Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe
That souned bothe wel and sharpe,
Orpheus ful craftely,
And on his syde, faste by,
Sat the harper Orion,
And Eacides Chiron,
And other harpers many oon,
And the Bret[A] Glascurion.
--Chaucer, _Hous of Fame_, III.
+The Text+, from the Percy Folio, luckily is complete, saving an
omission of two lines. A few obvious corrections have been introduced,
and the Folio reading given in a footnote. Percy printed the ballad in
the _Reliques_, with far fewer alterations than usual.
+The Story+ is also told in a milk-and-water Scotch version,
_Glenkindie_, doubtless mishandled by Jamieson, who 'improved' it from
two traditional sources. The admirable English ballad gives a striking
picture of the horror of 'churles blood' proper to feudal days.
In the quotation above, Chaucer places Glascurion with Orpheus, Arion,
and Chiron, four great harpers. It is not improbable that Glascurion and
Glasgerion represent the Welsh bard Glas Keraint (Keraint the Blue Bard,
the chief bard wearing a blue robe of office), said to have been an
eminent poet, the son of Owain, Prince of Glamorgan.
The oath taken 'by oak and ash and thorn' (stanza 18) is a relic of very
early times. An oath 'by corn' is in _Young Hunting_.
[Footnote A: From Skeat's edition: elsewhere quoted 'gret
Glascurion.']