Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Additions and Corrections

90. Jellon Grame

Pp. 303 b, 513 b. Marvellous growth, etc. Ormr Stórólfsson very early attained to a great size, and at seven was a match for the strongest men: Flateyjarbok, I, 521, Fornmanna Sögur, III, 205, cited by Bugge in Paul u. Braune's Beiträge, XII, 58. Wolfdietrich gains one man's strength every year, and amazes everybody in his infancy even. Wolfdietrich A, ed. Amelung, sts 31, 38-41, 45, 233, 234, pp. 84, 85, 86, 108. (Some striking resemblances to Robert le Diable.) Cf. also Wigalois, ed. Pfeiffer, 36, 2f., = Benecke, 1226 f.:

  In einem jare wuchs ez mer
dan ein anderz in zwein tuo.

Elias (afterwards the Knight of the Swan), who is to avenge his mother, astonishes by his rapid growth the old hermit who brings him up:

  "A! Dieu! dist ly preudons, a qui est cest enfant?
Il est sy jouènes d'âge et s'a le corps sy grant:
S'il croist sy faitement, ce sera ung gaiant."

Chevalier au Cygne, ed. Reiffenberg, vv. 960-963, I, 45. "The little Malbrouk grew fast, and at seven years old he was as tall as a tall man." Webster, basque Legends, 2d ed., p. 78; Vinson, Folk-Lore du Pays basque, p. 81. The Ynca Mayta Ccapac "a few months after his birth began to talk, and at ten years of age fought valiantly and defeated his enemies." Markham, Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas, Hakluyt Society, p. 83. A Tête-Rasée infant in four days grows to the full size of man. Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, pp. 241-243. (G.L.K.)

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