Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

2. The Elfin Knight

P. 7 a. The last two stanzas of F are also in Kinloch Manuscripts, V, 275, with one trivial variation, and the burden, 'And then, etc.'

Sir Walter Scott had a copy beginning, 'There lived a wife in the wilds of Kent:' Sharpe's Ballad Book, 1880, p. 147 f.

7 b, 484 a. Add: P, Q, Hruschka u. Toischer, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Böhmen, p. 171, No 124, a, b.

7 b, III, 496 a. 'Store Fordringer,' Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 342, No 85 (with the stupid painted roses).

7 f, 484 a, II, 495 a, III, 496 a. Add: 'I tre Tamburi,' Ferraro, C. P. del Basso Monferrato, p. 52; 'Il Compito,' Romaic, Tommaseo, III, 13 (already cited by Nigra).

8 a, II, 495 a. Tasks. Servian ballads. Karadžić, Sr. n. pj., I, 164, No 240, 'The Spinster and the Tsar;' I, 165, No 242, 'The Spinster and the Goldsmith.' Cf. I, 166, No 243. Also, Karadžić, Sr. n. pj. iz Herz., p. 217, No 191; Petranović, I, 13, No 16 (where the girl's father sets the tasks), and p. 218, No 238; Rajković, p. 209, No 237. Bulgarian. Collection of the Bulgarian Ministry of Public Instruction, II, 81, 3; III, 28, 4. Cf. Verković, p. 52, 43; Bezsonov, II, 74, 105; Miladinof, p. 471, 536. Russian. An episode in the old Russian legend of Prince Peter of Murom and his wife Fevronija, three versions: Kušelev-Bezborodko, Monuments of Old Russian Literature, I, 29 ff. (W.W.)

Wit-contests in verse, the motive of love or marriage having probably dropped out. Polish. Five examples are cited by Karlowicz, Wisła, III, 267 ff.: Kolberg, Krakowskie, II, 149, and Mazowsze, II, 149, No 332, Zbiór wiad. do antrop., X, 297, No 217, and two not before printed. Moravian examples from Sušil, p. 692 f., No 809, p. 701 ff., No 815: make me a shirt without needle or thread, twist me silk out of oaten straw; count me the stars, build me a ladder to go up to them; drain the Red Sea, make me a bucket that will hold it; etc. Zapolski, White Russian Weddings and Wedding-Songs, p. 35, No 19. Wisła, as before, III, 532 ff.

Polish tales of The Clever Wench are numerous: Wisła, III, 270 ff.

13 b. A fragment of a riddle given by a wise man to the gods is preserved in a cuneiform inscription: [What is that] which is in the house? which roars like a bull? which growls like a bear? which enters into the heart of a man? etc. The answer is evidently air, wind. George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, 1876, p. 156: cited by J. Karłowicz, Wisła, III, 273.

15-20, 484 f., II, 495 f. Communicated by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. "From the north of Cornwall, near Camelford. This used to be sung as a sort of game in farm-houses, between a young man who went outside the room and a girl who sat on the settle or a chair, and a sort of chorus of farm lads and lasses. Now quite discontinued." The dead lover represents the auld man in I.

1   A fair pretty maiden she sat on her bed,
      The wind is blowing in forest and town
She sighed and she said, O my love he is dead!
      And the wind it shaketh the acorns, down
2   The maiden she sighed; 'I would,' said she,
      The wind is blowing in forest and town
'That again my lover might be with me!'
      And the wind it shaketh the acorns, down
3   Before ever a word the maid she spake,
      The wind is blowing in forest and town
But she for fear did shiver and shake.
      And the wind it shaketh the acorns, down
4   There stood at her side her lover dead;
      The wind is blowing in forest and town
'Take me by the hand, sweet love,' he said.
      And the wind it shaketh the acorns, down
5   . . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
6   'Thou must buy me, my lady, a cambrick shirt,
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
And stitch it without any needle-work.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
7   'And thou must wash it in yonder well,
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
Where never a drop of water in fell.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
8   'And thou must hang it upon a white thorn
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
That never has blossomed since Adam was born.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
9   'And when that these tasks are finished and done
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
I'll take thee and marry thee under the sun.'
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
10   'Before ever I do these two and three,
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
I will set of tasks as many to thee.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
11   'Thou must buy for me an acre of land
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
Between the salt ocean and the yellow sand.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
12   'Thou must plough it oer with a horse's horn,
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
And sow it over with one peppercorn.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
13   'Thou must reap it too with a piece of leather,
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
And bind it up with a peacock's feather.
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
14   'And when that these tasks are finished and done,
      Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine
O then will I marry thee under the sun.'
      O and thus shalt thou be a true love of mine
15   'Now thou hast answered me well,' he said,
      The wind is blowing in forest and town
'Or thou must have gone away with the dead.'
      And the wind it shaketh the acorns, down
16   . . .
. . .
. . .
. . .

Mr. Frank Kidsen has given a copy of 'Scarborough Fair,' with some better readings, as sung "in Whitby streets twenty or thirty years ago," in Traditional Tunes, p. 43, 1891.

   1-4, second line of burden, true love.
22. Without any seam or needlework.
31. yonder dry well.
32. no water sprung.
41. Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn.
43. Which never bore blossom since.
5, 6. Wanting.
71. O will you find me.
72. Between the sea-foam [and] the sea-sand. Or never be a true lover of mine.
81. O will you plough.
91. O will you reap it.
92. And tie it all up.
101. And when you have done and finished your work.
102. You may come to me for your. And then you shall be a.
At p. 172, the first stanza of another version is given, with Rue, parsley, rosemary and thyme for the first line of the burden.

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