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
The auld man in #J# is simply the "unco knicht" of #1 C#, #D#, over
again. He has clearly displaced the elf-knight, for the elf's attributes
of hill-haunting and magical music remain, only they have been
transferred to the lady. That the devil should supplant the knight, unco
or familiar, is natural enough. He may come in as the substitute of the
elfin knight because the devil is the regular successor to any heathen
sprite, or as the embodiment of craft and duplicity, and to give us the
pleasure of seeing him outwitted. We find the devil giving riddles, as
they are called (tasks), in the Grimms' K. u. H. märchen, No 125 (see
also the note in vol. III); Pröhle's K. u. V. märchen, No 19;
Vernaleken, Oesterreichische K. u. H. märchen, No 37. He also appears as
a riddle-monger in one of the best stories in the Golden Legend. A
bishop, who was especially devoted to St Andrew, was tempted by Satan
under the semblance of a beautiful woman, and was all but lost, when a
loud knocking was heard at the door. A pilgrim demanded admittance. The
lady, being asked her pleasure about this, recommended that three
questions should be put to the stranger, to show whether he were fit to
appear in such presence. Two questions having been answered
unexceptionably, the fiend proposed a third, which was meant to be a
clincher: How far is it from earth to heaven? "Go back to him that sent
you," said the pilgrim (none other than St Andrew) to the messenger,
"and say that he himself knows best, for he measured the distance when
he fell." _Antiquus hostis de medio evanuit._ Much the same is related
in the legend of St Bartholomew, and, in a Slovenian ballad, of St
Ulrich, who interposes to save the Pope from espousing Satan in
disguise.[22]
#J#, #K#, #L#, have completely lost sight of the original story.
Translated, after #A#, #C#, and #D#, in Grundtvig's Engelske og skotske
Folkeviser, p. 251; R. Warrens, Schottische Lieder der Vorzeit, p. 8;
Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 54.
A
A broadside in black letter, "printed, I suppose," says
Pinkerton, "about 1670," bound up with five other pieces
at the end of a copy of Blind Harry's 'Wallace,' Edin.
1673, in the Pepysian Library.
My plaid awa, my plaid awa,
And ore the hill and far awa,
And far awa to Norrowa,
My plaid shall not be blown awa.
1
The elphin knight sits on yon hill,
Ba, ba, ba, lilli ba
He blaws his horn both lowd and shril.
The wind hath blown my plaid awa
2
He blowes it east, he blowes it west,
He blowes it where he lyketh best.
3
'I wish that horn were in my kist,
Yea, and the knight in my armes two.'
4
She had no sooner these words said,
When that the knight came to her bed.
5
'Thou art over young a maid,' quoth he,
'Married with me thou il wouldst be.'
6
'I have a sister younger than I,
And she was married yesterday.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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