Child No. 67: Glasgerion
[There are no known traditional US or Canadian versions of this ballad. In BFSNA III, p. 11 Phillips Barry states that "Jack, The Jolly Tar" is a secondary form of Glasgerion. At some point I may include this as an Appendix. Flanders (Ancient Ballads, 1966) gives three versions, attaching them to Child 67.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Moved to the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A-C.
5. End-Notes
6. Additions and Corrections
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: Glasgerion
A. Roud Number 145: (16 Listings)
2. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-C with additional notes)]
3. Sheet Music: Glasgerion (Bronson's text and music)
Child's Narrative
A. 'Glasgerion,' Percy Manuscript, p. 94; Hales and Furnivall, I, 248.
B. 'Glenkindie,' Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 93.
C. Kinloch Manuscripts, III, 139.
'Glasgerion' was first printed in Percy's Reliques, III, 43, 1765, and was not thought by the editor to require much correction. Certainly the English ballad is one which it would be hard to mend. Scottish B is mainly of good derivation (a poor old woman in Aberdeenshire), and has some good stanzas, but Jamieson unfortunately undertook to improve a copy in which the story was complete, but "the diction much humbled," by combining with it a fragment of another version. Dr. John Hill Burton seems, in turn, to have compounded a portion of the ballad as printed by Jamieson with a fragment from tradition (C): Kinloch Manuscripts, III, 147.
Cunningham, Songs of Scotland, II, 32, has fused Percy's and Jamieson's copies, as Motherwell remarks, "in a flux of his own which has disfigured and quite changed the features of each."
The grete Glascurion is joined in Chaucer's House of Fame, III, 13-18, with the harper Orpheus, Orion (Arion), and Chiron, and with Orpheus again by Gavin Douglas, copying Chaucer, in his Palice of Honour, I, 21, vv 15, 16, ed. Small.
Y Bardd Glas Keraint, in English Keraint the Blue Bard (Blue Bard being an appellation of a chief bard, who wore an official robe of blue), is recorded, as Mr. Edward Williams informs us, to have been an eminent poet of distinguished birth, son of Owain, Prince of Glamorgan. The English name Glasgerion, Mr. Williams further remarks, differs not so much from Glasgeraint as most Welsh names, as written by Englishmen, do from their true orthography. There is, therefore, at least no absurdity in the suggestion that the Glascurion of Chaucer and the Glasgerion of the ballad may represent the Welsh Glas Keraint.[1]
A peasant lad, tailor's lad, who had overheard the troth-plight of a knight and lady, anticipates the lover in 'Den fule Bondedreng,' Kristensen, II, 25-27; 'Torpardrängen,' Hazelius, Ur de Nordiska Folkens Lif, p. 138; 'Die Betrogene,' Norrenberg, Des dülkener Fiedlers Liederbuch, p. 79. The adventure is jocosely treated in the first two, and does not amount to a tragedy in the other. A groom forestalls Agilulf, King of the Lombards, in the Decameron, III, 2, again without a bloody conclusion.
The marvellous power of the harp in B 2, C 1 is precisely paralleled in the Scandinavian 'Harpans Kraft,' Arwidsson, No 149, II, 311-17; Afzelius, No 91, III, 144-47; Grundtvig, No 40, II, 65-68; Landstad, No 51, p. 475; Íslenzk Fornkvæði, No 3, p. 18 f. In these the fish is harped out of the water, the young from folk and from fee, the bairn from its mother's womb, the water from the brook, the hind from the wood, the horns from the hart's head, the bark from the tree, the dead out of the mould, etc., etc. These effects are of the same nature as those produced by the harp of Orpheus, and it is to be observed that in the ballad of 'Harpans Kraft ' the harper is a bridegroom seeking (successfully) to recover his bride, who has been carried down to the depths of the water by a merman. We have had something like these effects in the 'Twa Brothers,' No 49, B 10, I, 439, where Lady Margaret harps the small birds off the briers and her true love out of the grave.[2] There is a fisherman in the Gesta Romanorum who has a harp so sweet that all the fish in the water come to his hand: Oesterley, No 85, p. 413, Madden, No 35, p. 116, No 8, p. 293. Equally potent is pipe, flute, or song in many ballads of various nations; the fish come up from below, the stars are stopped, the brook rises, the pines vail their top, the deer stops in its leap, etc., the musician being sometimes an elf, sometimes an inspired mortal: 'Hr. Tönne af Alsö,' Grundtvig, No 34, II, 15, 19, Afzelius, No 7, I, 33, 128; 'Elvehöj,' Grundtvig, No 46, II, 107-109, Afzelius, No 95, III, 170, Arwidsson, No 147, II, 301; Kudrun, ed. Bartsch, sts 379, 381, 388; the Roumanian 'Salga,' 'Mihu Copilul,' 'Vidra,' Stanley, p. 29, Alecsandri, pp 58, 66, 98 f, the same, Ballades et Chants populaires, pp 118, 168, Murray, pp 44, 53 f, 83; 'El Poder del Canto,' Milá, Romancerillo, No 207, p. 165, Nigra, Rivista Contemporanea, XX, 78; 'Conde Arnaldos,' Wolf and Hofmann, No 153, II, 80. For the soporific effect of such music, as shown in B 5, C 2, there are parallels in 'Albred Lykke,' who sings a ballad which sets everybody asleep but the young bride who had been stolen from him, Kristensen, I, 281, No 105, sts 11, 12, II, 259 f, No 76, sts 13, 14; 'Den fortryllende Sang,' Grundtvig, No 243, IV, 470, Danish A 12, 473, Swedish G 25, 26; 'El Rey marinero,' Milá, No 201, p. 151, Briz, I, 117, IV, 15, V, 75; Campbell's West Highland Tales, I, 291 f.
The oath by oak, ash, and thorn, A 18, is a relic or trait of high antiquity. We have an oath by the thorn in 'Fair Janet,' G 13, 'Young Hunting,' K 26; by corn, grass sae green and corn, in 'Young Hunting,' A 16, D 19, G 7. It is to be supposed that the tree, thorn, corn, was touched while swearing, a sod taken up in the hand. See Grimm's Rechtsalterthümer, 2d ed., p. 896 f, p. 117 f.
For drying the sword on the sleeve, A 22, see 'Little Musgrave and Lady Bernard.'
Translated by Bodmer, I, 73, after Percy; by Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 59, after Allingham, p. 358.
Footnotes:
1. See The Cambrian Journal, September, 1858, pp 192-194, communicated to me by the kind courtesy of Rev. Professor D. Silvan Evans. As to Glasgerion's being a king's son, ballad titles count for little.
2. In C 18, p. 440,
She wept the sma brids frae the tree,
She wept the starns ado un frae the lift,
She wept the fish out o the sea.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
'Glasgerion' was first printed in Percy's Reliques, III, 43, 1765, and was not thought by the editor to require much correction. Certainly the English ballad is one which it would be hard to mend. Scottish B is mainly of good derivation (a poor old woman in Aberdeenshire), and has some good stanzas, but Jamieson unfortunately undertook to improve a copy in which the story was complete, but "the diction much humbled," by combining with it a fragment of another version. 'The Bret Glascurion' is joined in Chaucer's House of Fame, iii, 111-118, with the harpers Orpheus, Orion (Arion), and Chiron. 'Bret' is Briton, and Y Bardd Glas Keraint, in English Keraint the Blue Bard (Blue Bard being an appellation of a chief bard, who wore an official robe of blue), is recorded to have been an eminent poet of distinguished birth, son of Owain, Prince of Glamorgan. There is at least no absurdity in the suggestion that the Glascurion of Chaucer and the Glasgerion of the ballad may represent the Welsh Glas Keraint.
Child's Ballad Texts A-C
'Glasgerion'- Version A; Child 67 Glasgerion
Percy Manuscript, p. 94; Hales and Furnivall, I, 248.
1 Glasgerion was a kings owne sonne,
And a harper he was good;
He harped in the kings chamber,
Where cuppe and candle stoode,
And soe did hee in the queens chamber,
Till ladies waxed wood.
2 And then bespake the kings daughter,
And these words thus sayd shee:
. . . .
. . . . .
3 Saide, Strike on, strike on, Glasgerrion,
Of thy striking doe not blinne;
There's neuer a stroke comes ouer thin harpe
But it glads my hart within.
4 'Faire might you fall, lady!' quoth hee;
'Who taught you now to speake?
I haue loued you, lady, seuen yeere;
My hart I durst neere breake.'
5 'But come to my bower, my Glasgerryon,
When all men are att rest;
As I am a ladie true of my promise,
Thou shalt bee a welcome guest.'
6 But hom then came Glasgerryon,
A glad man, Lord, was hee:
'And come thou hither, Iacke, my boy,
Come hither vnto mee.
7 'For the kings daughter of Normandye,
Her loue is granted mee,
And beffore the cocke haue crowen,
Att her chamber must I bee.'
8 'But come you hither master,' quoth hee,
'Lay your head downe on this stone;
For I will waken you, master deere,
Afore it be time to gone.'
9 But vpp then rose that lither ladd,
And did on hose and shoone;
A coller he cast vpon his necke,
Hee seemed a gentleman.
10 And when he came to that ladies chamber,
He thrild vpon a pinn;
The lady was true of her promise,
Rose vp and lett him in.
11 He did not take the lady gay
To boulster nor to bedd,
But down vpon her chamber-flore
Full soone he hath her layd.
12 He did not kisse that lady gay
When he came nor when he youd;
And sore mistrusted that lady gay
He was of some churl s blood.
13 But home then came that lither ladd,
And did of his hose and shoone,
And cast that coller from about his necke;
He was but a churl s sonne:
'Awaken,' quoth hee, 'My master deere,
I hold it time to be gone.
14 'For I haue sadled your horsse, master,
Well bridled I haue your steed;
Haue not I serued a good breakfast,
When time comes I haue need.'
15 But vp then rose good Glasgerryon,
And did on both hose and shoone,
And cast a coller about his necke;
He was a kingees sonne.
16 And when he came to that ladies chamber,
He thrild vpon a pinn;
The lady was more then true of promise,
Rose vp and let him in.
17 Saies, Whether haue you left with me
Your braclett or your gloue?
Or are you returned backe againe
To know more of my loue?'
18 Glasgerryon swore a full great othe,
By oake and ashe and thorne,
'Lady, I was neuer in your chamber
Sith the time that I was borne.'
19 'O then it was your litle foote-page
Falsly hath beguiled me:'
And then shee pulld forth a litle pen-kniffe,
That hanged by her knee,
Says, There shall neuer noe churl s blood
Spring within my body.
20 But home then went Glasgerryon,
A woe man, good [Lord], was hee;
Sayes, Come hither, thou Iacke, my boy,
Come thou hither to me.
21 Ffor if I had killed a man to-night,
Iacke, I wold tell it thee;
But if I haue not killed a man to-night,
Iacke, thou hast killed three!
22 And he puld out his bright browne sword,
And dryed it on his sleeue,
And he smote off that lither ladds head,
And asked noe man noe leaue.
23 He sett the swords poynt till his brest,
The pumill till a stone;
Thorrow that falsenese of that lither ladd
These three liues werne all gone.
---------------
'Glenkindie'- Version B;Child 67 Glasgerion
Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 93, taken from the recitation of an old woman by Professor Scott, of Aberdeen, and "somewhat improved" by a fragment communicated by the Rev. William Gray, of Lincoln.
1 Glenkindie was ance a harper gude,
He harped to the king;
And Glenkindie was ance the best harper
That ever harpd on a string.
2 He'd harpit a fish out o saut water,
Or water out o a stane,
Or milk out o a maiden's breast,
That bairn had never nane.
3 He's taen his harp intil his hand,
He harpit and he sang,
And ay as he harpit to the king,
To haud him unthought lang.
4 'I'll gie you a robe, Glenkindie,
A robe o the royal pa,
Gin ye will harp i the winter's night
Afore my nobles a'.'
* * * * *
5 He's taen his harp intill his hand,
He's harpit them a' asleep,
Except it was the young countess,
That love did waukin keep.
6 And first he has harpit a grave tune,
And syne he has harpit a gay,
And mony a sich atween hands
I wat the lady gae.
7 Says, Whan day is dawen, and cocks hae crawen,
And wappit their wings sae wide,
It's ye may come to my bower-door,
And streek you by my side.
8 But look that ye tell na Gib, your man,
For naething that ye dee;
For, an ye tell him Gib, your man,
He'll beguile baith you and me.
9 He's taen his harp intill his hand,
He harpit and he sang,
And he is hame to Gib, his man,
As fast as he could gang.
10 'O mith I tell you, Gib, my man,
Gin I a man had slain?'
'O that ye micht, my gude master,
Altho ye had slain ten.'
11 'Then tak ye tent now, Gib, my man,
My bidden for to dee;
And but an ye wauken me in time,
Ye sall be hangit hie.
12 'Whan day has dawen, and cocks hae crawen,
And wappit their wings sae wide,
I'm bidden gang till yon lady's bower,
And streek me by her side.'
13 'Gae hame to your bed, my good master;
Ye've waukit, I fear, oer lang;
For I'll wauken you in as good time
As ony cock i the land.'
14 He's taen his harp intill his hand,
He harpit and he sang,
Until he harpit his master asleep,
Syne fast awa did gang.
15 And he is till that lady's bower,
As fast as he could rin;
When he cam till that lady's bower,
He chappit at the chin.
16 'O wha is this,' says that lady,
'That opens nae and comes in?'
'It's I, Glenkindie, your ain true-love,
O open and lat me in!'
17 She kent he was nae gentle knicht
That she had latten in,
For neither when he gaed nor cam,
Kist he her cheek or chin.
18 He neither kist her when he cam,
Nor clappit her when he gaed,
And in and at her bower window,
The moon shone like the gleed.
19 'O ragged is your hose, Glenkindie,
And riven is your sheen,
And reaveld is your yellow hair,
That I saw late yestreen.'
20 'The stockings they are Gib, my man's,
They came first to my hand,
And this is Gib, my man's shoon,
At my bed-feet they stand;
I've reavelld a' my yellow hair
Coming against the wind.'
21 He's taen the harp intill his hand,
He harpit and he sang,
Until he cam to his master,
As fast as he could gang.
22 'Won up, won up, my good master,
I fear ye sleep oer lang;
There's nae a cock in a' the land
But was wappit his wings and crawn.'
23 Glenkindie's tane his harp in hand,
He harpit and he sang,
And he has reachd the lady's bower
Afore that eer he blan.
24 When he cam to the lady's bower,
He chappit at the chin:
'O wha is that at my bower-door,
That opens na and comes in?'
'It's I, Glenkindie, your ain true-love,
And in I canna win.'
* * * * *
25 'Forbid it, forbid it,' says that lady,
'That ever sic shame betide,
That I should first be a wild loon's lass,
And than a young knight's bride.'
26 He's taen his harp intill his hand,
He harpit and he sang,
And he is hame to Gib, his man,
As fast as he could gang.
27 'Come forth, come forth, now, Gib, my man,
Till I pay you your fee;
Come forth, come forth, now, Gib, my man,
Weel payit sall ye be.'
28 And he has taen him Gib, his man,
And he has hangd him hie,
And he's hangit him oer his ain yate,
As high as high could be.
29 There was nae pity for that lady,
For she lay cald and dead,
But a' was for him, Glenkindie,
In bower he must go mad.
-------------
'Glenkinnie' -Version C; Child 67 Glasgerion
Kinloch's Manuscripts, III, 139, in the handwriting of John Hill Burton.
1 Glenkinnie was as good a harper
As ever harpet tone;
He harpet fish out o the sea-flood,
And water out of a dry loan,
And milk out o the maiden's breast
That bairn had never neen.
2 He harpit i the king's palace,
He harpit them a' asleep,
Unless it were Burd Bell alone,
And she stud on her feet.
3 'Ye will do ye home, Glenkinnie,
And ye will take a sleep,
And ye will come to my bower-door
Before the cock's crowing.'
4 He's taen out his milk-white steed,
And fast away rode he,
Till he came to his ain castle,
Where gold glanced never so hie.
5 'Might I tell ye, Jeck, my man,
Gin I had slain a man?'
'Deed might [ye], my good master,
Altho ye had slain ten.'
6 'I've faun in love wi a gay ladie,
She's daughter to the Queen,
And I maun be at her bower-door
Before the cock's crowing.'
7 He's taen out his master's steed,
And fast awa rode he,
Until he cam to Burd Bell's door,
Where gold glanced never so hie.
8 When he came to Burd Bell's door,
He tirled at the pin,
And up she rose, away she goes,
To let Glenkinnie in.
9 . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
That I combed out yestreen.
* * * * *
10 She looked out at a shot-window,
Atween her and the meen:
'There is twa lovers beguiled the night,
And I fear I am ane.
11 'Ye shall na hae to say, Glenkindie,
When you sit at the wine,
That once you loved a queen's daughter,
And she was your footman's quean.'
* * * * *
End-Notes
A. 14. cappe ... yoode.
15,6, 21,2 make a stanza in the Manuscript
33. this harpe.
41. him fall?
43. 7 yeere.
61. whom then.
73,4. & at her chamber must I bee
beffore the cocke haue crowen.
102. pinn: one stroke of the n is left out, as frequently, in the Manuscript Furnivall.
112. nor noe.
144. times.
164. him im.
171. you you.
173. you are.
214. killed 3.
223. head: there is a tag to the d as if for s. Furnivall.
234, these 3.
B. 13,4, 2 are cited by Jamieson in the Scots Magazine, October, 1803, p. 698, as the beginning of a fragment [Gray's], with only this variation:
Glenkindie was ance the best harper.
He has, therefore, combined the two versions here.
Stanza 4, as published, is the first of "another copy [Scott's], in which the story is complete, but, it having been written from the recitation of a poor old woman in Aberdeenshire, the diction has been much humbled. It begins:
'I'll you a robe, Glenkindy,
A robe o the royal pa,
Gin ye will harp i the winter's night
Afore my nobles a'.'
(Robe is misprinted rolu).
After 4 follows this stanza, which, with but a word or two of difference, is the first of 'Brown Robin,' where, no doubt, it belongs, but not here:
And the king but and his nobles a'
Sat birling at the wine,
And he wad hae but his ae dochter
To wait on them at dine.
10 may not be in the right place, and should, perhaps, be put just before Gib gets his deserts. Some such stanza would come in well between 20 and 21 of A.
After 25 follows 29, manifestly with no right. If this commonplace is retained, it must come at the end.
After 29 (27 in Jamieson) follow these three stanzas, the first a superfluous and very improbable repetition; the second altered by Jamieson, "to introduce a little variety, and prevent the monotonous tiresomeness of repetition," the last as little in traditional style as the second.
He'd harpit a fish out o saut water,
The water out o a stane,
The milk out o a maiden's breast
That bairn had never nane.
He's taen his harp intill his hand,
Sae sweetly as it rang,
And wae and weary was to hear
Glenkindie's dowie sang.
But cald and dead was that lady,
Nor heeds for a' his maen;
An he wad harpit till domis day,
She'll never speak again.
C. 8 follows 2 in the Manuscript.
A fragment in Kinloch Manuscripts, III, 147, sixteen stanzas, in the writing of John Hill Burton, is thus made up B 1, 2, C 2, B 6, 7, C 4, 5, B 11, C 6, B 14, C 7, 8, B 17, 18, B 191-3 and C 94, B 20; with the following variations, probably arbitrary.
Variations from
B 11. a gude harper.
13. he was the.
14. on string.
21. o the sea-flood.
22. o the.
23. And milk.
C 23. Except it was.
B 74. streek down.
C 43. Untill.
C 51. Now might.
C 52. a man had slain = B 102.
C 53. Indeed ye micht.
B 111. Jock my man.
113. And but ye.
C 71. And he's.
C 81. bower-door.
C 83. and away.
Additions and Corrections
P. 137 a, second paragraph. Landau notes various unpleasant stories resembling Boccaccio's, Quellen des Dekameron, pp. 70 f, 74 tI, ed. 1884.
137 a, note *. The comparison between Chaucer's Glascurion and the Welsh Geraint had already been made by Price, Essay on the Remains of Ancient Lit. in the Welsh, etc., 1845, Literary Remains of the Rev. Thomas Price, 1854, I, 152. G.L.K.
137 b, line 18. Insert; Briz, V, 73.
Line 20. Add: the harping of Wäinämöinen, Kalevala, Rune 41, v. 31 ff, Schiefner, p. 240. Daghda, the Druid, performs in the hall of his enemies the three feats which give distinction to a harper; makes the women cry tears, the women and youth burst into laughter, and the entire host fall asleep. O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, III, 214: cf. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de la Litt. Celtique, II, 190 f. G. L. K.
P. 137 b. 'Poter del Canto' is now No 47, p. 284, of Nigra's collection.
P. 1 36. "Glen Kindy, or rather Glen Skeeny, I have heard, and there is a ballad in Percy's collection that is very much the same." Mrs. Brown, in a letter to Jamieson, June 18, 1801, Jamieson-Brown Manuscript, Appendix, p. x.
137 a, second paragraph. 'Riddaren och torpardrängen,' Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 133, No 43.
P. 137, II, 511 f. Soporific effect of harping: cf. Revue celtique, XII, 81, 109, XV, 438. G. L. K.