[Pretty Polly] Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight (recovered by Guy Cooper of Humboldt, Nebraska, from the singing of his grandmother, Mrs. Mary Bruun, who learned the song long ago in Pennsylvania) Lowry Charles Wimberly 1927
[My title. From Two Traditional Ballads by Lowry Charles Wimberly; American Speech, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec., 1927), pp. 114-118. The information about, and lyrics of, Young Hunting are not included in this excerpt from Two Traditional Ballads by Lowry Charles Wimberly. This version, which can also be considered a Pennsylvania version, is probably at least 50 years older but no date can be ascertained.
The first stanza appears to be a recreation since it's not found in tradition.
R. Matteson 2014]
TWO TRADITIONAL BALLADS
IT IS no little evidence of the traditional or popular character of an Old-World ballad that it should be found on the lips of American singers. Both Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight and Young Hunting, variants of which are here recorded, have enjoyed a hardy survival in this country. Of the former piece, which owes its popularity in large measure to its clever lass motif, numerous American variants have been recovered, many of them printed in the Journal of American Folk-Lore and in such collections as Campbell and Sharp's Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians and John H. Cox's Folk-Songs of the South.
In none of these variants, however, nor in the variant given in these pages, do we find any evidence, over and above that in the English texts, as to the exact nature of the false wooer. This is not, of course, to be wondered at, for New-World variants of the old ballads usually instance a loss or obscuration of ancient features. In the case of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, to be sure, even the best British versions are not exactly clear as to the nature of the murderous knight. And I should like to take this opportunity, by reference to Child's texts and an occasional text recovered since Child, to glean from scattered versions
those features that, taken together, seem to reveal the false knight in his true character, that of a supernatural or fairy lover. But first let me give a variant of the ballad, recovered by Guy Cooper of Humboldt, Nebraska, from the singing of his grandmother, Mrs. Mary Bruun, who learned the song long ago in Pennsylvania.
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
I had scarcely got into my bed,
I had not gone to sleep,
When before me arose a gallant young knight
And stood at my bedside neat.
Arise, arise, come Polly, my dear,
Arise, arise said he,
I'll carry thee down to the merry green lands
And there I'll marry thee.
But first go get your father's gold
And part of your mother's fee,
The two best horses in the barn,
For there are thirty and three.
She mounted on the milk-white steed
And he the iron-gray;
They rode till they came to the merry green lands
Long hours before it was day.
Alight, alight, come Polly my dear,
Alight, alight, said he;
Six pretty fair maids have I drowned here
And you the seventh shall be.
But first take off those costly robes
And give them unto me,
For 'tis a shame that such costly robes
Should rust in the salt sea.
She turned her back toward the east,
Her face to the willow tree,
She caught her arm around his waist
And threw him into the sea.
Come help me out, come Polly my dear,
And I will marry thee,
If you were here and I were there
Oh how I'd pity thee.
You must lie there, you vile young man,
For thus you would have served me.
Six pretty fair maids you have drowned here,
The seventh has drowned thee.
She mounted on the milk-white steed
And led the iron-gray;
She rode till she came to her father's house
One hour e'er it was day.
Then up spoke the pretty parrot
And unto her did say,
What makes you ride my pretty Polly
So long before it is day?
Well hold your tongue you prattling bird
And tell no tales on me,
Your cage shall be made of glittering gold
Hung on the willow tree.
Then up spoke her old father,
Who in the neyt room did lay,
What makes you talk my pretty parrot
So long before it is day?
There is a strange cat at my cage door,
I feared he would mislay,
I was calling on your pretty Polly
To drive this cat away.
This text compares not unfavorably with other American variants, and when read in the light of those features that I shall now survey, features present in the better Old-World texts, it is seen to retain certain vestiges, at least, of those traits that point to the false knight as a supernatural or fairy lover. (1) In one of Child's texts (A) the wooer is called an "elf-knight," and lures the maiden away with the notes of his elfin horn. The fairy-music motif appears again in Child's B, though here it is employed differently. The lover plays soporific music upon his harp and sleep-binds every one but the king's daughter. These elfin strains are analogous to the seductive song of Dutch and German parallels to our ballad. But there is nothing of magic music in the American texts that I have examined. (2) Further evidence as to the supernatural character of the lover may be adduced from the incident (Child's B) of the bird that comes out "o a bush, on water for to dine."
It is possible that the bird here is the elfin wooer in disguise and is representative of the widespread tradition of the fairy lover who takes the shape of a bird in order to gain access to his mortal mistress (Cf. Tom Peete Cross in the Revue Celtique, XXXI, 452 n.). (3) The expression "Wearie" in Child's B is a euphemism for the Devil and may be regarded as a further indication of the knight's demonic character. It is in the "waters o Wearie's Well" that the false wooer would drown the maiden.
That the knight in this text, as well as in other versions, in Mrs. Bruun's variant, for example, would drown the clever lass, has been pointed out as showing that he may be a descendant of the traditional water demon, the malevolent havmand of Norse balladry (see A. Gilchrist, Journal of the Folk-Song Society, IV, 123). (4) In an attempt to establish the diabolical lineage of the knight it may be worth while to mention that in certain texts (e.g., Child's E., F.; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, IH, 282) he comes, like the fiend (disguised) in the Freres Tale of Chaucer, from the north lands. Among Germanic peoples, after the introduction of. Christianity, the North became, it seems, the abode of evil spirits.
In addition to the talking and helpful bird, found in nearly all versions of our ballad but everywhere rationalized as a parrot, there are two other important features that may be exhibited as illustrating the supernatural character of the knight. (5) In Child's D and in a Gavin Greig text (Folk-Song of the North-East, art. CVI) the lover overpowers the maiden or lures her away by means of a charm that he sticks in her sleeve.
This charm is probably the rune of the Norse ballads. In Child's A it is the maiden who employs the "sma charm." With it she puts the night to sleep and so escapes, but in this she is probably retorting upon him his own magic. (6) In Norse versions of our ballad, as well as in a Polish text, the maiden is lured away, not by irresistible music, but by the promise of being carried to a Wonderland or Elysium. Something of this is seen in Mrs. Bruun's variant, but it is more strikingly in evidence in Child's D and Greig's variant (op. cit., loc. cit.). When the maiden finds herself at that "fatal end," Binyan Bay (Greig), Bunion Bay (Child), she thus refers to the promise of the knight:
"Is this your bowers and lovely towers,
So costly, rich, and gay?"
This is clearly a reminiscence of the promised Wonderland of the Scandinavian ballads; and perhaps a hint of it is to be found in the "merry green lands" of Mrs. Bruun's version.