This little ballad might perhaps rightfully have come in earlier, if I had known what to make of it. There is a resemblance, remarkable as far as it goes, to 'Little Kirstin's Dance,' Grundtvig, V, 118, No 263. Here the dance is for a match; the lass asks what she is to have if she wins, and is promised fifteen (five) ploughs and a mill, and her choice of the king's knights for a husband. In the Danish ballad (A), a king's son, to induce Little Kirstin to dance before him, promises a succession of gifts, none of which avail until he plights his honor and troth. The remainder of the story is like the conclusion of 'Gil Brenton,' No 5: see especially I, 66. (Danish A is translated by Prior, III, 89, No 112.)
Kirstin tires out fifteen knights in Danish A 12, B 10, D 14 (in C 1 eleven); and a Kirstin tires out fifteen partners again in Grundtvig, No 126, P 32, No 245, A 16. In Norwegian versions of No 263, given by Grundtvig in an appendix, numbers are not specified; Kirstin in Norwegian A 6, D 18, tires out all the king's knights.
Buchan quite frightens one by what he says of his version, II, 314: "It is altogether a political piece, and I do not wish to interfere much with it."
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