N

216 a. Sir Orfeo has been lately edited by Dr Oscar Zielke: Sir Orfeo, ein englisches Feenmärchen aus dem Mittelalter, mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen, Breslau, 1880.

20. The Cruel Mother.

219 b. Add to the German versions of 'The Cruel Mother:' M. Pater Amand Baumgarten, Aus der volksmässigen Ueberlieferung der Heimat: IX, Geburt, Heirat, Tod, mit einem Anhang von Liedern, p. 140. ['Das ausgesetzte Kind.'] N. A. Schlosser, Deutsche Volkslieder aus Steiermark, p. 336, No 306, 'Der alte Halter und das Kind' (not yet seen by me). (Köhler.)

220 a. A ballad of Slavic origin in Nesselmann's Littauische Volkslieder, No 380, p. 322, resembles the German and Wendish versions of 'The Cruel Mother,' with a touch of 'The Maid and the Palmer.' (G. L. Kittredge.)

1
As I lookit oer my father's castle wa,
All alone and alone O
I saw two pretty babes playing at the ba.
Down by yon green-wood sidie

2
'O pretty babes, gin ye were mine,'
Hey the loch o the Loanie
'I would clead ye o the silk sae fine.'
Down by that green-wood sidie

3
'O sweet darlings, gin ye were mine,'
Hey the loch o the Loanie
'I would feed ye on the morning's milk.'
Down by that green-wood sidie

4
'O mither dear, when we were thine,'
By the loch o the Loanie
'Ye neither dressd us wi silk nor twine.'
Down by this green-wood sidie

5
'But ye tuke out your little pen-knife,'
By, etc.
'And there ye tuke yer little babes' life.'
Down by the, etc.

6
'O mither dear, when this ye had done,'
Alone by, etc.
'Ye unkirtled yersel, and ye wrapt us in 't.'
Down by the, etc.

7
'Neist ye houkit a hole fornent the seen.'
All alone and alone O
'And tearless ye stappit your little babes in'
Down by the, etc.

8
'But we are in the heavens high,'
And far frae the loch o the Loanie
'But ye hae the pains o hell to d[r]ie.'
Before ye leave the green-wood sidie

226 a. C. Cunningham, as Mr Macmath has reminded me, has made this stanza a part of another ballad, in Cromek's Remains, p. 223.

231. Catalan. The Romancerillo Catalan, in the new edition, p. 10, No 12, 'Magdalena,' gives another version, with the variations of eight more copies, that of the Observaciones being now C.

232. Add: Italian. Ive, Canti popolari istriani, p. 366, No 14, 'S. Maria Maddalena.' Mary's father, dying, left her a castle of gold and silver, from which one day she saw Jesus pass. She wept a fountain of tears to wash his feet, and dried his feet with her tresses. Then she asked for a penance. She wished to go into a cave without door or windows, sleep on the bare ground, eat raw herbs, and drink a little salt water; and this she did. In 'La Maddalena,' Guerrini, Alcuni C. p. romagnoli, p. 7, there is no penance.

22. St Stephen and Herod.

P. 236 a. Spanish. Milá's new edition, Romancerillo Catalan, No 31, 'El romero acusado de robo,' pp 36-38, adds six copies, not differing in anything important. In C, the youth, un estudiant, n'era ros com un fil d'or, blanch com Santa Catarina.

I may note that Thomas Becket stands by his votaries when brought to the gallows as effectually as St James. See Robertson, Materials, etc., I, 369, 471, 515, 524.

238 b, second paragraph. Professor George Stephens informs me that the miracle of the cock is depicted, among scenes from the life of Jesus, on an antependium of an altar, derived from an old church in Slesvig, and now in the Danish Museum. Behind a large table sits a crowned woman, and at her left stands a crowned man, who points to a dish from which a cock has started up, with beak wide open. At the queen's right stands an old woman, simply clad and leaning on a staff. This picture comes between the Magi announcing Christ's Birth and the Massacre of the Innocents, and the crowned figures are judged by Professor Stephens to be Herod and Herodias. Who the old woman should be it is not easy to say, but there can be no connection with St James. The work is assigned to the last part of the fourteenth century.

239. Most of the literature on the topic of the restoration of the roasted cock to life is collected by Dr R. Köhler and by Ferdinand Wolf, in Jahrbücher für romanische u. englische Literatur, III, 58 ff, 67 f. Dr Köhler now adds these notes: The miracle of St James, in Hermann von Fritslar's Heiligenleben, Pfeiffer's Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, I, 168 f; Hahn, Das alte Passional (from the Golden Legend), p. 223, v. 47-p. 225, v. 85; Lütolf, Sagen, Bräuche und Legenden aus Lucern, u. s. w., p. 367, No 334; von Alpenburg, Deutsche Alpensagen, p. 137, No 135; Sepp, Altbayerischer Sagenschatz, pp 652 ff, 656 f.

239 b. Three stone partridges on a buttress of a church at Mühlhausen are thus accounted for. In the early days of the Reformation a couple of orthodox divines, while waiting dinner, were discussing the prospect of the infection spreading to their good city. One of them, growing warm, declared that there was as much chance of that as of the three partridges that were roasting in the kitchen taking flight from the spit. Immediately there was heard a fluttering and a cooing in the region of the kitchen, the three birds winged their way from the house, and, lighting on the buttress of Mary Kirk, were instantly turned to stone, and there they are. Thüringen und der Harz, mit ihren Merkwürdigkeiten, u. s. w., VI, 20 f. (Köhler.)

240 a. The monk Andrius has the scene between Judas and his mother as in Cursor Mundi, and attributes to Greek writers the opinion that the roasted cock was the same that caused Peter's compunction. Mussafia, Sulla legenda del legno della Croce, Sitz. Ber. der phil.-hist. Classe der Wiener Akad., LXIII, 206, note. (Köhler.)

"About the year 1850 I was on a visit to the rector of Kilmeen, near Clonakilty, in the county of Cork. My friend brought me to visit the ruins of an old castle. Over the open fireplace, in the great hall there was a stone, about two or three feet square, carved in the rudest fashion, and evidently representing our Lord's sufferings. There were the cross, the nails, the hammer, the scourge; but there was one piece of sculpture which I could not understand. It was a sort of rude semi-circle, the curve below and the diameter above, and at the junction a figure intended to represent a bird. My friend asked me what it meant. I confessed my ignorance. 'That,' said he, 'is the cock. The servants were boiling him for supper, but when the moment came to convict the apostle he started up, perched on the side of the pot, and astonished the assembly by his salutation of the morning.'" Notes and Queries, 5th series, IX, 412 a. (Köhler.)

A heathen in West Gothland (Vestrogothia) had killed his herdsman, Torsten, a Christian, and was reproached for it by Torsten's wife. Pointing to an ox that had been slaughtered, the heathen answered: Tam Torstenum tuum, quem sanctum et in cœlis vivere existimas, plane ita vivum credo prout hunc bovem quem in frusta cædendum conspicis. Mirum dictu, vix verba finiverat, cum e vestigio bos in pedes se erexit vivus, stupore omnibus qui adstabant attonitis. Quare sacellum in loco eodem erectum, multaque miracula, præsertim in pecorum curatione, patrata. Ioannis Vastovii Vitis Aquilonia, sive Vitæ Sanctorum regni Sveo-gothici, emend. et illustr. Er. Benzelius filius, Upsaliæ, 1708, p. 59. (Köhler.)

240 b. Man begegnet auf alten Holzschnitten einer Abbildung von Christi Geburt, welche durch die dabei stehenden Thiere erklärt werden soll. Der Hahn auf der Stange krähet da: Christus natus est! der Ochse brüllt mit überschnappender Stimme drein: Ubi? und das Lammlein bläheret die Antwort: Bethlehem! Rochholz, Alemannisches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel aus der Schweiz, p. 69 f. (Köhler.)

241 a. Wer sind die ersten Vorbothen Gottes? Der Hahn, weil er kräht, "Christ ist geboren." Der Tauber, weil er ruft, "Wo?" Und der Ziegenbock, weil er schreit, "Z' Bethlehem." Pater Amand Baumgarten, Aus der volksmässigen Ueberlieferung der Heimat, I, Zur volksthümlichen Naturkunde, p. 94. (Köhler.)

Simrock, Das deutsche Kinderbuch, 2d ed., p. 173, No 719; 3d ed., p. 192, No 787. (Köhler.)

Quando Christo nasceu disse o gallo: Jesus-Christo e ná ... á ... á ... do (nádo). J. Leite de Vasconcellos, Tradiçôes populares de Portugal, p. 148, No 285 b.

242. Note. Add: W. Creizenach, Judas Ischarioth in Legende und Sage des Mittelalters, in Paul and Braune's Beiträge, II, 177 ff.

25. Willie's Lyke-Wake.

P. 247 b. Add: E. 'Willie's Lyke-Wake.' a. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, II, 51. b. Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 122.

249 b. Swedish. Add: D. Aminson, Bidrag till Södermanlands Kulturhistoria, II, 18.

French. 'Le Soldat au Convent,' Victor Smith, Vielles Chansons recueillies en Velay et en Forez, p. 24, No 21, or Romania, VII, 73; Fleury, Littérature Orale de la Basse Normandie, p. 310, 'La Religieuse;' Poésies populaires de la France, III, fol. 289, fol. 297. A soldier who has been absent some years in the wars returns to find his mistress in a convent; obtains permission to see her for a last time, puts a ring on her finger, and then "falls dead." His love insists on conducting his funeral; the lover returns to life and carries her off.

249 b. A. Magyar. The ballad of 'Handsome Tony' is also translated by G. Heinrich, in Ungarische Revue, 1883, p. 155.

The same story, perverted to tragedy at the end, in Golovatsky, II, 710, No 13, a ballad of the Carpathian Russians in Hungary.

250. Dr R. Köhler points out to me a German copy of A, B, C, which I had overlooked, in Schröer, Ein Ausflug nach Gottschee, p. 266 ff, 'Hansel june.' The mother builds a mill and a church, and then the young man feigns death, as before. But a very cheap tragic turn is given to the conclusion when the young man springs up and kisses his love. She falls dead with fright, and he declares that since she has died for him he will die for her. So they are buried severally at one and the other side of the church, and two lily stocks are planted, which embrace "like two real married people;" or, a vine grows from one and a flower from the other.

1
'If my love loves me, she lets me not know,
That is a dowie chance;
I wish that I the same could do,
Tho my love were in France, France,
Tho my love were in France.

2
'O lang think I, and very lang,
And lang think I, I true;
But lang and langer will I think
Or my love o me rue.

3
'I will write a broad letter,
And write it sae perfite,
That an she winna o me rue,
I'll bid her come to my lyke.'

4
Then he has written a broad letter,
And seald it wi his hand,
And sent it on to his true love,
As fast as boy could gang.

5
When she looked the letter upon,
A light laugh then gae she;
But ere she read it to an end,
The tear blinded her ee.

6
'O saddle to me a steed, father,
O saddle to me a steed;
For word is come to me this night,
That my true love is dead.'

7
'The steeds are in the stable, daughter,
The keys are casten by;
Ye cannot won to-night, daughter,
To-morrow ye'se won away.'

8
She has cut aff her yellow locks,
A little aboon her ee,
And she is on to Willie's lyke,
As fast as gang could she.

9
As she gaed ower yon high hill head,
She saw a dowie light;
It was the candles at Willie's lyke,
And torches burning bright.

10
Three o Willie's eldest brothers
Were making for him a bier;
One half o it was gude red gowd,
The other siller clear.

11
Three o Willie's eldest sisters
Were making for him a sark;
The one half o it was cambric fine,
The other needle wark.

12
Out spake the youngest o his sisters,
As she stood on the fleer:
How happy would our brother been,
If ye'd been sooner here!

13
She lifted up the green covering,
And gae him kisses three;
Then he lookd up into her face,
The blythe blink in his ee.

14
O then he started to his feet,
And thus to her said he:
Fair Annie, since we're met again,
Parted nae mair we'se be.

28. Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane.

P. 256. This ballad is in Pitcairn's MSS, III, 49. It was from the tradition of Mrs Gammel. The last word of the burden is Machey, not May-hay, as in Maidment.

29. The Boy and the Mantle.

P. 270 b. If a girl takes a pot of boiling water off the fire, and the pot ceases to boil, this is a sign of lost modesty. Lammert, Volksmedizin und medizinischer Aberglaube in Bayern, u.s.w., p. 146.

30. King Arthur and King Cornwall.

P. 274. A Galien in verse has been found in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, at Cheltenham. Romania, XII, 5.

31. The Marriage of Sir Gawain.

P. 292 b, last paragraph but one. Add: 'Gorvömb,' Arnason, II, 375, Powell, Icelandic Legends, Second Series, 366, 'The Paunch.' Gorvömb, a monstrous creature, in reward for great services, asks to have the king's brother for husband, and in bed turns into a beautiful princess. She had been suffering under the spells of a step-mother.

39. Tam Lin.

335 a. The stanzas introduced into I a were from "Mr Beattie of Meikledale's Tamlane," as appears from a letter of Scott to Laidlaw, January 21, 1803. (W. Macmath.)

338 a. An old woman is rejuvenated by being burnt to bones, and the bones being thrown into a tub of milk: Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 59, 'The Smith and the Demon;' Afanasief, Legendui, No 31, from Dahl's manuscript collection.

356. The following is perhaps the version referred to by Dr Joseph Robertson: see p. 335.

* * * * *

1
'The night, the night is Halloween,
Tomorrow's Hallowday,
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .

2
'The night, the night is Halloween,
Our seely court maun ride,
Thro England and thro Ireland both,
And a' the warld wide.

* * * * *

3
'The firsten court that comes ye bye,
You'll lout, and let them gae;
The seconden court that comes you bye,
You'll hail them reverently.

4
'The thirden court that comes you by,
Sae weel's ye will me ken,
For some will be on a black, a black,
And some will be on a brown,
But I will be on a bluid-red steed,
And will ride neist the queen.

5
'The thirden court that comes you bye,
Sae weel's ye will me ken,
For I'll be on a bluid-red steed,
Wi three stars on his crown.

6
'Ye'll tak the horse head in yer hand,
And grip the bridle fast;
The Queen o Elfin will gie a cry,
"True Tamas is stown awa!"

7
'And I will grow in your twa hands
An adder and an eel;
But the grip ye get ye'll hold it fast,
I'll be father to yer chiel.

8
'I will wax in your twa hans
As hot as any coal;
But if you love me as you say,
You'll think of me and thole.

9
'O I will grow in your twa hands
An adder and a snake;
The grip ye get now hold it fast,
And I'll be your world's mait.

10
'O I'll gae in at your gown sleeve,
And out at your gown hem,
And I'll stand up before thee then
A freely naked man.

11
'O I'll gae in at your gown sleeve,
And out at your gown hem,
And I'll stand before you then,
But claithing I'll hae nane.

12
'Ye'll do you down to Carden's Ha,
And down to Carden's stream,
And there you'll see our seely court,
As they come riding hame.'

* * * * *

13
'It's nae wonder, my daughter Janet,
True Tammas ye thought on;
An he were a woman as he's a man,
My bedfellow he should be.'

1
The night, the night is Halloween,
Tomorrow's Hallowday, our seely court maun ride,
Thro England and thro Ireland both,
And a' the warld wide.

41. Hind Etin.

P. 363, note. Compare, for style, the beginning of 'Hind Horn' G, H, pp 205, 206.

43. The Broomfield Hill.

P. 393 a, first paragraph. In Gongu-Rólvs kvæði, Hammershaimb, Færöiske Kvæder, No 16, p. 140, sts 99-105, Lindin remains a maid for two nights, and loses the name the third, but the sleep-rune or thorn which should explain this does not occur.

393 b, third paragraph. Add: 'Kurz gefasst,' Alfred Müller, Volkslieder aus dem Erzgebirge, p. 90.

45. King John and the Bishop.

503 a, fifth paragraph (ring stories). Add: W. Freiherr von Tettau, Ueber einige bis jetzt unbekannte Erfurter Drucke, u. s. w., Jahrbücher der königlichen Akademie zu Erfurt, Neue Folge, Heft VI, S. 291, at the end of an excellent article on Ritter Morgeners Wallfahrt. (Köhler.)

FOOTNOTES:

[426] "Cette action, si peu séante pour nous, est accomplie dans maint conte grec, allemand, etc., par des jeunes filles sur leurs amants, sur des dragons par les princesses qu'ils ont enlevées, et, même dans une légende bulgare en vers, saint Georges reçoit le même service de la demoiselle exposée au dragon, dont il va la délivrer." Dozon, Contes albanais, p. 27, note. In the Bulgarian legend referred to, Bulgarski narodni pĕsni, by the brothers Miladinov, p. 31, the saint having dozed off during the operation, the young maid sheds tears, and a burning drop falls on the face of George, and wakes him. This recalls the Magyar ballad, Molnár Anna, see p. 46. A Cretan legend of St George has the same trait: Jeannaraki, p. 2, v. 41. Even a dead lover recalled to the earth by his mistress, in ballads of the Lenore class, asks the same service: Golovatsky, II, 708, No 12; Sušil, p. 111, No 112, 'Umrlec,' 'The Dead Man.'

[427] Afterwards a judge, with the name of Lord Robertson, but universally known as Peter Robertson, celebrated for his wit and good fellowship as well as his law, friend of Scott, Christopher North, and Lockhart; "the Paper Lord, Lord Peter, who broke the laws of God, of man, and metre." Mr Macmath's note.

Transcriber's Notes

Page xi, Contents: changed volume reference "I" to "II" under Additions and Corrections to Ballad 11 "The Cruel Brother" (Additions and Corrections: I, 496; II, 498; III, 499;)

Page xi, Contents: deleted erroneous page reference "170," under Additions and Corrections to Ballad 14 "Babylon".

Page 4, version B, stanza 6: added missing close single quotation mark (And what is sharper than a thorn?')

Page 16, stanza 20: added missing close single quotation mark (Let the elphin knight do what he will.')

Page 18, version G, stanza 3: added missing close single quotation mark (Which never bore blossom since Adam was born?')

Page 37: changed "Bokendorf" to "Bökendorf" (Reifferscheid, No 18, p. 36, from Bökendorf.)

Page 39, first paragraph: "cod by ffman" interpreted as "co[llecte]d by [Ho]ffman".

Page 84: changed "Fornminnesforeningens" to "Fornminnesföreningens" (Svenska Fornminnesföreningens Tidskrift)

Page 98: changed "Busching" to "Büsching" (Büsching u. von der Hagen, Buch der Liebe, c. 60)

Page 102, stanza 11, line 2: removed trailing single quote mark ('I am afraid ye are slain;)

Page 103, version E, stanza 2, line 2: added missing opening single quote mark ('O hold my horse by the bonnie bridle rein,)

Page 138, note on version B: bracketed vertical alignment of words "it" and "he" presented in line (in Plain Text versions) ("he did it play, {it/he} playd;")

But I'll give him a drink for Young Hynhorn's sake,' B 16,

but note that in version B, stanza 16, the name appears as two words "Hyn Horn".

Page 211, stanzas 19 and 39: a line of stars following the first line of each stanza has been interpreted as a missing line and rendered as the more usual line of dots.

Page 265, Footnote [236]: added missing letter "c" (but no one can drink s'il n'est preudom)

Page 318: changed ("gyff ... sayes,) to ('gyff ... sayes,') in ('gyff it be als the storye sayes', v. 83)

Page 325: in Ballad 37 version C, the introduction states that the portions of version C that are not common to version A are set in smaller font size. This is difficult to distinguish in the original, but by comparison of versions A and C, stanzas 5, 6, 9 and 15-19 are so marked.

Page 335: in the introduction to Tam Lin (Ballad No. 39) appears "all that is peculiar to this version [I] ... is distinguished from the rest by the larger type." but the font change was not detected in the original, and so has been omitted here.

Page 374: changed "Islenzk" to "Íslenzk" (These in Íslenzk fornkvæði, pp 4-10, ...)

Page 392: changed "esterley" to "Oesterley" (Iohannis de Alta Silva Dolopathos, ed. Oesterley)

Page 400: changed "Čelakovsky" to "Čelakovský" (Čelakovský, p. 75, No 6, Wenzig, Slawische Volkslieder)

Page 425, footnote [390]: changed "he" to "the" (Where is the sky but three spans broad?)

Pages 478-481: ballad 53, versions M and N are set in smaller type in the original, but no explanation of the significance is found in the introduction or notes. Consequently no font distinction is made here.

Page 488, footnote [426]: added missing closing quotation mark ("Cette action, ... dont il va la délivrer.")

Page 451, ballad version A: two stanzas were numbered 18; changed second "18" to "19" and changed "19" to "20".

Pages 469-471: ballad 53, version E heading states that material in version E that repeats material from version A. But the intended distinction in font sizes is not detected in the original. By comparison of the content of the two ballads stanzas 1, 3-5, 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, 27-29, 34-36, 41 have been marked with the smaller font size.