The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)
General
The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts
[71] Magyar Népköltési Gyüjtemény. Uj Folyam, szerkesztik és kiadják
Arany László és Gyulai Pál. Collection of Magyar Popular Poetry, New
Series, Pest, 1872, 2 vols. Aigner, has blended Nos 4 and 3 (#C#, #A#)
in 'Martin und Aennchen,' Ungarische Volksdichtungen, p. 170, and has
translated No 1 (#E#), at p. 120, 'Molnár Anna,' in each case obscuring
or omitting one or two traits which are important for a comparative
view.
[72] Very little remains of the artifice in Polish #A#. The idea seems
to be that the girl pretends to be curious about the sword in order to
get it into her hands. But the whole story is told in ten stanzas.
[73] I accept and repeat Grundtvig's views as to the relation of the
three forms of the story. And with regard to the history of the ballad
generally, this is but one of many cases in which much or most of the
work had been done to my hand in Danmarks gamle Folkeviser.
[74] Memering was required by his adversary to swear that he knew not of
the sword Adelring, and took his oath that he knew of nothing but the
hilt being above ground, which was accepted as satisfactory. Presently
he pulls Adelring out of the ground, into which he had thrust the blade,
and, being accused of perjury, triumphantly rejoins that he had sworn
that he knew of nothing but the hilt _being above ground_. Dietrich does
the same in his duel with Sigurd Swain.
[75] Magyar #A# is entirely peculiar. Apparently the man lays his head
in the woman's lap that he may know, by the falling of her tears, when
she has disobeyed his command not to look into the tree. This is like
'Bluebeard,' and rather subtle for a ballad.
[76] 'Child Waters,' 'The Fair Flower of Northumberland.'
[77] The murderer has a horn in Swedish #C#, #D#, as also in the Dutch
Halewyn and the German #A#, #B#, #C#, #E#, and the horn may be of
magical power, but it is not distinctly described as such.
[78] The scenery of the halting-place in the wood--the bloody streams in
Danish #A#, #B#, #D#, #H#, #L#, #K#, the blood-girt spring in German
#H#, #J#, #K#, #L#, #O#, #P#, #Q#--is also, to say the least, suggestive
of something horribly uncanny. These are undoubtedly ancient features,
though the spring, as the Danish editor observes, has no longer any
significancy in the German ballads, because in all of them the previous
victims are said to have been _hanged_.
[79] The saga in Björner's Nordiska Kämpadater, c. 5-7.
[80] Danish #E#, #I#, #L#, and even #A#, make the knight suggest to the
lady that she should get her gold together while he is saddling his
horse; but this is a commonplace found in other cases of elopement, and
_by itself_ warrants no conclusion as to the knight's rapacity. See
'Samson,' Grundtvig, No 6, #C# 5; 'Ribold og Guldborg,' No 82, #C# 13,
#E# 14, etc.; 'Redselille og Medelvold,' No 271, #A# 21, #B# 20; 272,
Bilag 3, st. 8; 270, 18, etc.
[81] So perhaps a Polish ballad in Wojcicki, I, 38, akin to the other
John and Katie ballads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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