'Bertha im Wald.' The three cries are preserved in verse, and very
nearly as in #J#, #M#. The game concludes by the robber smothering
Bertha. Meier, Deutsche Kinder-Reime, No 439.
[47] #K#, or the editor, seeks to avoid the difficulty by taking the
last line from the knight, and reading, "Mit Blut war er umronnen," an
emendation not according with the simplicity of ballads. Another Swabian
copy, Meier, p. 301, note, strophe 6, has:
'Wir müssen zu selbigem Bronnen
Wo Wasser und Blut heraus ronnen.'
[48] The last verses are these, and not very much worse than the rest:
Mein Bruder ist ein Jägersmann,
Der alle Thierlein schiessen kann;
Er hatt' ein zweischneidiges Schwerte,
Und stach es dem Falschen ins Herze.
Ihr Mädchen alle insgemein,
Lasst euch doch diess zur Warnung sein,
Und geht doch mit keinem so falschen
In einen so finsteren Walde.
My brother is a hunting man,
And all the small game shoot he can;
He had a sword with edges two,
And ran the heart of the false man through
Ye maidens now in general,
Let this be warning to you all;
With man so false you never should
Go to _so very_ dark a wood.
[49] So in Rochholz, Schweizer Sagen, No 14, I, 23, a man who had killed
eleven maids would, if he could have made up the number twelve, have
been able to pass through walls and mouseholes. Again, a certain robber
in Jutland, who had devoured eight children's hearts, would have
acquired the power of flying could he but have secured one more.
Grundtvig, D. g. F. IV, 16, note.
[50] What will those who are so troubled about cork-heeled shoon in 'Sir
Patrick Spens' say to the fire-arms in #L#, #N#, #S#?
[51] A variety of #W#, cited in Schlesische Volkslieder, p. 26, has,
'Ach Ulbrich, Ulbrich, Halsemann, Halsemann,
Lass du mich nur drei Gale schrei'n!'
Grundtvig, assuming that the name is Ulbrich Halsemann, would account
for the second and superfluous character here [found also in #W#] by a
divarication of Ulrich Halsemann into Ulrich _and_ Halsemann (Hanslein).
Ansar, "bisher unverständlicher Vorname des Ritters Uleraich" in #Y#
(Meinert), would equally well yield Hanslein. Might not Halsemann
possibly be an equivalent of Halsherr?
[52] And in 'Der Mutter Fluch,' Meinert, p. 246, a ballad with which #Y#
agrees in the first two and last four stanzas.
[53] There is a dove in #Z#, but #Z#, as has been said, presents traits
of all three classes.
[54]
'Da lyge, feyns Lybchen, unndt fawle,
Meyn jungk Herze muss trawren.'
Nicolai, vv 35, 36,
'Da liege, du Häuptchen, und faule,
Kein Reuter wird dir nachtrauern.'
Simrock, vv 35, 36,
are evidently derived from the apostrophe to the murderer's head in #I#,
#W#, #Y#.
Stolz Syburg is the hero of a very different ballad, from the Münster
region, Reifferscheid, No 16, p. 32 (also No 17, and Simrock, No 9, p.
23, 'Stolz Heinrich'). And from this the name, in consequence of a
remote resemblance in the story, may have been taken up by the Rhine
ballad, though it has contributed nothing more. Margaret, a king's
daughter, is wiled away by a splendid description of Stolz Syburg's
opulence. When they have gone a long way, he tells her that he has
nothing but a barren heath. She stabs herself at his feet.
[55] 'Wassermans Braut,' Meinert, p. 77; 'Die unglückliche Braut,'
Hoffmann u. Richter, Schlesische V. L., p. 6, No. 2; 'Königs
Töchterlein,' Erk u. Irmer, vi, 6, No 4; 'Der Wassermann,' Erk's
Liederhort, p. 50, No 17. ('Die Nixenbraut,' "Norddeutschland,"
Zuccalmaglio, p. 192, No 92, seems to be Meinert's copy written over.)
[56] The remarkable Norwegian ballad of the 'Wassermanns Brant' group,
The Nix and Heiemo, Landstad, No 39, p. 350, has not been unaffected by
the one we are now occupied with. There is even a verbal contact between
stanza 19,
'Heiemo tenkte með sjave seg:
Tru mine smá _knivar_ 'ki hjelper meg?'
and Norwegian #F#, stanza 9, cited by Grundtvig, IV, 4,
Lengji stó Gullbjör, hó tenkte mæ seg:
'Kann inkje mí' _rúninne_ hjelpe meg?'
[57] Kolberg's #b#, #h#, #k#, #v#, #x#, #bb#, #cc#, #hh#, #kk#, #ll#,
#nn#, #xx#, #yy#, #zz#, consist of only one or two initial stanzas,
containing no important variation. His #aaa#, a fragment of six stanzas,
Pauli, p. 147, No 6, Wojcicki, II, 169, though it begins like the rest,
sounds like a different ballad.
The ballad in Wojcicki, I, 38, is allied with the one we are engaged
with, and the two fragments on p. 36, p. 37 with both this and that.
[58] Anne in #R#, #LL#, and Kolberg's #h#: Mary in #I#, #U#, #II#:
Ursula, #N#: both Catherine and Alice, #AA#. John is found in all but
#N#, where there is a nameless seigneur.
[59] They are expressly said to go off in a carriage in #I#, #O#, #Q#,
#T#, #BB#, #DD#, #FF#. Still, in #I#, John says, "Let the black horse
have something to carry under us." In #O#, #T#, #FF#, the horses have a
presentiment of evil to their mistress, and refuse to stir.
[60] One version of 'The Two Sisters,' #Q#, has the same answer:
'I did not put you in with the design
Just for to pull you out again.'
st. 9.
This might be called a formula in Polish ballads: something of the kind
occurs three times in #X#, four times in #B#, five times in #P#; in
other ballads also. In #Q# 25, Catherine clutches the river bank, and
John pushes away her hands. Compare 'The Two Sisters,' #F# 9, further on
in this volume.
[61] #L#, #L*#, #M#, #N#, as already said, confuse the two catastrophes.
John says, in #N#, "Do you see that broad river? I will measure its
depth by throwing you in." We may assume that he was as good as his
word. But Ursula made her way home through woods and forests, weeping
her eyes out on the way. Kind souls dug a grave for her. The conclusion
of #M# is absurd, but need not be particularized. #G# has a passage of
the sternest theology. While Catherine is struggling in the water, her
father comes by. She cries to him to save her. He says, "My dear
Catherine, you have loved pleasure too much. Lord Jesus grant you
drown!" Her mother appears, and makes the same reply to her daughter's
appeal. There are stall-copy terminal morals to many of the ballads.
[62] #N# 1, "A lord came riding from his estate to a neighbor."
[63] The place is high above the water in #R# 10, 11, as in English #D#
9, 29, #C# 4.
[64] #BB# 6, "My mother said that I had seen you; she will _watch me
closely_," may be an accidental coincidence with Danish #A# 7-9, #B#
6-8, etc.
[65] The second, and more valuable, volume of Waldau's B. G. I have
found it impossible to obtain. Reifferscheid cites the ballad at p. 166.
[66] A few silly verses follow in the original, in which Thomas treats
what he had said as a jest. These are properly rejected by Talvj as a
spurious appendage.
[67]
'De achte de soll Helena sin,
De achte de most he sölwer sin.'
German #A b# 13.
[68] Another version of this double ballad, but much corrupted in the
second part, was known to Gérard de Nerval. See Les Filles du Feu,
Œuvres complètes, V, 132.
[69] So far there is agreement in 'La Fille du Prince,' Paymaigre, No
32, p. 106; Poésies pop. de la France, MS., III, fol. 133.
[70] The Asturian romance communicated in two copies by Amador de los
Rios to Jahrbuch für rom. u. eng. Literatur, III, 285, No 2, and the
Portuguese 'Romance de Romeirinha,' Braga, Romanceiro, No 9, p. 24, 'A
Romeira,' Almeida-Garrett, III, 11, are not parallels, though they have
been cited as such.
[71] Magyar Népköltési Gyüjtemény. Uj Folyam, szerkesztik és kiadják
Arany László és Gyulai Pál. Collection of Magyar Popular Poetry, New
Series, Pest, 1872, 2 vols. Aigner, has blended Nos 4 and 3 (#C#, #A#)
in 'Martin und Aennchen,' Ungarische Volksdichtungen, p. 170, and has
translated No 1 (#E#), at p. 120, 'Molnár Anna,' in each case obscuring
or omitting one or two traits which are important for a comparative
view.
[72] Very little remains of the artifice in Polish #A#. The idea seems
to be that the girl pretends to be curious about the sword in order to
get it into her hands. But the whole story is told in ten stanzas.
[73] I accept and repeat Grundtvig's views as to the relation of the
three forms of the story. And with regard to the history of the ballad
generally, this is but one of many cases in which much or most of the
work had been done to my hand in Danmarks gamle Folkeviser.
[74] Memering was required by his adversary to swear that he knew not of
the sword Adelring, and took his oath that he knew of nothing but the
hilt being above ground, which was accepted as satisfactory. Presently
he pulls Adelring out of the ground, into which he had thrust the blade,
and, being accused of perjury, triumphantly rejoins that he had sworn
that he knew of nothing but the hilt _being above ground_. Dietrich does
the same in his duel with Sigurd Swain.
[75] Magyar #A# is entirely peculiar. Apparently the man lays his head
in the woman's lap that he may know, by the falling of her tears, when
she has disobeyed his command not to look into the tree. This is like
'Bluebeard,' and rather subtle for a ballad.
[76] 'Child Waters,' 'The Fair Flower of Northumberland.'
[77] The murderer has a horn in Swedish #C#, #D#, as also in the Dutch
Halewyn and the German #A#, #B#, #C#, #E#, and the horn may be of
magical power, but it is not distinctly described as such.
[78] The scenery of the halting-place in the wood--the bloody streams in
Danish #A#, #B#, #D#, #H#, #L#, #K#, the blood-girt spring in German
#H#, #J#, #K#, #L#, #O#, #P#, #Q#--is also, to say the least, suggestive
of something horribly uncanny. These are undoubtedly ancient features,
though the spring, as the Danish editor observes, has no longer any
significancy in the German ballads, because in all of them the previous
victims are said to have been _hanged_.
[79] The saga in Björner's Nordiska Kämpadater, c. 5-7.
[80] Danish #E#, #I#, #L#, and even #A#, make the knight suggest to the
lady that she should get her gold together while he is saddling his
horse; but this is a commonplace found in other cases of elopement, and
_by itself_ warrants no conclusion as to the knight's rapacity. See
'Samson,' Grundtvig, No 6, #C# 5; 'Ribold og Guldborg,' No 82, #C# 13,
#E# 14, etc.; 'Redselille og Medelvold,' No 271, #A# 21, #B# 20; 272,
Bilag 3, st. 8; 270, 18, etc.
[81] So perhaps a Polish ballad in Wojcicki, I, 38, akin to the other
John and Katie ballads.
[82] It is well known that in the Middle Ages the blood of children or
of virgins was reputed a specific for leprosy (see, e.g., Cassel in the
Weimar Jahrbücher, I, 408.) Some have thought to find in this fact an
explanation of the murders in these ballads and in the Bluebeard
stories, and, according to Rochholz, this theory has been adopted into
popular tradition in the Aargau. So far as this cycle of ballads is
concerned, there is as much ground for holding that the blood was wanted
to cure leprosy as for believing that the gold was wanted for _aurum
potabile_.
[83] Det philologisk-historiske Samfunds Mindeskrift i Anledning af dets
femogtyveaarige Virksomhed, 1854-79, Bidrag til den nordiske
Balladedigtnings Historie, p. 75 ff.
[84] Bugge cites the Old German Judith, Müllenhoff u. Scherer,
Denkmäler, 2d ed., No 37, p. 105, to show how the Bible story became
modified under a popular treatment.
[85] Holefern might doubtless pass into Halewyn, but there is not the
slightest need of Holefern to _account_ for Halewyn. Halewyn, besides
being a well-known local and family appellation, is found in two other
Dutch ballads, one of which (Lootens and Feys, p. 66, No 38; Hoffmann,
p. 46, No 11) has no kind of connection with the present, and is no more
likely to have derived the name from this than this from that. It shall
not be denied that Adelger, Hilsinger, Rullemann, Reimvord might have
sprung from or have been suggested by Holofern, under the influence of
familiar terminations, but it may be remarked that Hildebrand,
Ravengaard, Valdemar, Rosmer, if they had occurred in any version, would
have occasioned no greater difficulty.
[86] The Old German poem makes Holofernes kindle with desire for Judith
the moment he sees her, and he bids his men bring her to his tent. They
lift her up and bring her in.
[87] It should be observed that these words are from the dove's warning.
[88] Simply because he had no other apartment at his disposition. Shall
we add, the Polish mother putting her daughter into the "new room," in
which she kept her valuables?
[89] Bugge holds that the ballad was derived by the Scandinavians from
the Germans, more precisely by the Danes from a Low German form. This,
he says, would follow from what he has maintained above, and he finds
support for his view in many particular traits of Norse copies. Thus,
one of the Norwegian names for the murderer is Alemarken. The first
three syllables are very near to the Danish Oldemor; but -ken seems to
be the German diminutive suffix, and can only be explained by the ballad
having come from Germany.
[90] This toilet derives importance solely from the agreement with
Judith x, 3: for the rest it is entirely in the ballad style. Compare
the toilets in 'Hafsfrun,' Afzelius, No 92, III, 148, Arwidsson, No 150,
II, 320, Wigström, Folkdiktning, No 2, p. 11, Landstad, No 55, p. 494:
'Guldsmedens Datter,' Grundtvig, No. 245, IV, 481 ff, Wigström, ib., No
18, p. 37, Landstad, No 43, p. 437: Torkilds Riim, Lyngbye, Færøiske
Qvæder, 534, 535, Afzelius, III, 202: 'Stolts Karin,' Arwidsson, No 63,
I, 388: 'Liti Kerstis hevn,' Landstad, No 67, p. 559 == 'Lord Thomas and
Fair Annet': in many of which there is a gold crown. There is a man's
toilet in Grundtvig, No 207, IV, 201.
[91] Bugge would naturally have seen the Assyrian scouts that Judith
falls in with (x, 11) in Roland's father, mother, and brother, all of
whom hail the maid as she is making for Roland's quarters (#C# 30-38);
still more "Holofernes jacebat in lecto" (xiii, 4), in "Roland die op
zijn bedde lag," #C# 39.
[92] Judith xiv, 1: "Suspendite caput hoc super muros nostros." The
cutting off and bringing home of the head, as need hardly be said, is
not of itself remarkable, being found everywhere from David to Beówulf,
and from Beówulf to 'Sir Andrew Barton.'
[93] Dutch #B#, which, as before said, has been completely rewritten,
makes the comparison with Holofernes:
34
'Ik heb van't leven hem beroofd,
in mynen schoot heb ik zyn hoofd,
hy is als Holofernes gelooft.'
37
Zy reed dan voort als Judith wys,
zoo regt nae haer vaders paleis,
daer zy wierd ingehaeld met eer en prys.
5
GIL BRENTON
#A. a.# 'Gil Brenton,' Jamieson Brown MS., fol. 34. #b.#
'Chil Brenton,' William Tytler Brown MS., No 3.
#B.# 'Cospatrick,' Scott's Minstrelsy, II, 117 (1802).
#C.# 'We were sisters, we were seven,' Cromek's Remains of
Nithsdale and Galloway Song, p. 207.
#D.# 'Lord Dingwall,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of
Scotland, I, 204.
#E.# Elizabeth Cochrane's song-book, No 112.
#F. a.# 'Lord Brangwill,' Motherwell's MSS, p. 219. #b.#
'Lord Bengwill,' Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p.
xvi.
#G.# 'Bothwell,' Herd's Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, p.
244.
#H.# Kinloch MSS, V, 335.
Eight copies of this ballad are extant, four of them hitherto
unpublished. #A a#, No 16 in the Jamieson-Brown MS., is one of twenty
ballads written down from the recitation of Mrs. Brown of Falkland, by
her nephew, Robert Scott, in 1783, or shortly before. From these twenty
thirteen were selected, and, having first been revised by Mrs. Brown,
were sent, with two others, to William Tytler in the year just
mentioned. William Tytler's MS. has disappeared, but a list of the
ballads which it contained, with the first stanza of each, is given by
Dr Anderson, in Nichols's Illustrations of the Literary History of the
Eighteenth Century, VII, 176. #B# is the 'Cospatrick' of the Border
Minstrelsy, described by Scott as taken down from the recitation of a
lady (known to be Miss Christian Rutherford, his mother's sister) "with
some stanzas transferred from Herd's copy, and some readings adopted
from a copy in Mrs Brown's manuscript under the title of Child Brenton,"
that is, from #A b#. #C# purports to be one of a considerable number of
pieces, "copied from the recital of a peasant-woman of Galloway, upwards
of ninety years of age." Though overlaid with verses of Cunningham's
making (of which forty or fifty may be excided in one mass) and though
retouched almost everywhere, both the groundwork of the story and some
genuine lines remain unimpaired. The omission of most of the passage
referred to, and the restoration of the stanza form, will give us,
perhaps, a thing of shreds and patches, but still a ballad as near to
genuine as some in Percy's Reliques or even Scott's Minstrelsy. #D# and
#F# are (the former presumably, the second certainly) from recitation of
the first quarter of this century. #E# is one of the few ballads in
Elizabeth Cochrane's song-book, and probably of the first half of the
last century. #G#, the earliest printed form of the ballad, appeared in
Herd's first collection, in the year 1769. #H# was taken down from
recitation by the late Dr Hill Burton in his youth.
#A#, #B#, and #C# agree in these points: A bride, not being a maid,
looks forward with alarm to her wedding night, and induces her
bower-woman to take her place for the nonce. The imposture is detected
by the bridegroom, through the agency of magical blankets, sheets, and
pillows, #A#; or of blankets, bed, sheet, and sword, #B#; or simply of
the Billie Blin, #C#. (The sword is probably an editorial insertion; and
Jamieson, Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 343, doubts, but
without sufficient reason, the Billie Blin.) The bridegroom has recourse
to his mother, who demands an explanation of the bride, and elicits a
confession that she had once upon a time encountered a young man in a
wood, who subjected her to violence. Before they parted, he gave her
certain tokens, which he enjoined her to be very careful of, a lock of
his hair, a string of beads, a gold ring, and a knife. #B# omits the
knife, and #C# the beads. The mother goes back to her son, and asks what
he had done with the tokens she had charged him never to part with. He
owns that he had presented them to a lady, one whom he would now give
all his possessions to have for his wife. The lady of the greenwood is
identified by the tokens.
#A#, #C#, and #D# make the mother set a golden chair for the bride, in
which none but a maid can sit, #D# [no leal maid will sit till bidden,
#C#]. In #D# the chair is declined; in #C#, taken without bidding; in
#A# the significance of the chair has been lost. #E#, #F#, #G# employ no
kind of test of maidenhood,--the bride frankly avows that she is with
child to another man; and #D#, as well as #E#, #F#, #G#, omits the
substitution of the chambermaid. The tokens in #D# are a chain, a ring,
and three locks of hair; in #E#, gloves and a ring; in #F#, #G#, green
gloves, a ring, and three locks [plaits] of hair. Only the ring remains
in #H#.
"This ballad," says Motherwell (1827), "is very popular, and is known to
reciters under a variety of names. I have heard it called Lord Bangwell,
Bengwill, Dingwall, Brengwill, etc., and The Seven Sisters, or the
Leaves of Lind." He adds: "There is an unedited ballad in Scotland,
which is a nearer approximation to the Danish song, inasmuch as the
substitution of the maiden sister for the real bride constitutes a
prominent feature of the tale."[94] (Minstrelsy, Introduction, lxix^21
and xc.)
Scott remarks that Cospatrick[95] "was the designation of the Earl of
Dunbar, in the days of Wallace and Bruce." Mr Macmath informs me that it
is in use at the present day in the families of the Earl of Home and of
Dunbar of Mochrum, Bart, who, among others, claim descent from the
ancient earls of Dunbar and March. The story of the ballad might, of
course, attach itself to any person prominent in the region where the
ballad was known.
#Swedish.# Three Swedish versions of this ballad were given by Afzelius:
#A#, 'Riddar Olle' in 50 two-line stanzas, II, 217; #B#, 19 two-line
stanzas, II, 59; #C#, 19 two-line stanzas, II, 56: No 33, I, 175-182 of
Bergström's edition. Besides these, there are two fragments in Cavallius
and Stephens's unprinted collection: #D#, 6 stanzas; #E#, 7 stanzas, the
latter printed in Grundtvig, V, 307.[96] All these were obtained from
recitation in the present century. #A# comes nearest to our #A#, #B#.
Like Scottish #B#, it seems to have been compounded from several copies.
Sir Olof betrothed Ingalilla, and carried her home for the spousal,
wearing a red gold crown and a wan cheek. Ingalilla gave birth to
twin-boys. Olof had a maid who resembled Ingalilla completely, and who,
upon Ingalilla's entreaty, consented to play the part of bride on the
morrow. Dressed in Ingalilla's clothes, blue kirtle, green jacket, etc.,
and wearing five gold rings and a gold crown, the maid rode to church,
with Ingalilla at her back, and her beauty was admired by all as she
came and went. But outside of the church were a good many musicians; and
one of these piped out, "God-a-mercy, Ingalilla, no maid art thou!"
Ingalilla threw into the piper's hand something which made him change
his tune. He was an old drunken fellow, and no one need mind what he
sang. After five days of drinking, they took the bride to her chamber,
not without force. Ingalilla bore the light before her, and helped put
her to bed; then lay down herself. Olof had over him a fur rug, which
could talk as well as he, and it called out,
'Hear me, Sir Olof, hear what I say;
Thou hast taken a strumpet, and missed a may.'
And Olof,
'Hear, little Inga, sweetheart,' he said;
'What didst thou get for thy maidenhead?'[97]
Inga explained. Her father was a strange sort of man, and built her
bower by the sea-strand, where all the king's courtiers took ship. Nine
had broken in, and one had robbed her of her honor. He had given her an
embroidered sark, a blue kirtle, green jacket, black mantle, gloves,
five gold rings, a red gold crown, a golden harp, and a silver-mounted
knife, which she now wishes in the youngster's body. The conclusion is
abruptly told in two stanzas. Olof bids Inga not to talk so, for he is
father of her children. He embraces her and gives her a queen's crown
and name. #B# has the same story, omitting the incident of the musician.
#C# has preserved this circumstance, but has lost both the substitution
of the waiting-woman for the bride and the magical coverlet. #D# has
also lost these important features of the original story; #E# has
retained them.
#Danish.# 'Brud ikke Mø,' Grundtvig, No 274, V, 304. There are two old
versions (more properly only one, so close is the agreement), and a
third from recent tradition. This last, Grundtvig's #C#, from Jutland,
1856, seems to be of Swedish origin, and, like Swedish #C#, #D#, wants
the talking coverlet, though it has kept the other material feature,
that of the substitution. #A# is found in two manuscripts, one of the
sixteenth and the other of the seventeenth century. #B# is the
well-known 'Ingefred og Gudrune,' or 'Herr Samsings Nattergale,' Syv,
IV, No 62, Danske Viser, No 194, translated in Jamieson's Illustrations,
p. 340, and by Prior, III, 347. A later form of #B#, from recent
recitation, 1868, is given in Kristensen's Jydske Folkeviser, I, No 53.