No. 40: The Queen of Elfan's Nourice
[There are no known traditional US or Canadian versions of this ballad with one possible exception. A version titled, "I heard a Bonnie Cow," was collected from Mrs. McLeod of Dumfries of Scotland, when she was on a visit to her relatives at Lake Mills, Wisconsin.
R. Matteson 2011]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnote {There is one footnote for this ballad}
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A.
5. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: The Queen of Elfan's Nourice
A. Roud 3723; Queen of Elfan's Nourice (5 Listings)
2. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A with additional notes)]
3. Sheet Music: The Queen of Elfan's Nourice (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
Child's Narrative
A. Skene Manuscripts, No 8, p. 25. Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. Laing, p. 169.
We see from this pretty fragment, which, after the nature of the best popular ballad, forces you to chant and will not be read, that a woman had been carried off, four days after bearing a son, to serve as nurse in the elf-queen's family. She is promised that she shall be permitted to return home if she will tend the fairy's bairn till he has got the use of his legs. We could well have spared stanzas 10-12, which belong to 'Thomas Rymer,' to know a little more of the proper story.
That elves and water-spirits have frequently solicited the help of mortal women at lying-in time is well known: see Stewart's Popular Superstitions of the Highlands, p. 104; Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, Nos 41, 49, 68, 69, 304; Müllenhoff, Nos 443, 444; Thiele, Danmarks Folkesagen, 1843, II, 200, Nos 1-4; Asbjørnsen, Norske Huldre-Eventyr, 2d ed., I, 16; Maurer, Isländische Volkssagen, p. 6 f; Keightley's Fairy Mythology, pp 122, 261, 275, 301, 311, 388, 488.[1] They also like to have their offspring suckled by earthly women. It is said, writes Gervase of Tilbury, that nobody is more exposed to being carried off by water-sprites than a woman in milk, and that they sometimes restore such a woman, with pay for her services, after she has nursed their wretched fry seven years. He had himself seen a woman who had been abducted for this purpose, while washing clothes on the bank of the Rhone. She had to nurse the nix's son under the water for that term, and then was sent back unhurt. Otia Imperialia, III, 85, Liebrecht, p. 38. Choice is naturally made of the healthiest and handsomest mothers for this office. "A fine young woman of Nithsdale, when first made a mother, was sitting singing and rocking her child, when a pretty lady came into her cottage, covered with a fairy mantle. She carried a beautiful child in her arms, swaddled in green silk. 'Gie my bonnie thing a suck,' said the fairy. The young woman, conscious to whom the child belonged, took it kindly in her arms, and laid it to her breast. The lady instantly disappeared, saying, 'Nurse kin', an ne'er want.' The young mother nurtured the two babes, and was astonished, whenever she awoke, at finding the richest suits of apparel for both children, with meat of most delicions flavor. This food tasted, says tradition, like loaf mixed with wine and honey," etc. Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, p. 302.
Footnote: 1. Many of these instances are cited hy Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 1875, 1,378. In Thiele's first example the necessity of having Christian aid comes from the lying-in woman being a Christian who had been carried off by an elf.
In Asbjarnsen's tale, the woman who is sent for to act as midwife finds that her own serving-maid is forced, without being aware of it, to work all night in the elfin establishment, and is very tired with double duty.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
We learn from this pretty fragment, which, after the nature of the best popular ballad, forces you to chant it and will not be read, that a woman had been carried off, four days after bearing a son, to serve as nurse in the Elf-queen's family. Stanzas 10-12 are out of place here, and properly belong to No. 37. It is well known that elves and water spirits have frequently solicited the help of mortal women at lying-in time.
Child's Ballad Text A
'The Queen of Elfan's Nourice'- Version A; Child 40
Skene Manuscripts, No 8, p. 25. Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. Laing, p. 169.
1 I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,
An a cow low down in yon glen;
Lang, lang will my young son greet
Or his mither bid him come ben.
2 I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,
An a cow low down in yon fauld;
Lang, lang will my young son greet
Or his mither take him frae cauld.
* * * * *
3 . . . . .
. . . .
Waken, Queen of Elfan,
An hear your nourice moan.'
4 'O moan ye for your meat,
Or moan ye for your fee,
Or moan ye for the ither bounties
That ladies are wont to gie?'
5 'I moan na for my meat,
Nor moan I for my fee,
Nor moan I for the ither bounties
That ladies are wont to gie.
6 . . . . .
. . . . .
But I moan for my young son
I left in four nights auld.
7 'I moan na for my meat,
Nor yet for my fee,
But I mourn for Christen land,
It's there I fain would be.'
8 'O nurse my bairn, nourice,' she says,
'Till he stan at your knee,
An ye's win hame to Christen land,
Whar fain it's ye wad be.
9 'O keep my bairn, nourice,
Till he gang by the hauld,
An ye's win hame to your young son
Ye left in four nights auld.'
* * * * *
10 'O nourice lay your head
Upo my knee:
See ye na that narrow road
Up by yon tree?
11 . . . . . .
. . . . .
That's the road the righteous goes,
And that's the road to heaven.
12 'An see na ye that braid road,
Down by yon sunny fell?
Yon's the road the wicked gae,
An that's the road to hell.'
End-Notes
11. an a bonnie cow low, with an crossed out.
22. yon fall; fauld in margin.
64. auld not in Manuscript, supplied from 94.
73. Christend.
81. she says is probably the comment of the singer or reciter
Additions and Corrections
P. 358 f. Add: Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, ed. 1881, p. 83; P. I. Begbie, Supernatural Illusions, London, 1851, 1, 44-47; Bartsch, Sagen, u. s. w., aus Meklenburg, I, 85, No 95; Kuhn, Markische Sagen, p. 82, No 81, and Sagen, u. s. w., aus Westfalen, I, 285 f, No 831, and note; Grasse, Sagen des Konigreichs Sachsen, 2d ed., I, 73, No 69, I, "395, No 455; Peter, Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien, II, 16; Lutolf, Sagen, u. s. w., aus Lucern, u. 8. w., p. 476, No 478; Rochholz, Naturmythen, p. 113 f, No 9, and note, and especially the same author's Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau, I, 339: Wolf, Niederländische Sagen, p. 501, No 417; Árnason, Íslenzkar Þj´ðsögur, I, 13-22 (eight). G. L. K.
P. 358 f., II, 505 b.
Mortal women as midwives to fairies, elves, water-sprites, etc. Further examples are: Sébillot, Littérature orale de la Haute-Bretagne, pp. 19-23; the same, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 89, 109; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, pp. 40, 41; Meier, Deutsche Sagen, u.s.w., aus Schwaben, pp. 16-18, 59, 62; Mrs. Bray, Traditions of Devonshire, 1838, I, 184-188 (in the new ed., which is called The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy, I, 174 f.); "Lageniensis" [J. O'Hanlon], Irish Folk Lore, Glasgow, n.d., pp. 48, 49; U. Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen, pp. 50, 72; Vonbun, Die, Sagen Vorarlbergs, p. 16, cf. p. 6; Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 183. — Mortal woman as nurse for fairy child. Sébillot, Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 121. (G.L.K.)
P. 358, n, 505 b, III, 505 b. More cases in Fairy Births and Human Midwives,' E.S. Hartland, The Archaeological Review, IV, 328 ff.
The elf-woman's daughter has lain on the floor nineteen days in travail, for she cannot be delivered unless a mortal man lay hands upon her. Hrólfr is lured to the elf-woman's hall for this purpose. Gongu-Hrólfs Saga, c. 15, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, Til, 276, Ásmundarson, Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda, III, 1 74, 1 75. (G. L. K.)
P. 358, II, 505 b, III, 505 b, IV, 459 a. Mortal midwife for fairies. 'La Sage-femme et la Fee,' R. Basset, Contes pop. berbères, 1887, No 26, p. 55 (and see notes, pp. 162, 163). (G. L. K.)
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P. 358 b, II, 505 f., III, 505 f., IV, 459 a, V, 215 b. Mortal midwives for fairies, etc.: Wucke, Sagen der mittleren Werra, II, 25; Gebhart, Oesterreichisches Sagenbuch, p. 208; Baader, Neugesammelte Volkssagen, No 95, p. 68. G. L. K.
[Kirk's Secret Commonwealth, ed. Lang, p. 13; Denham Tracts, II, 138.]