+The Text+ is given from Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_, earlier versions
being only fragmentary.
+The Story+ has a close parallel in a Danish ballad; and another,
popular all over Germany, is a variation of the same theme, but in place
of the mother's final doom being merely mentioned, in the German ballad
she is actually carried away by the devil.
In a small group of ballads, the penknife appears to be the ideal weapon
for murder or suicide. See the _Twa Brothers_ and the _Bonny Hind_.