P. 3 b. There may be added another Little-Russian story communicated to me in translation by Professor Wollner: Ethnographic Survey, etc. (Etnografičeskoe Obozrĕnie, etc.) Moscow, 1893, V, 104.
A tsar and a tsarina, when dying, charged their son Soliman not to marry a woman older than himself. This, however, he did, and his wife hated him, and one day, when he was hunting, went off to her brother, ordering the servants to say that she had died. This report the servants duly made, but Soliman knew that his wife had gone to her brother, and he felt the loss so much that he could not keep away from her. Meeting a boy in tattered clothes, he changed with him, gave the boy everything he had on except his ring, and put on rags, to play the beggar. He proceeded to the brother's house, and seeing his wife sitting at a window, held out his hand, on which his ring was sparkling, and asked an alms. His wife knew him at once by the ring, and bade him come in. 'Who are you?' she asked. 'Once I was a tsar,' he said, 'but my wife died, and I became a beggar.' At this point the brother arrived on the scene. The woman told Soliman to lie down on the threshold; he did so, and she sat down on him. When her brother came in she said, 'Guess what I am sitting on.' He answered, 'On the threshold.' 'Wrong,' said she; 'on Tsar Soliman.' 'If it is he,' said her brother, 'I will cut his head off.' But here Soliman suggested that if the brother should take his head off on the spot, nobody would know that he had killed a tsar; whereas if he would build a three-story gallows and hang Soliman on it, all the world would see that he had been the death of a tsar and not of a beggar. So a three-story gallows was built, and as they were taking Soliman up to the first stage, he said, Give me a horn, to cheer my heart for the last time. They gave him a horn and he began to blow, Quick, quick, dear soldiers, for my death and end is nigh. A black regiment set out for the place. Bystanders said, Tsar Soliman, you are up high and see far: what is the black thing coming along the hill? 'My death, which gleams black in the distance.' Soliman mounted to the second stage and blew his horn again: Quick, quick, dear soldiers, my death and end is nigh. He saw a white regiment coming. The people said, Tsar Soliman, you are high up and see far: what is that white thing which is coming? My death, which gleams white in the distance. Then Soliman mounted to the third stage and blew Quick, quick, dear soldiers, my death and end is nigh, and he saw a red regiment coming. The people asked, what red thing was coming. My death, which gleams red in the distance.[foot-note] Then the black regiment came up, after it the white, and finally the red; they slew Soliman's wife and her brother, took Soliman down from the gallows, and rode home.
8. Danish. Through the friendly help of Dr. Axel Olrik I am now in a position to say that there is one fundamental text A, in Manuscripts of 1600 and 1615, from which all the others are derived. In the seventeenth century A was expanded from forty to eighty-two couplets. B, the original of the expanded copy, is found in a Manuscript of 1635; from B come the other five later Manuscript texts, the flying-sheet of 1719, Kristensen's fragment, and some recent copies.
A. King David, after betrothing the incomparable Suol-far, has to go on a cruise. He proposes that the lady stay with his mother while he is away, but Suol-far does not like this arrangement. Then, says the king, I shall bind your finger with gold, so that I can find you wherever you may be. Hardly is King David gone, when King Adell rides up. Suol-far is out of doors, brushing her hair; Adell asks if he may put a gold crown on it. If God grants King David to come home with honor, she will soon have a gold crown to wear, she says. Adell wishes to hear no more of David, and asks Suol-far to plight herself to him; she will not, she has given her troth to King David. Adell gives her sleeping potions five, sleeping potions nine; she swoons, is taken to be dead, and is buried in the church. Late in the evening Adell goes to the tomb; the effect of the potions having passed off, Suol-far rises. Adell asks her to go off with him, and after some tears Suol-far permits him to take her away. It had been supposed that there was no witness, but a little page was listening, and when King David came home the page gave him the bad tidings that King Adell had carried Suol-far out of the country. David goes in quest, disguised as a pilgrim. He finds the pair sitting on a stone, resting their weary legs, and asks an alms. Adell gives something, and Suol-far is at least about so to do, for David asks, Is it not the way in this country to give money with bare hand? whereupon she pulls off her glove and gives. David (seeing of course the token on her finger) draws his sword and kills Adell. He then asks Suol-far how she came to break her troth. Adell gave her nine drinks, which made her fall dead to the earth, but, thank God, she had been kept from sin. David loves her so dearly that he is easily satisfied; he orders his wedding, and their troubles are over.
The flying-sheet of 1719 (in seventy-three couplets) exhibits some differences. King David marries Sølfehr before he goes on his expedition, and gives the land into Adel's care during his absence. After the queen has fallen aswoon in consequence of the nine drinks, King Adel sends word to King David that she is dead. After the interment, Adel remains in the church and digs up Sølfehr. He addresses her as his dearest; she refuses to be so called. Adel tells her that David is dead, and asks her if she will follow him out of the land. She will follow him very willingly if she may hear of no grief to King David (whatever that may mean), and Adel wraps her in a cloak and lifts her on his gray. There had been watchmen in the church, and they tell David that Adel is off with Sølfehr. David has pilgrim's clothes made for himself and many of his men. While asking alms, David gives the queen to understand that he is her husband; then turning to Adel says, I entrusted my kingdom to you, and did not look to be deceived. Upon this he orders his troop to spare none of Adel's men, and himself hews Adel in pieces. The queen falls at his feet and begs forgiveness. The easy king says, I know the fault was not thine, lifts her on his horse, and goes home.
The two Swedish copies in Stephen's collection are fragments of eight and of fifteen stanzas. In the first (from Sødermanland), King David having dug up the coffin and found it empty, disguises himself as a pilgrim, and when asking an alms of Solfager says,
'Who are you for a vagabond, that never took alms from a gloved hand?' says Solfager. 'Never was I a vagabond, but often have I kissed Solfager's hand,' he replies. Solfager jumps into his arms, exclaiming, I never can believe you are my former true-love.
In the other (from Småland), after the abduction of Solfager, David takes staff in hand and goes to a strange land. He presents himself where the pair are sitting at table, and asks an alms. Solfager gives him alms once and twice, but the beggar is not satisfied. Needy vagrant, she says, take alms where you can; insatiable vagrant, take alms where you get most. I was no vagrant, he answers, when I put gold rings on Solfager's arm; I was no vagrant when I slept by Solfager. Her tears come; she can never believe that he is David, her true-love. She takes David in her arms. Praise to God, he cries, that I am still her husband!
This page most recently updated on 30-May-2011, 12:56:13. Return to main index
