given in #A# to show where its connections lie. Alsól and a brother and
sister are all transformed by a stepmother, a handsome woman, much,
younger than her husband. Alsól's heavy weird is to be a nondescript
monster with a horse's tail, hoofs, and mane, white eyes, big mouth, and
huge hands, and never to be released from the spell till a king's son
shall consent to kiss her. One night when Hjálmtèr had landed on a woody
island, and it had fallen to him to keep watch, he heard a great din and
crashing in the woods, so that the oaks trembled. Presently this monster
came out of the thicket with a fine sword in her hand, such as he had
not seen the like of. They had a colloquy, and he asked her to let him
have the sword. She said he should not have it unless he would kiss her.
"I will not kiss thy snout," said Hjálmtèr, "for mayhap I should stick
to it." But something came into his mind which made him think better of
her offer, and he said he was ready. "You must leap upon my neck, then,"
she said, "when I throw up the sword, and if you then hesitate, it will
be your death." She threw up the sword, he leaped on her neck and kissed
her, and she gave him the sword, with an augury of victory and good luck
for him all his days. The retransformation does not occur on the spot,
but further on Hjálmtèr meets Álsól as a young lady at the court of her
brother, who has also been restored to his proper form and station;
everything is explained; Hjálmtèr marries her, and his foster-brother
her sister. Hjálmtèrs ok Ölvers Saga, cc 10, 22, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur,
III, 473 ff, 514 ff.
In many tales of the sort a single kiss suffices to undo the spell and
reverse the transformation; in others, as in the ballad, three are
required. The triplication of the kiss has led in #A# to a triplication
of the talisman against wounds. The popular genius was inventive enough
to vary the properties of the several gifts, and we may believe that
belt, ring, and sword had originally each its peculiar quality. The
peril of touching fin or tail in #A# seems to correspond to that in the
saga of hesitating when the sword is thrown up.
The #Danish# ballad, 'Jomfruen i Ormeham,' from MSS of the sixteenth and
the seventeenth century, Grundtvig, No 59, II, 177, resembles both the
first version of the Scottish ballad and the Icelandic saga in the
points that the maid offers gifts and is rehabilitated by a kiss. The
maid in her proper shape, which, it appears, she may resume for a
portion of the day, stands at Sir Jenus's bedside and offers him
gifts--five silver-bowls, all the gold in her kist, twelve foals, twelve
boats--and ends with saying, "Were I a swain, as you are, I would
betroth a maid." It is now close upon midnight, and she hints that he
must be quick. But Jenus is fast asleep the while; twelve strikes, and
the maid instantly turns into a little snake. The page, however, has
been awake, and he repeats to his master all that has occurred.[296] Sir
Jenus orders his horse, rides along a hillside, and sees the little
snake in the grass. He bends over and kisses it, and it turns to a
courteous maid, who thanks him, and offers him any boon he may ask. He
asks her to be his, and as she has loved him before this, she has no
difficulty in plighting him her troth.
A maid transformed by a step-mother into a tree is freed by being kissed
by a man, in 'Jomfruen i Linden,' Grundtvig, II, 214, No 66, Kristensen,
II, 90, No 31; 'Linden,' Afzelius, III, 114, 118, No 87. In 'Linden,'
Kristensen, I, 13, No 5, a combination of two ballads, a prince cuts
down the linden, which changes to a linden-worm; he kisses the worm, and
a young maid stands before him.
A knight bewitched into the shape of a troll is restored by being kissed
by a peasant's wife thrice [once], 'Trolden og Bondens Hustru,'
Grundtvig, II, 142, No 52, #A#, #B#; a prince by a kiss from a maid,
'Lindormen,' Grundtvig, D. g. F., II, 211, No 65 #A#, 'Slangen og den
lille Pige,' Danske Folkeminder, 1861, p. 15.
The removal of a spell which compels man or woman to appear continuously
or alternately as a monster, commonly a snake, by three kisses or by
one, is a regular feature in the numerous German tales of
Schlangenjungfrauen, Weissefrauen. Often the man is afraid to venture
the third kiss, or even a single one. See Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, No 13,
No 222; Dobeneck, Des deutschen Mittelalters Volksglauben, I, 18==Grimm,
No 13; Mone's Anzeiger, III, 89, VII, 476; Panzer, Bayerische Sagen u.
Bräuche, I, 196, No 214; Schönhuth, Die Burgen u.s.w. Badens u. der
Pfalz, I, 105; Stöber, Die Sagen des Elsasses, p. 346, No 277, p. 248,
No 190; Curtze, Volksüberlieferungen aus Waldeck, p. 198; Sommer, Sagen,
Märchen u. Gebräuche aus Sachsen u. Thüringen, p. 21, No 16; Schambach
u. Müller, p. 104, No 132; Müllenhoff, p. 580, No 597; Wolf, Hessische
Sagen, No 46; etc., etc.: also, Kreutzwald, Ehstnische Märchen, by Löwe,
No 19, p. 270 f. So in some forms of 'Beauty and the Beast:' Töppen,
Aberglauben aus Masuren, p. 142; Mikuličić, Narodne Pripovietke,
p. 1, No 1; Afanasief, VII, 153, No 15; Coelho, Contos populares
portuguezes, p. 69, No 29.[297]
Rivals or peers of Owain among romantic knights are, first, Lanzelet, in
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's poem, who kisses a serpent on the mouth once,
which, _after bathing in a spring_ (see 'Tam Lin'), becomes the finest
woman ever seen: vv 7836-7939. Brandimarte, again, in Orlando
Innamorato, lib. II., c. XXVI, stanzas 7-15; and Carduino, I Cantari di
Carduino, Rajna, stanzas 49, 54 f, 61-64, pp 35-41. Le Bel Inconnu is an
involuntary instrument in such a disenchantment, for the snake
fascinates him first and kisses him without his knowledge; he afterwards
goes to sleep, and finds a beautiful woman standing at his head when he
wakes: ed. Hippeau, p. 110 ff, v. 3101 ff. The English Libius Disconius
is kist or he it wist, and the dragon at once turns to a beautiful
woman: Percy MS., Hales & Furnivall, II, 493f; Ritson, Romances, II, 84
f. Espertius, in Tiran le Blanc, is so overcome with fear that he cannot
kiss the dragon,--a daughter of Hippocrates, transformed by Diana, in
the island of Lango,--but Espertius not running away, as two men before
him had done, the dragon kisses him with equally good effect: Caylus,
Tiran le Blanc, II, 334-39. This particular disenchantment had not been
accomplished down to Sir John Mandeville's time, for he mentions only
the failures: Voyage and Travel, c. iv, pp 28-31, ed. 1725. Amadis
d'Astra touches two dragons on the face and breast, and restores them to
young-ladyhood: Historia del Principe Sferamundi, the 13th book of
Amadis of Gaul, P. II, c. xcvii, pp 458-462, Venice, 1610. This feat is
shown by the details to be only a variation of the story in Tiran le
Blanc.[298]
The Rev. Mr Lamb, of Norham, communicated to Hutchinson, author of 'A
View of Northumberland,' a ballad entitled 'The Laidley Worm of
Spindleston Heughs,' with this harmless preamble: "A song 500 years old,
made by the old Mountain Bard, Duncan Frasier, living on Cheviot, A.D.
1270. From an ancient manuscript." This composition of Mr Lamb's--for
nearly every line of it is his--is not only based on popular tradition,
but evidently preserves some small fragments of a popular ballad, and
for this reason is given in an Appendix. There is a copy deviating but
very little from the print in Kinloch's MSS, I, 187. It was obtained
from the recitation of an old woman in Berwickshire.[299] In this
recited version the Child of Wynd, or Childy Wynd (Child O-wyne), has
become Child o Wane (Child O-wayn).
Mr R.H. Evans, in his preface to this ballad, Old Ballads, 1810, IV,
241, says that Mr Turner had informed him "that a lady upwards of
seventy had heard her mother repeat an older and nearly similar ballad."
* * * * *
#A# is translated by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, p. 19; #B b#
by Gerhard, p. 171, by Schubart, p. 110, by Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen
Alt-Englands, p. 201. 'Jomfruen i Ormeham' by Prior, III, 135.
A
Buchan, Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 78, from Mr
Nicol of Strichen, as learned in his youth from old
people; Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 374; Motherwell's MS.,
p. 448.
1
Her mother died when she was young,
Which gave her cause to make great moan;
Her father married the warst woman
That ever lived in Christendom.
2
She served her with foot and hand,
In every thing that she could dee,
Till once, in an unlucky time,
She threw her in ower Craigy's sea.
3
Says, 'Lie you there, dove Isabel,
And all my sorrows lie with thee;
Till Kemp Owyne come ower the sea,
And borrow you with kisses three,
Let all the warld do what they will,
Oh borrowed shall you never be!'
4
Her breath grew strang, her hair grew lang,
And twisted thrice about the tree,
And all the people, far and near,
Thought that a savage beast was she.
5
These news did come to Kemp Owyne,
Where he lived, far beyond the sea;
He hasted him to Craigy's sea,
And on the savage beast lookd he.
6
Her breath was strang, her hair was lang,
And twisted was about the tree,
And with a swing she came about:
'Come to Craigy's sea, and kiss with me.
7
'Here is a royal belt,' she cried,
'That I have found in the green sea;
And while your body it is on,
Drawn shall your blood never be;
But if you touch me, tail or fin,
I vow my belt your death shall be.'
8
He stepped in, gave her a kiss,
The royal belt he brought him wi;
Her breath was strang, her hair was lang,
And twisted twice about the tree,
And with a swing she came about:
'Come to Craigy's sea, and kiss with me.
9
'Here is a royal ring,' she said,
'That I have found in the green sea;
And while your finger it is on,
Drawn shall your blood never be;
But if you touch me, tail or fin,
I swear my ring your death shall be.'
10
He stepped in, gave her a kiss,
The royal ring he brought him wi;
Her breath was strang, her hair was lang,
And twisted ance about the tree,
And with a swing she came about:
'Come to Craigy's sea, and kiss with me.
11
'Here is a royal brand,' she said,
'That I have found in the green sea;
And while your body it is on,
Drawn shall your blood never be;
But if you touch me, tail or fin,
I swear my brand your death shall be.'
12
He stepped in, gave her a kiss,
The royal brand he brought him wi;
Her breath was sweet, her hair grew short,
And twisted nane about the tree,
And smilingly she came about,
As fair a woman as fair could be.
B
#a.# Jamieson-Brown MS., fol. 29. #b.# Scott's Minstrelsy,
II, 93, 1802, from William Tytler's Brown MS., No 9, "with
corrections from a recited fragment."
1
'Come here, come here, you freely feed,
An lay your head low on my knee;
The hardest weird I will you read
That eer war read to a lady.
2
'O meikle dollour sall you dree,
An ay the sat seas oer ye['s] swim;
An far mair dollour sall ye dree
On Eastmuir craigs, or ye them clim.
3
'I wot ye's be a weary wight,
An releived sall ye never be
Till Kempion, the kingis son,
Come to the craig and thrice kiss thee.'
4
O meickle dollour did she dree,
An ay the sat seas oer she swam;
An far mair dollour did she dree
On Eastmuir craigs, or them she clam;
An ay she cried for Kempion,
Gin he would come till her han.
5
Now word has gane to Kempion
That sich a beast was in his lan,
An ay be sure she would gae mad
Gin she gat nae help frae his han.
6
'Now by my sooth,' says Kempion,
'This fiery beast I['ll] gang to see;'
'An by my sooth,' says Segramour,
'My ae brother, I'll gang you wi.'
7
O biggit ha they a bonny boat,
An they hae set her to the sea,
An Kempion an Segramour
The fiery beast ha gane to see:
A mile afore they reachd the shore,
I wot she gard the red fire flee.
8
'O Segramour, keep my boat afloat,
An lat her no the lan so near;
For the wicked beast she'll sure gae mad,
An set fire to the land an mair.'
9
'O out o my stye I winna rise--
An it is na for the fear o thee--
Till Kempion, the kingis son,
Come to the craig an thrice kiss me.'
10
He's louted him oer the Eastmuir craig,
An he has gien her kisses ane;
Awa she gid, an again she came,
The fieryest beast that ever was seen.
11
'O out o my stye I winna rise--
An it is na for fear o thee--
Till Kempion, the kingis son,
Come to the craig an thrice kiss me.'
12
He louted him oer the Eastmuir craig,
An he has gien her kisses twa;
Awa she gid, an again she came,
The fieryest beast that ever you saw.
13
'O out o my stye I winna rise--
An it is na for fear o ye--
Till Kempion, the kingis son,
Come to the craig an thrice kiss me.'
14
He's louted him oer the Eastmuir craig,
An he has gien her kisses three;
Awa she gid, an again she came,
The fairest lady that ever coud be.
15
'An by my sooth,' say[s] Kempion,
'My ain true love--for this is she--
O was it wolf into the wood,
Or was it fish intill the sea,
Or was it man, or wile woman,
My true love, that misshapit thee?'
16
'It was na wolf into the wood,
Nor was it fish into the sea,
But it was my stepmother,
An wae an weary mot she be.
17
'O a heavier weird light her upon
Than ever fell on wile woman;
Her hair's grow rough, an her teeth's grow lang,
An on her four feet sal she gang.
18
'Nane sall tack pitty her upon,
But in Wormie's Wood she sall ay won,
An relieved sall she never be,
Till St Mungo come oer the sea.'
* * * * *
#A.#
_Buchan gives 4-6 in two six-line stanzas. There are a few
trivial diversities between Motherwell's manuscript, or my
copy of it, and his printed text, which conforms to
Buchan's._
#B. a.#
_Written in long or double lines in the manuscript._
2^2, 4^2. or.
5^3. a besure.
8^4. landy mair
11^4. twice.
16^3. _~wicked~ is inserted before stepmother, seemingly
by Jamieson._
#b.#
_The first stanza, as given by Anderson, Nichols, Literary
Illustrations, VII, 177, is_:
'Come here, come here, ye freely feed,
And lay your head low on my knee;
The heaviest weird I will you read
That ever was read till a lady.'
1^3. heaviest.
1^4. gaye ladye.
2^2. ye'se.
2^4. when ye.
3^1. I weird ye to a fiery beast.
5==#a# 4^{5,6} + #a# 5^{1,2}: #a# 5^{3,4} _omitted:_
And aye she cried for Kempion,
Gin he would but cum to her hand;
Now word has gane to Kempion
That sicken a beast was in his land.
6^4. wi thee.
7 _omits #a#^{3,4}._
7^5. But a mile before.
7^6. Around them she.
8^2. oer near.
8^3. will sure.
8^4. to a' the land and mair.
_After 8 is inserted:_
Syne has he bent an arblast bow,
And aimd an arrow at her head,
And swore if she didna quit the land,
Wi that same shaft to shoot her dead.
9^1. stythe.
9^2. awe o thee.
10^1. dizzy crag.
10^2. gien the monster.
11^1. stythe.
11^2. And not for a' thy bow nor thee.
12^1. Estmere craigs.
13^1. my den.
13^2. Nor flee it for the feir o thee.
13^3. Kempion, that courteous knight.
14^1. lofty craig.
14^4. loveliest lady eer.
15^{1,2}. _After this is inserted:_
They surely had a heart o stane,
Could put thee to such misery.
15^{3-6} _make a separate stanza._
15^3, 16^1. warwolf in the wood.
15^4, 16^2. mermaid in the sea.
15^6. my ain true.
17^1. weird shall light her on.
17^3. Her hair shall grow ... teeth grow.
18^2. In Wormeswood she aye shall won.
18^{5,6}.
And sighing said that weary wight,
I doubt that day I'll never see.
[296] The incident of a woman trying to move a man who all the while is
in a deep sleep, and of his servant reporting what has been going on,
can hardly have belonged to this ballad from the beginning. It is
exceedingly common in popular tales: see 'The Red Bull of Norroway,' in
Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland, 3d ed., p. 99; Grimms, 'Das
singende springende Löweneckerchen,' No 88, 'Der Eisenhofen,' No 127,
and the notes in vol. iii; Leskien u. Brugman, Litanische V. l. u.
Märchen, 'Vom weissen Wolf,' No 23, p. 438, and Wollner's note, p. 571.
[297] But not in Mme Villeneuve's or in Mme de Beaumont's 'La Belle et
la Bête.'
[298] Lanzelet is cited by J. Grimm; Brandimarte by Walter Scott;
Carduino by G. Paris; Espertius by Dunlop; Amadis d'Astra by Valentin
Schmidt. Dunlop refers to a similar story in the sixth tale of the
Contes Amoureux de Jean Flore, written towards the end of the fifteenth
century.
[299] "The Childe of Wane, as a protector of disconsolate damsels, is
still remembered by young girls at school in the neighborhood of
Bamborough, who apply the title to any boy who protects them from the
assaults of their school-fellows." (Kinloch.)
APPENDIX
THE LAIDLEY WORM OF SPINDLESTON HEUGHS.
A View of Northumberland, by W. Hutchinson, Anno 1776,
Newcastle, 1778, II, 162-64. Communicated by the Rev. Mr
Lamb, of Norham.
Kinloch's account of the tradition in relation to the queen, as it
maintains itself in Berwickshire, is quite in accord with German _sagen_
about enchanted ladies, innocent or guilty, and as such may be worth
giving: Kinloch MSS, I, 187.
"Though the ballad mentions that the queen was transformed into 'a
spiteful toad of monstrous size,' and was doomed in that form to wend on
the earth until the end of the world, yet the tradition of the country
gives another account of the endurance of her enchantment. It is said
that in form of a toad as big as a 'clockin hen' she is doomed to
expiate her guilt by confinement in a cavern in Bamborough castle, in
which she is to remain in her enchanted shape until some one shall have
the hardihood to break the spell by penetrating the cavern, whose
'invisible' door only opens every seven years, on Christmas eve. The
adventurer, after entering the cavern, must take the sword and horn of
the Childe of Wane, which hang on the wall, and having unsheathed and
resheathed the sword thrice, and wound three blasts on the horn, he must
kiss the toad three times; upon which the enchantment will be dissolved,
and the queen will recover her human form.
"Many adventurers, it is said, have attempted to disenchant the queen,
but have all failed, having immediately fallen into a trance, something
similar to the princes in the Arabian tale who went in search of the
Talking Bird, Singing Tree, and Yellow Water. The last one, it is said,
who made the attempt was a countryman, about sixty years ago, who,
having watched on Christmas eve the opening of the door, entered the
cavern, took the sword and horn from the wall, unsheathed and resheathed
the sword thrice, blew three blasts on the horn, and was proceeding to
the final disenchantment by kissing the toad, which he had saluted
twice, when, perceiving the various strange sleepers to arise from the
floor, his courage failed, and he fled from the cavern, having just
attained the outside of the door when it suddenly shut with a loud clap,
catching hold of the skirt of his coat, which was torn off and left in
the door.
And none since that time
To enter the cavern presume."
1
The king is gone from Bambrough castle,
Long may the princess mourn;
Long may she stand on the castle wall,
Looking for his return.
2
She has knotted the keys upon a string,
And with her she has them taen,
She has cast them oer her left shoulder,
And to the gate she is gane.
3
She tripped out, she tripped in,
She tript into the yard;
But it was more for the king's sake,
Than for the queen's regard.
4
It fell out on a day the king
Brought the queen with him home,
And all the lords in our country
To welcome them did come.
5
'O welcome, father,' the lady cries,
'Unto your halls and bowers;
And so are you, my stepmother,
For all that is here is yours.'
6
A lord said, wondering while she spake,
This princess of the North
Surpasses all of female kind
In beauty and in worth.
7
The envious queen replied: At least,
You might have excepted me;
In a few hours I will her bring
Down to a low degree.
8
I will her liken to a laidley worm,
That warps about the stone,
And not till Childy Wynd comes back
Shall she again be won.
9
The princess stood at the bower door,
Laughing, who could her blame?
But eer the next day's sun went down,
A long worm she became.
10
For seven miles east, and seven miles west,
And seven miles north and south,
No blade of grass or corn could grow,
So venomous was her mouth.
11
The milk of seven stately cows--
It was costly her to keep--
Was brought her daily, which she drank
Before she went to sleep.
12
At this day may be seen the cave
Which held her folded up,
And the stone trough, the very same
Out of which she did sup.
13
Word went east, and word went west,
And word is gone over the sea,
That a laidley worm in Spindleston Heughs
Would ruin the north country.
14
Word went east, and word went west,
And over the sea did go;
The Child of Wynd got wit of it,
Which filled his heart with woe.
15
He called straight his merry men all,
They thirty were and three:
'I wish I were at Spindleston,
This desperate worm to see.
16
'We have no time now here to waste,
Hence quickly let us sail;
My only sister Margaret,
Something, I fear, doth ail.'
17
They built a ship without delay,
With masts of the rown tree,
With fluttering sails of silk so fine,
And set her on the sea.
18
They went aboard; the wind with speed
Blew them along the deep;
At length they spied an huge square tower,
On a rock high and steep.
19
The sea was smooth, the weather clear;
When they approached nigher,
King Ida's castle they well knew,
And the banks of Bambroughshire.
20
The queen looked out at her bower-window,
To see what she could see;
There she espied a gallant ship,
Sailing upon the sea.
21
When she beheld the silken sails,
Full glancing in the sun,
To sink the ship she sent away
Her witch-wives every one.
22
Their spells were vain; the hags returned
To the queen in sorrowful mood,
Crying that witches have no power
Where there is rown-tree wood.
23
Her last effort, she sent a boat,
Which in the haven lay,
With armed men to board the ship,
But they were driven away.
24
The worm leapt up, the worm leapt down,
She plaited round the stane;
And ay as the ship came to the land
She banged it off again.
25
The Child then ran out of her reach
The ship on Budle sand,
And jumping into the shallow sea,
Securely got to land.
26
And now he drew his berry-brown sword,
And laid it on her head,
And swore, if she did harm to him,
That he would strike her dead.
27
'O quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,
And give me kisses three;
For though I am a poisonous worm,
No hurt I will do to thee.
28
'O quit thy sword, and bend thy bow,
And give me kisses three;
If I am not won eer the sun go down,
Won I shall never be.'
29
He quitted his sword, he bent his bow,
He gave her kisses three;
She crept into a hole a worm,
But stept out a lady.
30
No cloathing had this lady fine,
To keep her from the cold;
He took his mantle from him about,
And round her did it fold.
31
He has taken his mantle from him about,
And it he wrapt her in,
And they are up to Bambrough castle,
As fast as they can win.
32
His absence and her serpent shape
The king had long deplored;
He now rejoiced to see them both
Again to him restored.
33
The queen they wanted, whom they found
All pale, and sore afraid,
Because she knew her power must yield
To Childy Wynd's, who said:
34
'Woe be to thee, thou wicked witch,
An ill death mayest thou dee;
As thou my sister hast likened,
So likened shalt thou be.
35
'I will turn you into a toad,
That on the ground doth wend,
And won, won shalt thou never be,
Till this world hath an end.'
36
Now on the sand near Ida's tower,
She crawls a loathsome toad,
And venom spits on every maid
She meets upon her road.
37
The virgins all of Bambrough town
Will swear that they have seen
This spiteful toad, of monstrous size,
Whilst walking they have been.
38
All folks believe within the shire
This story to be true,
And they all run to Spindleston,
The cave and trough to view.
39
This fact now Duncan Frasier,
Of Cheviot, sings in rhime,
Lest Bambroughshire men should forget
Some part of it in time.
* * * * *
28^3. son.
35
ALLISON GROSS
'Allison Gross,' Jamieson-Brown MS., fol. 40.
'Allison Gross' was printed by Jamieson, Popular Ballads, II, 187,
without deviation from the manuscript save in spelling.
In a Greek tale, a nereid, that is elf or fairy, turns a youth who had
refused to espouse her into a snake, the curse to continue till he finds
another love who is as fair as she: 'Die Schönste,' B. Schmidt,
Griechische Märchen, etc., No 10. This tale is a variety of 'Beauty and
the Beast,' one of the numerous wild growths from that ever charming
French story.[300]
An elf, a hill-troll, a mermaid, make a young man offers of splendid
gifts, to obtain his love or the promise of his faith, in 'Elveskud,'
Grundtvig, No 47, many of the Danish and two of the Norwegian copies;
'Hertig Magnus och Elfvorna,' Afzelius, III, 172; 'Hr. Magnus og
Bjærgtrolden,' Grundtvig, No 48, Arwidsson, No 147 B; 'Herr Magnus och
Hafstrollet,' Afzelius, No 95, Bugge, No 11; a lind-worm, similarly, to
a young woman, 'Lindormen,' Grundtvig, No 65. Magnus answers the
hill-troll that he should be glad to plight faith with her were she like
other women, but she is the ugliest troll that could be found:
Grundtvig, II, 121, #A# 6, #B# 7; Arwidsson, II, 303, #B# 5; Afzelius,
III, 169, st. 5, 173, st. 6. This is like what we read in stanza 7 of
our ballad, but the answer is inevitable in any such case. Magnus comes
off scot-free.