+Texts.+--The version here given is compounded from two different
sources, almost of necessity. Stanzas 1-19 were given by Scott,
compounded from W. Tytler's Brown MS. and the recitation of an old
woman. But at stanza 20 Scott's version becomes eccentric, and he prints
such verses as:--
'A famous harper passing by
The sweet pale face he chanced to spy ...
The strings he framed of her yellow hair,
Whose notes made sad the listening air.'
Stanzas 20-25, therefore, have been supplied from the Jamieson-Brown
MS., which after this point does not descend from the high level of
ballad-poetry.
+The Story.+--This is a very old and a very popular story. An early
broadside exists, dated 1656, and the same version is printed in _Wit
Restor'd_, 1658. Of Scandinavian ballads on the same subject, nine are
Danish, two Icelandic, twelve Norwegian, four Faeroee, and eight or nine
Swedish.