+The Text+ is from Motherwell's MS., written from the recitation of a
Mrs. King of Kilbarchan.
+The Story+ of the ballad is a mere remnant of the story told in the
Gest of King Horn, preserved in three manuscripts, the oldest of which
belongs to the thirteenth century. Similar stories are given in a French
romance of the fourteenth century, and an English manuscript of the same
date. The complete story in the Gest may be condensed as follows:--
Horn, son of Murry, King of Suddenne, was captured by Saracens, who
killed his father, and turned him and his twelve companions adrift in a
boat, which was eventually beached safely on the coast of Westerness,
and Ailmar the king took them in and brought them up. Rymenhild his
daughter, falling in love with Horn, offered herself to him. He refused,
unless she would make the king knight him. She did so, and again claimed
his love; but he said he must first prove his knighthood. She gave him a
ring set with stones, such that he could never be slain if he looked on
it and thought of her. His first feat was the slaying of a hundred
heathens; then he returned to Rymenhild. Meanwhile, however, one of his
companions had told the king that Horn meant to kill him and wed his
daughter. Ailmar ordered Horn to quit his court; and Horn, having told
Rymenhild that if he did not come back in seven years she might marry
another, sailed to the court of King Thurston in Ireland, where he
stayed for seven years, performing feats of valour with the aid of
Rymenhild's ring.
At the end of the allotted time, Rymenhild was to be married to King
Modi of Reynis. Horn, hearing of this, went back to Westerness, arrived
on the marriage-morn, met a palmer (the old beggar man of the ballad),
changed clothes with him, and entered the hall. According to custom,
Rymenhild served wine to the guests, and as Horn drank, he dropped her
ring into the vessel. When she discovered it, she sent for the palmer,
and questioned him. He said Horn had died on the voyage thither.
Rymenhild seized a knife she had hidden to kill King Modi and herself if
Horn came not, and set it to her breast. The palmer threw off his
disguise, saying, 'I am Horn.' Still he would not wed her till he had
regained his father's kingdom of Suddenne, and went away and did so.
Meanwhile a false friend seized Rymenhild; but on the marriage-day Horn
returned, killed him, and finally made Rymenhild his wife and Queen of
Suddenne.
Compare the story of Torello and the Saladin in the _Decameron_, Tenth
Day, Novel 9.