MR. CHILD finds the first published version of “the grand old ballad of
Sir Patrick Spens,” as Coleridge calls it, in Bishop Percy’s _Reliques_.
Here the name is “Spence,” and the middle rhyme—
“Haf owre, haf owre to Aberdour,”
is not of early date. The “Cork-heeled Shoon,” too, cannot be early, but
ballads are subject, in oral tradition, to such modern interpolations.
The verse about the ladies waiting vainly is anticipated in a popular
song of the fourteenth century, on a defeat of the _noblesse_ in
Flanders—
“Their ladies them may abide in bower and hall well long!”
If there be historical foundation for the ballad, it is probably a
blending of the voyage of Margaret, daughter of Alexander III., to wed
Eric, King of Norway, in 1281 (some of her escort were drowned on their
way home), with the rather mysterious death, or disappearance, of
Margaret’s daughter, “The Maid of Norway,” on her voyage to marry the son
of Edward I., in 1290. A woman, who alleged that she was the Maid of
Norway, was later burned at the stake. The great number and variety of
versions sufficiently indicate the antiquity of this ballad, wherein
exact history is not to be expected.