A and B were not printed till the beginning of the nineteenth century. A was obtained "chiefly from the recitation of an old woman," but we are not informed who supplied the rest. A fragment (D) printed by Herd in 1769 (before any of the nine other versions), furnished stanzas 2-6, 12, 17, 19. A doubt may be hazarded whether stanzas 8-10 came from the old woman.
The Scandinavian ballad of 'Fair Annie' (Grudtvig, No. 258) is preserved in Danish and Swedish, and is in the main identical in plot with the English. It was perhaps transmitted from Low German. Various Dutch and German versions are also preserved. The story is also told in the Lai del Fresne of Marie de France (about 1180). This tale, of Breton origin, is some four hundred years older than any manuscript of the ballad. Comparison, however, shows that it is not the source either of the English or of the Low German and Scandinavian ballad. The tale and the ballad have a common source, which lies too far back for us to find.
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