+The Text+ is from Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown MS., which was also
the source of Scott's version in the _Minstrelsy_. One line (31.1),
closely resembling a line in Lady Wardlaw's forged ballad _Hardyknute_,
caused Sir Walter to investigate strictly the authenticity of the
ballad, but the evidence of Lady Douglas, that she had learned the
ballad in her childhood, and could still repeat much of it, removed his
doubts. It is, however, quite possible, as Professor Child points out,
'that Mrs. Brown may unconsciously have adopted this verse from the
tiresome and affected _Hardyknute_, so much esteemed in her day.'
+The Story.+--In _The Complaynt of Scotlande_ (1549) there is mentioned
a tale 'how the King of Estmure Land married the King's daughter of
Westmure Land,' and it has been suggested that there is a connection
with the ballad.
This is another of the ballads of which the English form has become so
far corrupted that we have to seek its Scandinavian counterpart to
obtain the full form of the story. The ballad is especially popular in
Denmark, where it is found in twenty-three manuscripts, as follows:--
The rich Svend wooes Lisbet, who favours William for his good qualities.
Svend, ill with grief, is well-advised by his mother, not to care for a
plighted maid, and ill-advised by his sister, to kill William. Svend
takes the latter advice, and kills William. Forty weeks later, Lisbet
gives birth to a son, but Svend is told that the child is a girl.
Eighteen years later, the young William, sporting with a peasant,
quarrels with him; the peasant retorts, 'You had better avenge your
father's death.' Young William asks his mother who slew his father, and
she, thinking him too young to fight, counsels him to bring Svend to a
court. William charges him in the court with the murder of his father,
and says that no compensation has been offered. Not a penny shall be
paid, says Svend. William draws his sword, and slays him.
Icelandic, Swedish, and Faeroee ballads tell a similar story.