No. 7: Earl Brand; Lord Douglas [Roud 23]
[The ballad of Earl Brand, (Child A), despite its similar theme and at least one common stanza, is different from Lord Douglas (Child B, Douglas Tragedy) also known as "Lord William and Lady Margaret." Child choice of the title, "Earl Brand," is a poor one since The Douglas Tragedy is the popular disseminated ballad. Whether they should be separate ballads may be debated but they are different ballads. The theme of the lover fighting her father and seven brothers or her father and fifteen men to win the hand of the maid is a common one and includes the ballads of Child 7 and Child 8 ("Erlington"), "Lady Margaret and Sweet William," "The Bold Soldier (Lady and the Dragoon) and "The Braes o' Yarrow" ballads (including "Rare Willie"). In these ballads the lover is pursued by his lover's brothers and father, or, father's men and her father who try to stop her marriage or elopement. The famous "rose and briar" ending of "Lord Douglas" is also common to other tragic ballads including "Lady Margaret and Sweet William," "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" and the popular "Barbara Allen."
The oldest version with the "maid's family tries to prevent elopement" theme is The Child (Knight) of Ell, (Child F) taken from the Percy folio, a collection of old ballad manuscripts some of which date back hundreds of years before Percy acquired them in the mid-1700s. Percy reworked and expanded "Child of Elle," publishing his version in his Reliques in 1765. Furnivall published the original manuscript in 1867, which is Child F.
US and Canadian versions are based on the B version "The Douglas Tragedy." In the US and Canada it's usually "Lord William" or "Sweet Willie" who takes "Lady Margaret" or sometimes "Fair Ellender," and is pursued by her father and seven brothers. Around 70 traditional versions have been collected in the US and Canada mostly from the Southern Appalachian region. The Scottish versions of Lord Douglas from the Greig/Duncan and Carpenter Collections number around 40 and are similar to Scott's "Douglas Tragedy" (Child B) and Child I, a print version dating back to 1792.
From the broadside (c. 1673) titled The Bold Keeper (also titled, The Master-piece of Love Songs) come the related ballads which Bronson and I include as an appendix to Earl Brand. This family of ballads includes the titles "The Valiant Soldier," "The Bold Soldier," "The Lady and the Dragoon," "The Soldier's Wooing" and also "Red River Shore" which comprise the appendix, 7A. Lady and the Dragoon (See the attached page on the left hand column after all the Earl Brand pages). Brewster identifies them with "Erlinton" (Child No. 8), because of the happy ending, as do Gardner and Chickering, Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth, and others. Mary O. Eddy (Ballads and Songs from Ohio) lists the Bold Soldier versions under the "Earl Brand" (Child No. 7) heading.
The "Bold Soldier" ballads are also related to Child, "The Braes of Yarrow" (No. 214). (See Cazden's article, Bold Soldier of Yarrow.)
R. Matteson Jr. 2011, 2014, 2018]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (added at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief by Kittredge
4. Child's Ballad Texts A-I; (G-I were added in later editions; there are two other supplemental versions from Additions and Corrections. Changes for A b-d are found in End-notes)
5. Endnotes
6. "Additions and Corrections" (has variants of A)
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: Earl Brand
A. Earl Brand: Roud Index Listing No. 23
B. The American Variants of "Earl Brand," Child No. 7
C. "The Lady and the Dragoon"- David Greene 1957
2. Sheet Music: Earl Brand (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
3. US & Canadian Versions
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-I with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative
A. a. 'Earl Bran,' Mr. Robert White's papers.
b. 'Earl Bran,' Mr. Robert White's papers.
c. 'The Brave Earl Brand and the King of England's Daughter,' Bell, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 122.
d. Fragmentary verses remembered by Mr. R. White's sister.
A* "The Earl o Bran," from "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 22 b, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of Richard Heber. [designated A* by Kittredge, 1904]
B. 'The Douglas Tragedy,' Scott's Minstrelsy, III, 246, ed. 1803.
C. 'Lord Douglas,' Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 502.
D. 'Lady Margaret,' Kinloch Manuscripts, I, 327.
E. 'The Douglas Tragedy,' Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 180.
F. 'The Child of Ell,' Percy Manuscript, p. 57; Hales and Furnivall, I, 133.
[G. 'Gude Earl Brand and Auld Carle Hude,' the Paisley Magazine, 1828, p. 321, communicated by W. Motherwell.
H. 'Auld Carle Hood, or, Earl Brand,' Campbell Manuscipts, II, 32.
I . 'The Douglas Tragedy,' 'Lord Douglas' Tragedy,' from an old-looking stall-copy, without place or date.
J. 'Earl Bran,' collected by William Laidlaw (b. 1780) of Selkirkshire (farm of Blackhouse) about 1802 for W. Scott from "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 22 d.]
'Earl Brand,' first given to the world by Mr. Robert Bell in 1857, has preserved most of the incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness unequalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English oral tradition. Before the publication of 'Earl Brand,' A c, our known inheritance in this particular was limited to the beautiful but very imperfect fragment called by Scott 'The Douglas Tragedy,' B; half a dozen stanzas of another version of the same in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, E; so much of Percy's 'Child of Elle' as was genuine, which, upon the printing of his manuscript, turned out to be one fifth, F; and two versions of Erlinton, A, C.[1] What now can be added is but little: two transcripts of 'Earl Brand,' one of which, A a, has suffered less from literary revision than the only copy hitherto printed, A c; a third version of 'The Douglas Tragedy,' from Motherwell's manuscript, C; a fourth from Kinloch's manuscripts, D; and another of 'Erlinton,' B. Even 'Earl Brand' has lost a circumstance that forms the turning-point in Scandinavian ballads, and this capital defect attends all our other versions, though traces which remain in 'Erlinton' make it nearly certain that our ballads originally agreed in all important particulars with those which are to this day recited in the north of Europe.
The corresponding Scandinavian ballad is 'Ribold and Guldborg,' and it is a jewel that any clime might envy. Up to the time of Grundtvig's edition, in Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, No 82, though four versions had been printed, the only current copy for a hundred and fifty years had been Syv's No 88, based on a broadside of the date 1648, but compounded from several sources; and it was in this form that the ballad became known to the English through Jamieson's translation. Grundtvig has now published twenty-seven versions of 'Ribold og Guldborg' (II, 347 ff, nineteen; 675 ff, four; III, 849 ff, four:[2] of all which only two are fragments), and nine of 'Hildebrand og Hilde,' No 83, which is the same story set in a dramatic frame-work (II, 393 ff, seven: 680 f, one; in, 857, one, a fragment). Three more Danish versions of 'Ribold og Guldborg' are furnished by Kristensen, Gamle jydske Folkeviser, I, No 37, II, No 84 A, B (C*, D*, E*). To these we may add the last half, sts 15-30, of 'Den farlige Jomfru,' Grundtvig, 184 G. Of Grundtvig's texts, 82 A is of the sixteenth century; B-H are of the seventeenth; the remainder and Kristensen's three from recent tradition. Six versions of 'Hildebrand og Hilde,' A-F, are of the seventeenth century; one is of the eighteenth, G; and the remaining two are from oral tradition of our day.
The first six of Grundtvig's versions of 'Ribold and Guldborg,' A-F, are all from manuscripts, and all of a pure traditional character, untampered with by "collators." G and H are mixed texts: they have F for their basis, but have admitted stanzas from other sources. Most of the versions from recitation are wonderful examples and proofs of the fidelity with which simple people "report and hold" old tales: for, as the editor has shown, verses which never had been printed, but which are found in old manuscripts, are now met with in recited copies; and these recited copies, again, have verses that occur in no Danish print or manuscript, but which nevertheless are found in Norwegian and Swedish recitations, and, what is more striking, in Icelandic tradition of two hundred years' standing.
The story in the older Danish ballads runs thus. Ribold, a king's son, sought Guldborg's love in secret. He said he would carry her to a land where death and sorrow came not; where all the birds were cuckoos, and all the grass was leeks, and all the streams ran wine. Guldborg, not indisposed, asked how she should evade the watch kept over her by all her family and by her betrothed. Ribold disguised her in his cloak and armor, B, E, F, and rode off, with Guldborg behind him. On the heath they meet a rich earl [a crafty man, C; her betrothed, D], who asks, Whither away, with your stolen maid? [little page, B, F.] Ribold replies that it is his youngest sister, whom he has taken from a cloister, A, E [sick sister, C; brother, B, F; page, D]. This shift avails nothing; no more does a bribe which he offers for keeping his secret. Report is at once made to her father that Guldborg has eloped with Ribold. Guldborg perceives that they are pursued, and is alarmed. Ribold reassures her, and prepares to meet his foes. He bids Guldborg hold his horse, B, C, E, and, whatever may happen, not to call him by name: "Though thou see me bleed, name me not to death; though thou see me fall, name me not at all!" Ribold cuts down six or seven of her brothers and her father, besides others of her kin; the youngest brother only is left, and Guldborg in an agony calls upon Ribold to spare him, to carry tidings to her mother. No sooner was his name pronounced than Ribold received a mortal wound. He sheathed his sword, and said, Come, wilt thou ride with me? Wilt thou go home to thy mother again, or wilt thou follow so sad a swain? And she answered, I will not go home to my mother again; I will follow thee, my heart's dearest man. They rode through the wood, and not a word came from the mouth of either. Guldborg asked, Why art thou not as glad as before? And Ribold answered, Thy brother's sword has been in my heart. They reached his house. He called to one to take his horse, to another to bring a priest, and said his brother should have Guldborg. But she would not give her faith to two brothers. Ribold died that night, C. Three dead came from Ribold's bower: Ribold and his lief, and his mother, who died of grief! In A Guldborg slays herself, and dies in her lover's arms.
'Hildebrand and Hilde,' A, B, C, D, opens with the heroine in a queen's service, sewing her seam wildly, putting silk for gold and gold for silk. The queen calls her to account. Hilde begs her mistress to listen to her tale of sorrow. She was a king's daughter. Twelve knights had been appointed to be her guard, and one had beguiled her, Hildebrand, son of the king of England. They went off together, and were surprised by her brothers [father, B, C, D]. Hildebrand bade her be of good cheer; but she must not call him by name if she saw him bleed or fall, A, B, D. A heap of knights soon lay at his feet. Hilde forgot herself, and called out, Hildebrand, spare my youngest brother! Hildebrand that instant received a mortal wound, and fell. The younger brother tied her to his horse, and dragged her home. They shut her up at first in a strong tower, built for the purpose, A, B [Swedish A, a dark house], and afterwards sold her into servitude for a church bell. Her mother's heart broke at the bell's first stroke, and Hilde, with the last word of her tale, fell dead in the queen's arms.
The most important deviation of the later versions from the old is exhibited by S and T, and would probably be observed in Q, R, as well, were these complete. S, T are either a mixture of 'Ribold and Guldborg' with 'Hildebrand and Hilde,' or forms transitional between the two. In these Ribold does not live to reach his home, and Guldborg, unable to return to hers, offers herself to a queen, to spin silk and weave gold [braid hair and work gold]. But she cannot sew for grief. The queen smacks her on the cheek for neglecting her needle. Poor Guldborg utters a protest, but gives no explanation, and the next morning is found dead. Singularly enough, the name of the hero in Q, R, S, T, is also an intermediate form. Ribold is the name in all the old Danish copies except C, and that has Ride-bolt. Danish I, K, X, Z, all the Icelandic copies, and Swedish D, have either Ribold or some unimportant variation. Q, R, S, have Ride-brand [T, Rederbrand]. All copies of Grundtvig 83, except Danish G, Swedish C, which do not give the hero's name, have Hilde-brand; so also 82 N, O, P, V, and Kristensen, I, No 37. The name of the woman is nearly constant both in 82 and 83.
The paradise promised Guldborg in all the old versions of 82[3] disappears from the recited copies, except K, M. It certainly did not originally belong to 'Ribold and Guldborg,' or to another Danish ballad in which it occurs ('Den trofaste Jomfru,' Grundtvig, 249 A), but rather to ballads like 'Kvindemorderen,' Grundtvig, 183 A, or 'Liti Kersti,' Landstad, 44, where a supernatural being, a demon or a hillman, seeks to entice away a mortal maid. See No 4, p. 27. In 82 L, N, U, V, Y, Æ, Ø, and Kristensen's copies, the lovers are not encountered by anybody who reports their flight. Most of the later versions, K, L, M, N, P, U, V, Y, Æ, Ø, and Kristensen's three, make them halt in a wood, where Ribold goes to sleep in Guldborg's lap, and is roused by her when she perceives that they are pursued. So Norwegian B, Swedish A, B, C, and 'Hildebrand and Hilde' B. M, Q, R, S, T, Z, have not a specific prohibition of dead-naming, but even these enjoin silence. 83 C is the only ballad in which there is a fight and no prohibition of either kind, but it is clear from the course of the story that the stanza containing the usual injunction has simply dropped out. P is distinguished from all other forms of the story by the heroine's killing herself before her dying lover reaches his house.
The four first copies of 'Hildebrand and Hilde,' as has been seen, have the story of Ribold and Guldborg with some slight differences and some abridgment. There is no elopement in B: the lovers are surprised in the princess' bower. When Hilde has finished her tale, in A, the queen declares that Hildebrand was her son. In B she interrupts the narrative by announcing her discovery that Hildebrand was her brother. C and D have nothing of the sort. There is no fight in E-H. E has taken up the commonplace of the bower on the strand which was forced by nine men.[4] Hildebrand is again the son of the queen, and, coming in just as Hilde has expired, exclaims that he will have no other love, sets his sword against a stone, and runs upon it. H has the same catastrophe. F represents the father as simply showing great indignation and cruelty on finding out that one of the guardian knights had beguiled his daughter, and presently selling her for a new church bell. The knight turns out here again to be the queen's son; the queen says he shall betroth Hille, and Hille faints for joy. G agrees with B as to the surprise in the bower. The knight's head is hewn off on the spot. The queen gives Hilde her youngest son for a husband, and Hilde avows that she is consoled. I agrees with E so far as it goes, but is a short fragment.
There are three Icelandic versions of this ballad, 'Ribbalds kvæði,' Íslenzk Fornkvæði, No 16, all of the seventeenth century. They all come reasonably close to the Danish as to the story, and particularly A. Ribbald, with no prologue, invites Gullbrún "to ride." He sets her on a white horse; of all women she rode best. They have gone but a little way, when they see a pilgrim riding towards them, who hails Ribbald with, Welcome, with thy stolen maid! Ribbald pretends that the maid is his sister, but the pilgrim knows very well it is Gullbrún. She offers her cloak to him not to tell her father, but the pilgrim goes straight to the king, and says, Thy daughter is off! The king orders his harp to be brought, for no purpose but to dash it on the floor once and twice, and break out the strings. He then orders his horse. Gullbrún sees her father come riding under a hill-side, then her eleven brothers, then seven brothers-in-law. She begs Ribbald to spare her youngest brother's life, that he may carry the news to her mother. He replies, I will tie my horse by the reins; you take up your sewing! then three times forbids her to name him during the fight. He slew her father first, next the eleven brothers, then the other seven, all which filled her with compunction, and she cried out, Ribbald, still thy brand! On the instant Ribbald received many wounds. He wiped his bloody sword, saying, This is what you deserve, Gullbrún, but love is your shield; then set her on her horse, and rode to his brother's door. He called out, Here is a wife for you! But Gullbrún said, Never will I be given to two brothers. Soon after Ribbald gave up the ghost. There was more mourning than mirth; three bodies went to the grave in one coffin, Ribbald, his lady, and his mother, who died of grief.
B and C have lost something at the beginning, C starting at the same point as our 'Douglas Tragedy.' The king pursues Ribbald by water. Gullbrún (B) stands in a tower and sees him land. Ribbald gives Gullbrún to his brother, as in A: she lives in sorrow, and dies a maid.
Norwegian. ('Ribold and Guldborg.') A, 'Rikeball og stolt Guðbjörg,' Landstad, 33; B, 'Veneros og stolt Olleber,' Landstad, 34; C, D, E, F, in part described and cited, with six other copies, Grundtvig, III, p. 853 f. The last half of Landstad No 23, stanzas 17-34, and stanzas 18-25 of Landstad 28 B, also belong here. A agrees with the older Danish versions, even to the extent of the paradise. B has been greatly injured. Upon the lady's warning Veneros of the approach of her father, he puts her up in an oak-tree for safety. He warns her not to call him by name, and she says she will rather die first; but her firmness is not put to the test in this ballad, some verses having dropped out just at this point. Veneros is advised to surrender, but dispatches his assailants by eighteen thousands (like Lille brór, in Landstad, 23), and by way of conclusion hews the false Pál greive, who had reported his elopement to Ölleber's father, into as many pieces. He then takes Ölleber on his horse, they ride away and are married. Such peculiarities in the other copies as are important to us will be noticed further on.
('Hildebrand and Hilde.') A, one of two Norwegian copies communicated by Professor Bugge to Grundtvig, III, 857 f, agrees well with Danish E, but has the happy conclusion of Danish F, G, I. The heroine is sold for nine bells. B, the other, omits the bower-breaking of A and Danish E, and ends with marriage.
The Swedish forms of 'Ribold and Guldborg' are: A, 'Hillebrand,' Afzelius, No 2; B, 'Herr Redebold,' and C, 'Kung Vallemo,' Afzelius, No 80; new ed., No 2, 1, 2, 3; D, 'Ribbolt,' Arwidsson, No 78; E, 'Herr Redebold' F, 'Herting Liljebrand,' and G, 'Herr Balder,' in Cavallius and Stephens' manuscript collection; H, 'Kung Walmon,' E. Wigström's Folkdiktning, No 15, p. 33. A, B, C, H, are not markedly different from the ordinary Danish ballad, and this is true also, says Grundtvig, of the unprinted versions, E, F, G. D and G are of the seventeenth century, the others from recent tradition. Ribold is pictured in D as a bold prince, equally versed in runes and arts as in manly exercises. He visits Giötha by night: they slumber sweet, but wake in blood. She binds up his wounds with rich kerchiefs. He rides home to his father's, and sits down on a bench. The king bids his servants see what is the matter, and adds, Be he sick or be he hurt, he got it at Giötha-Lilla's. They report the prince stabbed with sharp pikes within, and bound with silk kerchiefs without. Ribold bids them bury him in the mould, and not blame Giötha-Lilla; "for my horse was fleet, and I was late, and he hurtled me 'gainst an apple-tree" (so Hillebrand in A). E represents the heroine as surviving her lover, and united to a young king, but always grieving for Redebold.
'Hildebrand and Hilde' exists in Swedish in three versions: A, a broadside of the last part of the seventeenth century, now printed in the new edition of Afzelius, p. 142 ff of the notes (the last nine stanzas before, in Danske Viser, III, 438 f); B, Afzelius, No 32, new ed. No 26, C, Arwidsson, No 107, both taken down in this century. In A and B Hillebrand, son of the king of England, carries off Hilla; they halt in a grove; she wakes him from his sleep when she hears her father and seven brothers coming; he enjoins her not to call him by name, which still she does upon her father's being slain [or when only her youngest brother is left], and Hillebrand thereupon receives mortal wounds. He wipes his sword, saying, This is what you would deserve, were you not Hilla. The youngest brother ties Hilla to his horse, drags her home, and confines her in a dark house, which swarms with snakes and dragons (A only). They sell her for a new church bell, and her mother's heart breaks at the first sound. Hilla falls dead at the queen's knee. C has lost the dead-naming, and ends with the queen's promising to be Hilla's best friend.
A detailed comparison of the English ballads, and especially of 'Earl Brand,' with the Scandinavian (such as Grundtvig has made, III, 855 f) shows an unusual and very interesting agreement. The name Earl Brand, to begin with, is in all probability a modification of the Hildebrand found in Danish 82 N, O, P, V, C*, in all versions of Danish 83, and in the corresponding Swedish A. Ell, too, in Percy's fragment, which may have been Ellë earlier, points to Hilde, or something like it, and Erlinton might easily be corrupted from such a form as the Alibrand of Norwegian B (Grundtvig, III, 858). Hildebrand is the son of the king of England in Danish 83 A-E, and the lady in 'Earl Brand' is the same king's daughter, an interchange such as is constantly occurring in tradition. Stanza 2 can hardly be the rightful property of 'Earl Brand.' Some thing very similar is met with in 'Leesome Brand,' and is not much in place there. For 'old Carl Hood,' of whom more presently, Danish 82 X and Norwegian A, C have an old man, Danish C a crafty man, T a false younker, and Norwegian B and three others "false Pál greive." The lady's urging Earl Brand to slay the old carl, and the answer, that it would be sair to kill a gray-haired man, sts 8, 9, are almost literally repeated in Norwegian A, Landstad, No 33. The knight does slay the old man in Danish X and Norwegian C, and slays the court page in Danish Z, and false Pál greive in Norwegian B, — in this last after the battle. The question, "Where have ye stolen this lady away?" in st. 11, occurs in Danish 82 A, D, E, K, P, R, S, T, Z, in Norwegian B and Icelandic B, and something very similar in many other copies. The reply, "She is my sick sister, whom I have brought from Winchester" [nunnery] , is found almost literally in Danish C, X, Z: "It is my sick sister; I took her yesterday from the cloister." [Danish E, it is my youngest sister from the cloister; she is sick: Danish A, youngest sister from cloister: Danish R and Norwegian B, sister from cloister: Danish S, T, sister's daughter from cloister: Norwegian F, sister from Holstein: Danish P, Icelandic A, Norwegian A, sister.] The old man, crafty man, rich earl, in the Scandinavian ballads, commonly answers that he knows Guldborg very well; but in Danish D, where Ribold says it is a court page he has hired, we have some thing like sts 14, 15: "Why has he such silk-braided hair?" On finding themselves discovered, the lovers, in the Scandinavian ballad, attempt to purchase silence with a bribe: Danish A-I, M, Icelandic and Norwegian A, B. This is not expressly done in 'Earl Brand,' but the same seems to be meant in st. 10 by "I'll gie him a pound." St. 17 is fairly paralleled by Danish S, 18, 19: "Where is Guldborg, thy daughter? Walking in the garden, gathering roses;" and st. 18, by Norwegian B, 15: "You may search without and search within, and see whether Ölleber you can find." The announcement in st. 19 is made in almost all the Scandinavian ballads, in words equivalent to "Ribold is off with thy daughter," and then follows the arming for the pursuit. The lady looks over her shoulder and sees her father coming, as in st. 21, in Danish 82 A, F, H, I, Q, R, T, X, Z, and Norwegian A.
The scene of the fight is better preserved in the Scottish ballads than in 'Earl Brand,' though none of these have the cardinal incident of the death-naming. All the Scottish versions, B-F, and also 'Erlinton,' A, B, make the lady hold the knight's horse: so Danish 82 B, C, E, I, Æ, D*, Icelandic C, Norwegian and Swedish A, and Danish 83 D. Of the knight's injunction, "Name me not to death, though thou see me bleed," which, as has been noted, is kept by nearly every Danish ballad (and by the Icelandic, the Norwegian, and by Swedish 'Ribold and Guldborg,' A, B, C, H, Swedish 'Hildebrand and Hilde,' A, B), there is left in English only this faint trace, in 'Erlinton,' A, B: "See ye dinna change your cheer until ye see my body bleed." It is the wish to save the life of her youngest brother that causes the lady to call her lover by name in the larger number of Scandinavian ballads, and she adds, " that he may carry the tidings to my mother," in Danish 82 A, B, C, E, F, G, H, M, X, 83 B, C, D. Grief for her father's death is the impulse in Danish 82 I, N, O, Q, R, S, Y, Z, Æ, Ø, A*, C*, D*, E*, Swedish A, B, C, H. English A says nothing of father or brother; but in B, C, D, E, it is the father's death that causes the exclamation. All the assailants are slain in 'Erlinton' A, B, except an aged knight [the auldest man], and he is spared to carry the tidings home. 'Erlinton' C, however, agrees with the oldest Danish copies in making the youngest brother the motive of the lady's intervention. It is the fifteenth, and last, of the assailants that gives Earl Brand his death-wound; in Danish H, the youngest brother, whom he has been entreated to spare; and so, apparently, in Danish C and Norwegian A.
The question, "Will you go with me or return to your mother? " which we find in English B, C, D, is met with also in many Danish versions, 82 B, H, K, L, M, N, P, U, Z, Æ, Ø, C*, and Swedish A, B, C. The dying man asks to have his bed made in English B, C, as in Danish 82 B, C, K, L, N, U, X, Æ, Ø, C*, D*, Norwegian A, Swedish A, B, C, H, and desires that the lady may marry his brother in English A, as in nearly all the Danish versions, Icelandic A, B, C, Norwegian C, D, E, Swedish C. He declares her a maiden true in 'Earl Brand,' A c 33, and affirms the same with more particularity in Danish 82 B, C, E, F, G, M, Ø, Icelandic B, C, Norwegian A, C, E, Swedish C. The growth of the rose and brier [bush and brier] from the lovers' grave in English B, C, is not met with in any version of 'Ribold and Guldborg' proper, but 'Den farlige Jomfru' G, Grundtvig, 184, the last half of which, as already remarked, is a fragment of a Ribold ballad, has a linden in place of the rose and brier.
No complete ballad of the Ribold class is known to have survived in German, but a few verses have been interpolated by tradition in the earliest copy of the Ulinger ballad (vv. 47-56), which may almost with certainty be assigned to one of the other description. They disturb the narrative where they are, and a ready occasion for their slipping in was afforded by the scene being exactly the same in both ballads: a knight and a lady, with whom he had eloped, resting in a wood.[5] See No 4, p. 32 of this volume.
We find in a pretty Neapolitan-Albanian ballad, which, with others, is regarded by the editors as a fragment of a connected poem, several of the features of these northern ones. A youth asks a damsel in marriage, but is not favored by her mother, father, or brother. He wins over first the mother and then the father by handsome presents, but his gifts, though accepted, do not conciliate the brother. He carries off the lady on horseback, and is attacked by the brother, four uncles, and seven cousins. He is killed and falls from his horse; with him the lady falls dead also, and both are covered up with stones. In the spring the youth comes up a cypress, the damsel comes up a vine, and encloses the cypress in her arms. (Rapsodie d'un poema albanese raccolte nelle colonie del Napoletano, de Rada and de' Coronei, Florence, 1866, lib. ii., canto viii.)
These ballads would seem to belong among the numerous ramifications of the Hilde saga. Of these, the second lay of Helgi Hunding-slayer, in Sæmund's Edda, and 'Waltharius,' the beautiful poem of Ekkehard, are most like the ballads. [6] Leaving 'Waltharius' till we come to 'Erlinton,' we may notice that Sigrún, in the Helgi lay, though promised by her father to another man, Hödbrodd, son of Granmar, preferred Helgi. She sought him out, and told him frankly her predicament: she feared, she said, the wrath of her friends, for breaking her father's promise. Helgi accepted her affection, and bade her not care for the displeasure of her relatives. A great battle ensued between Helgi and the sons of Granmar, who were aided by Sigrun's father and brothers. All her kinsmen were slain except one brother, Dag. He bound himself to peace with Helgi, but, notwithstanding, made sacrifices to Odin to obtain the loan of his spear, and with it slew Helgi. We have, therefore, in so much of the lay of Helgi Hundingslayer, the groundwork of the story of the ballads: a woman, who, as in many of the Ribold ballads, has been betrothed to a man she does not care for, gives herself to another; there is a fight, in which a great number of her kinsmen fall; one brother survives, who is the death of the man she loves. The lay of Helgi Hiörvard's son, whose story has much in common with that of his namesake, affords two resemblances of detail not found in the lay of the Hundingslayer. Helgi Hiörvard's son, while his life-blood is ebbing, expresses himself in almost the words of the dying Ribold: "The sword has come very near my heart." He then, like Ribold and Earl Brand, declares his wish that his wife should marry his brother, and she, like Guldborg, declines a second union.[7]
There is also a passage in the earlier history of Helgi Hundingslayer of which traces appear to be preserved in ballads, and before all in the English ballad 'Earl Brand,' A. Hunding and Helgi's family were at feud. Helgi introduced himself into Hunding's court as a spy, and when he was retiring sent word to Hunding's son that he had been there disguised as a son of Hagal, Helgi's foster-father. Hunding sent men to take him, and Helgi, to escape them, was forced to assume woman's clothes and grind at the mill. While Hunding's men are making search, a mysterious blind man, surnamed the bale-wise, or evil-witted (Blindr inn bölvísi), calls out, Sharp are the eyes of Hagal's maid; it is no churl's blood that stands at the mill; the stones are riving, the meal-trough is springing; a hard lot has befallen a war-king when a chieftain must grind strange barley; fitter for that hand is the sword-hilt than the mill-handle. Hagal pretends that the fierce-eyed maid is a virago whom Helgi had taken captive, and in the end Helgi escapes. This malicious personage reappears in the Hrômund saga as "Blind the Bad" and "the Carl Blind, surnamed Bavís," and is found elsewhere. His likeness to "old Carl Hood," who "comes for ill, but never for good," and who gives information of Earl Brand's flight with the king's daughter, does not require to be insisted on. Both are identical, we can scarcely doubt, with the blind [one-eyed] old man of many tales, who goes about in various disguises, sometimes as beggar, with his hood or hat slouched over his face, — that is Odin, the Síðhöttr or Deep-hood of Sæmund, who in the saga of Half and his champions is called simple Hood, as here, and expressly said to be Odin.[8] Odin, though not a thoroughly malignant divinity, had his dark side, and one of his titles in Sæmund's Edda is Bölverkr, maleficus. He first caused war by casting his spear among men, and Dag, after he has killed Helgi, says Odin was the author of all the mischief, for he brought strife among kinsmen.[9]
The disastrous effects of "naming" in a great emergency appear in other northern traditions, though not so frequently as one would expect. A diverting Swedish saga, which has been much quoted, relates how St. Olof bargained with a troll for the building of a huge church, the pay to be the sun and moon, or St. Olof himself. The holy man was equally amazed and embarrassed at seeing the building run up by the troll with great rapidity, but during a ramble among the hills had the good luck to discover that the troll's name was Wind and Weather, after which all was easy. For while the troll was on the roof of the church, Olof called out to him,
'Wind and Weather, hi!
You've set the spire awry;'
and the troll, thus called by his name, lost his strength, fell off, and was dashed into a hundred pieces, all flint stones. (Iduna, Part 3, p. 60 f, note. Other forms of the same story in Afzelius, Sago-Hafder, III, 100 f; Faye, Norske Folke-Sagn, p. 14, 2d ed.; Hofberg, Nerikes Gamla Minnen, p. 234.)
It is a Norwegian belief that when a nix assumes the human shape in order to carry some one off, it will be his death if the selected victim recognizes him and names him, and in this way a woman escaped in a ballad. She called out, So you are the Nix, that pestilent beast, and the nix "disappeared in red blood." (Faye, as above, p. 49, note.) A nix is baffled in the same way in a Færoe and an Icelandic ballad cited by Grundtvig, II, 57.
The marvellous horse Blak agrees to carry Waldemar [Hildebrand] over a great piece of water for the rescue of his daughter [sister], stipulating, however, that his name shall not be uttered. The rider forgets himself in a panic, calls to the horse by his name, and is thrown off into the water. The horse, whose powers had been supernatural, and who had been running over the water as if it were land, has now only ordinary strength, and is forced to swim. He brings the lady back on the same terms, which she keeps, but when he reaches the land he is bleeding at every hair, and falls dead. (Landstad, 58; Grundtvig, 62; Afzelius, 59, preface; Kristensen, I, No 66.)
Klaufi, a berserker, while under the operation of his peculiar fury, loses his strength, and can no longer wield the weapon he was fighting with, upon Griss's crying out, "Klaufi, Klaufi, be not so mad!" (Svarfdæla Saga, p. 147, and again p. 156 f.) So the blood-thirst of the avenger's sword in the magnificent Danish ballad 'Hævnersværdet' is restrained by naming. (Grundtvig, No 25, st. 35.) Again, men engaged in hamfarir, that is in roving about in the shape of beasts, their proper bodies remaining lifeless the while, must not be called by name, for this might compel them to return at once to their own shape, or possibly prevent their ever doing so. (Kristni Saga, ed. 1773, p. 149. R. T. King, in Notes and Queries, 2d Ser., II, 506.) Grundtvig remarks that this belief is akin to what is related in Fáfnismál (prose interpolation after st. 1), that Sigurd concealed his name by reason of a belief in old times that a dying man's word had great power, if he cursed his foe by name. (D. g. F., II, 340.)
The beautiful fancy of plants springing from the graves of star-crossed lovers, and signify ing by the intertwining of stems or leaves, or in other analogous ways, that an earthly passion has not been extinguished by death, presents itself, as is well known, very frequently in popular poetry. Though the graves be made far apart, even on opposite sides of the church, or one to the north and one to the south outside of the church, or one without kirk wall and one in the choir, however separated, the vines or trees seek one another out, and mingle their branches or their foliage:
"Even from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Even in our ashes live their wonted fires!"
The principal ballads which exhibit this conception in one or another form are the following:
In English, 'The Douglas Tragedy,' 'Fair Margaret and Sweet William,' 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annet,' 'Fair Janet,' 'Prince Robert,' 'Lord Lovel.' The plants in all these are either a brier and a rose, or a brier and a birk.
Swedish. Arwidsson, No 73: the graves are made east and west of the church, a linden grows from each, the trees meet over the church roof. So E. Wigström, Folkdiktning, No 20, p. 42. Arwidsson 74 A: Rosea Lilla and the duke are buried south and north in the church-yard. A rose from her grave covers his with its leaves. The duke is then laid in her grave, from which a linden springs. 74 B: the rose as before, and a linden from the duke's grave. Arwidsson, 72, 68, Afzelius, No 19 (new ed., 18), 23 (new ed., 21, 1, 2): a common grave, with a linden, two trees, or lilies, and, in the last, roses also growing from the mouths of both lovers. In one version the linden leaves bear the inscription, My father shall answer to me at doomsday.
Norwegian. Landstad, 65: the lovers are laid north and south of the church; lilies grow over the church roof.
Danish. Danske Viser, 124, 153, two roses. Kristensen, II, No 60, two lilies, interlocking over church wall and ridge. 61 B, C (= Afzelius, 19), separate graves; B, a lily from each grave; C, a flower from each breast. Grundtvig, 184 G, 271 N, a linden; Danske Folkeminder, 1861, p. 81, two lilies.
German. 'Der Ritter u. die Maid,' (1) Nicolai, I, No 2, = Kretzschmer, I, 54; (2) Uhland, 97 A, Simrock, 12; (3) Erk's Liederhort, 26; Hoffmann u. Richter, 4: the lovers are buried together, and there grow from their grave (1) three pinks, (2) three lilies, (3) two lilies. Wunderhorn, 1857, I, 53, Mittler, No 91: the maid is buried in the church yard, the knight under the gallows. A lily grows from his grave, with an inscription, Beid wären beisammen im Himmel. Ditfurth, II, 7: two lilies spring from her (or their) grave, bearing a similar inscription. In Haupt and Schmaler, Volkslieder der Wenden, I, 136, from the German, rue is planted on the maid's grave, in accordance with the last words of the knight, and the same inscription appears on one of the leaves.
'Graf Friedrich,' Uhland, 122, Wunderhorn, II, 293, Mittler, 108, Erk's Liederhort, 15 a: Graf Friedrich's bride is by accident mortally wounded while he is bringing her home. Her father kills him, and he is dragged at a horse's heels. Three lilies spring from his grave, with an inscription, Er wär bei Gott geblieben. He is then buried with his bride, the transfer being attended with other miraculous manifestations. Other versions, Hoffmann u. Richter, 19, = Mittler, 112, = Liederhort, 15; Mittler, 113, 114; also Meinert, 23, = Mittler, 109, etc.: the lilies in most of these growing from the bride's grave, with words attesting the knight's innocence.
Lilies with inscriptions also in Wunderhorn, II, p. 251, = Mittler, 128, 'Alle bei Gott die sich lieben;' Mittler, 130; Ditfurth, II, 4, 9; Scherer, Jungbrunnen, 9 A, 25; Pogatschnigg und Hermann, 1458. Three lilies from a maid's grave: 'Die schwazbraune Hexe' ('Es blies ein Jäger'), Nicolai, I, 8; Wunderhorn, I, 36; Gräter's Bragur, I, 280; Uhland, 103; Liederhort, 9; Simrock, 93; Fiedler, p. 158; Ditfurth, II, 33, 34; Reifferscheid, 15, etc. Three roses, Hoffmann u. Richter, 171, p. 194; three pinks, ib., 172; rose, pink, lily, Alemannia, iv, 35. Three lilies from a man's grave: 'Der Todwunde:' Schade, Bergreien, 10, = Uhland, 93 A, = Liederhort, 34 g, = Mittler, 47, etc.
Portuguese. 'Conde Nillo,' 'Conde Nino,' Almeida-Garrett, III, No 18, at p. 21; Braga, Rom. Geral., No 14, at p. 38, = Hartung, I, 217: the infanta is buried at the foot of the high altar, Conde Nillo near the church door; a cypress and an orange [pines]. Almeida-Garrett, III, No 20, at p. 38: a sombre clump of pines over the knight, reeds from the princess's grave, which, though cut down, shoot again, and are heard sighing in the night. Braga, Archip. Açor., 'Filha Maria,' 'Dom Doardos,' 'A Ermida no Mar,' Nos 32, 33, 34, Hartung, I, 220-224; Estacio da Veiga, 'Dom Diniz,' p. 64-67, = Hartung, I, 217, 2: tree and pines, olive and pines, clove-tree and pine, roses and canes: in all, new miracles follow the cutting down. So also Almeida-Garrett, No 6, I, 167.
Roumanian. Alecsandri, 7, Stanley, p. 16, 'Ring and Handkerchief,' translated by Stanley, p. 193, Murray, p. 56: a fir and a vine, which meet over the church.
French. Beaurepaire, Poésie pop. en Normandie, p. 51: a thorn and an olive are planted over the graves; the thorn embraces the olive.
Romaic. Passow, Nos 414, 415, 456, 469; Zambelios, p. 754, No 41; Tommaseo, Canti Popolari, III, 135; Chasiotis, p. 103, No 22: a cypress from the man's grave, a reed from the maid's (or from a common tomb); reversed in Passow, Nos 418, 470, and Schmidt, Griechische Märchen, u.s.w., No 59, p. 203. Sakellarios, p. 25, No 9, cypress and apple-tree; p. 38, No 13, cypress and lemon-tree. (F. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 166, 168, 182, 183.)
Servian. Talvj, V.L. der Serben, II, p. 85: a fir and a rose; the rose twines round the fir.
Wend. Haupt and Schmaler, V.L. der Wenden, II, No 48: a maid, who kills herself on account of the death of her lover, orders two grape vines to be planted over their graves: the vines intertwine.
Breton. Luzel, I, p. 423: a fleur-de-lis springs from a common tomb, and is always in flower, however often it is plucked.
Italo-Albanian. De Rada, Rapsodie d'un poema albanese, etc., p. 47: the youth comes up (nacque) a cypress; the maid a white vine, which clings around the tree. Camarda, Appendice al saggio di grammatologia comparata, 'Angelina,' p. 112, the same; but inappropriately, as Liebrecht has remarked, fidelity in love being wanting in this case.
Magyar. The lovers are buried before and behind the altar; white and red lilies spring from the tombs; mother or father destroys or attempts to destroy the plants: Aigner, Ungarische Volksdichtungen, 2d ed., at p. 92, p. 138, 131 f. Again, at p. 160, of the 'Two Princes' (Hero and Leander): here a white and a red tulip are planted over the graves, in a garden, and it is expressly said that the souls of the enamored pair passed into the tulips. In the first piece the miracle occurs twice. The lovers had thrown themselves into a deep lake; plants rose above the surface of the water and intertwined (p. 91); the bodies were brought up by divers and buried in the church, where the marvel was repeated.
Afghan. Audam and Doorkhaunee, a poem "read, repeated, and sung, through all parts of the country," Elphinstone's Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, 1815, p. 185 f: two trees spring from their remains, and the branches mingle over their tomb. First cited by Talvj, Versuch, p. 140.
Kurd. Mem and Zin, a poem of Anméd Xáni, died 1652-3: two rose bushes spring from their graves and interlock. Bulletin de la classe des sciences historiques, etc., de l'acad. impér. des sciences de St. Pet., tome xv, No 11, p. 170.
The idea of the love-animated plants has been thought to be derived from the romance of Tristan, where it also occurs; agreeably to a general principle, somewhat hastily assumed, that when romances and popular ballads have anything in common, priority belongs to the romances. The question as to precedence in this instance is an open one, for the fundamental conception is not less a favorite with ancient Greek than with mediaeval imagination.
Tristan and Isolde had unwittingly drunk of a magical potion which had the power to induce an indestructible and ever-increasing love. Tristan died of a wound received in one of his adventures, and Isolde of a broken heart, because, though summoned to his aid, she arrived too late for him to profit by her medical skill. They were buried in the same church. According to the French prose romance, a green brier issued from Tristan's tomb, mounted to the roof, and, descending to Isolde's tomb, made its way within. King Marc caused the brier to be cut down three several times, but the morning after it was as flourishing as before. [10]
Eilhart von Oberge, vv. 9509-21 (ed. Lichtenstein, Quellen u. Forschungen, xix, 429) and the German prose romance (Busching u. von der Hagen, Buch der Liebe, c. 60), Ulrich von Thürheim, vv. 3546-50, and Heinrich von Freiberg, vv. 6819-41 (in von der Hagen's ed. of G. v. Strassburg's Tristan) make King Marc plant, the first two a grape-vine over Tristan and a rose over Isolde, the others, wrongly, the rose over Tristan and the vine over Isolde. These plants, according to Heinrich, struck their roots into the hearts of the lovers below, while their branches embraced above. Icelandic ballads and an Icelandic saga represent Tristan's wife as forbidding the lovers to be buried in the same grave, and ordering them to be buried on opposite sides of the church. Trees spring from their bodies and meet over the church roof. (Íslenzk Fornkvæði, 23 A, B, C, D; Saga af Tristram ok Ísönd, Brynjulfson, p. 199; Tristrams Saga ok Ísondar, Kölbing, p. 112). The later Titurel imitates the conclusion of Tristan. (Der jüngere Titurel, ed. Hahn, sts 5789, 5790.)
Among the miracles of the Virgin there are several which are closely akin to the prodigies already noted. A lily is found growing from the mouth of a clerk, who, though not leading an exemplary life, had every day said his ave before the image of Mary: Unger, Mariu Saga, No 50; Berceo, No 3; Miracles de N.-D. de Chartres, p. lxiii, No 29, and p. 239; Marien-legenden (Stuttgart, 1846), No xi and p. 269. A rose springs from the grave and roots in the heart of a knight who had spared the honor of a maid because her name was Mary: Unger, No clvi, Hagen's Gesammtabenteuer, lxxiii. Roses inscribed Maria grow from the mouth, eyes, and ears of a monk: Unger, cxxxvii; and a lily grows over a monk's grave, springing from his mouth, every leaf of which bears Ave Maria in golden letters: Unger, cxxxviii; Gesammtabenteuer, lxxxviii; Libro de Exenplos, Romania, 1878, p. 509, 43, 44; etc., etc.
No one can fail to be reminded of the purple, lily-shaped flower, inscribed with the mournful AI AI, that rose from the blood of Hyacinthus, and of the other from the blood of Ajax, with the same letters, "his name and eke his plaint," haec nominis, illa querellae. (Ovid, Met. x, 210 ff; xiii, 394 ff.) The northern lindens have their counterpart in the elms from the grave of Protesilaus, and in the trees into which Philemon and Baucis were transformed. See, upon the whole subject, the essay of Koberstein in the Weimar Jahrbuch, I, 73 ff, with Köhler's supplement, p. 479 ff; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, II, 689 f, and III, 246.
"The ballad of the 'Douglas Tragedy,'" says Scott, "is one of the few to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality. The farm of Blackhouse, in Selkirkshire, is said to have been the scene of this melancholy event. There are the remains of a very ancient tower, adjacent to the farm-house, in a wild and solitary glen, upon a torrent named Douglas burn, which joins the Yarrow after passing a craggy rock called the Douglas craig. . . . From this ancient tower Lady Margaret is said to have been carried by her lover. Seven large stones, erected upon the neighboring heights of Blackhouse, are shown, as marking the spot where the seven brethren were slain; and the Douglas burn is averred to have been the stream at which the lovers stopped to drink: so minute is tradition in ascertaining the scene of a tragical tale, which, considering the rude state of former times, had probably foundation in some real event."
The localities of the Danish story were as certained, to her entire satisfaction, by Anne Krabbe in 1605-6, and are given again in Resen's Atlas Danicus, 1677. See Grundtvig, II, 342 f.
B, Scott's 'Douglas Tragedy,' is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 11; Afzelius, III, 86; Schubart, p. 159; Talvj, p. 565; Wolff, Halle, I, 76, Hausschatz, p. 201; Rosa Warrens, No 23; Gerhard, p. 28; Loève Veimars, p. 292.
'Ribold og Guldborg,' Danish B, is translated by Buchanan, p. 16 (loosely); G by Jamieson, Illustrations, p. 317, and Prior, II, 400; T by Prior, II, 407; Swedish A, For. Quart. Rev., xxv, 41. 'Hildebrand og Hilde,' Danish A, B, F, H, by Prior, II, 411-20.
Footnotes:
1. 'Erlinton' though not existing in a two-line stanza, follows immediately after 'Earl Brand.' The copy of 'The Douglas Tragedy' in Smith's Scottish Minstrel, III, 86, is merely Scott's, with changes to facilitate singing.
2. B*, in, 853, a fragment of five stanzas, has been dropped by Grundtvig from No 82, and assigned to No 249.
See D. g. F. iv, 494.
3. Though the paradise has not been transmitted in any known copy of 'Earl Brand,' it appears very distinctly in the opening stanza of 'Leesome Brand' A. This last has several stanzas towards the close (33-35) which seem to belong to 'Earl Brand,' and perhaps derived these, the "unco land," and even its name, by the familiar process of inter-mixture of traditions.
4. See No. 5, pp 64, 65, 66.
5. Compare vv 49-56, "Wilt thou ride to them, or wilt thou fight with them, or wilt thou stand by thy love, sword in hand?" "I will not ride to them, I will not fight with them [i.e., begin the fight], but I will stand by my love, sword in hand," with Norwegian A, 29, 30: "Shall we ride to the wood, or shall we bide like men?" "We will not ride to the wood, but we will bide like men." And also with Danish Æ, sts 14, 15.
6. The chief branches, besides the Helgi lay and Walter, are the saga in Snorri's Edda, Skáldskaparmal, 50; that in Saxo Grammaticus, Stephanius, ed. 1644, pp. 88-90; Sörla þáttr, in Fornaldar Sögur, i, 39 Iff; the Shetland ballad printed in Low's Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Shetland, 108 ff, and in Barry's History of the Orkney Islands, 2d ed., 489 ff, and paraphrased in Hibbert's Description of the Shetland Islands, 561 ff; the Thidrik saga, §§233-239, Unger; Gudrun, v-viii. The names of father, daughter, and lover in these are: (1) Högni, —, Högni, Högin-, Högni, —, [Artus], Hagen; (2) [Sigrún], Hilde-gunde, Hildr, Hilda, Hildr, Hildina, Hildr, Hilde; (3) Helgi, [Walter], Hedin, Hithin-, Hedin, —, [Herburt], Hetel. Hagan, in 'Waltharius,' may be said to take the place of the father, who is wanting; and this is in a measure true also of Hedin, Helgi's half-brother, in the lay of Helgi Hiörvard's son. See the excellent discussion of the saga by Klee, Zur Hildesage, Leipzig, 1873.
The Swedish ballad, 'Herr Hjelmer,' A, Arwidsson, I, 155, No 21; B, C, Afzelius, II, 178, 226, No 74 (Helmer); D, E. Wigström, Folkdiktning, p. 25, No 10 (Hjelman), has several points of agreement with Ribold and the Hilde saga. The hero kills six of seven brothers [also the father, in A], spares the seventh on oath of fidelity, and is treacherously slain by him. The youngest brother carries her lover's head to his sister, is invited to drink by her (in three of the four copies), and slain while so engaged; reminding us of Hildina in the Shetland ballad. Danish 'Herr Hjælm,' Grundtvig, Danske Folkeminder, 1861, p. 81, agrees with the Swedish, except that there are only three brothers.
7. Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, ed. Grundtvig, 42-44, Ribold og Guldborg, A 33, 34, B 46, D 46, 47, E 42, Q 24. The observation is Professor Bugge's.
8. Höttr, er Óðinn var reyndar, Hood, who was Odin really, Fornaldar Sögur, II, p. 25. Klee observes, p. 10 f, that Högni [Hagen] is the evil genius of the Hildesage. Sometimes he is the heroine's father; in 'Waltharius,' strangely enough, the hero's old friend (and even there a one-eyed man.) Klee treats the introduction of a rival lover (as in the Shetland ballad and Gudrun) as a departure from the older story. But we have the rival in Helgi Hundingslayer. The proper marplot in this lay is Blind the Ill-witted (Odin), whose part is sustained in 'Earl Brand' by the malicious Hood, in several Norwegian ballads by a very enigmatical "false Pál greive," in two other Norwegian ballads and one Danish by an old man, and, what is most remarkable, in the Shetland ballad by the rejected lover of Hildina (the Sir Nilaus of Danish D, Hertug Nilssón of some Norwegian copies), who bears the name Hiluge, interpreted with great probability by Conrad Hofmann (Munich Sitzungsberichte, 1867, II, 209, note), Illhugi, der Bössinnige, evil-minded (Icelandic íllhugaðr, íllúðigr.)
9. Inimicitias Othinus serit, Saxo, p. 142, ed. 1644. See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, I, 120, note 2, III, 56, new ed., for Odin's bad points, though some of Grimm's interpretations might now be objected to.
10. Et de la tombe de monseigneur Tristan yssoit une ronce belle et verte et bien feuilleue, qui alloit par dessus la chapelle, et descendoit le bout de la ronce sur la tombe de la royne Yseult, et entroit dedans. La virent les gens du pays et la comptèrent au roy Marc. Le roy la fist couper par troys foys, et quant il l'avoit le jour fait couper, le lendemain estoit aussi belle comme avoit aultre fois esté. Fol. cxxiv, as cited by Braga, Rom. Ger., p. 185.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
'Earl Brand' has preserved most of the incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness unequalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English oral tradition. It has, however, all but lost a circumstance that forms the turning-point in related Scandinavian ballads with which it must once have agreed in all important particulars. This is the so-called "dead-naming," which has an important place in popular superstition. The incident appears as follows in the Danish 'Ribold and Guldborg,' (Grundtvig, No. 82): Ribold is fleeing with his love Guldborg. They are pursued by Guldborg's father and her brothers. Ribold bids Guldborg hold his horse, and, whatever may happen, not to call him by name. Ribold cuts down six or seven of her brothers and her father, besides others of her kin; the youngest brother only is left, and Guldborg in an agony calls upon Ribold to spare him, to carry tidings to her mother. No sooner was his name pronounced than Ribold received a mortal wound. The English and Scottish ballads preserve only the faintest trace of the knight's injunction not to name him. Cf. A*, st. 27, with 'Erlinton,' A* st. 15, B, st. 14.
'Earl Brand,' with the many Scandinavian ballads of the same group, would seem to belong among the numerous ramifications of the Hildesaga. Of these, the second lay of Helgi Hundingslayer, in the Poetic Edda. and 'Waltharius,' the beautiful poem of Ekkehard, are most like the ballads. See also 'Erlinton' (No. 8). Percy, in his Reliques, expanded the fragmentary version C to five times its actual length.
Child's Text Versions A-I
'Earl Bran'- Version A a.
a. From the papers of the late Robert White, Esq., of Newcastle-on-Tyne
1 Oh did ye ever hear o brave Earl Bran?
Ay lally, o lilly lally
He courted the king's daughter of fair England.
All i the night sae early
2 She was scarcely fifteen years of age
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Till sae boldly she came to his bedside.
All i the night sae early
3 'O Earl Bran, fain wad I see
Ay lally, o lilly lally
A pack of hounds let loose on the lea.'
All i the night sae early
4 'O lady, I have no steeds but one,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And thou shalt ride, and I will run.'
All i the night sae early
5 'O Earl Bran, my father has two,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And thou shall have the best o them a.'
All i the night sae early
6 They have ridden oer moss and moor,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And they met neither rich nor poor.
All i the night sae early
7 Until they met with old Carl Hood;
Ay lally, o lilly lally
He comes for ill, but never for good.
All i the night sae early
8 'Earl Bran, if ye love me,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Seize this old carl, and gar him die.'
All i the night sae early
9 'O lady fair, it wad be sair,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
To slay an old man that has grey hair.
All i the night sae early
10 'O lady fair, I'll no do sae;
Ay lally, o lilly lally
I'll gie him a pound, and let him gae.'
All i the night sae early
11 'O where hae ye ridden this lee lang day?
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Or where hae ye stolen this lady away?'
All i the night sae early
12 'I have not ridden this lee lang day.
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Nor yet have I stolen this lady away.
All i the night sae early.
13 'She is my only, my sick sister,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Whom I have brought from Winchester.'
All i the night sae early.
14 'If she be sick, and like to dead,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Why wears she the ribbon sae red?
All i the night sae early.
15 'If she be sick, and like to die.
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Then why wears she the gold on high?'
All i the night sae early.
16 When he came to his lady's gate,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Sae rudely as he rapped at it.
All i the night sae early.
17 'O where's the lady o this ha?'
Ay lally, o lilly lally
'She's out with her maids to play at the ba.
All i the night sae early.
18 'Ha, ha, ha! ye are a' mistaen:
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Gae count your maidens oer again.
All i the night sae early
19 'I saw her far beyond the moor,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Away to be the Earl o Bran's whore.'
All i the night sae early
20 The father armed fifteen of his best men,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
To bring his daughter back again.
All i the night sae early
21 Oer her left shoulder the lady looked then:
Ay lally, o lilly lally
'O Earl Bran, we both are tane.'
All i the night sae early
22 'If they come on me ane by ane,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Ye may stand by and see them slain.
All i the night sae early
23 'But if they come on me one and all,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
Ye may stand by and see me fall.'
All i the night sae early
24 They have come on him ane by ane,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And he has killed them all but ane.
All i the night sae early
25 And that ane came behind his back,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And he's gien him a deadly whack.
All i the night sae early
26 But for a' sae wounded as Earl Bran was,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
He has set his lady on her horse.
All i the night sae early
27 They rode till they came to the water o Doune,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And then he alighted to wash his wounds.
All i the night sae early
28 'O Earl Bran, I see your heart's blood!'
Ay lally, o lilly lally
'Tis but the gleat o my scarlet hood.'
All i the night sae early
29 They rode till they came to his mother's gate,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And sae rudely as he rapped at it.
All i the night sae early
30 'O my son's slain, my son's put down,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
And a' for the sake of an English loun.'
All i the night sae early
31 'O say not sae, my dear mother,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
But marry her to my youngest brother.
All i the night sae early
32 'This has not been the death o ane,
Ay lally, o lilly lally
But it's been that of fair seventeen.'
All i the night sae early
* * * * *
--------------------
The Brave Earl Brand And The King Of England's Daughter- Version A c.
Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England; taken down from oral recitation and transcribed from private manuscripts, rare broadsides and scarce publications; edited by Robert Bell, James Henry Dixon;
In 1846, the Percy Society issued to its members a volume entitled Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, edited by Mr. James Henry Dixon. Here from that volume is The Brave Earl Brand And The King Of England's Daughter: this ballad, which resembles the Danish ballad of Ribolt, was taken down from the recitation of an old fiddler in Northumberland: in one verse there is an hiatus, owing to the failure of the reciter's memory. The refrain should be repeated in every verse.]
O, DID you ever hear of the brave Earl Brand,
Heylillie, ho lillie lallie;
He's courted the king's daughter o' fair England,
I' the brave nights so early!
She was scarcely fifteen years that tide,
When sae boldly she came to his bed-side.
'O, Earl Brand, how fain wad I see
A pack of hounds let loose on the lea.'
'O, lady fair, I have no steed but one,
But thou shalt ride and I will run.'
'O, Earl Brand, but my father has two,
And thou shalt have the best of tho'.'
Now they have ridden o'er moss and moor,
And they have met neither rich nor poor;
Till at last they met with old Carl Hood,
He's aye for ill, and never for good.
'Now Earl Brand, an ye love me,
Slay this old Carl and gar him dee.'
'O, lady fair, but that would be sair,
To slay an auld Carl that wears grey hair
'My own lady fair, I'll not do that,
I'll pay him his fee. . . . . . .'
'O, where have ye ridden this lee lang day,
And where have ye stown this fair lady away?'
'I have not ridden this lee lang day,
Nor yet have I stown this lady away;
'For she is, I trow, my sick sister,
Whom I have been bringing fra' Winchester.'
'If she's been sick, and nigh to dead,
What makes her wear the ribbon so red?
'If she's been sick, and like to die,
What makes her wear the gold sae high?'
When came the Carl to the lady's yett,
He rudely, rudely rapped thereat.
'Now where is the lady of this hall?
'She's out with her maids a playing at the ball.'
'Ha, ha, ha! ye are all mista'en,
Ye may count your maidens owre again.
'I met her far beyond the lea
With the young Earl Brand his leman to be.'
Her father of his best men armed fifteen,
And they're ridden after them bidene.
The lady looked owre her left shoulder then,
Says, 'O Earl Brand we are both of us ta'en.'
'If they come on me one by one,
You may stand by till the tights be done;
'But if they come on me one and all,
You may stand by and see me fall.'
They came upon him one by one,
Till fourteen battles he has won;
And fourteen men he has them slain,
Each after each upon the plain.
But the fifteenth man behind stole round,
And dealt him a deep and a deadly wound.
Though he was wounded to the deid,
He set his lady on her steed.
They rode till they came to the river Doune,
And there they lighted to wash his wound.
'O, Earl Brand, I see your heart's blood!'
'It's nothing but the glent and my scarlet hood.'
They rode till they came to his mother's yett,
So faint and feebly he rapped thereat.
'O, my son's slain, he is falling to swoon,
And it's all for the sake of an English loon.'
'O, say not so, my dearest mother,
But marry her to my youngest brother—
'To a maiden true he'll give his hand,
Hey lillie, ho lillie lallie.
To the king's daughter o' fair England,
To a prize that was won by a slain brother's brand,
I' the brave nights so early!
-----------------------
'The Douglas Tragedy'- Version B a;
a. Scott's Minstrelsy, 'II, 246, ed. 1803; III 6, ed. 1833 the copy principally used supplied by Mr Sharpe, the three last stanzas from a penny pamphlet and from tradition.
1 'RISE up, rise up, now, Lord Douglas,' she says,
'And put on your armour so bright;
Let it never be said that a daughter of thine
Was married to a lord under night.
2 'Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons,
And put on your armour so bright,
And take better care of your youngest sister,
For your eldest's awa the last night.'
3 He's mounted her on a milk-white steed,
And himself on a dapple grey,
With a bugelet horn hung down by his side,
And lightly they rode away.
4 Lord William lookit oer his left shoulder,
To see what he could see,
And there he spy'd her seven brethren bold,
Come riding over the lee.
5 'Light down, light clown, Lady Margret,' he said,
'And hold my steed in your hand,
Until that against your seven brethren bold,
And your father, I make a stand.'
6 She held his steed in her mllk-white hand,
And never shed one tear,
Until that she saw her seven brethren fa,
And her father hard fighting, who lovd her so dear.
7 'O hold your hand, Lord William ! ' she said,
'For your strokes they are wondrous sair;
True lovers I can get many a ane,
But a father I can never get mair.'
8 O she's taen out her handkerchief,
It was o the holland sae fine,
And aye she dighted her father's bloody wounds,
That were redder than the wine
9 'O chuse, O chuse, Lady Margret,' he said,
'O whether will ye gang or bide?'
'I'll gang, I'll gang, Lord William,' she said,
'For ye have left me no other guide.'
10 He's lifted her on a milk-white steed,
And himself on a dapple grey,
With a bugelet horn hung down by his side,
And slowly they baith rade away.
11 O they rade on, and on they rade,
And a' by the light of the moon,
Until they caine to you wan water,
And there they lighted down.
12 They lighted down to tak a drink
Of the spring that ran sae clear,
And down the stream ran his gude heart's blood,
And sair she gan to fear.
13 'Hold up, hold up, Lord William,' she says,
'For I fear that you are slain;'
'Tis naething but the shadow of my scarlet cloak,
That shines in the water sae plain.'
14 O they rade on, and on they rade,
And a' by the light of the moon,
Until they cain to his mother's ha door,
And there they lighted down.
15 'Get up, get up, lady mother,' he says,
'Get up, and let me in!
Get up, get up, lady mother,' he says,
'For this night my fair lady I 'ye win.
16 'O mak my bed, lady mother,' he says,
' O mak it braid and deep,
And lay Lady Margret close at my back,
And the sounder I will sleep.'
17 Lord William was dead lang ere midnight,
Lady Margret lang ere day,
And all true lovers that go thegither,
May th ey have mair luck than they!
18 Lord William was buried in St. Mary's kirk,
Lady Margret in Mary's quire;
Out o the lady's grave grew a bonny red rose,
And out o the knight's a briar.
19 And they twa met, and they twa plat,
And fain they wad be near;
And a' the warld might ken right weel
They were twa lovers dear.
20 But bye and rade the Black Douglas,
And wow but he was rough!
For he pulld up the bonny brier,
And flang't in St. Mary's Loch.
-----------------
'The Douglas Tragedy'- Version C
Motherwell's MS., p. 502. From the recitation of Mrs Notman.
1 'RISE up, rise up, my seven brave sons,
And dress in your armour so bright;
Earl Douglas will hae Lady Margaret awa
Before that it be light.
2 'Arise, arise, my seven brave sons,
And dress in your armour so bright;
It shall never be said that a daughter of
Shall go with an earl or a knight.'
3 'O will ye stand, fair Margaret,' he says,
' And hold my milk-white steed,
Till I fight your father and seven brethren,
In yonder pleasant mead?'
4 She stood and held his milk-white steed.
She stood trembling with fear,
Until she saw her seven brethren fall,
And her father that loved her dear.
5 'Hold your hand, Earl Douglas,' she says,
'Your strokes are wonderous sair;
I may get sweethearts again enew,
But a father I'll ne'er get mair.'
6 She took out a handkerchief
Was made o' the cambrick fine,
And aye she wiped her father's bloody wounds,
And the blood sprung up like wine.
7 Will ye go, fair Margaret?'
Will ye now go, or bide?'
'Yes, I'll go, sweet William,' she said,
'For ye've left me never a guide.
8 'If I were to go to my mother's house,
A welcome guest I would be;
But for the bloody deed that's done this day
I'll rather go with thee.'
9 He lifted her on a milk-white steed
And himself on a dapple gray;
They drew their hats out over their face,
And they both went weeping away.
10 They rode, they rode, and they better rode,
Till they came to you water wan;
They lighted down to gie their horse a drink
Out of the running stream.
11 'I am afraid, Earl Douglas.' she said,
I am afraid ye are slain
I think I see your bonny heart's blood
Runing down the water wan.
12 'Oh no, oh no, fair Margaret,' he said,
Oh no, I am not slain
It is but the scad of my scarlet cloak
Runs down the water wan.'
13 He mounted her on a milk-white steed
And himself on a dapple gray,
And they have reached Earl Douglas' gates
Before the break of day.
14 'O rise, dear mother, and make my bed,
And make it braid and wide,
And lay me down to take my rest,
And at my back my bride.'
15 She has risen and mad his bed,
She made it braid and wide
She laid him down to take his rest,
And at his back his bride.
16 Lord William died ere it was day,
Lady Margaret on the morrow;
Lord William died through loss of blood and wounds,
Fair Margaret died with sorrow.
17 The one was buried in Mary's kirk,
The other in Mary's quire
The one sprung up a bonnie bush,
And the other a bonny brier.
18 These twa grew, and these twa threw;
Till they came to the top,
And when they could na farther gae,
They coost the lovers' knot.
----------------------
'Lord Douglas'- Version D
Kinloch MSS, I, 327.
1 ' SLEEPST thou or wakst thou, Lord Montgomerie,
Sleepst thou or wakst thou, I say?
Rise up, make a match for your eldest daughter
For the yountest I carry away.'
2 Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons,
Dress yourselves in the armour sae fine
For it ne'er shall lie said that a churlish knight
Eer married a daughter of mine.'
3 ' Loup aff, loup aff, Lady Margaret,' he said,
And hold my steed in your hand,
And I will go fight your seven brethren,
And your father, where they stand.'
4 Sometimes she gaed, sometimes she stood,
But never dropt a tear,
Until she saw her brethren all slain,
And her father who lovd her so dear
5 'Hold thy hand, sweet William,' she says,
'Thy blows are wondrous sore;
Sweethearts I may have many a one,
But a father I'll never have more.'
6 O she's taken her napkin frae her pocket,
Was made o the holland fine,
And ay as she dichted her father's bloody wounds
They sprang as red as wine.
7 'Two chooses, two chooses, Lady Margret,' he says
'Two chooses I'll make thee;
Whether to go back to your mother again,
Or go along with me.'
8 'For to go home to my mother again,
An unwelcome guest I'd be;
But since my fate has ordered it so,
I'll go along with thee.'
9 He has mounted her on a milk-white steed,
Himself on the dapple gray,
And blawn his horn baith loud and shill,
And it sounded far on their way.
10 They rode oer hill, they rode oer dale,
They rode oer mountains so high,
Until they came to that beautiful place
Where Sir William's mother did lie.
11 'Rise up, rise up, lady mother,' he said,
'Rise up, and make much o your own;
Rise up, rise up, lady mother,' he said,
'For his bride's just new come home.'
12 Sir William he died in the middle o the night,
Lady Margaret died on the morrow
Sir William he died of pure pure love,
Lady Margaret of grief and sorrow.
--------------------------
'The Douglas Tragedy'- Version E
Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 150. From recitation.
1 He has lookit over his left shoulder,
And through his bonnie bridle rein,
And he spy'd her father and her seven bold brethren,
Come riding down the glen.
2 'O hold my horse, Lady Margret,' he said,
O hold my horse by the bonnie bridle rein,
Till I fight your fatber and seven bold brethren
As they come riding down the glen.'
3 Some time she rade, and some time she gaed,
Till she that place did near,
And there she spy'd her seven bold brethren slain,
And her father who loved her so dear.
4 'O hold your hand, sweet William,' she said,
'Your bull baits are wondrous sair;
Sweet-hearts I may get many a one,
But a father I wili never get mair.'
5 She has taken a napkin from off her neck,
That was of the cambrick so fine,
And aye as she wiped her father's bloody wounds,
The blood ran red as the wine.
* * * * *
6 He set her upon the milk-white steed,
Himself upon the brown;
He took a horn out of his pocket,
And they both went weeping along.
-----------------------
'The Child of Ell'- Version F
Percy MS., p. 57; ed. Hales and Furnivall, i, 133.
1 . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Sayes 'Christ thee saue, good Child of Ell!
Christ saue thee and thy steede!
2 'My father sayes he will [eat] noe meate,
Nor hi s drinke shall doe him noe good.
Till he haue slaine the Child of Ell,
And haue seene his harts blood.'
3 'I wold I were in my sadle sett,
And a mile out of the towne;
I did not care for your father
And all his merry men!
4 'I wold I were in my sadle sett,
And a little space him froe;
I did not care for your father
And all that long him to!
5 He leaned ore his saddle bow
To kisse this lady good;
The teares that went them two betweene
Were blend water and blood.
6 He sett himselfe on one good steed,
This lady on a palfray,
And sett his litle horne to his month,
And roundlie he rode away.
7 He had not ridden past a mile,
A mile out of the towne,
. . . . .
. . . . .
8 Her father was readye with her seuen brether,
He said, 'Sett thou my daughter downe!
For ill beseemes thee, thou false churles sonne,
To carry her forth of this towne!'
9 'But lowd thou lyest, Sir Iohn the knight,
Thou now doest lye of me;
A knight me gott, and a lady me bore;
Soe neuer did none by thee.
10 'But light now done, my lady gay,
Light downe and hold my horsse,
Whilest I and your father and your brether
Doe play vs at this crosse.
11 'But light now downe, my owne trew loue,
And meeklye hold my steede,
Whilest your father [and your seuen brether] bold
. . . . .
[Gude Earl Brand]- Version G
The Paisley Magazine, June 2, 1828, p. 321, communicated by William Motherwell. “Sung to a long, drawling, monotonous tune.”
* * * * *
1 ‘Gude Earl Brand, I long to see
Faldee faldee fal deediddle a dee
All your grey hounds running over the lea.’
And the brave knights in the valley
2 ‘Gude lady fair, I have not a steed but one,
But you shall ride and I shall run.’
3 They’re ower moss and they’re ower mure,
And they saw neither rich nor pure.
4 Until that they came to auld Karl Hude;
He’s aye for ill and never for gude.
5 ‘Gude Earl Brand, if ye love me,
Kill auld Karl Hude, and gar him die.’
6 ‘O fair ladie, we’ll do better than sae:
Gie him a penny, and let him gae.’
7 ‘Gude Earl Brand, whare hae ye been,
Or whare hae ye stown this lady sheen?’
8 ‘She’s not my lady, but my sick sister,
And she’s been at the wells of Meen.’
9 ‘If she was sick, and very sair,
She wadna wear the red gold on her hair.
10 ‘Or if she were sick, and like to be dead,
She wadna wear the ribbons red.’
11 He cam till he cam to her father’s gate,
And he has rappit furious thereat.
12 ‘Where is the lady o this hall?’
‘She’s out wi her maidens, playing at the ball.’
13 ‘If you’ll get me fyfteen wale wight men,
Sae fast as I’ll fetch her back again.’
14 She’s lookit ower her left collar-bane:
‘O gude Earl Brand, we baith are taen.’
15 ‘Light down, light down, and hold my steed;
Change never your cheer till ye see me dead.
16 ‘If they come on me man by man,
I’ll be very laith for to be taen.
17 ‘But if they come on me one and all,
The sooner you will see me fall.’
18 O he has killd them all but one,
And wha was that but auld Karl Hude.
19 And he has come on him behind,
And put in him the deadly wound.
20 O he has set his lady on,
And he’s come whistling all along.
21 ‘Gude Earl Brand, I see blood:’
‘It’s but the shade o my scarlet robe.’
22 They cam till they cam to the water aflood;
He’s lighted down and he’s wushen aff the blood.
23 His mother walks the floor alone:
‘O yonder does come my poor son.
24 ‘He is both murderd and undone,
And all for the sake o an English loon.’
25 ‘Say not sae, my dearest mother,
Marry her on my eldest brother.’
26 She set her fit up to the wa,
Faldee faldee fal deediddle adee
She’s fallen down dead amang them a’.
And the brave knights o the valley
---------------------
['Earl Brand']- Version H
Campbell MSS, II, 32.
1 Did you ever hear of good Earl Brand,
Aye lally an lilly lally
And the king’s daughter of fair Scotland?
And the braw knights o Airly
2 She was scarce fifteen years of age
When she came to Earl Brand’s bed.
Wi the braw knights o Airly
3 ‘O Earl Brand, I fain wad see
Our grey hounds run over the lea.’
Mang the braw bents o Airly
4 ‘O,’ says Earl Brand, ‘I’ve nae steads but one,
And you shall ride and I shall run.’
Oer the braw heights o Airly
5 ‘O,’ says the lady, ‘I hae three,
And ye shall hae yeer choice for me.’
Of the braw steeds o Airly
6 So they lap on, and on they rade,
Till they came to auld Carle Hood.
Oer the braw hills o Airly
7 Carl Hood’s aye for ill, and he’s no for good,
He’s aye for ill, and he’s no for good.
Mang the braw hills o Airly
8 ‘Where hae ye been hunting a’ day,
And where have ye stolen this fair may?’
I’ the braw nights sae airly
9 ‘She is my sick sister dear,
New comd home from another sister.’
I the braw nights sae early
10 ‘O,’ says the lady, ‘if ye love me,
Gie him a penny fee and let him gae.’
I the braw nights sae early
11 He’s gane home to her father’s bower,
. . . . .
. . . . .
12 ‘Where is the lady o this ha?’
‘She’s out wi the young maids, playing at the ba.’
I the braw nights so early
13 ‘No,’ says another, ‘she’s riding oer the moor,
And a’ to be Earl Brand’s whore.’
I the braw nights so early
14 The king mounted fifteen weel armed men,
A’ to get Earl Brand taen.
I the braw hills so early
15 The lady looked over her white horse mane:
‘O Earl Brand, we will be taen.’
In the braw hills so early
16 He says, If they come one by one,
Ye’ll no see me so soon taen.
In the braw hills so early
17 So they came every one but one,
And he has killd them a’ but ane.
In the braw hills so early
18 And that one came behind his back,
And gave Earl Brand a deadly stroke.
In the braw hills of Airly
19 For as sair wounded as he was,
He lifted the lady on her horse.
In the braw nights so early
20 ‘O Earl Brand, I see thy heart’s bluid.’
‘It’s but the shadow of my scarlet robe.’
I the braw nights so early
21 He came to his mother’s home;
. . . . .
. . . . .
22 She looked out and cryd her son was gone,
And a’ for the sake [of] an English loon.
. . . . .
23 ‘What will I do wi your lady fair?’
‘Marry her to my eldest brother.’
The brawest knight i Airly
['Lord Douglas'] Version I
A stall-copy lent me by Mrs Alexander Forbes, Liberton, Edinburgh.
1 ‘Rise up, rise up, Lord Douglas,’ she said,
‘And draw to your arms so bright;
Let it never be said a daughter of yours
Shall go with a lord or a knight.
2 ‘Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons,
And draw to your armour so bright;
Let it never be said a sister of yours
Shall go with a lord or a knight.’
3 He looked over his left shoulder,
To see what he could see,
And there he spy’d her seven brethren bold,
And her father that lov’d her tenderly.
4 ‘Light down, light down, Lady Margret,’ he said,
‘And hold my steed in thy hand,
That I may go fight with your seven brethren bold,
And your father who’s just at hand.’
5 O there she stood, and better she stood,
And never did shed a tear,
Till once she saw her seven brethren slain,
And her father she lovd so dear.
6 ‘Hold, hold your hand, William,’ she said,
‘For thy strokes are wondrous sore;
For sweethearts I may get many a one,
But a father I neer will get more.’
7 She took out a handkerchief of holland so fine
And wip’d her father’s bloody wound,
Which ran more clear than the red wine,
And forked on the cold ground.
8 ‘O chuse you, chuse you, Margret,’ he said.
‘Whether you will go or bide!’
‘I must go with you, Lord William,’ she said,
‘Since you’ve left me no other guide.’
9 He lifted her on a milk-white steed,
And himself on a dapple grey,
With a blue gilded horn hanging by his side,
And they slowly both rode away.
10 Away they rode, and better they rode,
Till they came to yonder sand,
Till once they came to yon river side,
And there they lighted down.
11 They lighted down to take a drink
Of the spring that ran so clear,
And there she spy’d his bonny heart’s blood,
A running down the stream.
12 ‘Hold up, hold up, Lord William,’ she says,
‘For I fear that you are slain;’
‘ ’T is nought but the shade of my scarlet clothes,
That is sparkling down the stream.’
13 He lifted her on a milk-white steed,
And himself on a dapple grey,
With a blue gilded horn hanging by his side,
And slowly they rode away.
14 Ay they rode, and better they rode,
Till they came to his mother’s bower;
Till once they came to his mother’s bower,
And down they lighted there.
15 ‘O mother, mother, make my bed,
And make it saft and fine,
And lay my lady close at my back,
That I may sleep most sound.’
16 Lord William he died eer middle o the night,
Lady Margret long before the morrow;
Lord William he died for pure true love,
And Lady Margret died for sorrow.
17 Lord William was bury’d in Lady Mary’s kirk,
The other in Saint Mary’s quire;
Out of William’s grave sprang a red rose,
And out of Margret’s a briar.
18 And ay they grew, and ay they threw,
As they wad fain been near;
And by this you may ken right well
They were twa lovers dear.
---------------------
[Supplimental Version- From Additions and Corrections]
'The Earl o Bran,' "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No. 22 b, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of Richard Heber. No. 22b, in the same volume, is The Earl o' Bran [Earl Brand], in the handwriting of Richard Heber, who notes at the end: "I have not written the Chorus, but Mr Leyden, having it by him, knows how to insert it."
1 Did ye ever hear o guid Earl o Bran
An the queen's daughter o the southlan?
2 She was na fifteen years o age
Till she came to the Earl's bed-side.
3 'O guid Earl o Bran, I fain wad see
My grey hounds run over the lea.'
4 'O kind lady, I have no steeds but one,
But ye shall ride, an I shall run.'
5 'O guid Earl o Bran, but I have tua,
An ye shall hae yere wael o those.'
6 The're ovr moss an the're over muir,
An they saw neither rich nor poor.
7 Till they came to ald Carl Hood,
He's ay for ill, but he's never for good.
8 'O guid Earl o Bran, if ye loe me,
Kill Carl Hood an gar him die.'
9 'O kind lady, we had better spare;
I never killd ane that wore grey hair.
10 'We'll gie him a penny-fie an let him gae,
An then he'll carry nae tiddings away.'
11 'Where hae been riding this lang simmer-day?
Or where hae stolen this lady away?'
12 'O I hae not riden this lang simmer-day,
Nor hae I stolen this lady away.
13 'For she is my sick sister
I got at the Wamshester.'
14 If she were sick an like to die,
She wad na be wearing the gold sae high.'
15 Ald Carl Hood is over the know,
Where they rode one mile, he ran four.
16 Till he came to her mother's yetts,
An I wat he rapped rudely at.
17 'Where is the lady o this ha?'
'She's out wie her maidens, playing at the ba.'
18 'O na! fy na!
For I met her fifteen miles awa.
19 'She's over moss, an she's over muir,
An a' to be the Earl o Bran's whore.'
20 Some rode wie sticks, an some wie rungs,
An a' to get the Earl o Bran slain.
21 That lady lookd over her left shoudder-bane:
'O guid Earl o Bran, we'll a' be taen!
For yond'r a' my father's men.
22 'But if ye'll take my claiths, I'll take thine,
An I'll fight a' my father's men.'
23 'It's no the custom in our land
For ladies to fight an knights to stand.
24 'If they come on me ane by ane,
I'll smash them a' doun bane by bane.
25 'If they come on me ane and a',
Ye soon will see my body fa.'
26 He has luppen from his steed,
An he has gein her that to had.
27 An bad her never change her cheer
Untill she saw his body bleed.
28 They came on him ane by ane,
An he smashed them doun a' bane by bane.
29 He sat him doun on the green grass,
For I wat a wearit man he was.
30 But ald Carl Hood came him behind,
An I wat he gae him a deadly wound.
31 He's awa to his lady then,
He kissed her, and set her on her steed again.
32 He rode whistlin out the way.
An a' to hearten his lady gay.
33 'Till he came to the water-flood:
'O guid Earl o Bran, I see blood!'
34 'O it is but my scarlet hood,
That shines upon the water-flood.'
35 They came on 'till his mother's yett,
An I wat he rappit poorly at.
36 His mother she 's come to the door:
'O son, ye 've gotten yere dead wie an English whore!'
37 'She was never a whore to me;
Sae let my brother her husband be.'
38 Sae ald Carl Hood was not the dead o ane,
But he was the dead o hale seeventeen.
-----------------
[2nd Supplimental Version- From Additions and Corrections]
“Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 22 d. In the handwriting of William Laidlaw. Scott has written at the head, Earl Bran, another copy.
1 Earl Bran’s a wooing gane;
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
He woo’d a lady, an was bringing her hame.
O the gae knights o Airly
2. . . . .
They met neither wi rich nor poor.
3 Till they met wi an auld palmer Hood,
Was ay for ill, an never for good.
4 ‘O yonder is an auld palmer Heed:
Tak your sword an kill him dead.’
5 ‘Gude forbid, O ladie fair,
That I kill an auld man an grey hair.
6 ‘We’ll gie him a an forbid him to tell;’
The gae him a an forbad him to tell.
7 The auld man than he’s away hame,
He telld o Jane whan he gaed hame.
8 ‘I thought I saw her on yon moss,
Riding on a milk-white horse.
9 ‘I thought I saw her on yon muir;
By this time she’s Earl Bran’s whore.’
10 Her father he’s ca’d on his men:
‘Gae follow, an fetch her again.’
11 She’s lookit oer her left shoulder:
‘O yonder is my father’s men!
12 ‘O yonder is my father’s men:
Take my cleadin, an I’ll take thine.’
13 ‘O that was never law in land,
For a ladie to feiht an a knight to stand.
14 ‘But if yer father’s men come ane an ane,
Stand ye by, an ye’ll see them slain.
15 ‘If they come twae an twae,
Stand ye by, an ye’ll see them gae.
16 ‘And if they come three an three,
Stand ye by, an ye’ll see them die.’
17 Her father’s men came ane an ane,
She stood by . . .
18 Than they cam by twae an twae,
. . . . .
19 Than they cam by three an three,
. . . . .
20 But ahint him cam the auld palmer Hood,
An ran him outthro the heart’s blood.
21 ‘I think I see your heart’s blood:’
‘It’s but the glistering o your scarlet hood.’
* * * * *
End Notes
A. a, b. Obtained from recitation "many years ago" wrote Mr. White in 1873, by James Telfer, of Laughtree Liddesdale, in some part of the neighboring country: the copy has the date 1818. c is said by the editor to have been taken down from the recitation of an old fiddler in Northumberland, but when and by whom he does not tell us. The three are clearly more or less "corrected" copies of the same original, c having suffered most from arbitrary changes. Alterations for rhyme's sake, or for propriety's, that are written above the lines or in the margin of a 2, 5, 8, 19, are adopted in c without advertisement.
Burden, b. I the brave night sae early: c. I the brave nights so early: d. I (or O) the life o the one, the randy.
11, c. Brand, and always in c.
12, a. daughters, b. He 's courted.
21. c. years that tide; that tide is written over of age in a.
22. c. When sae.
42. c. But thou.
52. b. best o these, c. best of tho. of tho is written over o them a in a.
62. b, c. have met.
71. c. Till at last they met.
72. c. He 's aye for ill and never.
81. b. O Earl Bran. c. Now Earl Brand. Now in the margin of a.
82. b, c. Slay this.
92. b. man that wears, c. carl that wears, carl . . wears written over man . . has in a.
10. b. O lady fair, I'll no do that,
I'll pay him penny, let him be jobbing at.
c. My own lady fair, I'll not do that,
I'll pay him his fee
112. b. where have stoln this fair. c. And where have ye stown this fair.
13. b. She is my sick sister,
Which I newly brought from Winchester.
c. For she is, I trow, my sick sister,
Whom I have been bringing fra Winchester.
141. c. nigh to dead. 2. b, c. What makes her wear.
151. c. If she's been. 2. b, c. What makes her wear the gold sae high.
161. c. When came the carl to the lady's yett. 2. b. rapped at. c. He rudely, rudely rapped thereat.
172. b. maids playen. c. a playing, d. She 's out with the fair maids playing at the ball.
181. b. mistkane (?): 2. b, c. Ye may count. b 2. young Earl.
19. c. I met her far beyond the lea
With the young Earl Brand, his leman to be:
In a lea is written over moor, and With the young, etc., stands as a "correction."
20. b. Her father, etc.,
And they have riden after them.
c. Her father of his best men armed fifteen,
And they 're ridden after them bidene.
211. b, c. The lady looket [looked]
over [owre] her left shoulder then.
221. b, c. If they come on me one by one, 2. b. Ye may stand by and see them fall. c. You may stand by till the fights be done.
d. Then I will slay them every one.
231. b. all in all. d. all and all. 2. d. Then you will see me the sooner fall.
242. b. has slain.
24. c. They came upon him one by one,
Till fourteen battles he has won.
And fourteen men he has them slain,
Each after each upon the plain.
25. c. But the fifteenth man behind stole round,
And dealt him a deep and a deadly wound.
26. c. Though he was wounded to the deid,
He set his lady on her steed.
271. c. river Doune: 2. b. And he lighted down. c. And there they lighted to wash his wound.
282. b. It 's but the glent. c. It 's nothing but the glent and my scar let hood.
291. c. yett.
292. b. Sae ruddly as he rappet at. c. So faint and feebly he rapped thereat.
301. b. O my son 's slain and cut down.
c. O my son 's slain, he is falling to swoon.
32. b. ... death of only one,
But it 's been the death of fair seventeen.
Instead of 32, c has:
To a maiden true he'll give his hand,
To the king's daughter o fair England,
To a prize that was won by a slain brother's brand.
B. 3. A stanza resembling this is found in Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Knight of the Burning Pestle' (1611), Dyce, II, 172, but may belong to some other ballad, as 'The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter
He set her on a milk-white steed,
And himself upon a grey;
He never turned his face again,
But he bore her quite away.
84. ware.
181. Marie.
204. flang'd.
C. 128. Manuscript scâd.
D. 10. The following stanza, superscribed "Mrs. Lindores, Kelso," was found among Mr. Kinlock's papers, and was inserted at I, 331, of the Kinlock manuscripts. It may be a first recollection of D 10, but is more likely to be another version:
'We raid over hill and we raid over dale,
And we raid over mountains sae high,
Until we cam in sicht o yon bonnie castle bowr
Whare Sir William Arthur did lie.'
E. 5-6. "Two stanzas are here omitted, in which Lord William offers her the choice of returning to her mother, or of accompanying him; and the ballad concludes with this [the 6th] stanza, which is twice repeated in singing." Motherwell's preface.
F. 34. Manuscript merrymen.
62. of one palfray.
7, 8 are written in one stanza. Half a page, or about nine stanzas, is gone after stanza 11.
Additions and Corrections
P. 88. Add:
G. 'Gude Earl Brand and Auld Carle Hude,' the Paisley Magazine, 1828, p. 321, communicated by W. Motherwell.
H. 'Auld Carle Hood, or, Earl Brand,' Campbell Manuscipts, II, 32.
I . 'The Douglas Tragedy,' 'Lord Douglas' Tragedy,' from an old-looking stall-copy, without place or date.
This ballad was, therefore, not first given to the world by Mr. Robert Bell, in 1857, but nearly thirty years earlier by Motherwell, in the single volume of the Paisley Magazine, a now somewhat scarce book. I am indebted for the information and for a transcript to Mr. Murdoch, of Glasgow, and for a second copy to Mr. Macmath, of Edinburgh.
92 a. Add: I. 'Hildebrand,' Wigström. Folkdiktning, II, 13. J. 'Fröken Gyllenborg,' the same, p. 24.
96 a. Böðvar Bjarki, fighting with great effect as a huge bear for Hrólfr Kraki, is obliged to return to his ordinary shape in consequence of Hjalti, who misses the hero from the fight, mentioning his name: Saga Hrólfs Kraka, c. 50, Fornaldar Sögur, I, 101 ff. In Hjalmters ok Ölvers Saga, c. 20, F.S. III, 506 f, Hörðr bids his comrades not call him by name while he is fighting, in form of a sword-fish, with a walrus, else he shall die. A prince, under the form of an ox, fighting with a six-headed giant, loses much of his strength, and is nigh being conquered, because a lad has, contrary to his prohibition, called him by name. Asbjørnsen og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, 2d ed., p. 419. All these are cited by Moe, in Nordisk Tidskrift, 1879, p. 286 f. Certain kindly domestic spirits renounce relations with men, even matrimonial, if their name becomes known: Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte, I, 103.
97 b. Insert: Spanish. Milá, Romancerillo Catalan, 2d ed., No 206, D, p. 164: olivera y oliverá, which, when grown tall, join.
Servian. Add: Karadshitch, I, 345, vv 225 ff, two pines, which intertwine. In I 309, No 421, they plant a rose over the maid, a vine over the man, which embrace as if they were Jani and Milenko. The ballad has features of the Earl Brand class. (I, 239, No 341 = Talvj, II, 85.)
Russian. Hilferding, Onezhskya Byliny, col. 154, No 31, laburnum (?) over Basil, and cypress over Sophia, which intertwine; col. 696, No 134, cypress and willow; col. 1242, No 285, willow and cypress.
Little Russian (Carpathian Russians in Hungary), Golovatsky, II, 710, No 13: John on one side of the church, Annie on the other; rosemary on his grave, a lily on hers, growing so high as to meet over the church. Annie's mother cuts them down. John speaks from the grave: Wicked mother, thou wouldst not let us live together; let us rest together. Golovatsky, I, 186, No 8: a maple from the man's grave, white birch from the woman's, which mingle their leaves.
Slovenian. Štúr, O národních Písních a Povĕstech Plemen slovanských, p. 51: the lovers are buried east and west, a rose springs from the man's grave, a lily from the maid's, which mingle their growth.
Wend. Add: Haupt and Schmaler, II, 310, No 81.
Breton. Add: Villemarqué, Barzaz Breiz, 'Le Seigneur Nann et La Fée,' see p. 379, note §, of this volume.
98 a. Armenian. The ashes of two lovers who have been literally consumed by a mutual passion are deposited by sympathetic hands in one grave and seek to intertwine, but a thorn interposes and makes the union forever impossible. (The thorn is creed. The young man was a Tatar, and his religion had been an insuperable obstacle in the eyes of the maid's father.) Baron von Haxthausen, Transkaukasia, I, 315 f. (Köhler.)
A Middle High German poem from a Manuscript of the end of the 14th century, printed in Haupt's Zeitschrift, VI, makes a vine rise from the common grave of Pyramus and Thisbe and descend into it again: p. 517. (Köhler.)
J. Grimm notes several instances of this marvel (not from ballads), Ueber Frauennamen aus Blumen, Kleinere Schriften, II, 379 f, note **
104, Add G, H, I.
H, end-notes:
211. to her.
211, 22 are written as one stanza.
I, end-notes:
105 b. D . 10. For Kinlock (twice) read Kinloch; and read I, 330.
The stanza cited is found in Kinloch Manuscripts, VII, 95 and 255.
107 b. There is possibly a souvenir of Walter in Sušil, p. 105, No 107. A man and woman are riding on one horse in the mountains. He asks her to sing. Her song is heard by robbers, who come, intending to kill him and carry her off: He bids her go under a maple-tree, kills twelve, and spares one, to carry the booty home.
P. 96 b, line 1. In England the north side of the burial-ground is appropriated to unbaptized children, suicides, etc. Brand's Antiquities, ed. Hazlitt, II, 214-218.
97 b. Add: Portuguese. Romero, Cantos pop. do Brazil, No 4, 'D. Duarte e Donzilha,' I, 9: sicupira and collar.
Romaic. Chasiotis, p. 169, No 5, lemon and cypress; Aravandinos, p. 284 f, Nos 471, 472, cypress and reed.
97 b, and 489 b. Russian. Bezsonof, Kalyeki Perekhozhie, I, 697-700, Nos 167, 168 (Ruibnikof): Vasily is laid on the right, Sophia on the left; golden willow and cypress. The hostile mother pulls up, breaks down, the willow; cuts down, pulls up, the cypress.
Trudy, V, 711, No 309, A, man buried under church, wife under belfry; green maple and white birch. B-J, other copies with variations. V, 1208, No 50, a Cossack blossoms into a thorn, a maid into an elder; his mother goes to pull up the thorn, hers to pluck up the elder. "Lo, this is no thorn I it is my son!" " Lo, this is no elder I it is my daughter!"
489 b, eighth line from below, read, for laburnum, silver willow, and golden willow in the next line but one; and also for No 285.
98 a. Magyar. In Ungarische Revue, 1883, pp. 756-59, these three and one more.
Chinese. Hanpang has a young and pretty wife named Ho, whom he tenderly loves. The king, becoming enamored of her, puts her husband in prison, where he kills himself. Ho throws herself from a high place, leaving a letter to the king, in which she begs that she may be buried in the same tomb as her husband; but the king orders them to be put in separate graves. In the night cedars spring up from their tombs, which thrive so extraordinarily that in ten days their branches and their roots are interlocked. A. de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des Plantes, II, 53, from Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise, p. 679. (Already cited by Braga.)
P. 88 a. B. "The copy principally used in this edition of the ballad was supplied by Mr. Sharpe." Scott. "The Douglas Tragedy was taught me by a nursery-maid, and was so great a favorite that I committed it to paper as soon as I was able to write." Sharpe's Letters, ed. Allardyce, I, 135, August 5, 1802. Sharpe was born in 1781.
88 b. 'Hr. Kibolt,' Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VI, 17, No 257, is a good copy of 'Ribold og Guldborg.' It has the testaments at the end, like several others (see I, 144 b).
89-91 a. 'Stolt Hedelil,' Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 68, No 231, is another version of 'Hildebrand og Hilde,' closely resembling G. So is 'Den mislykkede flugt,' the same, VIII, 17, No 24, with the proper tragic conclusion. Both are inferior copies.
92 a and 489 b. Add: K, 'Kung Vallemo ock liten Kerstin,' Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare Bidrag, o.s.v., p. 101.
95 b, 96, 489. I have omitted to mention the effect of naming on 'Clootie' in No 1, C 19, I, 5:
As sune as she the fiend did name,
He flew awa in a blazing flame.
The Alpthier loses its power to harm and appears in its proper shape, as this or that person, if called by name: Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, 2d ed., p. 257. Were- wolves appear in their proper human shape on being addressed by their name: Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf, pp. 61, 84, Ulrich Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern u. Rügen, pp. 386-7. An enchanted prince is freed when his name is pronounced: Meier, No 53, p. 188 and n., p. 311. "There was in the engagement a man [on the side of Hades] who could not be vanquished unless his name could be discovered:" Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, I, 167, as quoted by Rhys, Celtic Mythology, Hibbert Lectures, p. 244. (G.L.K.)
96 ff., 489, II, 498. Plants from lovers' graves.
Add: Portuguese, Romero, II, 157, two pines.
Italian, Nigra, No 18, 'Le due Tombe,' p. 125 ff..
A. The lovers are buried apart, one in the church, one outside, a pomegranate springs from the man's grave, an almond-tree from the maid's; they grow large enough, to shade three cities! B. A pomegranate is planted on the man's grave, a hazel on the maid's; they shade the city, and interlock. C. An almond-tree is planted on the maid's grave, and is cut down. D. The lovers are buried as in A (and C), an almond-tree grows from the grave of the man, a jessamine from the maid's. See also No 19, 'Fior di Tomba,' where, however, there is but one grave, which is to contain the maid's parents as well as her lover. The same phenomenon in the fragments E, F. 'Il Castello d'Oviglio,' Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, No 45, p. 64, is another version of this ballad. A pomegranate springs up at the maid's feet, and shades three cities. Cf. 'La Mort des deux Amants,' Rolland, I, 247, No 125.
Roumanian. 'Ring and Handkerchief' also in Marienescu, Balade, p. 50: cited in Mélusine, IV. 142.
97 b and 489 f., II, 498 a. Bulgarian, Miladinof, Bùlgarski narodni pĕsni, p. 455, No 497, translated by Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Südslaven, II, 427; the youth as rose-tree, the maid as grape-vine. Cited by G. Meyer in Mélusine, IV, 87. Little-Russian, plane-trees of the two sexes; cited by J. Karlowicz, ib., 87 f. Ruthenian (mother attempting to poison her son's wife poisons both wife and son), Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, 205 f.; buried on different sides of the church, plants meet over the roof of the church, the mother tries to cut them down, and while so engaged is turned into a pillar.
Servian. Vuk, I, No 342, II, No 30; youth, pine, maid, grape-vine. Krasić', p. 105, No 21, p. 114, No 26; vine and pine, vine twines round pine. Bulgarian, Miladinof, p. 375, No 288, rose and vine. Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 147, No 444, grape-vine and rose; No 445, youth behind the church, maid before, grape-vine and rose; p. 154, No 454, rosemary and a white flower (aleluja?). (W.W.)
Breton. Mélusine, III, 453 f. A tree springs from over the young man's heart (but this is an insertion, and not quite beyond suspicion), a rose from the maid's. There is another version of the ballad at p. 182 f., in which une fleur dorée grows over the man's grave, nothing being said of his mistress's grave, or even of her death.
Italo-Albanian. Also in Vigo, Canti p. siciliani, 1857, p. 345, V, and the edition of 1870-74, p. 698: cited in Mélusine, IV, 87.
Gaelic. Of Naisi (Naois) and Deirdre. King Conor caused them to be buried far apart, but for some days the graves would be found open in the morning and the lovers found together. The king ordered stakes of yew to be driven through the bodies, so that they might be kept asunder. Yew trees grew from the stakes, and so high as to embrace each other over the cathedral of Armagh. Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, I, 133, 1808.
In a Scotch-Gaelic version recently obtained, after Naois is put into his grave, Deirdre jumps in, lies down by his side and dies. The bad king orders her body to be taken out and buried on the other side of a loch. Firs shoot out of the two graves and unite over the loch. The king has the trees cut down twice, but the third time his wife makes him desist from his vengeance on the dead. The original in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XIII, 257; a translation in The Celtic Magazine, XIII, 138. (All of these cited by Gaidoz, Mélusine, IV, 12, and 62, note.)
P. 88. 'Ribold og Guldborg:' Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 33, 'Nævnet til døde,' No 15, A-I.
91 b. Swedish. 'Kung Valdemo,' 'Ellibrand och Fröken Gyllenborg,' Lagus, Nylandska Folkvisor, I, 1, No 1, a, b. ("Name not my name," a 20, b 12.)
95 b, 489 b; III, 498 a. For the whole subject, see K. Nyrop. Navnets Magt, 1887, and especially sections 4, 5, pp. 46-70. As to reluctance to have one's name known, and the advantage such knowledge gives an adversary, see E. Clodd, in The Folk Lore Journal, VII, 154 ff., and, in continuation, Folk-Lore, I, 272.
The berserkr Glammaðr could pick off any man with his pike, if only he knew his name. Saga Egils ok Ásmundar, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, III, 387, Ásmundarson, F. s. Norðrlanda, III, 292. (G.L.K.)
The demonic Gelô informs certain saints who force her "to tell them how other people's children [may] be defended from her attacks," that if they "can write her twelve names and a half she shall never be able to come within seventy-five stadia and a half:" Thomas Wright, Essays on Subjects connected with the Literature, etc., of the Middle Ages, 1846, I, 294 (referring to Leo Allatius, De Græcorura hodie quorundam opinationibus). The passage in question is to be found at p. 127 of Leo Allatius, De templis Græcorum recentioribus, ad Ioannem Morinum; De Narthece ecclesise veteris; nee non De Græcorum hodie quorundam opinationibus, ad Paullum Zacchiam. Coloniæ Agrippinæ, 1645. (G.L.K.)
96 b. Swedish. Two copies of 'Rosen lilla' in Lagus, Nylandska Folkvisor, I, 37, No 10.
Danish. Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 215, No 52, C 9, two lilies; p. 318, No 78, 9, 10, graves south and north, two lilies.
97 b. French. 'Les deux Amoureux,' Daymard, Vieux Chants p. rec. en Quercy, p. 122, lavender and tree.
97 b, 489 b, II, 498 a, III, 498 b. Slavic. (1.) White-Russian: he buried in church, she in ditch; plane and linden (planted); plane embraces linden. Manuscript (2.) Little-Russian: buried apart; plane grows over his grave, two birches over hers; branches do not interlace. Kolberg, Pokucie, p. 41. (3.) White-Russian: he in church, she near church; oak, birch (planted); trees touch. Zbiór wiado. do antropol., XIII, 102 f. (4.) Little-Russian: burial apart in a church; rosemary and lily from graves. Var.: rose and sage, rosemary; flowers interlace. Holovatzky, III, 254. (J. Karlowicz, in Mélusine, V, 39 ff.)
Bulgarian. A poplar from the maid's grave, a pine from her lover's: Collection of the Bulgarian Ministry of Instruction, I, 85. (W.W.)
97 b, 490 a, III, 498 b. Breton. Luzel, Soniou, I, 272-3: a tree from the young man's grave, a rose from the maid's.
99 ff., 490 ff. 'The Earl o Bran,' "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 22 b, Abbotsford; in the handwriting of Richard Heber.
1 Did ye ever hear o guid Earl o Bran
An the queen's daughter o the south-lan?
2 She was na fifteen years o age
Till she came to the Earl's bed-side.
3 'O guid Earl o Bran, I fain wad see
My grey hounds run over the lea.'
4 'O kind lady, I have no steeds but one,
But ye shall ride, an I shall run.'
5 'O guid Earl o Bran, but I have tua,
An ye shall hae yere wael o those.'
6 The're ovr moss an the're over muir,
An they saw neither rich nor poor.
7 Till they came to aid Carl Hood,
He's ay for ill, but he's never for good.
8 'O guid Earl o Bran, if ye loe me,
Kill Carl Hood an gar him die.'
9 'O kind lady, we had better spare;
I never killd ane that wore grey hair.
10 'We'll gie him a penny-fie an let him gae,
An then he'll carry nae tiddings away.'
11 'Where hae been riding this lang simmer-day?
Or where hae stolen this lady away?'
12 'O I hae not riden this lang simmer-day,
Nor hae I stolen this lady away.
13 'For she is my sick sister
I got at the Wamshester.'
14 'If she were sick an like to die,
She wad na be wearing the gold sae high.'
15 Ald Carl Hood is over the know,
Where they rode one mile, he ran four.
16 Till he came to her mother's yetts,
An I wat he rapped rudely at.
17 'Where is the lady o this ha?'
'She's out wie her maidens, playing at the ba.'
18 'O na! fy na!
For I met her fifteen miles awa.
19 'She's over moss, an she's over muir,
An a' to be the Earl o Bran's whore.'
20 Some rode wie sticks, an some wie rungs,
An a' to get the Earl o Bran slain.
21 That lady lookd over her left shoudder-bane:
'O guid Earl o Bran, we'll a' be taen!
For yond 'r a' my father's men.
22 'But if ye'll take my claiths, I'll take thine,
An I'll fight a' my father's men.'
23 'It's no the custom in our land
For ladies to fight an knights to stand.
24 'If they come on me ane by ane,
I'll smash them a' doun bane by bane.
25 'If they come on me ane and a',
Ye soon will see my body fa.'
26 He has luppen from his steed,
An he has gein her that to had.
27 An bad her never change her cheer
Untill she saw his body bleed.
28 They came on him ane by ane,
An he smashed them doun a' bane by bane.
29 He sat him doun on the green grass,
For I wat a wearit man he was.
30 But aid Carl Hood came him behind,
An I wat he gae him a deadly wound.
31 He's awa to his lady then,
He kissed her, an set her on her steed again.
32 He rode whistlin out the way,
An a' to hearten his lady gay.
33 'Till he came to the water-flood:
'O guid Earl o Bran, I see blood!'
34 'O it is but my scarlet hood,
That shines upon the water-flood.'
35 They came on 'till his mother's yett,
An I wat he rappit poorly at.
36 His mother she's come to the door:
'O son, ye've gotten yere dead wie an English whore!'
37 'She was never a whore to me;
Sae let my brother her husband be.'
38 Sae aid Carl Hood was not the dead o ane,
But he was the dead o hale seeventeen.
Note at the end: I have not written the chorus, but Mr. Leyden, having it by him, knows how to insert it.
"Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 22 d. In the handwriting of William Laidlaw. Scott has written at the head, Earl Bran, another copy.
1 Earl Bran's a wooing gane;
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
He woo'd a lady, an was bringing her hame.
O the gae knights o Airly
2 . . .
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
They met neither wi rich nor poor.
O the gae knights o Airly
3 Till they met wi an auld palmer Hood,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Was ay for ill, an never for good.
O the gae knights o Airly
4 'O yonder is an auld palmer Heed:
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Tak your sword an kill him dead.'
O the gae knights o Airly
5 Gude forbid, O ladie fair,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
That I kill an auld man an grey hair.
O the gae knights o Airly
6 'We'll gie him a an forbid him to tell;'
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
The gae him a an forbad him to tell.
O the gae knights o Airly
7 The auld man than he's away hame,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
He telld o Jane whan he gaed hame.
O the gae knights o Airly
8 'I thought I saw her on yon moss,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Riding on a milk-white horse.
O the gae knights o Airly
9 'I thought I saw her on yon muir;
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
By this time she's Earl Bran's whore.'
O the gae knights o Airly
10 Her father he's ca'd on his men:
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
'Gae follow, an fetch her again.'
O the gae knights o Airly
11 She's lookit oer her left shoulder:
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
'O yonder is my father's men!
O the gae knights o Airly
12 'O yonder is my father's men:
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Take my cleadin, an I'll take thine.'
O the gae knights o Airly
13 'O that was never law in land,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
For a ladie to feiht an a knight to stand.
O the gae knights o Airly
14 'But if yer father's men come ane an ane,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Stand ye by, an ye'll see them slain.
O the gae knights o Airly
15 'If they come twae an twae,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Stand ye by, an ye'll see them gae.
O the gae knights o Airly
16 'And if they come three an three,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
Stand ye by, an ye'll see them die.'
O the gae knights o Airly
17 Her father's men came ane an ane,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
She stood by . . .
O the gae knights o Airly
18 Than they cam by twae an twae,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
. . .
O the gae knights o Airly
19 Than they cam by three an three,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
. . .
O the gae knights o Airly
20 But ahint him cam the auld palmer Hood,
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
An ran him outthro the heart's blood.
O the gae knights o Airly
21 'I think I see your heart's blood:'
Ae lalie, O lilly lalie
'It's but the glistering o your scarlet hood.'
O the gae knights o Airly
71. Manuscript, he's *, and, in the margin, * away has been gane. Over away hame is written thre them (= thrae, frae, them), or, perhaps, thre than.
201. Manuscript, palmer weed: cf. 31, 41.
202. outr thro.
P. 100, B; 489 b, 492, I. The printed copy used by Scott was 'Lord Douglas' Tragedy,' the first of four pieces in a stall-pamphlet, "licensed and entered, 1792:" "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 1. I is another edition of the same. The variations from I are as follows:
11. says.
22. your arms.
34. father who.
43. seven wanting.
44. just now.
51. better for (the obvious misprint) bitter.
53. once that.
61. Hold your hand.
72. wounds,
74. forkd in the.
81. Lady Margret.
93, 133. blue gilded, as in I, for bugelet: hanging down.
94, 134. slowly they both.
103. yon clear river-side.
113. his pretty.
123. 'T is nothing.
152. soft.
162. long ere day.
164. died wanting,
171. St. for Lady.
173. sprung.
182. be near.
188. ye: weil.
P. 88, III, 498 b, IV, 443 a. 'Hr. Ribolt.' Danish. Add: Skattegraveren, VI, 17, No 257, 'Nævnet til døde,' Kristensen, Efterslæt til Skattegraveren, p. 81, No 76; Folkeminder, XI, 36, No 22, A-D.
91 f. 489 b, III, 498 b, IV, 443 a. Swedish. ['Ridborg,'] Thomasson, Visor från Bleking, Nyare Bidrag, etc., VII, No 6, p. 12, No 7.
96 b. Danish. 'Hertug Frydenborg,' Danmarks g. Folkeviser, No 305, V, II, 216. A a, b, h, n, o; B b, c; E, k, l; F b, c, e, f; with diversities, the plant nearly always lilies. (A few of these, from Kristensen, have been already cited.)
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[P. 95 f, 489 b, III, 498 a, IV, 443 a. Death-naming, etc. See also W.R. Paton, Holy Names of the Eleusinian Priests, International Folk-lore Congress, 1891, Papers and Transactions, p. 202 ff.]
96 f., 489 f, II, 498, III, 498, IV, 443, V, 207.
Swedish. Cf. Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, XI, 293.
Romaic. See Ζωγραφεῖος Ἀγών, p. 170, No 321. [Georgeakis et Pineau, Folk-lore de Lesbos, pp. 208, 221.]
Italo-Albanian. De Grazia, Canti pop. albanesi, p. 102, No 11.
[Turkish. Sora Chenim went down into the grave of Täji Pascha, which opened to receive her. The "black heathen" ordered one of his slaves to slay him and bury him between the two. "Da wuchs Täji Pascha als eine Pappel aus dem Boden hervor, Sora Chenim wuchs als ein Rosenstrauch hervor. Zwischen diesen Beiden wuchs der schwarze Heide als ein Dornbusch hervor," etc. Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der nordlichen türkischen Stamme, VI, 246.]
100. Looking over the left shoulder. 1, 100 f., A 21, B 4; 103, E 1; 464, 21; 490, 14 (left collar-bane); 492, 3; III, 259, 20; 263, 20; 264, 24; 339, 7; 368, 11; 369, 13; 413, 37; 465, 35; 488, 32; 13, 13; 15, 18; 17, 8; 18, 4; 20, 6; 52,5; 135, 24; 445, 11; 518, 9; 519, 10; 520, 9. [In IV, 11, 21, it is the right shoulder.]
At I, 464, III, 259, 263 f., 339, 368 f, 413, IV, 135, the person looking over the left shoulder is angry, vexed, or grieved; in the other cases, no particular state of feeling is to be remarked. Undoubtedly the look over the left shoulder had originally more significance, since, under certain conditions, it gave the power of seeing spectres, or future events (but looking over the right shoulder had much the same effect). See A. Kuhn, Sagen, u.s.w., aus Westfalen, I, 187, No 206, and his references; and especially Bolte, in Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, VI, 205-07 (using R. Köhler's notes). After sowing hemp-seed in the Hallowe'en rite, you look over your left shoulder to see your destined lass or lad. See note to Burns's Hallowe'en, st. 16.
Trivial Corrections of Spelling.
444 b, 13. Read bringin.