No. 35: Allison Gross
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes {moved to the end of narrative}
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A.
5. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: Allison Gross
A. Roud Number 3212; Allison Gross (11 Listings)
2. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A with additional notes)]
3. Sheet Music: Allison Gross (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
Child's Narrative
A. 'Allison Gross,' Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fol. 40.
'Allison Gross' was printed by Jamieson, Popular Ballads, II, 187, without deviation from the manuscript save in spelling.
In a Greek tale, a nereid, that is elf or fairy, turns a youth who had refused to espouse her into a snake, the curse to continue till he finds another love who is as fair as she: 'Die Schönste,' B. Schmidt, Griechische Märchen, etc., No 10. This tale is a variety of 'Beauty and the Beast,' one of the numerous wild growths from that ever charming French story.[1]
An elf, a hill-troll, a mermaid, make a young man offers of splendid gifts, to obtain his love or the promise of his faith, in 'Elveskud,' Grundtvig, No 47, many of the Danish and two of the Norwegian copies; 'Hertig Magnus och Elfvorna,' Afzelius. III, 172; 'Hr. Magnus og Bjærgtrolden,' Grundtvig, No 48, Arwidsson, No 147 B; 'Herr Magnus och Hafstrollet,' Afzelius, No 95, Bugge. No 11; a lind-worm. similarly, to a young woman, 'Lindormen,' Grundtvig, No 65. Magnus answers the hill-troll that he should be glad to plight faith with her were she like other women. but she is the ugliest troll that could be found: Grundtvig, II, 121, A 6, B 7; Arwidsson, II, 303, B 5; Afzelius, III, 168, st. 5, 173, st. 6. This is like what we read in stanza 7 of our ballad, but the answer is inevitable in any such case. Magnus comes off scot-free.
The queen of the fairies undoing the spell of the witch is a remarkable feature, not paralleled, so far as I know, in English or northern tradition. The Greek nereids, however, who do pretty much everything, good or bad, that is ascribed to northern elves or fairies, and even bear an appellation resembling that by which fairies are spoken of in Scotland and Ireland, "the good damsels," "the good ladies," have a queen who is described as taking no part in the unfriendly acts of her subjects, but as being kindly disposed towards mankind, and even as repairing the mischief which subordinate sprites have done against her will. If now the fairy queen might interpose in behalf of men against her own kith and kin, much more likely would she be to exert herself to thwart the malignity of a witch.[2]
The object of the witch's blowing thrice on a grass-green horn in 82 is not clear, for nothing comes of it. In the closely related ballad which follows this, a witch uses a horn to summon the sea-fishes, among whom there is one who has been the victim of her spells. The horn is appropriate. Witches were supposed to blow horns when they joined the wild hunt, and horn-blower, "hornblâse," is twice cited by Grimm as an equivalent to witch: Deutsche Mythologie, p. 886.
Translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 19; by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, No 7; Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 9; Loève-Veimars, Ballades de l'Angleterre, p. 353.
Footnotes:
1. Of these Dr. Reinhold Köhler has given me a note of more than twenty. The French tale itself had, in all likelihood, a popular foundation.
2. B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, pp 100 f, 107, 123, Euphemistically the nereids are called ᾑ καλαἰς ἀρχόντισσαις, ᾑ καλαἰς κυράδες, ᾑ καλόκαρδαις, ᾑκαλότυχαις; their sovereign is ᾑ μεγάλη κυρά, ἡ πρώτη, etc.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The queen of the fairies undoing the spell of the witch is a remarkable feature, not paralleled in English or northern tradition. The Greek nereids, however, who do pretty much everything, good or bad, that is ascribed to northern elves or fairies, and even bear an appellation resembling that by which fairies are spoken of in Scotland and Iceland, "the good damsels," "the good ladies," have a queen who is described as taking no part in the unfriendly acts of her subjects, but as being kindly disposed towards mankind, and even as repairing the mischief which subordinate spirits have done against her will. If now the fairy queen might interpose in behalf of men against her own kith and kin, much more likely would she be to exert herself to thwart the malignity of a witch.
Child's Ballad Text A
Allison Gross- Version A Child 35
Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, fo1. 40.
1 O Allison Gross, that lives in yon towr,
The ugliest witch i the north country,
Has trysted me ae day up till her bowr,
An monny fair speech she made to me.
2 She stroaked my head, an she kembed my hair,
An she set me down saftly on her knee;
Says, Gin ye will be my lemman so true,
Sae monny braw things as I woud you gi.
3 She showd me a mantle o red scarlet,
Wi gouden flowrs an fringes fine;
Says, Gin ye will be my lemman so true,
This goodly gift it sal be thine.
4 'Awa, awa, ye ugly witch,
Haud far awa, an lat me be;
I never will be your lemman sae true,
An I wish I were out o your company.'
5 She neist brought a sark o the saftest silk,
Well wrought wi pearles about the ban;
Says, Gin you will be my ain true love,
This goodly gift you sal comman.
6 She showd me a cup of the good red gold,
Well set wi jewls sae fair to see;
Says, Gin you will be my lemman sae true,
This goodly gift I will you gi.
7 'Awa, awa, ye ugly witch,
Had far awa, and lat me be;
For I woudna ance kiss your ugly mouth
For a' the gifts that ye coud gi.'
8 She's turnd her right and roun about,
An thrice she blaw on a grass-green horn,
An she sware by the meen and the stars abeen,
That she'd gar me rue the day I was born.
9 Then out has she taen a silver wand,
An she's turnd her three times roun an roun;
She's mutterd sich words till my strength it faild,
An I fell down senceless upon the groun.
10 She's turnd me into an ugly worm,
And gard me toddle about the tree;
An ay, on ilka Saturdays night,
My sister Maisry came to me,
11 Wi silver bason an silver kemb,
To kemb my heady upon her knee;
But or I had kissd her ugly mouth,
I'd rather a toddled about the tree.
12 But as it fell out on last Hallow-even,
When the seely court was ridin by,
The queen lighted down on a gowany bank,
Nae far frae the tree where I wont to lye.
13 She took me up in her milk-white han,
An she's stroakd me three times oer her knee;
She chang'd me again to my ain proper shape,
An I nae mair maun toddle about the tree.
Additions and Corrections
P. 314 a. Hill-maid's promises. Add: 'Bjærgjomfruens frieri,' Kristensen's Skattegraveren, II, 100, No 460
P. 314. Gifts offered by a hill-maid. 'Bjærgjomfruens Frieri,' Kristensen, Skattegraveren, II, 100, No 460; XII, 22 ff., Nos 16, 17; Folkeminder, XI, 20 ff., No 18, A-E.