The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 2 (of 5)
General
The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 2 (of 5)
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts
Further consideration led Bugge to maintain that the proper subject
of 'King Estmere' is rather the story of Hjalmar, Odd and Anganty,
and that the English ballad is better represented by the tragic Färöe
ballad of 'Arngrim's Sons' than by 'Orm and Bermer-Giant,' which last
he regards as a free reconstruction of an earlier and fuller form
of 'Arngrim's Sons' than has come down to us. The points in which
the story of Hjalmar, Odd and Anganty[61] is like 'King Estmere,'
in contrast with the Orm ballad, are that the hero does not fight
single-handed with the giant, but has the help of Odd (Adler); that
the king's daughter chooses her husband for herself; that the bride
is not won by a sword taken from a father's grave. The argument is,
however, much too intricate and too long to be repeated here, even
had the subtle and accomplished advocate shown full confidence in the
conclusion.
But this confidence he does not feel, for, as he conceives, King
Estmere again exhibits resemblances to 'Ogier le Danois,' the basis of
the Danish ballad 'Holger Danske og Burmand,' Grundtvig, No 30.[62] The
name Adler, says Bugge, is about as near to Ogier, Oddgeir, as to Oddr.
Adler's brother, Estmere, might be the chivalrous paynim Karaheus,
despite the unlike name, and King Adland's daughter the amiral's
daughter Gloriande, the beloved of Karaheus. Brunamons of Majorca, to
whom the amiral offers his daughter after the defection of Karaheus,
may be Bremer of Spain. Ogier, like Adler (in Percy's edition), kills
the hateful interloper, and Karaheus, like Estmere, gets the lady, but
without taking part in the fight. If this hypothesis is not quite so
satisfactory as the other, we may combine both. The English ballad may
have been derived from some form of 'Arngrim's Sons,' but have been
modified under the influence of 'Ogier le Danois.'[63]
A brief statement of these speculations may suffice in view of their
inconclusiveness, which is the greater by reason of our not knowing to
what extent Percy interfered with his manuscript.
The names Adler and Estmere appear again in a short romance in the
Percy manuscript, Hales and Furnivall, II, 296. The story is that
of Hugdietrich in the Heldenbuch: von der Hagen, I, 169, ed. 1855,
Amelung and Jänicke, I, 167; given by Weber in Illustrations of
Northern Antiquities, p. 63. Adler is a king, and, like Estmere in
the ballad, is exacting in the matter of a wife. In the Heldenbuch it
is not the young man who is so difficult to suit, but his guardian.
Estmere (v. 11, where there is corruption or defect) appears to be
Adler's messenger to King Ardine, the father of a lady who answers all
requirements, and who, as it turns out, likes Adler, but is not to be
had on easy terms.[64]
'King Estmere' begins very much like the Danish ballad, 'Den farlige
Jomfru,' Grundtvig, No 184, and especially like version #D#.
1
Ther stod drick paa felde,
der druck kiemper snile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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