P. 346,111, 516 a, IV, 481 b. Italian. Maria Carmi, Canti pop. Emiliani, Archivio, XII, 189. Brunetina, after she has been rescued by her lover, is informed, while she is dancing at a ball, that her mother is dead. Bury her, she replies, I will dress in complete red, and she goes on dancing. So of her father. But when told that her lover is dead, she says she will dress in complete black, and bids the music stop, for she wishes to dance no more. 'La Ballerina,' Nigra, No 107, p. 469, is no doubt the last half of this ballad corrupted at the conclusion. The woman will not stop dancing for the reported death of father, mother, brother, sister, husband, but when told that her boy is dead asks the players to cease, her legs are broken, she can dance no more.
In 'Leggenda Marinesca' (di Catanzaro), La Calabria, October, 1893, VI, 16, a wife (or perhaps an affianced young woman) is ransomed from pirates by her husband (or betrothed), after father, mother, and brother have refused. If her father, mother, brother, should die, she would deck her hair, dress in red, yellow, or white, bid the guitar strike up, and dance; but if her true-love died, she would put on black, cut her hair, and throw the guitar into the sea.
349. Mr. Kaarle Krohn, of the University of Helsingfors, has favored me with the following study of the very numerous Finnish and Esthonian versions of this ballad, incorporating therein the researches of his father, Julius Krohn, already referred to at IV, 482 a. (Estlander's discussion, which I had not seen, "Sången om den friköpta," occupies pp. 331-356 of the tenth volume of Finsk Tidskrift.)
I. The West Finnish versions, dispersed over West and East Finland and Ingria. These are in the modern metre, which came into use hardly before the end of the seventeenth century, and it is in the highest degree probable that they were learned from the Swedes. About thirty copies known. Specimen, Reinholm's collection, H 12, No 76, from the Nystad district northward from Abo, in Southwest Finland; J.K., p. 11.[foot-note]
Prevailing traits: 1. The maid is sitting in a little room, less frequently in a ship's cabin or a boat. 2. The father has three horses. 3. The mother has three cows. 4. The brother has three swords. 5. The sister has three crowns, or, in copies from further east, where crowns are not used for head-gear, three silk kerchiefs. 6. The lover has three ships, or almost as often three castles (mansions). There are variations, but rarely, as to the objects possessed, and sometimes exchanges, but only two cases are of importance. In one copy from the extreme of Southeast Finland, the father has three oxen, which seems to be the original disposition, the change to horses coming about from the circumstance that oxen are seldom employed for ploughing in Finland. In four copies from the most eastern part of Finland the sister has three sheep, perhaps owing to the influence of the East Finnish versions. 7. The imprecations and benedictions at the end occur regularly. May the horses be knocked up or die at ploughing-time; may the cows die, dry up, etc., at milking-time; the swords shiver in war-time; the crowns fall off or melt at wedding or dance (the silk kerchiefs tear, fade, spoil with wet); and on the other hand, may the ships sail well, do well, make money at trading-time; the castles rise, flourish in time of destitution, of bad crops. Etc.
II. The later Esthonian versions, Esthonia and Livonia, in modern metre, of more recent origin, probably, than in Finland. About twenty copies known. Specimen, J. Hurt, Vana Kannel, II, 365, No 367. Lilla is sitting in the little room in weary expectation. She sees her father walking on the sea-beach. 'Dear father, beloved father, ransom me!' 'Wherewith ransom you, when I have no money?' 'You have three horses at home, and can pawn one.' 'I can do better without my Lilla than without my three horses; the horses are mine for all my life, Lilla for a short time.' In like fashion, the mother is not willing to sacrifice one of her three cows, the brother one of his three swords, the sister one of her three rings. But the lover, who has three ships, says, I can better give up a ship than give up my dear Lilla; my ships are mine for a short time, but Lilla for all my life. Lilla breaks out in execrations: may her father's horses fall dead when they are ploughing in summer, may her mother's cows dry up in milking, her brother's swords shiver in war, her sister's rings break in the very act of marrying; but may her true-love's ships long bring home precious wares.
Prevailing traits: 1. Lilla; in some copies from East Livonia, Roosi. 2. Little room; quite as often prison-tower. 3. The father has horses, the mother cows, the brother swords, as in the West Finnish versions. The independency of the Esthonian ballad is exhibited in the sister's three rings. It must, as far as I can at present see, have been borrowed directly from the Swedish, not through the medium of the Finnish. The lover has always three ships, and it is often wished that these ships may sail well in storm and in winter. The maledictions occur regularly, as in the example cited. There are some divergences as to the items of property, mostly occasioned by the older Esthonian version: thus, the father has sometimes oxen or corn-lofts, the brother horses, the sister brooches.
III. The older Esthonian versions, disseminated in Esthonia and Livonia, and also among the orthodox Esthonians beyond Pskov. These are in the old eight-syllable measure of the runes (and of Kalevala). More than a hundred copies have been obtained.
a. Best preserved and of most frequent occurrence in the island of Osel. Twenty copies. Specimen from J. Hurt's manuscript collections. Anne goes into the cow-house and soils her cap. She proceeds to the sea-beach to wash her cap. Ships come from Russia, from Courland. Anne is made captive. She weeps, and begs that the ship may be stopped; she wishes to take a look homewards. Her father has three oxen, one of which has silver horns, another copper, the third golden, but he will give none of them for her. Her mother has three cows, with silver, copper, golden udders; her brother, three horses, with the same variety of manes; her sister, three sheep, with wool of the three sorts; a neighbor's son, three lofts full of wheat, rye, barley. She wishes that the oxen may die in ploughing-time, the cows in milk-time, the horses at wooing-time, the sheep at wool-time; but may the corn-lofts of the neighbor's son grow fuller in the direst famine-time.
Prevailing traits: 1. The maid's name is Anne. 2. The pirates are Russians (10 times), Poles (6), Courlanders (2), Swedes (1), Germans (1), English (1). 3. The father has commonly oxen; the mother, cows always; the brother, almost always horses; the sister, sheep, six times, oftener than anything else; the lover, ordinarily corn-lofts. 4. The cursing occurs ten times. There are in a few cases exchanges of the sorts of property (thus, the father has corn-lofts, the sister has brooches, each four times), and in two instances the lover is omitted. The ballad has perhaps been affected by another (see II, 347 f.) in which a girl receives information that she has been sold by her relations: by her father for a pair of oxen (25 cases) or for a horse (18), by her mother for a cow, by her brother for a horse (24) or for a pair of oxen (14), by her sister for a brooch; and she curses all that they have got by the sale.
b. Less perfect and not so well preserved on the Esthonian mainland. About 100 copies, more or fewer. Specimens, Neus, p. 109, No 34, Hurt, Vana Kannel, I, 166, No 103, II, 310, No 442.
Prevailing traits: 1. The name of the maid, Anne, and the introduction linked to it, are often dropped, especially in the southeast of the Esthonian district, and a passage about a young conscript who wishes to be bought off from serving is substituted. The maid, whose brothers have hidden away, is pressed instead of them, and sent into service. As she is driven by the house of her parents in the military wagon she entreats her guards not to make sail! 2. The kidnapper is most frequently a Russian, then Pole, Swede, less commonly German, Courlander. In the northeast of the Esthonian district, on the border of Ingria, Karelian, four times. 3. The father often keeps the oxen, but almost as often has horses; the brother, in these last cases, has seldom oxen, generally horses as well as the father. The alteration is in part owing to the same material occasion as in the West Finnish versions; sometimes an influence from the ballad of the maiden who has been sold by her relatives may be suspected (in which ballad it is not easy to say whether the oxen belong originally to father or brother). Frequently the father has corn-lofts, the lover, to whom these would belong, having dropped out. The mother has almost always cows; in the northeast, on the Ingrian border, three times, aprons. The brother has generally horses, five times oxen, with other individual variations. The sister has preserved the sheep only four times; eight times she has brooches, and in one of these cases the ballad of the maid sold by her relatives is blended with ours, while in the remainder the influence of that ballad is observable. In six cases she has rings, perhaps under the influence of the later Esthonian versions. In the southeast she has chests seven times, and in most of these cases the lover has the rings. Other variations occur from one to four times. The lover has his corn-lofts nine times. Eight times he has horses, and in half of these instances he has exchanged with the brother, or both have horses. Twice he has ships, through the influence of the later Esthonian versions; or rings, in which cases the father ordinarily has the corn-lofts. 4. The imprecation in the conclusion is but rarely preserved.
IV. The East Finnish versions. Diffused in Ingria, East Finland, and Russian Karelia. In the old rune-measure, about forty copies. Specimen, Ahlqvist's collection, from East Finland, No 351: see J.K., p. 11.
Prevailing traits: 1. The maid is in a boat on the Neva. 2. The kidnapper is a Russian. 3. The father has a horse, the mother a cow, the brother a horse, the sister a sheep (each with an epithet). 4. The imprecation is almost without exception preserved. This version arose from a blending of the West Finnish, I, the older Esthonian, III, and the ballad of the maid sold by her relatives. This latter occurs in West Ingria in the following shape: The maid gets tidings that she has been sold. The father has received for her a gold-horse (may it founder when on the way to earn gold!), the mother a portly cow (may it spill its milk on the ground!), the brother a war-horse (may the horse founder on the war-path!), the sister a bluish sheep (may wolf and bear rend it!). In some copies the father or the brother has oxen (may they fall dead in ploughing!), as in the Esthonian ballad, from which the Ingrian is borrowed. The sister's sheep instead of brooch shows perhaps the influence of the older Esthonian ballad of the maid begging to be ransomed, or it may be an innovation.
The ballad of the maid sold by her family occurs in West Ingria independently, and also as an introduction to the other, and has been the occasion for the changes in the possessions of the relatives. North of St. Petersburg the combination is not found, though it has left its traces in the course of the spreading of the ballad from Narva to St. Petersburg.
The maid's sitting in a boat may come as well from the older Esthonian as from the West Finnish version, although it is more common in the latter for her to be sitting in the "little room." The Russian as the kidnapper is a constant feature in the older Esthonian version, but occurs also three times in the West Finnish (once it is the red-headed Dane, in the copy in which the oxen are preserved). Besides Russian, the kidnapper is once called Karelian in West Ingria, often in East Finland, and this denomination also occurs in Northeast Esthonia. The influence of the older Esthonian versions is shown again in some copies preserved in West Ingria which are not mixed up with the ballad of the maid that has been sold; the mother having three aprons in two instances, as in some Northeast Esthonian copies.
The river Neva as a local designation is preserved in East Finland, and shows that the version in which it occurs migrated from Ingria northwards. In the course of its migration (which ends in Russian Karelia) this version has become mixed with the West Finnish in multiform ways. The prelude of the East Finnish has attached itself to the West Finnish, notwithstanding the different metre. The trilogy of the latter has made its way into the former, and has spoiled the measure. It is no doubt owing to the influence of the Western version that, in North Ingria and Karelia, the brother, more frequently the lover, has a war-sword, the lover once a sea-ship, or the brother a red boat or war-boat.
Finally it may be noted that in those West Ingrian copies in which the ballads of the maid sold and the maid ransomed are blended the ransomer is a son-in-law, and possesses "a willow castle" (wooden strong-house?), the relation of which to the castle in the West Finnish version is not clear.
If we denote the West Finnish versions by a, the older Esthonian by b, the ballad of the maid sold by her family by c, the status of the East-Finnish versions may be exhibited thus:
That is to say, there has been a constantly increasing influence exerted by the West Finnish versions upon the East Finnish Ingrian versions, and reciprocally. This circumstance has caused it to be maintained that the East Finnish versions were derived from the West Finnish, in spite of the difference of the metre.
353 a. F was communicated by Rev. W. Findlay: Findlay Manuscripts, I, 100.
353. H. c. Mrs. Bacheller, of Jacobstown, North Cornwall (sister of Mrs. Gibbons, from whom 78 H was derived, see IV, 474 b), gave Rev. S. Baring-Gould the following version of the tale, taught her by a Cornish nursery maid, probably the same mentioned at the place last cited.
"A king had three daughters. He gave each a golden ball to play with, which they were never to lose. The youngest lost hers, and was to be hung on the gallows-tree if it were not found by a day named. Gallows ready, all waiting to see the girl hung. She sees her father coming, and cries:
The same repeated with every relationship, brother, sister, etc.; then comes the lover:
354, IV, 481 f.
'The Prickly Bush,' Mr. Heywood Sumner, in English County Songs, by Lucy E. Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland, p. 112. From Somersetshire.
The above is repeated three times more, with the successive substitution of 'mother,' 'brother,' 'sister,' for 'father.' Then the first two stanzas are repeated, with'sweetheart' for 'father,' and instead of 3 is sung:
In this version, a man is expressly delivered by a maid, contrary to the general course of tradition. So apparently in J, IV, 481, as understood by Dr. Birkbeck Hill.
P. 346 f., III, 516 a, IV, 481 a, V, 231 a. Michele Barbi, Poesia popolare pistoiese, p. 9, found a fragment of Scibilia Nobili at Pian dagli Ontani under the name of Violina, and Giannini's 'Prigioniera' (III, 516 a), otherwise 'Mosettina,' under the name 'Violina,' 'Brunetta,' etc.
The following copy was communicated by Mr. W.W. Newell, as derived from Miss Emma M. Backus, North Carolina, who says: "This is an old English song in the Yorkshire dialect, which was brought over to Virginia before the Revolution. It has not been written for generations, for none of the family have been able to read or write." Miss Backus adds that the pronunciation indicated is by no means that which is ordinarily used by the people who sing this ballad. It will, however, be noted that the Yorkshire dialect is not well preserved.
348 b. German. Böhme, in his edition of Erk's Liederhort, I, 277, adds a copy, from singing, dated 1878, 'Die Losgekaufte,' No 78 e.
349 f., 514 a, III, 516 b. A young man in prison bought out by his sweetheart, father, mother, etc., refusing help: Little Russian, Romanov, I, 63, No 2; Croatian, Valjavec, p. 303, No 19, 'Junak vu Madjarski vuzi;' Great Russian, Jakuskin, p. 147 f.; Ruthenian, Kolberg, Pokucie, II, 226 f., Nos 418, 420. Woman rescued by lover from Tatar who was about to kill her, the blood-relations declining: Romanov, I, 53, No 105. 514 a. In Nesselmann's Littauische Volkslieder, No 119, p. 96, and Bartsch's Dainu Balsai, I, 147, No 107, II, 202, No 321 (from Bezzenberger, Litauische Forschungen, p. 17, No 27), we have a ballad of a youth who does not get release from confinement though his blood relations lay down handsomely for him, but in the end is freed by his sweetheart with a trifle of a ring or a garland. In Bartsch, I, 63, No 53, a girl who has been shut up nine years is let alone by her father and her brother, but liberated by her lover; II, 296, Ulmann, Lettische Volkslieder, p. 168, relations make an attempt to buy off a conscript, without success, but his sweetheart effects his release by selling her garland. Silly stories all.
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