
INTRODUCTION
The subject of this monograph is the ballad appearing in Francis James Child's collection under the title Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight[1]. Its initial motif is denoted in Stith Thompson's Motif Index by the figure F 301.2.1 Elf-knight produces love-longing by blowing on horn[2]. The ballad in its various forms and versions is one of the most widely spread products of folk poetry. In Europe it is known throughout the continent, the Balkans excepted and emigrants have taken it to Asia, North and South America and Australia. Its analogous motifs, preserved in the folk poetry of different countries, and which constitute
the basis for determining the identity of the various forms of the ballads, make up the following structural whole:
a: A noble- and foreign-looking man (false knight) approaches a young maid (king's daughter), charms her with his music or promises and carries her off in order to kill her. b: Having discovered his intentions, revealed either by the knight himself or in some other way, the girl, being the cleverer and more shrewd of the two, finds a way to save herself and c: kills the knight.
d: The final scene tells of what the maid does when the murder is accomplished and how her world reacts to the deed. Subordinate characters are the father and mother or brother and sister of the king's daughter or the knight, or
sometimes all of these.
As shown by the variant analysis the principal characters of the ballad, the false knight and the king's daughter, have been given greatly diverse names in the folk poetry of different cultural and linguistic areas. The original high birth and above all the foreign origin of the knight emerge clearly from the background ol the personal names. The name of the maid used in the
title of the present study. Isabel, is based on the popular names of the Spanish form la princesa Isabel and the Scottish form Lady Isabel. The name the false knight is based first and foremost on Scottish forms. For the sake of brevity and clarity, however, >>the maid>> and >>the knight>> are used in the text to describe the principal characters of the ballad even when the wording of
I Child No. 4.
2 Thompson III, 40 No. F 301. 2. 1.
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the popular variants would presuppose some other appellation. such simplification cannot mislead as the variant analysis mentions the principal characters of each version by their popular names or, failing this, the principal characters have been identified b,v other distinguishing epithets used in the popular variants.
Ballad is the term employed to describe the product of folk poetry selected for study here. It must be noted that the concept >ballad> is used in a very narrow sense: ballad refers here to >a folksong that tells a story with stress on the crucial situation, tells it by letting the action unfold itself in event and speech, and tells it objectively with little comment or intrusion of personal bias[1].
The study of a ballad so travelled and of such multiform variety presents certain difficulties in the initial phase of the work. As early as at the stage of collecting material the writer is faced with one of the most exacting tasks and difficult problems in deciding on the ballads to be regarded as belonging to the ballad family or the ballad tree under examination. when a creation
of folk poetry circulates from one country to another across the frontiers of nationality and language, further and further from its birthplace, its original theme and plot become more and more obscures and it continues to take on new traits either from iocal popular poetry, local events, old stories and tales or through direct and intentional modification. It is adapted in each district
to the singer's milieu and in each case the singer modifies it according to the
views and beliefs of his own particular time, producing something that differs
from the ballad in its country and at its time of origin[3]. But in folk poems these individual feature-s are generally of a more lasting nature than the poetical entity and retain faithfully from century to century and across vast
physical distances eiements r'r'hich derive from the original ballad and which,
far removed from the original both temporally and rocaily, may seem strange
and incomprehensible. Indeed they may seem so foreign that the singer ot
the poem himself no longer understands the meaning of his song. The
migration of a piece of folk poetrv beyond its linguistic and cultural borders
often causes such thorou.gh changes in both its form and content that in its
new shape it can frequently be regarded as re-versified. But from the retained
basic features and even from details which have become obscure the scholar
is abie to prove the kinship of-creations of folk poetry which seem totally
1 Gerould's definition, quoted by Hodgart r r; for the usage and meaning of the word
ballad see also Helen Louise cohen r-47; Daviclson 73; Entwistle 16-32; Hodgart g-e6.
'z Cf. Taylor, Prouerb zz.
3 cL c. w. von sydow, Ekotypbitdning (.Nordisk Kultur rX, zo7); cf. also Sverker Ek, Fotk-
t'isehjdltens fdrt,andlingar i traditionen (F,k, Studier 79- r r r).