Professor Child prints fifteen versions of this ballad, all hut one from Scotland. The story of Beichan agrees in the general outline and also in some details, with a well-known legend about Gilbert Beket, father of St. Thomas. The earlier and more authentic biographies lack this particular bit of romance, but the legend nevertheless goes hack to a date not much later than a century after the death of the saint, being found in a poetical narrative preserved in a manuscript of about 1300. That our ballad has been affected by the legend of Gilbert Beket is altogether likely. But the ballad is not derived from the legend. Stories and ballads of the general cast of 'Young Beichan' are extremely frequent. The legend lacks some of the main points of these stories, and the ballad (in one version or another) has them. A number of heroes, — among them Henry of Brunswick, Alexander von Metz, and the Noble Moringer, go to the East and have adventures similar to Young Beichan's. Just as Susie Pye is warned that Beichan is to be married next day, and is conveyed to Beichan's hall with miraculous dispatch, so are Henry and others warned, and transported to their homes by devil, angel, or necromancer. Norse, Spanish, and Italian ballads likewise preserve a story essentially the same as that of 'Young Beichan' It should also be compared with 'Hind Horn' (No. 17).
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