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
(1.) The latest of these, a Swedish ballad, from a collection made at
the end of the last century, 'Hertig Henrik,' Arwidsson, No 168, II,
422, represents Duke Henry as telling his wife that he is minded to go
off for seven years (he says not whither, but it is of course to the
East); should he stay eight or nine, she may marry the man she fancies.
He cuts a ring in two; gives her one half and keeps the other. He is
made captive, and serves a heathen lord and lady seven years, drawing
half the plough, "like another horse." His liberation is not accounted
for, but he was probably set free by his mistress, as in the ballad
which follows. He gets possession of an excellent sword, and uses it on
an elephant who is fighting with a lion. The grateful lion transports
the duke to his own country while he is asleep. A herdsman, of whom he
asks food, recommends him to go to the Brunswick mansion, where there is
a wedding, and Duke Henry's former spouse is the bride. When Henry comes
to the house, his daughter is standing without; he asks food for a poor
pilgrim. She replies that she has never heard of a pilgrim taking a lion
about with him. But they give him drink, and the bride, _pro more_,
drinks out of the same bowl, and finds the half ring in the bottom. The
bride feels in her pocket and finds her half,[166] and the two, when
thrown upon a table, run together and make one ring.
(2.) The Danish ballad[167] (Grundtvig, No 114, #B#, from a 17th century
manuscript), relates that Duke Henry, in consequence of a dream, took
leave of his wife, enjoining her to wait to the eighth year, and, if
then he did not return, marry whom she liked. In the course of his
fights with the heathen, Henry was made captive, and had to draw the
harrow and plough, like a beast. One day (during his lord's absence, as
we learn from #A#) the heathen lady whom he served set him free. He had
many adventures, and in one of them killed a panther who was pressing a
lion hard, for which service the lion followed him like a dog. The duke
then happened upon a hermit, who told him that his wife was to be
married the next day, but he was to go to sleep, and not be concerned.
He laid his head on a stone in the heathen land, and woke in a trice to
hear German speech from a herdsman's mouth. The herdsman confirmed what
the hermit had said: the duchess was to be married on the morrow. The
duke went to the kitchen as a pilgrim, and sent word to the lady that he
wished to drink to her. The duchess, surprised at this freedom, summoned
him into her presence. The verses are lost in which the cup should be
given the pilgrim and returned to the lady. When she drank off the wine
that was left, a half ring lay in the glass.
Danish #A#, though of the 16th century, does not mention the ring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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