23^6. Fiend, _wrongly_.
24^1. is a Hallow-een.
24^3. And them.
25^3. Amongst.
27^1. ride on.
27^6. gave.
30^4. wardly.
31^3. Hald me.
34^2. then in.
37^4. And there.
38^3. Them that hes.
38^4. Has.
40^{3,4}. eyes.
41^1. I kend.
41^3. I’d.
J.
‘The Queen of the Fairies,’ Macmath MS., p. 57. “Taken down by me 14th
October, 1886, from the recitation of Mr Alexander Kirk, Inspector of
Poor, Dalry, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, who learned it about
fifty years ago from the singing of David Ray, Barlay, Balmaclellan.”
This copy has been considerably made over, and was very likely learned
from print. The cane in the maid’s hand, already sufficiently occupied,
either with the Bible or with holy water, is an imbecility such as only
the “makers” of latter days are capable of. (There is a cane in another
ballad which I cannot at this moment recall.)
1
The maid that sits in Katherine’s Hall,
Clad in her robes so black,
She has to yon garden gone,
For flowers to flower her hat.
2
She had not pulled the red, red rose,
A double rose but three,
When up there starts a gentleman,
Just at this lady’s knee.
3
Says, Who’s this pulls the red, red rose?
Breaks branches off the tree?
Or who’s this treads my garden-grass,
Without the leave of me?
4
‘Yes, I will pull the red, red rose,
Break branches off the tree,
This garden in Moorcartney wood,
Without the leave o thee.’
5
He took her by the milk-white hand
And gently laid her down,
Just in below some shady trees
Where the green leaves hung down.
6
‘Come tell to me, kind sir,’ she said,
‘What before you never told;
Are you an earthly man?’ said she,
‘A knight or a baron bold?’
7
‘I’ll tell to you, fair lady,’ he said,
‘What before I neer did tell;
I’m Earl Douglas’s second son,
With the queen of the fairies I dwell.
8
‘When riding through yon forest-wood,
And by yon grass-green well,
A sudden sleep me overtook,
And off my steed I fell.
9
‘The queen of the fairies, being there,
Made me with her to dwell,
And still once in the seven years
We pay a teind to hell.
10
‘And because I am an earthly man,
Myself doth greatly fear,
For the cleverest man in all our train
To Pluto must go this year.
11
‘This night is Halloween, lady,
And the fairies they will ride;
The maid that will her true-love win
At Miles Cross she may bide.’
12
‘But how shall I thee ken, though, sir?
Or how shall I thee know,
Amang a pack o hellish wraiths,
Before I never saw?’
13
‘Some rides upon a black horse, lady,
And some upon a brown,
But I myself on a milk-white steed,
And I aye nearest the toun.
14
‘My right hand shall be covered, lady,
My left hand shall be bare,
And that’s a token good enough
That you will find me there.
15
‘Take the Bible in your right hand,
With God for to be your guide,
Take holy water in thy left hand,
And throw it on every side.’
16
She’s taen her mantle her about,
A cane into her hand,
And she has unto Miles Cross gone,
As hard as she can gang.
17
First she has letten the black pass by,
And then she has letten the brown,
But she’s taen a fast hold o the milk-white steed,
And she’s pulled Earl Thomas doun.
18
The queen of the fairies being there,
Sae loud she’s letten a cry,
‘The maid that sits in Katherine’s Hall
This night has gotten her prey.
19
‘But hadst thou waited, fair lady,
Till about this time the morn,
He would hae been as far from thee or me
As the wind that blew when he was born.’
20
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like the adder and the snake;
She held him fast; why should she not?
Though her poor heart was like to break.
21
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like two red gads of airn;
She held him fast; why should she not?
She knew they could do her no harm.
22
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like to all things that was vile;
She held him fast; why should she not?
The father of her child.
23
They turned him in this lady’s arms
Like to a naked knight;
She’s taen him hame to her ain bower,
And clothed him in armour bright.
338 a, 507, II, 505 b.
A king transformed into a nightingale being plunged three times into
water resumes his shape: Vernaleken, K.-u. H. Märchen, No 15, p. 79. In
Guillaume de Palerne, ed. Michelant, v. 7770 ff., pp. 225, 226, the
queen who changes the werewolf back into a man takes care that he shall
have a warm bath as soon as the transformation is over; but this may be
merely the bath preliminary to his being dubbed knight (as in Li
Chevaliers as Deus Espees, ed. Förster, vv. 1547–49, p. 50, and L’Ordene
de Chevalerie, vv. 111–124, Barbazan-Méon, I, 63, 64). A fairy maiden is
turned into a wooden statue. This is burned and the ashes thrown into a
pond, whence she immediately emerges in her proper shape. She is next
doomed to take the form of a snake. Her lover, acting under advice, cuts
up a good part of the snake into little bits, and throws these into a
pond. She emerges again. J. H. Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, p. 468
ff.. (G. L. K.)
339 b, II, 505 b.
Fairy salve and indiscreet users of it. See also Sébillot, Contes pop.
de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 41, 42, cf. I, 122–3; the same, Traditions et
Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I, 89, 109; the same, Litt. orale de
la Haute-B., pp. 19–23, 24–27, and note; Mrs Bray, Traditions of
Devonshire, 1838, I, 184–188, I, 175 ff. of the new ed. called The
Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy; “Lageniensis” [J. O’Hanlon], Irish
Folk-Lore, Glasgow, n. d., pp. 48–49. In a Breton story a fairy gives a
one-eyed woman an eye of crystal, warning her not to speak of what she
may see with it. Disregarding this injunction, the woman is deprived of
the gift. Sébillot, Contes pop. de la Haute-Bretagne, II, 24–25. (G. L.
K.)
340. The danger of lying under trees at noon. “Is not this connected
with the belief in a δαιμονιόν μεσημβρινόν (LXX, Psalm xci, 6)? as to
which see Rochholz, Deutscher Unsterblichkeitsglaube, pp. 62 ff., 67
ff., and cf. Lobeck, Aglaophamus, pp. 1092–3.” Kittredge, Sir Orfeo, in
the American Journal of Philology, VII, 190, where also there is
something about the dangerous character of orchards. Of processions of
fairy knights, see p. 189 of the same.
Tam o Lin. Add: Tom a Lin, Robert Mylne’s MS. Collection of Scots Poems,
Part I, 8, 1707. (W. Macmath.)
40. The Queen of Elfan’s Nourice.
P. 358 f., II, 505 b.
Mortal women as midwives to fairies, elves, water-sprites, etc. Further
examples are: Sébillot, Littérature orale de la Haute-Bretagne, pp.
19–23; the same, Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, I,
89, 109; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays Basque, pp. 40, 41; Meier, Deutsche
Sagen, u. s. w., aus Schwaben, pp. 16–18, 59, 62; Mrs Bray, Traditions
of Devonshire, 1838, I, 184–188 (in the new ed., which is called The
Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy, I, 174 ff.); “Lageniensis” [J.
O’Hanlon], Irish Folk Lore, Glasgow, n. d., pp. 48, 49; U. Jahn,
Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen, pp. 50, 72; Vonbun, Die Sagen
Vorarlbergs, p. 16, cf. p. 6; Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 183.—Mortal
woman as nurse for fairy child. Sébillot, Contes populaires de la
Haute-Bretagne, I, 121. (G. L. K.)
41. Hind Etin.
P. 361 f. #Danish.# Add: ‘Jomfruen og dværgen,’ Kristensen,
Skattegraveren, III, 98, No 393. A fragment of four stanzas, IV, 193, No
570.
364. #Danish.# Add: ‘Angenede og havmanden,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren,
III, 17, No 34.
42. Clerk Colvill.
P. 379 a, II, 506. Breton #F# is now printed entire (twenty-one stanzas
instead of eleven) by Gaidoz, in Mélusine, IV, 301 ff. (The language
appears to be Cornish.)
380, II, 506. #A# is printed by Rolland, III, 39; #P#, #Q#, _ib._, p.
41, p. 37; #T#, _ib._, p. 32, and in Revue des Traditions pop., #I#, 33;
#X#, by Rolland, III, 45; #GG#, in Revue des T. p., III, 195. The five
stanzas in Poés. pop. de la F., MS., VI, 491 (#MM#), by Rolland, III,
36.
Add: #NN#, 38 verses, without indication of place, by C. de Sivry in
Rev. des T. p., II, 24; #OO#, ‘Le roi Léouis,’ Haute-Bretagne, 60
verses, P. Sébillot, in the same, III, 196.
A Basque version, with a translation, in Rev. des Trad. pop., III, 198.
382 a. #Italian.# #C-F#, #H-K# now in Nigra’s collection, ‘Morte
Occulta,’ #A-G#, No 21, p. 142, in a different order. #C#, #D#, #E#,
#F#, #H#, #I#, #K# are in Nigra now #A#, #C#, #D#, #E#, #G#, #F#, #B#.
The fragment spoken of p. 383 b is now Nigra’s No 22, p. 149, ‘Mal
ferito.’ The tale which follows this is given p. 148 f.
384 a. There are two good Asturian versions in Pidal, ‘Doña Alda,’ Nos
46, 47, pp. 181, 183. The editor mentions a copy in the second number of
Folk-Lore Betico-Extremeño, much injured by tradition, which is more
like the Catalan than the Asturian versions.
43. The Broomfield Hill.
P. 392 b. Sleep-thorns.
Sleep-thorns, or something similar, occur in the West Highland tales. In
a story partly reported by Campbell, I, xci, “the sister put gath nimh,
a poisonous sting or thorn, into the bed, and the prince was as though
he were dead for three days, and he was buried. But Knowledge told the
other two dogs what to do, and they scraped up the prince and took out
the thorn, and he came alive again and went home.” So in “The Widow’s
Son,” Campbell, II, 296: “On the morrow he went, but the carlin stuck a
bior nimh, spike of hurt, in the outside of the door post, and when he
came to the church he fell asleep.” In another version of The Widow’s
Son, II, 297, a “big pin” serves as the “spike of hurt.” Cf. the needle
in Haltrich, Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen,
3d ed., p. 141, No 32. (G. L. K.)
393. Italian ballad. Add: Righi, p. 33, No 96; Nigra, No 77, p. 393, ‘La
Bevanda sonnifera,’ #A-H#; Giannini, ‘Il Cavaliere ingannato,’ p. 157;
Ferrari, Biblioteca di Lett. pop. italiana, I, 218, ‘La bella Brunetta;’
Finamore, in Archivio, I, 89, La Fandell’ e lu Cavaljiere (mixed);
Nerucci, in Archivio, II, 524, ‘La Ragazza Fantina;’ Julia, in Archivio,
VI, 244, ‘La ‘nfantina e lu Cavalieri;’ Rondini, in Archivio, VII, 189.
Ricordi, Canti p. Lombardi, No 9, ‘La Moraschina,’ gives the first half
of the story, with a slight alteration for propriety’s sake.
44. The Twa Magicians.
P. 400 a, II, 506 b. #E#, #F#, partly, in Revue des Traditions
populaires, I, 104 f. (#Q# was previously cited as #J#.) #Q.# ‘Les
Transformations,’ Avenay, Marne, Gaston Paris, in Rev. des Trad. pop.,
I, 98; #R#, Haute-Bretagne, Sébillot, the same, p. 100; #S#, Le Morvan,
Tiersot, p. 102; #T#, Tarn-et-Garonne, the same, II, 208. #U.# ‘Les
Métamorphoses,’ Finistère, Rolland, IV, 32, _c_; #V#, environs de Brest,
the same, p. 33, _d_. #E# is printed by Rolland, IV, 30, _b_.
#Italian.# A ballad in Nigra, No 59, p. 329, ‘Amore inevitabile.’
401 a. Vuk, I, No 602, is translated in Bowring’s Servian Popular
Poetry, p. 195.
In a Magyar-Croat ballad the lover advises the maid, who has been
chidden by her mother on his account, if her mother repeats the
scolding, to turn herself into a fish, then he will be a fisherman, etc.
Kurelac, p. 309, XV, 2. (W. W.)
401 b, last two paragraphs.
Other specimens of the first kind (not in Köhler’s note to Gonzenbach,
II, 214) are:
Luzel, Annuaire de la Société des Traditions populaires, II, 56;
Baissac, Folk-Lore de l’Île Maurice, p. 88 ff.; Wigström, Sagor ock
Äfventyr uppt. i Skåne, p. 37; Luzel, Revue des Traditions populaires,
I, 287, 288; Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 13, 41 ff., cf.
64–66; Vernaleken, Kinder- u. Hausmärchen, No 49, p. 277; Bladé, Contes
pop. de la Gascogne, II, 26–36; Carnoy, Contes populaires picards,
Romania, VIII, 227. Cf. also Ortoli, Contes pop. de l’Île de Corse, pp.
27–29, and Cosquin’s notes (which do not cite any of the above-mentioned
places), Contes pop. de Lorraine, I, 105 ff.
Other specimens of the second kind:
Luzel, Contes pop. de Basse-Bretagne, II, 92–95, and note; Haltrich,
Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande, u. s. w., 3d ed., 1882, No
14, p. 52 f.. (G. L. K.)
402 a, last paragraph. “The pursuit in various forms by the witch lady
has an exact counterpart in a story of which I have many versions and
which I had intended to give if I had room. It is called ‘The Fuller’s
Son,’ ‘The Cotter’s Son,’ and other names, and it bears a strong
resemblance to the end of the Norse tale of ‘Farmer Weathersky.’”
Campbell, Pop. Tales of the West Highlands, IV, 297. (G. L. K.)
46. Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship.
P. 415, note [391]. A version from Scotland has been printed in the
Folk-Lore Journal, III, 272, ‘I had six lovers over the sea.’ (G. L. K.)
417, note [396], II, 507 b.
The _one_ stake with no head on it occurs also in Wolfdietrich B. The
heathen, whom Wolfdietrich afterwards overcomes at knife-throwing,
threatens him thus:
“Sihstu dort an den zinnen fünf hundert houbet stân,
Diu ich mit mînen henden alle verderbet hân?
Noch stât ein zinne lære an mînem türnlîn:
Dâ muoz dîn werdez houbet ze einem phande sîn.”
(St. 595, Jänicke, Deutsches Heldenbuch, III, 256.)
Two cases in Campbell’s Pop. T. of the West Highlands. “Many a leech has
come, said the porter. There is not a spike on the town without a
leech’s head but one, and may be it is for thy head that one is.” (The
Ceabharnach, I, 312.) Conall “saw the very finest castle that ever was
seen from the beginning of the universe till the end of eternity, and a
great wall at the back of the fortress, and iron spikes within a foot of
each other, about and around it; and a man’s head upon every spike but
the one spike. Fear struck him and he fell a-shaking. He thought that it
was his own head that would go on the headless spike.” (The Story of
Conall Gulban, III, 202.) In Crestien’s Erec et Enide, Erec overcomes a
knight in an orchard. There are many stakes crowned with heads, but one
stake is empty. Erec is informed that this is for _his_ head, and that
it is customary thus to keep a stake waiting for a new-comer, a fresh
one being set up as often as a head is taken. Ed. by Bekker in Haupt’s
Ztschr., X, 520, 521, vv. 5732–66. (G. L. K.)
49. The Twa Brothers.
P. 435. There is a copy in Nimmo, Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, p.
131, made from #D#, #E#, with half a dozen lines for connection.
437 b. It is #E# (not #A#) that is translated by Grundtvig; and #D# by
Afzelius, Grimm, Talvj, Rosa Warrens.
436 f. In one of the older Croat ballads Marko Kraljević and his brother
Andrija, who have made booty of three horses, quarrel about the third
when they come to dividing, and Marko fells Andrija with a stab. Andrija
charges Marko not to tell their mother what took place, but to say that
he is not coming home, because he has become enamored of a girl in a
foreign country. Bogišić p. 18, No 6. There is a Magyar-Croat variant of
this, in which two brothers returning from war fall out about a girl,
and the older (who, by the way, is a married man) stabs the younger. The
dying brother wishes the mother to be told that he has staid behind to
buy presents for her and his sisters. The mother asks when her son will
come home. The elder brother answers, When a crow turns white and a
withered maple greens. The (simple) mother gets a crow and bathes it
daily in milk, and irrigates the tree with wine; but in vain. Other
Slavic examples of these hopeless eventualities: Little-Russian,
Golovatsky, I, 74, No 30, 97, No 7, 164, No 12, 173, No 23, 229, No 59;
II, 41, No 61, 585, No 18, 592, No 27; III, 12, No 9, 136, No 256, 212,
No 78; Bohemian, Erben, p. 182, No 340; Polish, Roger, p. 3, No 2;
Servian, Vuk, I, No 364, Herzegovine, p. 209, No 176, p. 322, No 332;
Bulgarian, Verković, No 226; Dozon, p. 95; Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 11,
No 61, p. 130, No 430, p. 156, No 457 (and note), p. 157, No 459, p.
244, No 557. (W. W.)
53. Young Beichan.
P. 454. The modern street or broadside ballad #L# (see II, 508) is given
from singing by Miss Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 547.
459 b. The Färöe ballad (of which there are four copies) is printed in
Hammershaimb’s Færøsk Anthologi, p. 260, No 33, ‘Harra Pætur og
Elinborg.’
462 a. ‘Gerineldo,’ also in Pidal, Asturian Romances, p. 90 f.
462 a, b. ‘Moran d’ Inghilterra,’ with a second version, in Nigra, No
42, p. 263.
VOL. II.
55. The Carnal and the Crane.
P. 7 f., 510 a. Legend of the Sower. Catalan (with the partridge),
Miscelánea Folk-Lórica, 1887, p. 115, No 6.
Moravian, Sušil, p. 19, No 16; Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 9, No 13.
(W. W.)
56. Dives and Lazarus.
P. 10 b. ‘Il ricco Epulone,’ Nigra, No 159, p. 543, with Jesus and the
Madonna for Lazarus.
Little-Russian, Golovatsky, II, 737, No 5; III, 263, No 1, and 267, No
2. Lazarus and the rich man are represented as brothers. (W. W.)
57. Brown Robyn’s Confession.
P. 13 b, 5th line. #A# is not a manuscript of the ‘fifteenth’ century,
but of the date 1590 or 1591. (Note of Mr Axel Olrik.)
59. Sir Aldingar.
Pp. 37–43. The first adventure of the fragmentary romance of Joufrois
affords this story. Count Richard of Poitiers has a son Joufrois. The
boy begs his father to send him to the English court, that King Henry
may knight him. The English king receives him well, but he remains a
_vaslet_ for some time. The seneschal of the court endeavors to win the
queen’s _amisté_, but fails. He tells the king that he has seen the
queen in bed with a kitchen-boy, and Henry swears that she shall hang or
burn. The vaslet Joufrois offers to prove the seneschal a liar, and begs
to be knighted for that purpose. Everybody thinks him mad to undertake
battle with the seneschal, who is an unmatched man-at-arms: li biaus
vaslet estoit enfens. The fight takes place at Winchester. Joufrois’
sword is broken, but he picks up a piece of a huge lance and disables
his adversary with a blow on the arm. Joufrois then threatens to cut off
the felon’s head if he does not retract, and as the seneschal prefers
death to eating his words, this is done. Joufrois, Altfranzösisches
Rittergedicht, ed. Hofmann und Muncker, vv. 91–631, pp. 3–18. (G. L. K.)
60. King Estmere.
Pp. 51, 510 b. Mr Kittredge has noted for me some twenty other cases in
metrical romances of knights riding into hall.
Aiol’s steed is stabled in the hall, Aiol et Mirabel, ed. Förster, vv.
1758–61, p. 51. So Gawain’s horse in the ‘Chevalier à l’Espée,’ vv.
224–236, Méon, Nouveau Recueil, I, 134. Cf. ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ ed.
Potvin, II, 255 ff., vv. 16803–42. In ‘Richars li Biaus,’ the hero
evidently has his horse with him while at dinner in the hall of the
robber-castle: ed. Förster, v. 3396, p. 93; cf. the editor’s note, p.
182. In ‘Perceval le Gallois,’ a knight takes his horse with him into a
bedchamber and ties him to a bed-post: ed. Potvin, III, 34, v. 21169 f..
Cf. Elie de Saint Gille, ed. Förster, pp. 377, 379, 380, vv. 2050–55,
2105, 2129–42. (G. L. K.)
61. Sir Cawline.
P. 56 b. Amadas, while watching at the tomb of Ydoine, has a terrific
combat with a highly mysterious stranger knight, whom he vanquishes. The
stranger then informs Amadas that Ydoine is not really dead, etc., etc.
He gives sufficient evidence of his elritch character, and the author
clinches the matter by speaking of him as “the maufé” (v. 6709). Amadas
et Ydoine, ed. Hippeau, vv. 5465 ff., p. 189 ff.. (G. L. K.)
60. Stanzas 42 ff.. It might have been remarked that this feat of
tearing out a lion’s heart belongs to King Richard (see Weber’s
Romances, II, 44), hence, according to the romance, named Cœur de Lion,
and that it has also been assigned to an humbler hero, in a well-known
broadside ballad, ‘The Honour of a London Prentice,’ Old Ballads, 1723,
I, 199 (where there are two lions for one).
63. Child Waters.
P. 83. #Italian.# ‘Ambrogio e Lietta,’ Nigra, No 35, p. 201. The
Piedmontese ballad, though incomplete, has the rough behavior of the man
to the woman, the crossing of the water, the castle and the mother, the
stable, and twins brought forth in a manger.
84 b. #Danish.# ‘Hr. Peders stalddreng,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I,
121, No 441; ‘Liden Kirsten som stalddreng,’ V, 98, No 645.
‘Hr. Grönnevold,’ Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VII, 49, No 177, is an
imperfect copy of the second sort of Scandinavian ballads.
64. Fair Janet.
P. 103, note. ‘La Fidanzata Infedele’ is now No 34 of Nigra’s
collection. See above the addition to No 5, I, 65 b.
65. Lady Maisry.
P. 113 a, last paragraph. Burning, etc. See Amis e Amiloun (the French
text), v. 364, p. 134, ed. Kölbing; Elie de St Gille, ed. Förster, vv.
2163–69, p. 381. Amadis de Gaule, Nicolas de Herberay, Anvers, 1573, I,
8 f., book 1, chap. 2, maid or wife; but Venice, 1552, I, 6 b, and
Gayangos, Libros de Caballerias, p. 4, wife. (G. L. K.)
113 b. Only certain copies, and those perverted, of Grundtvig Nos 108,
109 have the punishment of burning for simple incontinence. This is
rather the penalty for incest: cf. Syv, No 16,==Kristensen, I, No 70,
II, No 49,==Grundtvig, No 292, and many other ballads. (Note of Mr Axel
Olrik.)
Note §. ‘Galanzuca,’ ‘Galancina,’ Pidal, Asturian Romance, Nos 6, 7, pp.
92, 94, belong here. They have much of the story of ‘Lady Maisry,’ with
a happy ending.
66. Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet.
P. 127 a, 9th line of the second paragraph. A copy of ‘Fru Margaretha’
in Harald Oluffsons Visbok. Nyare Bidrag, o. s. v., p. 36, No 16,
stanzas 21, 22.
127 b, 511 b. In a Breton ballad, Mélusine, III, 350 f., a priest jumps
a table, at the cry of his sister, who is in a desperate extremity.
But the greatest achievements in this way are in Slavic ballads. A
bride, on learning of her bridegroom’s death, jumps over four tables and
lights on the fifth, rushes to her chamber and stabs herself: Moravian,
Sušil, p. 83. According to a variant, p. 84, note, she jumps over nine.
A repentant husband who had projected the death of his wife, on hearing
that she is still living, leaps nine tables without touching the glasses
on them: Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 184, No 479. (W. W.)
Mr Kittredge has given me many cases from romances.
127 b, note. Sword reduced to a straw: add Nigra, No 113, etc.
‘Gerineldo:’ add Pidal, Asturian Romances, Nos 3, 4, 5.
67. Glasgerion.
P. 137 b. ‘Poter del Canto’ is now No 47, p. 284, of Nigra’s collection.
68. Young Hunting.
P. 142. A copy in A. Nimmo’s Songs and Ballads of Clydesdale, ‘Young
Hyndford,’ p. 155, is made up (with changes) from Scott, Kinloch,
Buchan, Motherwell and Herd, #E#, #J#, #B#, #K#, #F#, #G#.
143, 512 a. Discovery of drowned bodies. See Revue des Traditions
populaires, I, 56; Mélusine, III, 141.
69. Clerk Saunders.
P. 157. There are four copies of the Färöe ‘Faðir og dóttir,’ and
Hammershaimb has printed a second (with but slight variations) in his
Færøsk Anthologi: p. 253, No 31.
158. Spanish. Add: ‘La Esposa infiel,’ Pidal, Asturian Romances, No 33,
p. 154.
71. The Bent Sae Brown.
P. 170. Nine versions of ‘Jomfruens Brødre’ in Kristensen’s
Skattegraveren, II, 145 ff., Nos 717–23, V, 81 ff., Nos 633, 634.
72. The Clerk’s Twa Sons o Owsenford.
Pp. 174, 512. Add to the French ballads one from Carcassonne, first
published in a newspaper of that place, Le Bon Sens, August 10, 1878,
and reprinted in Mélusine, II, 212. The occurrence which gave rise to
the ballad is narrated by Nigra, C. p. del Piemonte, p. 54 f., after
Mary Lafon, and the Italian version is No 4 of that collection, ‘Gli
Scolari di Tolosa.’ The ballad is originally French, the scene Toulouse.
73. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet.
P. 179 f. #D.# The Roxburghe copy of ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor,’
III, 554, is printed by Mr J. W. Ebsworth in the Ballad Society’s
edition of the Roxburghe Ballads, VI, 647. (Mr Ebsworth notes that the
broadside occurs in the Bagford Ballads, II, 127; Douce, I, 120 v., III,
58 v., IV, 36; Ouvry, II, 38; Jersey, III, 88.) ‘The Unfortunate
Forrester,’ Roxburghe, II, 553, is printed at p. 645 of the same volume.
A copy from singing is given (with omissions) in Miss Burne’s Shropshire
Folk-Lore, 1883–86, p. 545; another, originally from recitation, in Mr
G. R. Tomson’s Ballads of the North Countrie, 1888, p. 82. Both came,
traditionally, from print. Still another, from the singing of a
Virginian nurse-maid (helped out by her mother), was communicated by Mr
W. H. Babcock to the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 33, 1889, and may be
repeated here, both because it is American and also because of its
amusing perversions.
THE BROWN GIRL
1
‘O mother, O mother, come read this to me,
And regulate all as one,
Whether I shall wed fair Ellinter or no,
Or fetch you the brown girl home.’
2
‘Fair Ellinter she has houses and wealth,
The brown girl she has none;
But before I am charged with that blessing,
Go fetch me the brown girl home.’