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
There are other variations in the story, and some additional
particulars in one or another version: none of these, however, seem to
belong to the original ballad. The bride, as soon as she sees Annie, is
struck with the resemblance to her lost sister, #A# 14, #E# 9, #J# 29.
The bridegroom repents, and rejects the woman he has married, #E# 19,
#F# 30, #J# 49. The bridegroom confiscates without ceremony, as tocher
for Annie, six of the seven ships which the bride had brought with her,
#E#, #J#.[74]
The name Lord Thomas in #A# was probably suggested by 'Lord Thomas and
Fair Annet.'
* * * * *
A Danish ballad of Fair Annie has been known to the English for
fourscore years through Jamieson's translation. The Scandinavian
versions are the following.
#Danish.#'Skjön Anna,' Grundtvig, No 258, V, 13, eight versions: #A#,
39 four-line stanzas, #B#, 34 sts, #C#, 45 sts, from manuscripts of
the sixteenth century; #D#, 48 sts, #E#, 41 sts, #G#, 32 sts, from
seventeenth-century manuscripts; #F#, 41 sts, from broadsides or
stall-copies, the earliest dated 1648, from Peder Syv, 1695, and from
copies lately taken down which were derived from printed texts; #H#, 43
sts, a version recently obtained from tradition in Norway. Of these,
#A#, #B#, #C#, #G# are independent texts; #D#, #E#, #F# are derived
from some copy of #C#, or from a version closely akin to #C#; #H# is
essentially the broadside copy #F#, but has one stanza of its own.
#F#, Syv, No 17, Danske Viser, IV, 59, No 177, the form through which
the Danish ballad has been made known by English translations, is
unfortunately an impure and sophisticated text.
#Swedish.# #A#, 'Skön Anna,' 19 sts, Arwidsson, I, 291, No 42; #B#,
Afzelius, I, 24, No 5, 32 sts; #C#, Wigström, Folkdiktning, I, 57, No
28, 37 sts. #C# follows in the main Danish #F#, but with a variation
in st. 31 which is of much importance if traditional. A translation of
Danish #F# has long circulated in Sweden as a broadside: see, besides
Grundtvig, Bergström's Afzelius, II, 30.
The Scandinavian story will, for more brevity, be collected principally
from Danish #A#, #B#, #C#, and some variations of the other copies be
added.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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