Ribold, a king’s son, in love with Guldborg, offers to carry her away ‘to a land where death and sorrow come not, where all the birds are cuckoos, where all the grass is leeks, where all the streams run with wine.’ Guldborg is willing, but doubts whether she can escape the strict watch kept over her by her family and by her betrothed lover. Ribold disguises her in his armour and a cloak, and they ride away. On the moor they meet an earl, who asks, ‘Whither away?’ Ribold answers that he is taking his youngest sister from a cloister. This does not deceive the earl, nor does a bribe close his mouth; and Guldborg’s father, learning that she is away with Ribold, rides with his sons in pursuit. Ribold bids Guldborg hold his horse, and prepares to fight; he tells her that, whatever may chance, she must not call on him by name. Ribold slays her father and some of her kin and six of her brothers; only her youngest brother is left: Guldborg cries, ‘Ribold, spare him,’ that he may carry tidings to her mother. Immediately Ribold receives a mortal wound. He ceases fighting, sheathes his sword, and says to her, ‘Wilt thou go home to thy mother again, or wilt thou follow so sad a swain?’ And she says she will follow him. In silence they ride on. ‘Why art not thou merry as before?’ asks Guldborg. And Ribold answers, ‘Thy brother’s sword has been in my heart.’ They reach his house: he calls for one to take his horse, another to fetch a priest; for his brother shall have Guldborg. But she refuses. That night dies Ribold, and Guldborg slays herself and dies in his arms. A second and even more dramatic ballad, _Hildebrand and Hilde_, tells a similar story. A comparison of the above tale with _Earl Brand_ will show a close agreement in most of the incidents. The chief loss in the English ballad is the request of Ribold, that Guldborg must not speak his name while he fights. The very name ‘Brand’ is doubtless a direct derivative of ‘Hildebrand.’ Winchester (13.2), as it implies a nunnery, corresponds to the cloister in the Danish ballad. Earl Brand directs his mother to marry the King’s daughter to his youngest brother; but her refusal, if she did as Guldborg did, has been lost. _The Douglas Tragedy_, a beautiful but fragmentary version, is, says Scott, ‘one of the few to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality.’ The ascribed locality, if more complete, is no more probable than any other: to ascribe any definite locality to a ballad is in all cases a waste of time and labour. _The Child of Ell_, in the Percy Folio, _may_ have contained anything; but immediately we approach a point where comparison would be of interest, we meet an _hiatus valde deflendus_. Percy, in the _Reliques_, expanded the fragment here given to about five times the length. EARL BRAND (From +R. Bell’s+ _Ancient Poems, Ballads_, etc.)