The Icelandic and Faroe ballads have nothing of this horrible ferocity, but contain a story which is much nearer to probability, if not to historical truth. While King Waldemar is absent on an expedition against the Wends, his sister Kristín is drawn into a _liaison_ with her second-cousin, the result of which is the birth of two children. Sofía, the Queen, maliciously makes the state of things known to the king the moment he returns (which is on the very day of Kristín's lying in, according to the Danish ballad), but he will not believe the story,--all the more because the accused parties are within prohibited degrees of consanguinity. Kristín is summoned to come instantly to her brother, and obeys the message, though she is weak with childbirth, and knows that the journey will cost her her life. She goes to the court on horseback (in the Danish ballads falling from the saddle once or twice on the way), and on her arrival is put to various tests to ascertain her condition, concluding with a long dance with the king, to which, having held out for a considerable time, she at last succumbs, and falls dead in her brother's arms. The incidents of the journey on horseback, and the cruel probation by the dance, are found in the ballad which follows the present (_Fair Janet_), and these coincidences Grundtvig considers sufficient to establish its derivation from the Danish. The _general_ similarity of _Lady Maisry_ to _King Waldemar and his Sister_ is, however, much more striking. For our part, we are inclined to believe that _both_ the English ballads had this origin, but the difference in their actual form is so great, that, notwithstanding this conviction, we have not felt warranted in putting them together. The young lords o' the north country Have all a-wooing gane, To win the love of lady Maisry, But o' them she wou'd hae nane. O thae hae sought her, lady Maisry, 5 Wi' broaches, and wi' rings; And they hae courted her, lady Maisry, Wi' a' kin kind of things. And they hae sought her, lady Maisry, Frae father and frae mither; 10 And they hae sought her, lady Maisry, Frae sister and frae brither. And they hae follow'd her, lady Maisry, Thro' chamber, and through ha'; But a' that they could say to her, 15 Her answer still was "Na." "O haud your tongues, young men," she said, "And think nae mair on me; For I've gi'en my love to an English lord, Sae think nae mair on me." 20 Her father's kitchey-boy heard that, (An ill death mot he die!) And he is in to her brother, As fast as gang cou'd he. "O is my father and my mother weel, 25 But and my brothers three? Gin my sister lady Maisry be weel, There's naething can ail me."