'Earl Brand' has preserved most of the incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness unequalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English oral tradition. It has, however, all but lost a circumstance that forms the turning-point in related Scandinavian ballads with which it must once have agreed in all important particulars. This is the so-called "dead-naming," which has an important place in popular superstition. The incident appears as follows in the Danish 'Ribold and Guldborg,' (Grundtvig, No. 82): Ribold is fleeing with his love Guldborg. They are pursued by Guldborg's father and her brothers. Ribold bids Guldborg hold his horse, and, whatever may happen, not to call him by name. Ribold cuts down six or seven of her brothers and her father, besides others of her kin; the youngest brother only is left, and Guldborg in an agony calls upon Ribold to spare him, to carry tidings to her mother. No sooner was his name pronounced than Ribold received a mortal wound. The English and Scottish ballads preserve only the faintest trace of the knight's injunction not to name him. Cf. A*, st. 27, with 'Erlinton,' A* st. 15, B, st. 14.
'Earl Brand,' with the many Scandinavian ballads of the same group, would seem to belong among the numerous ramifications of the Hildesaga. Of these, the second lay of Helgi Hundingslayer, in the Poetic Edda. and 'Waltharius,' the beautiful poem of Ekkehard, are most like the ballads. See also 'Erlinton' (No. 8). Percy, in his Reliques, expanded the fragmentary version C to five times its actual length.
This page most recently updated on 04-Dec-2010, 12:47:08. Return to main index
