Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

25. Willie's Lyke-Wake

Pp. 247-49 a. Danish. Add: 'Vågestuen,' in Kristensen's Skattegraveren, II, 17, No 17; IV, 17, 115, Nos 26, 285.

249 b and 506 a. Swedish. Bröms Gyllenmars' visbok has been printed in Nyare Bidrag, o.s.v., 1887, and the ballad of Herr Carl is No 77, p. 252. There is an imperfect copy in Bergström ock Nordlander, Nyare Bidrag, p. 102, No 9.

250. 'Il Genovese' is given in eight versions, one a fragment, by Nigra, No 41, p. 257.

250, 506 a, II, 502 a. Bulgarian. Stojan, who wants to carry off Bojana, does, at his mother's advice, everything to bring her within his reach. He builds a church, digs a well, plants a garden. All the maids come but her. He then feigns death; she comes with flowers and mourns over him; he seizes her; the priest blesses their union. Miladinof, p. 294, No 185. An old woman, in a like case, advises a young man to feign death, and brings Bojana to see the body. "Why," asks Bojana, "do his eyes look as if they had sight, his arms as if they would lay hold of me, his feet as if ready to jump up?" "That is because he died so suddenly," says the beldam. The youth springs up and embraces Bojana. Verković, p. 334, No 304. A Magyar-Croat version begins like this last, but has suffered corruption: Kurelac, p. 148, No. 447. (W.W.)

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