Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

7. Earl Brand

P. 88 a. B. "The copy principally used in this edition of the ballad was supplied by Mr. Sharpe." Scott. "The Douglas Tragedy was taught me by a nursery-maid, and was so great a favorite that I committed it to paper as soon as I was able to write." Sharpe's Letters, ed. Allardyce, I, 135, August 5, 1802. Sharpe was born in 1781.

88 b. 'Hr. Kibolt,' Kristensen, Skattegraveren, VI, 17, No 257, is a good copy of 'Ribold og Guldborg.' It has the testaments at the end, like several others (see I, 144 b).

89-91 a. 'Stolt Hedelil,' Kristensen, Skattegraveren, I, 68, No 231, is another version of 'Hildebrand og Hilde,' closely resembling G. So is 'Den mislykkede flugt,' the same, VIII, 17, No 24, with the proper tragic conclusion. Both are inferior copies.

92 a and 489 b. Add: K, 'Kung Vallemo ock liten Kerstin,' Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare Bidrag, o.s.v., p. 101.

95 b, 96, 489. I have omitted to mention the effect of naming on 'Clootie' in No 1, C 19, I, 5:

  As sune as she the fiend did name,
He flew awa in a blazing flame.

The Alpthier loses its power to harm and appears in its proper shape, as this or that person, if called by name: Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, 2d ed., p. 257. Were- wolves appear in their proper human shape on being addressed by their name: Wilhelm Hertz, Der Werwolf, pp. 61, 84, Ulrich Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern u. Rügen, pp. 386-7. An enchanted prince is freed when his name is pronounced: Meier, No 53, p. 188 and n., p. 311. "There was in the engagement a man [on the side of Hades] who could not be vanquished unless his name could be discovered:" Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, I, 167, as quoted by Rhys, Celtic Mythology, Hibbert Lectures, p. 244. (G.L.K.)

96 ff., 489, II, 498. Plants from lovers' graves.

Add: Portuguese, Romero, II, 157, two pines.

Italian, Nigra, No 18, 'Le due Tombe,' p. 125 ff..

A. The lovers are buried apart, one in the church, one outside, a pomegranate springs from the man's grave, an almond-tree from the maid's; they grow large enough, to shade three cities! B. A pomegranate is planted on the man's grave, a hazel on the maid's; they shade the city, and interlock. C. An almond-tree is planted on the maid's grave, and is cut down. D. The lovers are buried as in A (and C), an almond-tree grows from the grave of the man, a jessamine from the maid's. See also No 19, 'Fior di Tomba,' where, however, there is but one grave, which is to contain the maid's parents as well as her lover. The same phenomenon in the fragments E, F. 'Il Castello d'Oviglio,' Ferraro, Canti p. monferrini, No 45, p. 64, is another version of this ballad. A pomegranate springs up at the maid's feet, and shades three cities. Cf. 'La Mort des deux Amants,' Rolland, I, 247, No 125.

Roumanian. 'Ring and Handkerchief' also in Marienescu, Balade, p. 50: cited in Mélusine, IV. 142.

97 b and 489 f., II, 498 a. Bulgarian, Miladinof, Bùlgarski narodni pĕsni, p. 455, No 497, translated by Krauss, Sagen u. Märchen der Südslaven, II, 427; the youth as rose-tree, the maid as grape-vine. Cited by G. Meyer in Mélusine, IV, 87. Little-Russian, plane-trees of the two sexes; cited by J. Karlowicz, ib., 87 f. Ruthenian (mother attempting to poison her son's wife poisons both wife and son), Herrmann, Ethnologische Mittheilungen, 205 f.; buried on different sides of the church, plants meet over the roof of the church, the mother tries to cut them down, and while so engaged is turned into a pillar.

Servian. Vuk, I, No 342, II, No 30; youth, pine, maid, grape-vine. Krasić', p. 105, No 21, p. 114, No 26; vine and pine, vine twines round pine. Bulgarian, Miladinof, p. 375, No 288, rose and vine. Magyar-Croat, Kurelac, p. 147, No 444, grape-vine and rose; No 445, youth behind the church, maid before, grape-vine and rose; p. 154, No 454, rosemary and a white flower (aleluja?). (W.W.)

Breton. Mélusine, III, 453 f. A tree springs from over the young man's heart (but this is an insertion, and not quite beyond suspicion), a rose from the maid's. There is another version of the ballad at p. 182 f., in which une fleur dorée grows over the man's grave, nothing being said of his mistress's grave, or even of her death.

Italo-Albanian. Also in Vigo, Canti p. siciliani, 1857, p. 345, V, and the edition of 1870-74, p. 698: cited in Mélusine, IV, 87.

Gaelic. Of Naisi (Naois) and Deirdre. King Conor caused them to be buried far apart, but for some days the graves would be found open in the morning and the lovers found together. The king ordered stakes of yew to be driven through the bodies, so that they might be kept asunder. Yew trees grew from the stakes, and so high as to embrace each other over the cathedral of Armagh. Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, I, 133, 1808.

In a Scotch-Gaelic version recently obtained, after Naois is put into his grave, Deirdre jumps in, lies down by his side and dies. The bad king orders her body to be taken out and buried on the other side of a loch. Firs shoot out of the two graves and unite over the loch. The king has the trees cut down twice, but the third time his wife makes him desist from his vengeance on the dead. The original in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, XIII, 257; a translation in The Celtic Magazine, XIII, 138. (All of these cited by Gaidoz, Mélusine, IV, 12, and 62, note.)

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