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UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLISH VOLUME III

THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH OF PROFESSOR JOHANNES C. H. R. STEENSTRUP

BY

EDWARD GODFREY COX

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH

pr

173

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GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY EDWARD GODFREY COX

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

614.11

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLISH

VOLUME I. ELEMENTS OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Translated from the Swedish of Professor Uno Lindelof. By Robert Max Garrett, Instructor in English.

VOLUME II. THE POLITICAL AND ECCLESIAS- TICAL ALLEGORY OF THE FIRST BOOK OF THE "FAERIE QUEENE." By Frederick Morgan Padelford, Professor of English.

VOLUME III. THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BAL- LAD. Translated from the Danish of Professor Jo- hannes C. H. R. Steenstrup. By Edward Godfrey Cox, Assistant Professor of English.

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GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

Aside from the admirable books of Professor F. B. Gummere on the ballad, I know of no other work whose covers include such a comprehensive and fundamental ex- position of the ballad, its origin, nature, subject matter, form, and age, as does the one which appears here in translation. Its peculiar claim to be placed before English students, that which distinguishes it from other works on the subject, is its purpose of making us see what the bal- lad of the Middle Ages was really like. In other words, using Grundtvig's mammoth collection of Danish ballads as illustrations, it sifts out, chips away, rubs off all impu- rities, in the shape of diction, metrical items, and ideas which had no legitimate claim to existence before the six- teenth century. In the residue thus purged and restored we have the genuine unalloyed ballad of the Middle Ages.

In another respect also this book merits consideration. While Professor Steenstrup's studies lay bare the make-up of the ballad as a universal form of literature, by the very fact that he uses largely the ballads of Denmark for illustra- tive material he enriches for English readers the study of the subject, in that they herein make the acquaintance of a ballad literature which, in importance and bulk, surpasses that of all other European nations. Then, too, the circum- stance that the ballads constitute the only vernacular litera- ture of early Denmark makes them of peculiar interest in a comparative study of literature.

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The extracts from the ballads themselves I have en- deavored to turn into suitable ballad measure with as close an adherence to literalness as possible. In many cases the baldness of the English rendering may be excused on the score that the original verse is equally bald. Naturally genuine ballad flavor could best be imparted to the trans- lations by the employment of the Scotch dialect ; but for one not to the manner born such a venture is hazardous. Where ballad stanzas are cited as bearing on questions of meter and diction I have given the original also. The numbers following the title refer, except when otherwise indicated, to Grundtvig's collection.

In conclusion I record with pleasure my obligation to Mr. Haldor Hermansson, the librarian of the Icelandic col- lection at Cornell University, for generous help in looking up references and in explaining passages.

EDWARD GODFREY COX SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

In the winter of 1886-1887 I gave a series of lectures in the University on our popular ballads, in which, in addi- tion to elucidating the cultural life manifested in them, I set myself to the task of pointing out what was peculiar to our ballads with respect to their form and their content. By this I thought to arrive at a sharper definition between those ballads and verses which were old and genuine and those which at a later date had come into being or had found their way into Denmark or else had assumed a wholly modern form.

It is this portion of the lectures that I am bringing out here. Our scholars and, after them, our poets, who have had daily recourse to this ever-flowing spring, have not, so it seems to me, rightly understood the style of the old ballads, which in simplicity and naturalness are still un- surpassed. Since we otherwise lay such great stress on finding the proper time coloring, why should we then con- found the songs that were sung on gentlemen's estates in the period of the Reformation with those that were current in the feudal castles of the Middle Ages ? Why should we be content to look at a blank white wall, when it is possible, by knocking off the plaster, to discover lifelike pictures painted beneath the lime ? Now in this work I have attempted in various ways to separate the new from the old, the chance additions from the original, the slips of memory from the poet's own production. And here it

vi THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

is not a question of demolishing but only of removing the ugly so that the genuine and true coloring can emerge into view. Thus, I believe, those features which are individual and unique can more fully assert themselves.

In my studies I have used not only the ballads that have been published but also the entire great collection of bal- lads which Grundtvig left behind him, and which one can now find in the Royal Library.

I have sought to make the presentation of the material readable and intelligible to all, and to this end I have added throughout whatever explanation of words was need- ful. Since the interpretation did not require the old spelling found in the manuscripts, I have modernized the language

of the ballads.

JOHANNES STEENSTRUP

COPENHAGEN, 1891

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION i

II. THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 9

I. The Nature of the Dance, 10. II. How the Ballad and the Dance began, 26.

III. THE 7 34

I. A Ballad will I sing to you, 40. II. Monologue within the Ballad, 49. III. The Change of Narrator in the Ballad, 53. IV. / Throughout the Entire Ballad, 58.

V. This I say to you in Sooth, 66.

IV. THE REFRAIN 81

I. Nature of the Refrain, 82. II. Ballads without Re- frains, 95.

V. RIME, RHYTHM, AND MELODY 125

VI. THE SUBJECT MATTER AND PURPOSE OF THE BALLADS 1 70

I. Nature, 171. II. Religion, 178. III. Morals and Wishes,

194. IV. Fatherland, 202. V. Romantic Ballads, 210.

VI. Ballad Style, 216. VII. Dramatic Structure, 228. VIII. Simplicity, 232.

VII. SOME REMARKS ON HISTORICAL TRUTH IN BALLAD

POETRY 237

VIII. RETROSPECT 252

INDEX TO BALLADS 263

SCANDINAVIAN BALLAD COLLECTIONS CITED IN

THE TEXT 266

INDEX 267

vii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The scope of this book may be stated in a few words. It is an attempt to discover what our ballads of the Middle Ages were like originally, and to determine their proper form and subject matter. Perhaps the reader will say that this is supposedly well known already, since the greater part of our ballads are accessible in the model collection of Svend Grundtvig's. Here every one, so to speak, not only may see the ballads for himself, just as they were written down in the old manuscripts, but may also be led, through the highly enlightening remarks of the editor, to form his own estimate of the subject matter and different versions of individual ballads, as well as to compare our Danish and Scandinavian stock of ballads with that of other nations.

Nevertheless it may safely be asserted that very few people are really alive to the genuine form and spirit of our medieval ballads. Grundtvig's work bears as its title "The Old Popular Ballads of Denmark" (Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser) and, though it was his special en- deavor to present to us the popular ballads that belong

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distinctly to the Middle Ages, still he included many bal- lads which he himself referred to the sixteenth and sev- enteenth centuries. Furthermore, Grundtvig is strongly inclined to dwell upon the changes which a ballad may have undergone in the course of later centuries, down even to our day, although this can possess but a transient interest in comparison with the great and weighty prob- lem of settling upon the genuinely earliest version. In a large number — in by far the greater majority — of cases, the modern forms have not the slightest claim to literary notice. In the next place, none of the manuscripts in which the complete texts are recorded can be traced farther back than to the age of the Reformation, and only some few fragments of ballads are to be found in manuscripts that date from the Middle Ages. Thus it is clear that, along with what is really old, this great work contains much that is modern, that is, belonging to the period of the Reformation and to much later centuries. Obviously it ought to be one's task to separate the later additions from the original versions, and to set entirely aside the later poems of the sixteenth century and of the Period of Learn- ing—provided that one wished to know the ballads as they originally issued from the poet's mouth. In several specific cases Grundtvig has given us suggestive hints that throw light upon this point, but nowhere has he offered us a general line of argument. He has nowhere classified the distinguishing features by which we may detect the new apparel — the new finery clothing the old body. In several respects also, it seems to me, Grundtvig's ear has deceived him ; he has not caught the true ring of antiquity.

INTRODUCTION 3

The general survey of the ballads which Grundtvig failed to give us has been attempted by others. In his " Intellectual Life of the Northern Peoples," Carl Rosen- berg has entered into the spirit of ballad poetry with delicate appreciation and intelligence; he has strikingly illuminated many sides of the subject matter and the form. But he has taken virtually the same standpoint as did Grundtvig, and moreover he has made no attempt at a discriminating criticism. On the other hand, while Rosen- berg has industriously studied Grundtvig's work, this can- not altogether be said of Professor Peter Hansen, though the latter has laid before us a pretty detailed exposition of the ballads in his " Illustrated History of Danish Litera- ture." In place of a searching study of Grundtvig's chef- d'oeuvre. Professor Hansen has contented himself with the popular books or discussions which Grundtvig pub- lished in addition to his great collection, in particular his "Selected Popular Ballads of Denmark" (1882). And one cannot help a feeling of resentment toward Professor Hansen when he passes so harsh a judgment as this : " So far as the needs of our literature are concerned, Grundt- vig's edition of the ballads is a supererogation, and is based upon principles that are, to say the least, debat- able." That such a work as this " Illustrated History of Danish Literature " should characterize Grundtvig's collec- tion as a supererogation is indeed remarkable. At every point the author has called down punishment upon his head for these hard and other still more unreasonable ex- pressions ; and vengeance has not stayed her hand, for Professor Hansen's own sketch of the popular ballads has turned out to be an utter failure.

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Though we may differ with Grundtvig in our studies in the ballads, and in our conceptions of how they should be edited, — the only charge that we can lay to him is that he has included too much, — we should be altogether wrong in misjudging the significance of his edition as a land- mark in the history of Danish literature. For we have here a work that is distinguished by unique accuracy, by rare fullness of knowledge, and by great acuteness and far-reaching insight. Moreover, the way the material is shaped to the hand of him who is disposed to investigate further makes obligatory the study of a volume in which are preserved such precious relics of antiquity.

That there exists little real knowledge of the subject of our popular ballads is attested by the odd conceptions, ordinarily met with (especially noticeable in quotations from heroic ballads), of what the language of the Middle Ages is capable of expressing, and of what belongs to genuine ballad style. Even among our good writers — I name as ready examples the great works on Danish his- tory by Niels Bache and Troels Lund — one frequently meets verses quoted which have absolutely nothing to do with the Middle Ages or with folk poetry, but which are, on the contrary, later reshapings and fabrications of Anders Vedel, Peder Syv, and others. In other words, the whole ballad literature has been regarded too much as an entirety ; whereas it well admits of a division, not only according to subject matter, but also according to period of origin. Such a division would mark off the later ele- ments from the older.

Now the present book has set for itself the task of coming to a clear understanding of the true form and

INTRODUCTION 5

nature of the old ballads. The investigation will first and foremost seek to solve the question of how the ballads were utilized ; that is, what end they served, and how this end influenced their form. I shall investigate the changes the ballads necessarily underwent in the wear and tear of daily use, for memory constantly let fall the precious vessel to the ground only to pick it up again, though dented and cracked. In addition, my plan will be to pursue one course as long as I can ; I shall, for example, endeavor to estab- lish a general trait that will serve as a determining feature of ballad style or of choice of subject, by which individual ballads that appear as exceptions will be made to stand out- side, or at least in the neighborhood, of the dividing line. After this I shall take up in a similar way another line of thought and continue on the chosen path as long as I can.

When by degrees all or the greater part of my separate investigations combine to set precisely the same ballads or group of ballads without the general circumference ; when all lines gradually come to converge at the same place and to point, though with varying defmiteness, to the above- mentioned class of ballads, then I shall believe indeed that I must have attained to a right understanding of what is native to the ballads of the Middle Ages, and of what is to be regarded as foreign and excrescent. At any rate, my researches will have laid bare what is in reality to be found in this borderland of literature, whether we confine ourselves to the age in which the ballads flour- ished, or whether we step outside of the realm of popular poetry and touch upon what is conscious and literary.

Meanwhile I wish to call attention to the following. As is well known, Denmark is by no means the only land that

6 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

possesses popular ballads of the Middle Ages ; on the contrary, they are to be found in nearly every country. Nevertheless our popular poetry has clearly marked supe- riorities which cannot be too strongly insisted upon. The Danish ballads of the Middle Ages have apparently fur- nished the only outlet to the popular imagination, to its creative power and its narrative impulse ; for centuries they have served as practically the sole form in which the people gave vent to their feelings — at any rate outside of the church and the hours of prayer. This explains why such poetry has become so rich in various directions, and happens to contain so long and variegated a series of shadings.

Though the Faroes and Iceland, Norway and Sweden have preserved, to be sure, rich remains of old popular poetry, yet Denmark's store is far more important than that of any of these countries, whether in respect to numbers or to value. Then, too, Denmark's collection is characterized by the presence of a large number of his- torical ballads. However much one is obliged to shear away of what Grundtvig classes under this head, there still exists a large residue, which in numbers and worth, in beauty and illuminating power, far surpasses what is to be found of the same nature in the neighboring lands of the North. And it is clear that when the question turns upon the precise form and age of our popular ballads, the ballads that treat of historical subjects have a deep significance.

For the end I have in view there is one circumstance of even greater weight ; namely, that Denmark possesses the earliest written records. However invaluable the literary

INTRODUCTION 7

material found lately in the living tradition of Denmark ; however wonderful those objects unearthed in the heaths at Herning, or the songs heard in Telemark's fields, still I entertain no doubt that if we succeeded in gaining a knowledge of the genuine popular poetry of the Catholic Middle Ages, we should have to render our thanks exclu- sively to the noble ladies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To them it is due that we are acquainted with the old versions of ballads, and that we can see what changes the ballads themselves have undergone at various periods. To appreciate our wealth we need only to com- pare our sources of material with those of Sweden ; for, while we possess forty ballad manuscripts of a period prior to 1750, Sweden has only about ten, the oldest of which are antedated by a number of the Danish. Of the Norse ballads there exist only a few that were written down in early times, and the same is true in a still more limited degree of the Icelandic ballads. In other words, the ma- terial to show what the ballads were really like three hun- dred to four hundred years ago is to be found solely in Denmark. Furthermore, the frequent recurrence of the same ballad in many manuscripts is of great importance in bringing about a knowledge of the true form of the ballad. Finally, I desire to call attention to the fact that it is de- cidedly advisable, it seems to me, to be cautious in the use of Icelandic and Faroese ballads. Among the inhabitants of these islands the recollection of Saga and Edda poetry was constant and vigorous, and this recollection must easily have blended with and influenced the poetry of the Middle Ages. In Denmark, on the contrary, all knowledge of the poetry of antiquity had completely disappeared. While in

8 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

the latter country there exist practically no poetical compo- sitions in the vernacular, except the ballads, in Iceland the popular ballads form only a small part of a great poetical literature dating from the latter part of the Middle Ages. It lies in the nature of the case, then, that the one branch of poetry could not help influencing the other ; that is to say, in Iceland and in the Faroes the ballads have acquired a more conscious and literary stamp than they have else- where. Moreover it happened that " learned men," in particular the clergy, throughout these islands contributed in a high degree to the flowering of this poetry, or at least to its preservation. Thus it took an impress which makes it less adapted to serve as a touchstone for what is genuine and ancient in the Danish ballads.

Having thus indicated the purpose and method of my studies, I shall pass on to the special investigations.

CHAPTER II THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD

There is a marked difference between a poem as we ordinarily understand it and a ballad. The popular ballads of the Middle Ages are not poems which were written down in books and intended for reading ; they are songs which have been preserved by memory and were sung by one or more persons in the presence of others, being accompanied at the same time by a dance of a mimic or dramatic nature. In the oldest poetry of every people there exists a close relation between these three things, says a well-informed writer : no poem that was not sung, no song that was not danced to, and no dance that was not accompanied by a song.1 This statement admits of no question. Nowadays, in the majority of songs we sing, we lay only an infinitesimal stress, if any at all, on the text, which perhaps we do not even remember rightly, and which, at any rate, we seldom sing through to the end. We are never moved to embellish the performance with dramatic or mimic gestures, nor to mark the rhythm of the melody with the swaying of our bodies.

In earlier times song and mimic gestures were much more intimately related. As late as 1767 — as we can see from a poster of the Royal Theatre — a young Scotch lady

1 Franz Bohme, Geschichte des Tanzes in Deutschland, I, 13, 229; cf. Bohme, Altdeutsches Liederbuch, p. xlvii.

9

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appeared in various dances at the theater, singing at the same time, in accordance with the custom of former dancers, French and Italian arias. If we go back to Hoi- berg's day we shall meet with a poster of 1726, which reads that during the performance of " the nth of June " there will appear between acts " one of the best singers and dancers from the opera in Stockholm." l If we pursue the inquiry as far back as the Middle Ages, we shall find singing and dancing closely linked together ; in Iceland, in fact, the term "ballad " signified a dance. For instance, Earl Gissur sang the dance " My sorrows are heavier than lead," and a man by the name of Berg was called " Dancing Berg," doubtless because he composed satirical ballads. Even in the word " ballade " we have an indication of its former connection with the dance.

The Icelandic sagas, which allude to so many amuse- ments, games, and festivals of Norse antiquity, say not a word about the dance. It is not till the eleventh and twelfth centuries that we hear the dance at all commonly spoken of. At this period, however, as stated above, the dance meant also a popular ballad or a satirical poem, whose metrical form was identical with that of the Danish popular ballads.

I. THE NATURE OF THE DANCE

It must now be our task to inquire into the meaning of the term "dance " as understood in those times, and whether or not we dare apply our modern conception of the term to the dance of our forefathers. The answer must evidently be " No " ; the difference is too striking. The manner of

1 Th. Overskou, Den danske Skueplads, I, 228 ; II, 400.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD II

dancing with which we are generally familiar, namely, that of couples, who glide over the floor, whirling each other around more or less rapidly, belongs to a far later time. We can learn something of the period when the new fashion of dancing came into vogue from a study of the conditions existing in Germany. But I direct especial attention to "Chronik des Landes Dithmarschen," an account written in 1 598 by the pastor Koster, called Neo- corus. Here he relates that formerly the inhabitants of Ditmarsh had two styles of dancing, namely, " Trymmeken- dans," which was characterized by certain steps and imitative gestures (Trymmeke means a person with nice, affected ways), and a leaping or hopping dance. Finally, however, there was introduced from abroad about the time of the Ditmarsh wars (i 559) "eine sonderlike Manere," according to which people danced in couples.1 This mode of dancing, however, had come up from the South to other countries somewhat earlier than in the case of Ditmarsh.2 Perhaps it was the appearance of this new fashion that gave rise to the following admonition, recorded in a book entitled " The Wreath of Honor of all Virtuous, Christian Maidens," which came out toward the close of the sixteenth century : ". That they engage in a short, modest, and honest dance, doing the steps after one another in decency and order, without undue swinging and other indecorum." 3

This older style of dancing brought to our notice in the Ditmarsh chronicle we can very clearly identify first and

1 Johann Adolfi (called Neocorus),Chronik des Landes Dithmarschen, ed. by F. C. Dahlmann, I, 177 ff. 2 Bdhme, Tanz, I, 49 ff.

8 Fol. VII; cf. O. Nielsen, Copenhagen's Diplomatarium, VI, 157; Troels Lund, Danmarks og Norges Historic i det 16. Aarh., VI, 169.

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foremost with the help of our popular ballads. Thus runs the ballad of " Proud Elselille " (No. 220) :

Midsummer night upon the sward, Knights and squires were standing guard.

In the grove a knightly dance they tread With torches and garlands of roses red.

In sable and marten before them all, Dances Sir Iver, the noblest of all.

To the king in his tower strong Floats the noise of the dancing throng.

" Who is yon knight that leads the dance, And louder than all the song he chants ? "

Shortly afterwards the king enters the dance by the side of Sir Iver. From this ballad it appears that one walks the dance, that one steps it, that it takes place in the grove, that one person leads another by the hand, and that the whole is directed by a leader. Or we may cite " Hagen's Dance "

(No. 465) :

The king he sits in Ribe,

Quaffing the wine ; He summons all his Danish knights

Each to his home. So stately dances Hagen.

" Stand up, stand up, my merry men

And knights so keen ; And step for me a beggar-dance

In the meadows green ! " So stately dances Hagen.

Now longs the king himself

To step the dance ; The hero Hagen follows after,

For them the song he chants. So stately dances Hagen,

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 13

Or " Knight Stig's Wedding " (No. 76) :

F 1 8. Gaily the maidens join in the dance,

Each with crowns of roses and garlands.

19. There dances Sir Stig as light as a wand, With a silver cup in his white hand.

Here also" the dance is held out of doors, in the grove, in the green meadows (that is, on the lawns), and always one "steps" the dance. So the refrain runs in No. 189: " She stepped so stately," and in No. 261 :

It was Mettelil, the count's daughter, She stepped the dance for them.

Among the Scandinavian peasants dancing in the open air is still kept up. In confirmation of this reads the account written by Jonas Stolt, a village shoemaker, setting forth the conditions existing in the region about Kalmar in 1820 : " On summer evenings a dance was held on the grass-plots of the court-yards and on Sunday afternoons on the bridges that lead over the river " (p. 114).

The men can carry a cup, a ring, or a staff ; the women a garland, or, according to ballads Nos. 364, 432, " she dances with mirror and wreaths of roses." In Germany it is said that the maidens dance with mirrors suspended coquettishly from a ribbon. Here, furthermore, the garland is most intimately associated with the dance, just as to-day it is used for cotillion favors and bouquets. Such may well have been the case in Denmark. In " The Maiden's Defense of Honor " (No. 189) occur the lines :

6. Fair Ingelil came to Thure's isle, Where ladies the time in dance beguile.

7. Lords and knights began the dance, Proud Ingelil sat still and wove garlands.

14 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

8. Then spake Sir Thure by the salt sea-strand :

" For whom do you weave those gay garlands ? "

9. " I weave this garland for no other man Than him, my brother, the best in the land."

We read in Article 32 of the statutes of a guild in Ny-Larsker on Bornholm (1599) that it was enjoined on all men and boys, members and guests, to be present in the barn while the preliminary dance was going on and the garlands were being distributed. He who declined the re- sponsibility of the garland was fined one keg of beer. And in Articles 37, 38 of the same statutes we read that virtuous gentlewomen and modest girls were free to choose the May-king while the garlands were receiving their deco- rations of pretty herbs. Here, too, the member or guest who refused the garland made by honest folk, when prof- fered by the May-king, and in the struggle happened to tear it, had to pay for his obstinacy one keg of beer (The New Royal Collection, No. 399, Fol. C).

We can corroborate what we know of the old style of dancing by examining the pictorial illustrations of the dances performed by the nobility during the Middle Ages. A fresco painting from the fourteenth century in the church at Orslev on Skjelskor depicts a row of dancing men and women, led by a " foredancer," who directs those taking part with lively and emphatic gestures of his left hand, while in his right he carries a ring or some other object.1 Some frescoes in Ruhkelstein Castle in the Tyrol repre- sent a long chain of couples dancing under the trees in the garden. At their head dances a woman, followed by a

1 For picture see Aarbogerfor nord. Oldk., 1888, p. 135, and Tidsskrift for Kunstindustrie, 1890, Vol. I.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 15

man clad in a thick doublet and wearing peaked shoes, holding his right hand behind him ; he in turn leads with graceful steps the woman next to him.1

Similar to these dances thus portrayed we may conceive the dances in Denmark to have been. Besides these more decorous dances with tripping steps, there is found another, which the peasantry especially affect, characterized by leap- ing steps and wilder movements. At the memorable wed- ding of Solenta, sister of Iver Blaa, and Count Gunzelin (No. 1 6), which fell out so merrily and boisterously, there were present all those famous heroes, Vidrik Verlandson, Didrik of Bern, Holger Danske, Master Hildebrand, Sivard Snarensvend, and Langben Risker. But the bride herself was an imposing figure :

Six whole oxen she consumed,

And five full flitches of bacon,

And when the hiccoughs put an end to her bout,

Seven barrels of beer she had taken.

The rank began to leap and frolic (Skrikke-Rei) From Ribe to the bay of Sli ; The smallest warrior in the dance Towered well five ells above the knee.

Even the table and the benches danced, And fire flew from the hats ; Out then ran the warriors good : " Now help us, Mother Scratch ! "

Ret means "rank," "a row," "a train of followers" (cf. Asgaards-Reien, that is, Odin's Hunt, Arthur's Chase), and Hoppelrei was the name given in Germany to a dance which used to be popular with the peasants, who danced

1 Bohme, Tanz, pp. 31, 320.

16 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

it "as if they would fly." On the whole, den Reihen springen corresponds to den Tanz treten. Skrikke means " to leap " or " gambol like a calf or kid." It may well be said, therefore, to have been a remarkable dance in which the merry revelers indulged.

Emphatic gestures were characteristic of even the more sedate dances. This we can gather from pictures, which almost invariably represent the arms, legs, and feet smartly extended and the head bent low, often combined with cer- tain contortions of the body. At times the movements seem to overstep the bounds of grace. In the church at Hecklingen, Saxony, there is portrayed an angel dancing with the tips of the toes turned out on the right foot, and turned in on the left so that when the legs crossed the toes of both feet met. In several miniatures from a manu- script of Heinrich von Stretlingen ladies are represented with breasts and waists extended well forward, heads and arms sharply inclined, legs and feet forming acute angles, and the fingers spread widely apart and bent in various directions. In the church of St. Sernin in Toulouse is a picture of Salome, the daughter of Herodias, dancing with a bell in her hand before Herod Antipas ; the right foot executes a curious step with the toes bent backward to the right.1

I am in some doubt, however, just how reliable to regard the evidence offered by these last mentioned pictures. The perplexing footboard on which several figures stand, to- gether with the defective ability of the artist, however, may

1 Puttrich, Denkmale der Baukunst in Sachsen, I, table 32. See Von der Hagen, Bildersaal, tables 16, 22, 39, 46; Bohme, Tanz, pp. 33 ff. ; Schultz, Das hofische Leben, 2d ed., I, 550 ff.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD I?

explain away some of the oddities. But thus much is cer- tain, that during the dance a very strong play of feature was called into action. In the Icelandic Vikivaki dance the participants stood on the right foot and swayed the upper part of the body to and fro. An account from East Friesland (1691) tells of an old dance, common among the peasantry, which was performed by two men and two women, accompanied by set movements of the arms, hands, legs, and head ; distinct movements and gestures, in fact, existed for all the limbs, at the expense, it may be added, of much perspiration. The men struck their hands smartly together, first behind their backs, then in front of their legs, while the women went through the same motions after them. Their most individual postures they assumed toward the close of the singing, which was slow and mournful.1

Those were famous dances that were performed toward the close of the Middle Ages with so much dignity and splendor by the patrician families of South Germany. When King Christian I, in his travels abroad in 1474, made a stay in Augsburg, the families of the nobility held a dance in his honor, which seems to have been marked by a becoming union of mirth and gravity. As the old account reads : 2 " For the pleasure of the King of Denmark and at the wish of the Kaiser there was held soon after a merry dance, which was carried out with great pomp and dignity in the usual dance hall, lasting almost four hours, which the King mentioned as having witnessed with especial delight."

1 Bbhme, Tanz, p. 51.

3 Werlich, Chronica von Augspurg (1595), II, 229.

1 8 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

A dance often spoken of in the ballads is the " Beggar- dance " (see Vol. II, 59, st. 8 ; Vol. Ill, 166, sts. 13, 27 ; Vol. IV, 365, 455, st. i). In " Proud Signild and Queen Sophie " (No. 129) occur the lines :

27. When to the castle gate she chanced, She saw them dancing the beggar-dance.

28. Twice they danced the dance around, The queen stood gazing at her spell-bound.

29. Sad at heart then was the queen

When Signelil danced by the side of the king.

From this ballad it appears to have been a figure dance. In Germany there was found a " Bettlertanz," in which all the couples formed a circle while dancing, with one couple in the middle, who assumed various attitudes and enacted a scene, somewhat perhaps after the style of the Polish " Going a-begging." In every instance song accom- panied this dance, according to the old beggar ballad. This ballad treats of the same theme as the Danish drama "Karrig Niding" ("The Miserly Scoundrel"), in which the beggar, during the miser's absence, is received most courteously by the housewife and installed with all the privi- leges of the husband. The audacity inherent in the theme doubtless affected the dance, which became so hilarious that in 1580 it was forbidden by decree in the Electo- rate of Saxony.1 The Danish beggar-dance must certainly have been identical with this. It is also called the " Beggars' dance " (and the " Begging-dance "), a name that is derived

1 Bb'hme, Tanz, pp. 57, 103, 116. The German song has been printed by Birket Smith, Rauch's Plays, pp. Ixxxii ff.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 19

from Bedere, — a beggar, — which the old translators of the Bible rendered as " needy men " or " mendicants." The name " mendicants " was also applied to those in- mates of the monasteries who journeyed about collecting the benefactions (see Molbech's and Kalkar's dictionaries). Our own time has preserved three distinct references to this term in the double refrain of " Peder and Malfred " (No. 278) :

Step ye well !

Step and beg, an ye will !

or,

Step up and beg, an ye will !

There seems to be good ground for believing that the re- frain in its original form was an animating shout :

Step up, beggar, an ye will !

One gets the impression that in Denmark also this dance was relegated to the more boisterous spirits. Perhaps it was a kiss that was requested ; for that a kiss could be ex- changed during the dance is scarcely to be questioned. In this respect the Germans never overstepped the bounds of propriety.1

In " The Rape of the Venedian King " (No. 240) there is named another dance :

i. So merrily goes the beggar-dance On the plain outside the wall ; Maidens are stepping the luck-dance (Lykke-Dans\ And knights are playing ball.

This last dance I am not acquainted with. 1 Bbhme, Tanz, index.

20 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

As is well known, the old dances are still kept up among the Faroe islanders. Men and women take each other by the hand and form a circle. The movement con- sists simply of taking three regular steps to the left, then, after balancing a little, bringing the right over against the left and kicking the left out, etc. Most frequently it is danced slowly and solemnly ; but the youthful spirits of the circle often indulge in a faster step, leaping up in the air and raising their hands above their heads. It can also be executed in a lively, exuberant fashion. In the Heb- rides, where they dance faster than in other places, is found a round dance which is taken at a very rapid tempo. This dance is considered to be their oldest. The partici- pants form the usual circle. During the singing of the strophe they either remain in their places or dance back ; but during the refrain they rush quickly forward. Through- out the dance the leader's song is heard above that of the others. The Faroe islanders make manifest, on the whole, that they are not indifferent to the content of the song ; but that by their looks and gestures they endeavor to express the varying nature of the subject matter.1

All the above conditions must be borne in mind when we are considering our popular ballads. Beyond all doubt the style of dancing has influenced the form of the bal- lads, and vice versa. Moreover, that the ballads have been utilized by the dance does not follow merely from what has been stated above. Individual ballads them- selves, so to speak, mention that they were danced to.

1 Lyngbye, Faeroiske Quaeder, pp.8 ff.; Antiquarisk Tidsskrift, 1846- 1848, p. 259 ; 1849-1851, p. 279 ; N. Winther, Faeroernes Oldtidshistorie, pp. 442 ff.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 21

For example, note the refrain in " The Skipper and the Maid" (No. 241):

Step lightly o'er the green plain — The maid must follow me ;

and in " The Wounded Maiden " (No. 244) :

Step up boldly, young knight ! Honor the maidens in the dance.

It must not be asserted, however, that the ballads served no other end than that of accompaniment to the dance ; naturally they could be sung like any other song, and, to judge from several refrains, we must even think of people singing them while out riding or rowing.

So much is certain : the subject matter never interfered with the use of the ballads in the dance. To this the his- torical ballads, for example, testify. We know that the inhabitants of the Faroes danced to the ballad of " King Hans' Wedding " (" King Hans he sits in Copenhagen "), and the pastor Koster says that the inhabitants of Dit- marsh danced to a song on the Danish defeat at Hem- mingsted. In the Faroes people danced to ballads that were religious in content, and in the preceding century even the clergy were seen in their ecclesiastical robes tak- ing part in a dance, on such occasions as weddings, to the accompaniment of ballads like the " Ballad of Isaac " (" Ye noble bridal pair, give heed "), which was a psalm from the Book of Psalms ; or the " Ballad of Susanna," which treated of Daniel and Susanna. In 1818 the pastor Lyngbye saw the congregation assemble in the churchyard and there carry on a pantomimic dance to an old mytho- logical ballad — " Grane bore the gold from the heath."

22 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

At Danish manses solemn dances were permitted to the music of the Psalms of David.1

It goes without saying that erotic ballads took their rise in the dance. As far as satirical ballads are concerned, we know that in the Faroes lampooning ballads were danced to, and that he who was the subject of the ballad and the victim of the satire had to dance into the bargain, for he was seized by two stout men and held fast in line by either hand until the ballad came to an end.2 In Bavaria there exists the so-called " Schnada-hiipfl " (schnada means "to babble," " to tralala "), which consists of a four-line stanza with one or two rimes, sung to well known melodies, and often composed offhand by the dancers. While these " Schnada-hiipfl " are often erotic, they are especially satiri- cal. Two fellows seem to find amusement, for example, in endeavoring to outsatirize each other, being privileged in this sport, for the purpose of ridicule, to draw upon the faults and foibles of the whole valley side.3

This variety of petty satirical verse has found a home here in Denmark as well ; mention of this fact is made in the sagas (see p. 10 above). An interesting specimen of such an improvised satirical ballad, which was danced to by those who composed it, is to be found in ballad No. 366. Here follows the greater portion of this ballad :

" All day my heart is heavy With many a sigh and groan ; All because of those rich wooers, Sir Lave's sons from Lund. All day my heart is heavy !

1 Vilhelm Bang, Praestegaardsliv, p. 272.

2 Skand. Litt. Selsk. Skrifter, ser. 12-13, P- 265 > Lyngbye, Faerdiske Quaeder, p. 14. 8 Bohme, Tanz, p. 239.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 23

" Stand up, stand up, my maidens all, And dance for me a space ; And sing for me a ballad About the sons of Lave's race !

" And sing for me a ballad, And this your song shall be : All how they wait outside my gate, And no answer get from me.

" The first is hight Sir Ove,

The second Sir Eskel Hawk ;

They 've served so long at the court of the king,

They stand neither heat nor smoke.

" The third is hight Sir Magnus, A learned clerk is he ; There lies a jewel hid in my chest Is worth more than all three."

Nought else thought Elselille Than they two were alone ; But by stood Sir Magnus And listened till she was done.

It was then Sir Magnus He stepped within the door ; It was young Elselille, Her face deep blushes bore.

" Stand up, stand up, my comely young men, And dance with me a space ; And we ourselves shall sing a ballad About the sons of Lave's race.

" Sing for me a ballad,

And sing it so for me :

They ride to proud Elselille's gate

And good the answer will be.

24 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

" The first is hight Sir Ove,

The second Sir Eskel Hawk ;

They Ve served so long at the court of the king

They stand both heat and smoke.

" The third is hight Sir Magnus,

A learned clerk is he ;

There lies a jewel in the maiden's chest

Is worth more than we three ! "

" Hear me now, Sir Magnus, With your chaffing now let be ; Meet me the morn at the church door And plight your vows to me."

Up then stood Sir Magnus And leaned him on his sword ; " Men know well, proud Elselille, The feast is more than you are worth."

He lifted up young Elselille

And set her upon his horse,

He led her out to the wild greenwood,

Where thick grow the broom and gorse.

This is the reward proud Elselille got For her scornful, bitter word : For eight long years she sat a widow Alone at her own board.

When eight years had come and gone, He remembered honor and right; He rode out to her father's gate And wooed her for his heart's delight. All day my heart is heavy /

To avoid misunderstanding, let me add in conclusion that while in by far the greatest number of cases one danced to the singing of ballads, yet instrumental music

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 25

was also made use of. The simplest form of accompani- ment was undoubtedly that of the drum alone. An account from iS/o,1 treating of the shopmen's guild in Randers, preserves the regulation that the drummer must not beat his drum longer than the master of the corporation allows. The drum was frequently heard also in the guilds of the peasants. In Article 32 of the statutes of a guild in Ny- Larsker on Bornholm (1599) there is a rule that " no one must be found playing the drum in our guild except our appointed drummer, unless the master of the corporation gives his consent thereto."

Further information on this point can be gained from a consideration of the "players " (jonglettrs). These cor- responded to the present-day musicians, and often in olden times most closely to ale-house fiddlers and jugglers. The "player" of the earliest day was an individual more or less defenseless and subject to ridicule, concerning whom the laws made various amusing provisions. Later he seems to have commanded more respect ; at any rate, he is often mentioned in ballads as being attendant on weddings and other festivals. " No gold was grudged the player " is a standing ballad formula. There certainly can be no doubt that singing was one of his accomplishments. On the whole, his task was to furnish amusement, and listening to music was such a favorite recreation that singing and song naturally came under his jurisdiction. That the verb " to play " can mean " to sing " as well is evident from the expression " they played in the Danish tongue," and there is mention in the Norse Didrik saga of a " player " who sang, plucked the harp strings, and played the fiddle. In 1 Stadfeldt, Randers, p. 88.

26 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

a church in Upland there is a picture of a fool singing to the accompaniment of a zither he is playing. Archbishop Johannes Magni (ob. 1544) relates that heroic ballads were sung to the music of pipes.1 It is scarcely probable that the "player" took any part in the dancing; at least it would depend on the esteem in which he was held. Peder Laale, however, has the proverb : " The player dances willingly for pay." Very possibly the capers of the juggler were what he had in mind here.

From all this evidence it appears that the ballad, when not danced to, could be accompanied by stringed instru- ments, as was indeed the custom in other lands. In wit- ness of this run the following stanzas from " Hagen's Dance " (No. 465) :

Then awoke the Danish queen,

As in her tower she lay : " Which one of my maidens

On the harp doth play ? "

" There is no one of your maidens

That on the harp doth play ; It is the hero Hagen

Who sings so gay."

II. How THE BALLAD AND THE DANCE BEGAN

I have striven to detail thus explicitly the old style of dancing and the use of the ballad in the dance, because I shall constantly need to refer to these features in the investigations that follow. And here I shall dispose of a single question at once.

1 Axel Olrik, in Mindre Afhandlinger, published by the Philol.- Histor. Samfund, pp. 74 ff., 265 ff. ; Schiick, Svensk Literaturhistoria, pp. in ff.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 27

How did the dance begin ? In Ditmarsh, according to Neocorus, it was started by a leader of the song, who stepped out in front of the others, holding a drinking cup in his hand. After he had sung a verse, all those assem- bled repeated it. He then sang another, which was like- wise repeated. At this point another sprang forward, who as leader assumed charge of the dance. Taking his hat in his hand, he danced sedately around the room, at the same time urging the others to join in and arrange them- selves in line. The leader kept time with the song, and the other dancers kept time with the leader. The latter was thus enabled to direct as many as two hundred dancers.

Manifestly the same thing is set forth in our popular

ballads :

" Who is yon knight that leads the dance, And louder than all the song he chants ? "

The leader of the dance must carry a drinking cup, a beaker, or a glass in his hand. This feature still survives in those localities where the " Schnada-hiipfl " is danced ; and in old German accounts we often read of how the " foredancer " would dance around with a bowl or cup on his head.1 (The leader of the dance — or "foredancer" — is the one who begins the dance and exhorts the others to take part; he is also the one who later directs it.) We have something similar to this in the North. At a be- trothal in Christiania in 1637, it is said that the parish priest, Master Kjeld Stub, " danced in public with a glass in his hand and led the dance " ; but the burgomaster, Laurids Ruus, jumping up from his seat, picked out a partner and, holding a glass in his hand, ran against

1 Bohme, Tanz, p. 27.

28 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

Master Kjeld in such a way as to obstruct and break up the dance. On the fifteenth of May of the same year a royal mandate was issued to the bishops in which the priests were admonished to lead a more Christian life, and to abstain from drunkenness and, among other things, " from dancing with a glass in the hand and such worldly indecencies." l

Let us now see whether our ballads do not make some reference to the beginning of the dance. It must be borne in mind that our popular ballads are not lyrical in nature, nor do they voice the usual expressions of the singer's emotions. This subject I shall discuss more fully later on ; here I venture to assume the general character of the ballads to be already known : namely, that they contain, not an expression of lyrical, subjective feeling, but merely an epical narration of events. Nevertheless we find as a general rule in the first stanza of a ballad a lyrical outburst ; as, for instance, in " The Forced Consent " (No. 75) :

B i. Have mercy, O Lord, our grief is deep, And sorrow reigns in our breast ; He who bears a secret sorrow, His heart is ill at rest. Have mercy, O Lord, our grief is deep.

2. Winters fully five Sir Peter

Proud Mettelille did woo ;

But ever she put off her answer,

Though yearly he did sue. Have mercy, O Lord, our grief is deep.

1 Theologisk Tidsskrift, published by Caspar! and several others, II, 463 ; Ketilson, Forordninger for Island, II, 414.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 29

As we see here, the narrative is not taken up until the second stanza, or even until the third, as in " King Didrik in Birtingsland " (No. 8) :

1. The king rules over the castle tower,

And lords it over land, And many a gallant champion leads

All armed and sword in hand. While the king rules over the castle tower.

2. Then let the peasant till his farm,

His horse the trooper guide, The king of Denmark, he alone,

O'er fort and tower preside. While the king rules over the castle tower.

3. King Didrik sits in Brattingsbord,

Looks over land and sea ; " I know not one in all this world Dares match himself with me."

(From Prior's " Danish Ballads.")

In this ballad the story begins with the third stanza and has nothing to do with the king of Denmark ; on the contrary, it deals with Didrik and other champions. These preliminary stanzas constitute an introduction which strikes the keynote, and at the same time, in both of the examples quoted above, give rise to the refrain.1 One more case may be cited from " The Valraven " (No. 60) :

The raven wings his flight by night, He dares not stir by day ; 111 luck befalls the wretched wight When good luck says him nay. The raven wings his flight by night.

1 Scattered throughout his work, as well as in the preface to Part III, will be found Grundtvig's opinions on the subject of ballad burdens.

30 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

The maiden stands on her tower high And gazes o'er land and sea ; She sees the wild Valraven winging His way o'er mountain-side and lea. The raven wings his flight by night.

Here again it is manifest that the first stanza is lyrical in feeling and gives shape to the refrain.

But there is still more to be gathered from ballad refrains. The ballad of " King Birger's Sister Bengta " (No. 155) begins:

I dare not ride by the light of day ;

I suffer grief and pain for a maiden proud and gay,

They know my war array.

It was young Sir Laurids, Had plighted his vows to his love so dear ; She spent her days in a cloister cell, And heavy sorrow lay him near. They know my war array.

In the first stanza it is " I " that speaks, who must be iden- tical with Sir Laurids, the knight that dares not ride out by day because he is pursued and his shield too well known. But in the remainder of the ballad the " I " has completely disappeared, and the story is related in the customary third person. Furthermore it will be noted that the first stanza or refrain has an entirely different meter from that of the ballad proper. This has often escaped the notice of old collectors and editors, who, considering the verse to be defective, have made alterations in it. Accordingly Peder Syv has dressed up the foregoing lines into the following beautiful version !

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 31

I will not ride by day Through field and through forest ; I suffer for a proud young maiden Both grief and pain the sorest.

As another example may be cited the following from "Proud Signild and Queen Sophie" (No. 129):

1. The lyke-wake holds to-night, He wakes whoever will ;

Proud Signelil wakes alone out in the forest green.

2. Proud Signelil hasted to her mother and spake :

— He wakes whoever will —

" May I to-night attend the wake ? "

— Proud Signelil wakes alone out in the forest green.

From " King Hakon's Death " (No. 142) :

It now has come What long ago was foretold Of Hakon, the holy king ; Norway a captive he holds.

From "Marsk Stig's Daughter" (No. 146) :

The king sits in Kollen,

— Hey ! the rose and sweet flowers !

The king's two daughters away were stolen.

— Nor spake they a word of their native towers.

The eldest took the youngest by the hand, And so they journeyed to King Sifrid's land.

Stanza one of " The Betrothed in the Grave " (No. 90) supplies an introduction if not a refrain :

i. Three maidens sat in their bower,

Two were plaiting gold ;

The third bewailed her lover dead,

Lay buried beneath the mould. For she had plighted her vows to the knight.

32 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

2. It was the rich Sir Aage,

He rode by the salt sea strand ;

He wooed and won young Elselille,

The fairest may in the land. For she had plighted her vows to the knight.

Here the first stanza has nothing whatever to do with the narrative, which is taken up at the second ; it is simply an introduction which at the outset pictures the sorrowing maiden who was affianced to the rich young knight.

We could point out this circumstance in a score of ballads.1 It is true that this is a small number among so many hundreds. But we may rest assured that many ballads originally possessed such a stanza, which in the course of time has gone astray because one no longer understood that it was a part of the ballad, or which has undergone alteration to fit the usual verse form. In every case this opening stanza indicates clearly how the ballad used to be rendered. Between the introductory and the following stanzas there exists a marked contrast, which appears externally in the different rhythm of the two parts, and internally in the different nature of the subject matter. The introductory stanza is often lyrical or general in content and suggests the mood ; the main body of the ballad is narrative. If the first stanza thus differs from those that follow, on the other hand, it stands in the closest relation to the refrain of the ballad ; it even gives up one of its lines to the latter, or may be evolved there- from. The song or the dance begins in this fashion : the singer steps forth, holding some silver vessel in his hand ; he strikes up the tune and bids the others to participate,

1 Nos. 8, 32, 60, 67, 75, 83, 129, 132, 138, 155, 196, 202, 249, 261, and several unpublished ballads.

THE DANCE AND THE BALLAD 33

the proceeding reminding us somewhat of the well-known first thirty-five bars of Weber's " Invitation to the Dance." The mood and tune which he has set afloat, and which is naturally identical with that of the ballad proper, is main- tained throughout by means of the constantly repeated refrain.

In case a ballad contains no such introductory verse, it invariably begins with the refrain. It is not likely that the singer took up at once the narrative. This we can infer from the fact that the oldest manuscript copy of any heroic ballad in our possession — " The Knight transformed into a Hart " (No. 67) — begins as follows :

I spent the live-long night dreaming of a maiden.

It was Sir Peter,

He bade his retainers run :

" Could ye to proud Ose-lille

And get me speech right soon ? " I spent the live-long night dreaming of a maiden,

There is found also another ballad copy (Unpublished No. 156) which has the refrain placed at the beginning :

I know a maiden in our land, she never leaves my fancy.

In the music to the Faroese "Song of Sigurd" (Lyngbye's " Faeroiske Quaeder "), the refrain is likewise found at the beginning, a feature that is in accord with the practice of the islanders of always singing the refrain first, for it de- termined the tempo of the dance. The circumstance that nearly all ballad versions place the refrain after the first stanza or at the end of the ballad arises from the fact that here in every case was its proper place.1

1 Cf. also Grundtvig's statement to P. G. Thorsen, Om Runernes Brug til Skrift udenfor det monumentale, p. 53.

CHAPTER III THE /

Are the popular ballads lyrical ? That these songs do not voice the emotions of the poet himself admits of no question ; on the other hand, it can hardly be denied that they are expressive to the highest degree of the inner, emotional life. A consideration of their subject matter makes evident that the ballads are nothing more than tales which recount incident and action, either past or present. A consideration of their spirit, however, reveals to us that it is not mere accident which omits all men- tion of the poet's name and forces the singer to remain in the background. And however much the ballad may deal with strength and heroic deed, with faith and love, it never refers to these attributes and virtues as ideas and conceptions, but it always bodies forth such abstractions in the plastic figures of the actors. Accordingly all subjec- tivity is eliminated, the objectivity of the narrative forbids an alliance with the thoughts and impulses of the poet himself. Emotion never gets the upper hand of narra- tion ; the poet is not given to restless moods, nor does he linger over his own sorrows. The imagination of the audience is concerned with action — and yet the ballad always awakens a peculiar feeling, a distinctive mood. This was precisely the intention of the narrative. But it brings this about so unobtrusively that we fail to note the

34

THE 7 35

design, and consequently we are aware of no discord. Thus far the lyric and the epic blend together in the ballad ; and even a didactic, a corrective, an admonitory tone may insensibly find its way into the ballad's epic mode of narration. No matter how great the variety, how numerous the moods and tones, the chords and harmonies that characterize our ballads, individually they bear no im- press of any one poet. The artist is here responsible for nothing. It is as if emotion had not yet learned to express itself without the aid of narration. Only at a later date did the lyric element diffuse itself through the ballads. In accordance with the demands of the prevailing taste, lyrical variations were woven into certain ballads as ornaments ; they were even shifted from ballad to ballad. Gradually there arose erotic, satiric, didactic, and allegorical ballads, — but at this point we are wholly within the period of the Reformation, the period of the Renaissance in the North. The distinctive qualities of our ballads can be thrown into clearer relief if we institute a comparison with the medieval folk songs of Germany. In going through one of the many collections of these songs, we shall meet with such a love song as the following, which is older

than 1400: All mein Gedenken, die ich han, die sind bei Dir, Du auserwahlter einger Trost bleib stets bei mir. . . .

or this one, which antedates 1 500 : Ach hertzigs Hertz, mein Schmertz erkennen thu ! Ich hab kein Ruh nach Dir steht mein Verlangen. . . .

36 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

On the whole, some of the most beautiful flowers of Ger- man folk poetry of the Middle Ages are to be found in these love songs. The following charming little verse came into being as early as the twelfth century : l

Du bist min, ich bin din, des soltu gewis sin. Du bist beslozzen in minen herzen ; verloren ist das sluzzelin : du muost immer dar inne sin.

There likewise belongs to this period a great variety of Tagelieder, in which lovers give utterance to their grief at having to part when day breaks upon them ; also Wachter- lieder, of similar nature, in which the watchman, seeing daylight at hand, warns the lovers that it is time to part :

Wohlauf, Wohlauf, mit lauter Stimm thut uns der Wachter singen.

These Tagelieder were probably original with the Minne- singers ; but by the thirteenth century they had made their way into the ranks of the populace, where they be- came the property of all classes and passed from hand to hand. Furthermore we find songs dealing with nature, such as the following dance at the appearance of the first violet, which is from the fourteenth or the fifteenth century : Der Meye? der Meye

bringt uns der Bliimlein viel. . . .

and the following, which antedates 1467 : Es ist ein Schnee gefallen, und es ist doch nit Zeit, man wirft mich mit dem Ballen, der Weg ist mir verschneit.

1 Gbdeke, Grundrisz z. Geschichte d. d. Dichtung, 2d ed., I, 48.

THE / 37

Other songs that are met with are farewell songs, wan- derers' songs, riddle songs, wager songs, wishing songs, lansquenet, knight, and soldier songs, vocation songs, such as the fliting song between a nobleman and a peasant (thirteenth century), a student song from 1454 :

ich weisz ein frisch Geschlechte,

das sind die Burschenknechte (Burs, i.e. college)

ihr Orden steht also :

sie leben ohne Sorge

den Abend und den Morgen

sie sind gar statclich froh. . . .

and finally spiritual songs and historical ballads.1

For parallels to the greater part of what is cited above one will search in vain our great store of ballad poetry of the Middle Ages. For us lyric poetry in its entirety was per- fected abroad ; at least no evidence to the contrary has come down to us. On the other hand, we possess an ex- tensive collection of songs concerning heroes, or, more properly, "heroic ballads," while Germany can lay claim to very few. Nor can the latter country point to any com- prehensive body of songs dealing with magic, or to any wide range of love ballads.2 The North has long been the

1 During the war which has been waged in Germany the past few years over the oldest popular poetry and its relation to " die hofische Dichtung" (which had its origin in the twelfth century), it has been admitted by all that there existed previous to the Minnesingers a folk poetry with a subjective, lyrical stamp. On the other hand, it is not generally agreed whether this folk poetry had a very great accepta- tion, and the question has arisen, Did this folk poetry furnish a model for the Minnesongs, or did the latter evolve directly from the folk poetry? See Zeit.f. d. Altertum, XXVII, 343 ff., XXIX, 121 ff., XXXIV, 146 ff.; Zeit.f. d. Philologie, XIX, 440 ff. ; Germania, XXXIV, I ff.

2 Talvj (Mrs. Robinson), Charakteristik der Volkslieder, pp. 389 ff. ; Bohme, Altdeutsches Liederbuch, pp. xxviii ff.

38 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

home, as it were, of a serious, gloomy, often demoniacal, species of poetry, which refused to be deposed by the cul- ture of the South or by the spirit of Christianity. Not- withstanding the large number of popular songs of a ballad or romantic nature that is native to Germany, Goethe was not wrong in his observation that this kind of poetry would not have flourished with his German forefathers.1

In the Danish ballads we find more or less prominent an erotic element, a moral questioning, a sentiment for nature ; but in an objective sense something always hap- pens, action is always present. With the riddle songs of Germany mentioned above, we might well compare what is of a similar nature in the Icelandic riddle poems " Vaf- frudnismdl," "Alvissmal," "Fjolsvinnsmal," andHervor's and Heidrek's sagas. In the ballad of " Svend Vonved " (No. 1 8) we see also a series of riddles propounded and solved ; but, mind you, as a component part of the action. Though a large number of historical ballads have grown up on German soil, yet they all date from the conclusion of the Middle Ages. They differ from the Danish historical ballads, which are also considerable in number — over three- score— and, in addition, of the highest worth, in that they are more political, or inclined to talk politics, and hence composed from a definite standpoint and with a definite, practical end in view. It is also apparent that the subjective element is a prominent feature of the German ballads. Moreover, whereas the latter are short, very frequently being an outburst of only a couple of stanzas, or, at the most, of five or six, our ballads are long, seldom numbering fewer than twenty stanzas, and often many 1 Bohme, Liederbuch, pp. xxviii ff.

THE 7 39

more. And finally, whereas the German ballads generally sing of " ein Fraulein," " ein Jiinglein," our ballads almost invariably attach specific names to the personages, such as "Little Kirstin," "Proud Elselil," "The Lady Mettelil," " Sir Ove," " Sir Peter," " Sir Lauge Stison," etc. How near we came to having erotic lyric poetry may be seen from the following poem, which dates from the Middle Ages.1

Love's true worth with song and mirth

I shall never cease to honor;

A flower I know well whose name I '11 ne'er tell,

But praise I shall heap upon her.

Of all others she beareth the prize,

Prudent, faithful, virtuous, wise,

And loyal beyond them all.

As the stars all pale in the light of the sun,

So pale before this peerless one

Women from thorp and hall.

Heia, heia, Would that she gave me a call.

Although the subject of this poem is not of earthly origin, although the maiden is not a mortal maiden, but the Virgin Mary, yet we should not hesitate to regard such a mode of expression as belonging to lyrics of love. Still a com- parison between this poem and the manner of erotic ex- pression to be found in our ballads cannot help but be instructive as showing how the more conscious and learned poet (in this case the monk Peder Reff Little) strikes a tone that is several octaves higher than that of the popular ballads, and adorns his execution with shakes and runs that are quite foreign to the naive utterance of the simple ballad.

1 Brandt and Helveg, Den danske Psalmedigtning, I, x.

40 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

With a few exceptions, the characteristics of the Danish ballads as sketched above hold good also of the other Scandinavian lands. With respect to Sweden, however, I may add that not only is her store of ballad material much less comprehensive than ours, but also that as early as the fifteenth century there began to appear both a more artifi- cial kind of poetry, which could be ascribed to definite authors (for example, Bishop Thomas), and a ballad poetry that was political and satirical.1

Leaving the subject of general characteristics, we shall now seek to determine just how far the ballads are imper- sonal, just how far the poet and singer remain concealed.

I. A BALLAD WILL I SING TO YOU

Every one knows how the modern street songs begin with a verse which resembles very closely that which we meet with in ballad No. 86 :

A ballad will I sing to you, Which many a time I have sung, All how the lovely Lady Margaret Was loved by Sir Flores Bendiktson.

Every one surely knows also that this is not the way our ballads usually begin. In this particular ballad of " Flores and Margaret," the above verse is found in a number of versions ; but this ballad belongs to the so-called ballads of romance, " which give us a picture, not of the actual life of the Middle Ages, but of the taste." They could better be designated as echoes of the romances of chivalry. That

1 Hylten-Cavallius and G. Stephens, Sveriges historiska och politiska visor; H. Schiick, Svensk Literaturhistoria, pp. 119 ff.

THE 7 41

they date from a late period scarcely needs proof. I shall later touch more intimately upon their characteristics.

The same introductory verse appears in several copies of " The Cloister Robbery " (No. 476) :

1. A ballad will I sing to you, Come listen to my song,

All how the young Sir Morten A lovely maiden won.

2. Sir Morten wooed the maiden Lisbeth, Virtuous she was and fair ;

Much it vexed the knight's friends That she lacked riches rare.

In conformity with the general practice of ballad introduc- tions, the oldest copy of the ballad begins with the second of the above stanzas. Accordingly the first stanza should be omitted on account of both its extreme plainness and the absence of traditional warrant.

We meet this verse again in a ballad whose age is known, namely, No. 172, "King Christian of Denmark in Sweden" (1520), which is preserved in a manuscript

of 1550:

1 . Come listen to my song, A ballad will I sing to you

Of King Christian, the high-born prince, To whom all honor is due.

2. There one wrote MD (i.e. 1500) And also the eighteenth year,

At Helsingborg in Skaane the king He bade his folk appear.

23. Attend to me yet awhile And hear what it is about ; Good Friday they did them all to Upland, There a marvellous play fell out.

42 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

30. Praised be God, our Father in Heaven, The Danish men the glory have won ! God give us rest in Heaven at last, With Him to dwell forever at one.

Such stanzas as the above are downright jarring on the ear, so striking is their departure from the usual ballad style. All this harangue, this learning, this direct appeal to the audience is utterly foreign to the style of other bal- lads. Such stanzas are therefore extremely significant for showing how people composed about 1 5 20, and how they did not compose in the Middle Ages. This species of introductory verse clearly belongs to a later date and to a pseudo-popular ballad literature.

It is invariably the case that such verses are late addi- tions to ballads and not part and parcel of them originally. A similar verse is found in four out of the five copies of " Knud of Borg" (No. 195). The fact that it is not found in the Norse version led Landstad to remark that its presence in the Danish versions indicated " its recent origin." It turns up again in one of the five Icelandic versions, and also in ballad No. 212 (Abr.) ; but in the latter instance it is wanting in the oldest text and also in the Icelandic form.

Accordingly we may safely affirm that no genuine popular ballad begins with the announcement that the singer will now sing a ballad. Long ago an excellent critic made a similar observation in connection with the Swedish ballads. Talvj (pseudonym of Mrs. Robinson) stated that, as far as she knew, not a single Swedish, and only two Danish, ballads began in the manner popu- lar with singers : " Ich will euch eine Weise singen," or

THE I 43

" Kommt all' im Kreis und hort mir zu," etc., as do so many English and German ballads.1

In this connection the concluding stanza and its peculiarity may be discussed. " Sir Stig's Wedding " (No. 76 B) has this ending:

Safe and sound from hurt and harm, Sir Stig sleeps nightly on Regisse's arm.

Stig Lilies' ballad is now at an end : May God in Heaven His grace us send !

It should be borne in mind that the first of the two stanzas just quoted forms the conclusion of a large number of our ballads. On the other hand, it is plain that the second is sheer fabrication ; it occurs only in texts B and F, texts that were not recorded until 1600. In some of the other versions, which belong in part to manuscripts older than 1600, this last stanza is wanting. " Sir Bugge's Death " (No. 158) reads in conclusion :

D 35. He ruled in Hald a year or so, More than this I cannot say.

This clumsy verse appears in only one of the four texts, and this text belongs neither to Karen Brahe's Folio Manu- script of 1550 nor to Sten Miller's manuscript of 1555. Text B of "King Birger's Sister Bengta" (No. 155) has this ending :

46. A ballad of these two I shall no longer sing, I trust they are at rest in Heaven And dwell with Heaven's King.

1 Talvj, Versuch einer geschichtlichen Charakteristik der Volkslieder germanischer Nationen, p. 340.

44 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

This text is "an uncalled-for revision of a genuine copy," whereas " only A can lay claim to being genuine " ; in A we do not find this stanza. All in all, these concluding stanzas of so unpoetic a character point to a late period.

To return to the subject of ballad openings. There are a number of ballads which would seem to introduce the /of the singer into the ballad somewhat indirectly. One will perceive, however, that this is merely a question of the same conditions which I have mentioned in connection with the refrain. In a remarkably guileless manner both the singer and the audi- ence are ushered into the middle of events by a stanza such as the following from ' ' German Gladensvend ' ' (No. 3 3 B, C) :

I . Our king and his young queen They sailed them over the sea, They found their ship held fast in the waves, And no breeze to set them free.

Here, however, the otir is perhaps an interloper ; a text equally old and another somewhat younger have " The king and queen of Denmark."

Again we read in " Find Lille " (No. 123) :

3. He summons the king and all his men : Our fair young queen shall follow them.

Since this verse is found only in Magdalena Barnewitz's manuscript of 1650, and is, in addition, borrowed from "Sir Stig's Wedding" (No. 76):

A 48. He summons the king and all his men :

The Danish queen home must follow them,

its testimony is of little worth. In "The Knight trans- formed into a Bird " (No. 68) the first verse runs :

There lives a maiden in our land Denies the suit of every man.

THE I 45

So in versions B and C, which belong to manuscripts of 1650 and after; whereas the other five versions, among them A of 1550, do away with our. In "Proud Elin's Revenge " (No. 209), from Karen Brahe's Folio Manuscript, is met this opening stanza :

1. It was the bold Sir Renold, Rode by the salt sea strand,

He wooed Sir Bunde's daughter, The fairest in the land.

2. He wooed Sir Bunde's daughter, He led her home :

The king and our archbishop With them did come.

This our seems to have intruded itself a number of times into late forms of ballads ; its presence may be explained, however, by the desire of the singer to plunge his audience into the thick of events right at the beginning of the ballad. This is further borne out by the fact that in certain ballads we find the refrain closely bound up with the opening stanza. Compare the beginning of " Olaf and Asser White " (No. 202) :

There stands without our castle-gate Many a noble knight ; There are two maidens fair within, Of love they think but light.

Sir Olaf and Sir Asser White They bade their pages run : " Do ye to those maidens fair, And get us speech right soon." There are two maidens fair within.

The refrain grows out of the first of these two stanzas.

46 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

Equally significant are the opening stanzas in version C (Karen Brahe's Folio Manuscript) of " The Forced Con- sent " (No. 75) :

1. I heard a knight in my lady's bower, And they were seated at play,

Of gold the table and red gold the dice, And he wooed the maiden gay. No one can with her compare.

2. " Hear my suit my lady fair, Nor grace from me withhold ; And you shall wear the scarlet fine And shoes of the ruddy gold."

No one can with her compare.

Thus it is reasonably certain that such an opening is merely an overture, an introduction to the tale which assures the audience, as it were, that he who sings and relates was an eye-witness of the event. Another form of ballad structure opens up with the refrain :

B i . Have mercy, O Lord, our grief is deep And sorrow reigns in our breast ; He who bears a secret sorrow, His heart is ill at rest. Have mercy, O Lord, our grief is deep.

The examples cited above by no means conflict, as will be evident, with my former assertion that the personality of the singer never fills the foreground of the ballad ; I have shown above that it also counts for nothing in this re- spect when the singer steps out in front and, with cup raised aloft, leads the song and dance. And it is in the same light that we are to regard his appearance here in the first stanza.

THE I 47

Meanwhile it will prove instructive to note the length to which the introductory portions of ballads attain. The " Combat with the Worm " (No. 24) begins as follows :

1. When that I was a little boy Herding the cattle and sheep ; I found a little spotted snake Gliding through the grasses deep.

And she bore the prize from all.

2. I lifted up the spotted snake,

And wrapped it in a mantle around ; To Helsing's daughter at Lundegaard I made a gift of what I found.

3. " A thousand thanks, my bonny boy,

A thousand thanks for the gift you gave ; I '11 ne'er forget what I owe to you If e'er a boon you crave."

4. She fed the snake the winter through And winters fully three, etc.

Only at this point begins the tale of the snake and the maiden ; the peasant lad disappears completely from view. The snake grows up into a loathsome monster, which keeps the maiden a prisoner. Her father promises that he who slays the monster shall have his daughter to wife. The first to attempt the feat, Sivard Ingvordson, fails out- right. Then Peder Riboltson presents himself, and, pro- tected by a bull's hide smeared with tar, succeeds in killing the snake and winning the maiden.

Similar in nature are the introductory portions of several ballads in which the singer intimates that his song and story are based on experience, or in which he practically inquires whether they have heard the same story. To this

48 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

class belong those ballads in which the singer affirms (as in No. 22), " It 's talked of far and near " that such and such a thing has happened ; or, as in " King Hakon's Death " (No. 142), " It now has come what long ago was foretold." Then the narrative proper is taken up. Here we must also assign " Niels Paaskeson and Lave Brok " (No. 164), which besings an event dating from 1468. Before relating how Lave Brok slew Niels Paaskeson, the singer sets forth how the Paaskesons, a merchant family in Randers, built such a dwelling that the castles of the nobility were all dwarfed in comparison.

1. The Paaskesons have built a house In the middle of Randers' street ; In all my days so high a house My eyes did never meet.

Paaskesons' house tops the castles.

2. One finds within this same house Stories fifteen in all ;

The knobs are of the red, red gold, They shine o'er croft and wall.

3. One finds within this same house Fifteen doors, stout and strong ; Never yet saw I such a house

In all my life so long.

4. One finds within this same house Both mead and cider good ; One finds within this same house Five winters' fill of food.

5. It was Niels Paaskeson,

He strides down Randers' street, etc.

Herewith the story runs on in the usual narrative style.

THE I 49

II. MONOLOGUE WITHIN THE BALLAD

Several of our ballads present further peculiarities. As every one knows, the style of narrative usually in vogue with the ballad is akin to that of the epic ; that is, the singer stands in an impersonal relation to the events of his story, intruding neither himself nor his own conclusions into his verse. This last consideration affects also the actors in the ballad, who, to a large extent, are made to speak only so far as their speeches forward the requisite dramatic effect. But it sometimes happens that that portion which in one ballad is told in the third person, in another is put into the mouth of some speaker, who at a certain point appears upon the scene. " The picture which the one ballad unrolls before us in its entirety," says Grundtvig, " is, in the second instance, thrust back to form the background. In the second picture, then, the spirited life and stir of the back- ground is thrown into strong relief by the extreme sim- plicity and repose of the foreground. At the same time, the latter forms a substantial complement to the action itself " (Grundtvig, II, 390 ; V, 289). " Ribolt and Guld- borg" (No. 82) tells how Ribolt, having carried off his truelove Guldborg, is overtaken by her father and brothers ; he fights manfully with them until Guldborg, against his injunction not to speak his name (" name him to death "), calls out : " Ribolt, spare my youngest brother ! " Upon this he loses his strength and receives a deadly wound. Guldborg herself dies shortly afterwards. " Hildebrand and Hilde " (No. 83) relates how Hilde sewed her seam so recklessly that it attracted the notice of the queen, who was led to ask where her thoughts were. Thus she learned

50 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

of Hilde's sorrow. It had happened with Hilde as with Guldborg ; she had called to Hildebrand to spare at least her youngest brother. After his death she had been sold by her parents. Then the ballad goes on to say :

The queen then spake in changed tone, And fast the tears her cheek ran down :

" Now that thy sad tale is done,

Thy lord was Hildebrand, my own dear son."

Scarce had Hildelil told her tale, When at the foot of the queen she fell.

The queen in her heart was sad and wae, Dead in her arms proud Hildelil lay.

In the above ballad the story is set in a frame, which serves to isolate the narrator from his audience, despite the fact that a large part of the ballad is told in the first person. The same conditions are met with in "The Maiden transformed into a Wolf" (No. 55) and in "The Maiden transformed into a Hind " (No. 58). The latter tells in the third person how Sir Peder kills a hart; when he is about to flay it, he finds his sister within the skin, who relates to him how her wicked stepmother had changed her succes- sively into a pair of scissors, a sword, a hare, and a hind. Sir Peder cuts his little finger and gives her blood to drink, whereby she is retransformed into a beautiful maiden. In revenge they cast the stepmother into a spiked barrel. The same story is found in "The Maiden transformed into a Wolf" (No. 55), where the maiden herself relates how she, in the shape of a wolf, has torn her stepmother to pieces. In the end she enters a cloister. As the third

THE I 51

set of parallels may be mentioned " The Bold Sir Nilaus' Reward" (No. 270) and " Redselille and Medelvold" (No. 271) in conjunction with "The Son's Sorrow" (No. 272). The first two recount the fortunes of a maiden who has been abducted. In the journey through the woods she is overtaken by the pangs of childbirth. She dies while her lover is in search of water. When he finds her dead, he slays himself. The third text puts the story into the mouth of the lover himself — a manifest absurdity, espe- cially when it appears that he sings in conclusion :

A 21. I set my sword against a stone,

Off the point my heart's blood ran down.

This verse is impossible. The Icelandic, Norse, and Swed- ish versions represent the lover as narrating the story to one of his parents, as, for instance, in the following Norse :

Up and spake his father then :

" Why sittest thou so still and wan ?

" Your noble brethren leap and run, But ever thou sittest still and wan."

" I served a count for meat and fee, And he had daughters three," etc.

When he had told his tale so sad,

In his father's arms he fell down dead.

An exactly parallel situation is found in a fourth Danish ballad, "The Companion's Grief" (No. 273), in which it is a comrade who asks his fellow if he is borne down by a secret sorrow. The latter then details the causes of his melancholy and dies immediately.

The result of this investigation brings out that a couple of ballads are characterized by monologue spoken by the

52 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

chief personage, and furthermore that these ballads are supplemented by others, which incase the monologue in a setting of narration, thus allowing the third person to appear at the beginning and at the end of the ballad. Here again we seem to be reminded that narration in the first person is not in favor with ballad style, that it is even looked upon as foreign, and that, when it is used in isolated cases, it is made a part of the story itself.

We can note exactly similar characteristics in Old Norse poetry. As an exception to the general run of the " Elder Edda " may be named the second " Lay of Gudrun," in which Gudrun herself tells her experiences. Now this lay could be easily transposed, by scarcely more than chang- ing / to she, into a form analogous to the other lays, since the monologue of Gudrun contains in direct discourse not only her own words, but also the words of those with whom she speaks. As was pointed out by Grundtvig, the orig- inal form of this lay was doubtless that of an impersonal narrative recited by the poet. Those who came upon the stage spoke in their own persons. The lays resembling most closely the structure of this lay are two from a later period — " Oddrunargra.tr " and " GuSrunarhvot " ; but here we have in the introduction the situation and the occasion of the retrospective monologue, which then follows as the main body of the recital. And in this monologue none of the characters speak in their own persons. Narrative in the first person does not seem to have become prevalent until later.1

1 Svend Grundtvig, Udsigt over den nordiske Oldtids heroiske Digtning, pp. 79 S.

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III. THE CHANGE OF NARRATOR IN THE BALLAD

A number of ballads present the curious feature of changing the person of the narrator. " True as Gold " (No. 254), for instance, begins with:

A i . Early in the morning the knight rides out To chase the roe and the deer ; I found a maid on the mountain-side, My service I offered to her.

Hereupon the /disappears, leaving behind only the knight and the maiden. In B and C we have the stanza :

I rode me out in the morning early To chase the roe and the deer ; I found a maiden under a linden, My service I offered to her.

In the stanza that follows the recital deals only with the young man and the maiden. As will be shown later, the ballad is borrowed from abroad ; but in the four German and the one Netherland parallels which Grundtvig cites, the narrative is told entirely in the third person.

" The Maiden transformed into a Bird " (No. 56) is an account of how a maiden was metamorphosed by her wicked stepmother, first into a hind, and then into a hawk, and her attendant maids into wolves. Her lover is on the point of attempting her capture, when he is told that he cannot hope to insnare the hawk unless he offers as a bait the flesh of a domesticated animal. He there- upon cuts a slice from his own breast and gives it to the hawk, which at once assumes the form of a most beauti- ful girl. In the first eight stanzas of the ballad it is the

54 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

girl herself who speaks ; but from this point on to the end the recital is concerned only with the girl and the hawk.

i. When that I was a little boy, My mother fell sick and died ; My father rode out o'er the land, Brought home another bride.

8. My love he serves at the court of the king, etc.

15. The youth he cut a slice from his breast And hung it high on the linden tree ; Full glad was she, for sore was her need, And flapped her wings right lustily.

23. The youth has now got his reward, Safely has he won from harm ; At night he sleeps full joyously Within his truelove's arms.

This singularity manifests itself in several texts with the fol- lowing arrangement: A stanzas 1-8 /, 9-23 she; B 1-8 /, 9-24 she ; C i / (but the / of the singer, not of the maiden), the remainder in the third person ; D third per- son throughout except in 2 ; E i / (of the young man), 2-8 he ; F 1-16 /(of the maiden), 17-18 she.

"The Maiden's Morning Dream" (No. 239) tells the story of a girl who is treated rather harshly by her maternal aunt. She dreams that she is a duck in the pond of the Wendish king ; when pressed to sell her dream she refuses. Immediately the Wendish king appears on the scene and demands her in marriage ; this is consummated, despite the efforts of her aunt to prevent it. Three good texts start out with the narration in the first person (A 1-4, B 1-3, D i, 2) and then change to the third person, which carries it on.

THE / 55

" Folke Algotson " (No. 180) relates how a young man carries out the request of his truelove to arrive on the scene in time to prevent her marriage to another. At the proper moment thirty youths clad in mail appear on the spot and carry off the bride. The different copies of this ballad present the greatest variations : B I, 26-29 third person, 4-25 7; G 1-3, 9-16 third person, 4-8 /; H (from 1650) 1-3 third, 4-12 /; I and K also fluctuate; and D (from Peder Syv) has in the beginning (1-4) and the conclu- sion (23, 24) the first person, and in the intervening stan- zas (5-22) the third. In an unpublished ballad (No. 46) we likewise find an 7, which gradually gives way to he. Another unpublished ballad (No. 299) offers us two old forms, one of which uses the third person throughout; the other uses the first up to the middle of the ballad, where it changes over to that of the maiden, who, by the way, comes to her death.

The inference that ballads so constructed would not admit of singing is untenable in the light of the similarity presented by ballads collected in our own day by the school- master Kristensen. For instance, in "The Faithless Bride " (Kristensen, I, No. 78 ; II, No. 54) we find 7 in the first part, but in the last stanza he. In " The Meeting in the Wood " (Kristensen, I, No. 79 ; Grundtvig, No. 284) the first few stanzas are told in the words of the actors themselves, whereas the remainder is related in the third person. In "The Poacher" (Kristensen, II, No. 6) 7 runs through all the twenty-two stanzas except the fifteenth ; in this instance, however, the alteration might well be due to a lapse of memory, which so often has disfigured the original aspect of a ballad.

56 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

In reply to the question, Which of the two forms is the older, — narration or monologue, — only one answer is pos- sible. The simple recital of events that have befallen others appears to be far more natural than a monologue, which is open to many objections. In addition to the fact that they contain the speeches of all the actors, the ballads are other- wise highly dramatic in structure. Although, as a rule, it is not said who is speaking, yet it is never a matter of doubt. Now, if he who is the main character in the ballad is at the same time the narrator, and if he has occasion to speak with any one of the other characters, it will be diffi- cult to make his replies appear as such, — namely, to make them stand out distinct from his narrative, — unless he uses the rather unfortunate ' ' I said . " In other words, the dramatic force of the ballad is ruined and the impression confused by such a multitude of /'s. Moreover monologue is absurd when a tragic end awaits the singer, since it is manifestly impossible for a person to tell the story of his own death. Accordingly the stanza cited above in " The Son's Sorrow" (No. 272) is sheer nonsense. Such a novel style of story- telling as is met with in the "Rimed Chronicle," in which each king relates how he died and was buried, does not lend itself to imitation in a song which has a musical delivery.

But first and foremost must be taken into consideration man's natural timidity about laying bare his whole history to the general multitude, especially where, as in the bal- lads, it is a case of exposing his innermost feelings. When Ingemann decided to write his experiences, he sought a mode of expression that would permit him to stand objectively apart from his life and to look back upon his career as though it were terminated. This " insulating

THE / 57

stool," which, by permitting him to overlook his past, would vouchsafe him freedom and spare him confessional obligations, he discovered at last, he writes, " approximately by just using he for /in writing about himself."

If this is true of a literary artist in a thoroughly cultured period, how must it be with an unsophisticated singer ap- pearing before an artless folk ? Even if the balladist, unlike Ingemann, does not precisely relate his own experiences, yet he knows full well that he whom these things did be- fall would have been reluctant enough to speak without the aid of this " insulating stool."

" The simple man," says a German writer, " who is wholly possessed by an emotion that demands expression lacks the courage to body it forth in its naked reality ; he is ashamed to appear as suffering from the force of his own emotions. Therefore he conceals it under the form of a simile or picture, or assuming the character of a dispassionate narrator he employs an epic situation to give vent to the feelings under which he labors." 1 It is precisely on this basis that the epic-lyric romances have become the most accepted form for all folk poetry, and this is most eminently true of our Danish ballads. When- ever these deviate from that form, whenever the / becomes predominant, we have every reason to believe such cases to be exceptions. We can well understand the need, which might easily have arisen even when the /-form of narra- tion was used, of concealing the face, as it were, by letting what was told take the shape of a story foisted upon some one else and not as the experiences of the narrator, — who would now be in the position to stand by as an auditor.

1 Berger, in Zeit.f. d, Philologie, XIX, 443.

58 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

In the same manner we may explain those ballads in which / gradually and unobtrusively goes over into he. In certain ballads the / that is found in the introductory stanza, where the singer himself speaks, or where he stands in some definite relation to the action, has, to be sure, spread improperly throughout the entire ballad. But this does not account for all the cases where there is an interchange of the first and third persons. Nor can it be assigned to chance or to mistakes in writing the ballad down, for we see the same thing obstinately persisting in the songs of the peasants to-day. Hence there seems to be no other alternative possible than to regard it as a pecu- liarity inherent in popular poetry and in artless methods of singing. Children and negro servants exhibit a similar inclination to substitute their own names for 7.1 The folk singer never obtrudes himself, and, during the progress of the ballad, he always remains an outsider. And it is well to notice that the shifting of persons in the ballad is always from the first to the third, never from the third to the first. If this exchange rested upon mere caprice or upon a faulty memory, the reverse phenomenon would certainly have taken place. This, however, we never find.

IV. / THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE BALLAD

It is manifest from the above discussion that one will have to search a long time before he finds a ballad in which the singer is completely merged into the chief char- acter. The question naturally arises, If no ballads exist in which the poet has composed according to the art of song

1 Cf. also Jakob Grimm, Kleinere Schriften, III, 241 ff. ; Burdach, in Zeit.f. d. Altertum, XXVII, 351.

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affected by modern lyrics, what has become of him ? The answer does not admit of detail, since the number of such ballads is very small, and since they all virtually lead to the same conclusions that have been already reached.

As the first of these can be cited " Hedeby's Ghost " (No. 91), which begins as follows :

1. I rode abroad till eventide,

I tethered my steed by my side.

2. I laid my head on the bent so brown, And longed right sorely for slumber sound.

3. The sleep that first did seal my eyes, Before my view a corpse did rise.

4. "If you are a man of my race, You shall set to rights my case."

The dead man goes on to relate how his wife encompassed his death, how she lives with his squire as a mistress, and how she humiliates his children. Here the ballad ends, being only a fragment. Several versions from other lands, however, have preserved the conclusion. The Norse text, for instance, which Bugge heard sung in Telemark (" Old Norse Popular Ballads," No. 15), begins with /, to whom the ghost appears and relates his melancholy tale ; this / is changed at the end of the ballad to Herrepaer, who wreaks vengeance on Lady Ingeborg.

i. I walked abroad late at night, etc.

8. An angry man waxed Herrepaer,

And from the wood the corpse he bore.

9. Herrepaer cast the corpse to the floor Pale, then black, was Ingeborg's color.

13. They buried her alive under a stone.

60 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

With this the ballad concludes. The dead man was avenged and the wife punished. The Norse version has lost its sig- nificance for our purpose, however, for it will be noted that it employs the old, familiar device of starting out with /, which toward the end gives way to Herrepaer. The Swedish, German, and Slavic versions, moreover, tell the story in the third person. The source of the Danish version, which is found only in Vedel's collection, is not known to us.

Peculiarly unique is the highly subjective little ballad of "The Young Man's Complaint" (No. 53). / was banished by my stepmother during my father's absence from home ; in the valley lived a huge serpent, of which / was much afraid ; / saw two red roses, but they were uprooted by the serpent ; in a green meadow / saw a maiden preparing a young man's bed ; under the coverlet / found my brother with my truelove ; 7 went away, and on a green stretch of land / came upon a roebuck play- ing with a roe ; since the death of my father and mother (but note that the father was still alive in the first stanza) /have not a single true friend left; "the more I mourn, the less relief I find." Neither Northern nor foreign parallels exist to throw light upon this curious ballad. It tells of many different things and throws out occasional hints and allegorical suggestions ; but these are only half intelligible. Its main drift is apparently to voice the lowest depths of pessimism, a feature often met with in ballads dating from the conclusion of the sixteenth cen- tury (see below). The oldest manuscript in which it is found belongs to the age of Frederick II.

In the manuscript of Anna Basse's (c. 1600), but in no other place, is found a ballad (Unpublished No. 134)

THE I 61

which tells how / arrived at a castle, where / was well received by two maidens and put to bed ; one of them lay down by my side. The remarkable thing about this meager, worthless fragment is that the majority of its verses are repeated in a ballad from Arwidsson's collec- tion (No. 147), which has to do with a mountain maid whose singing makes the streams to stop and listen. This Swedish version belongs to the class of fairy hillock bal- lads, and accordingly ends with the well-known verse, that if the cock had not flapped his wings, the young man would not have escaped from the hill. I shall revert to the fairy hillock ballads shortly.

" The Nightingale " (No. 57) — "I know well where a castle stands" — is, as Grundtvig pointed out, entirely wanting in popular elements. That it belongs to the seventeenth or eighteenth century will be shown later. Another ballad (Unpublished No. 171) — "I dreamed at night as I lay in sleep," — which has affinities with a lyric of love, is a translation of a German ballad — " Mir traumte in einer Nacht gar spat."

Schoolmaster Kristensen has discovered in Jutland a ballad which contains rules that are to be observed by young men when courting (Kristensen, II, No. 27) :

i. I rede you, young men, come learn of me What to do in the bower of a fair lady.

Hereupon follows a deal of good advice. In Anna Urop's "Book of Ballads," from 1610, there is found a similar ballad with directions for the conduct of young men ; as, for example,

Clasp her fingers gently, draw boldly near ;

If thou knowest how to love, she will hold thee dear.

62 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

According to this old ballad, it is the young man who goes to his foster-mother and asks her to advise him how to win a maiden. In a Swedish, and also in a Norse, version, the mother gives the advice to the son as he is about to set out for the wedding feast. Here we see again how the ballad will not allow direct speech to run through the whole. None of these forms can be traced farther back than 1610, and their whole character, marked as it is by wide departure from popular ballad style, indicates that the ballad itself is not much older. Furthermore some of its versions are borrowed directly from German ballads.

A noteworthy exception comes to light in " The Elf en Hill " (No. 46) — "I laid me down on an elfen hill." Here we have before us virtually a subjective, lyrical bal- lad. Of action there is very little. A youth, enchanted with the dancing of an elf maid, is on the point of being lured into the interior of the hill, when, fortunately, the flapping of the cock's wings announcing the approach of day warns the maiden that she must flee. Text A alone contains the additional features of the youth's recognizing his sister in the elf maid, and of her counsel not to drink the draft which the girls offer to him, but to let it run down his breast. In this text, however, as in all the others, the main point is the presentation of a scene showing the effect of the song on nature, on the streams, the fishes, and the birds. This capital ballad, it seems to me, must assuredly be referred to a late period, certainly as late as the begin- ning of the sixteenth century, both because of the forms of speech used, and because of the stress laid upon the lyrical element, together with an absence of epical content. In any case, it constitutes an exception to the general run of ballads.

THE I 63

It remains to note a couple more of ballads which use / throughout ; the first, a rather extravagant production, is " The Maiden's Punishment " J (No. 464), and the second " The Cloister Maiden " (No. 20 in Grundtvig's " Heroic Ballads," 1867). In this last ballad a maiden sings of how she was betrayed by her lover, and how she desires to take the veil.

9. I '11 now seek out some cloister lone, And serve the Virgin meek ; Never again will I trust a young man, Though he burn to a fiery gleed.

10. The first step you step that cloister within, You meet three bad dishes ;

The first is Hunger, the second Thirst, The third is Wakeful Nights.

11. Oh ! and if the cloister were burned. And all the nuns were dead,

And that I had a faithful friend Who would me clothe and feed.

12. Now I am like the silly man Who built his house on the ice ;

The ice gave way, and the house sank down, Sorrow has made him wise.

13. Now I am like the lonely tree That stands on the plain so wide ; Far from shelter, far from town, Where the wind sweeps from every side.

1 A maiden has taken refuge with a young man ; she is driven away by his relatives ; she wanders about as a beggar until the plague visits the land, when all her relatives die, leaving her rich ; she then accepts the youth who was her lover, and who had given her bread and water when she was in poverty.

64 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

14. Now I am like the little bird

Which flies o'er the plain so wide ; Try where it may, it finds no spot Where it and its nest may abide.

Grundtvig has already remarked that this lament cannot be old : " It is perhaps no older than the fifteenth century." It would be more correct to assign it to the first half of the sixteenth. There is altogether too much art displayed in its parallelism. Stanzas 5 and 6 are parallel ; also 7, 8, and 9 ; also 12, 13, and 14. The similitude in stanza 10 of the " three bad dishes " smacks too much of a taste that belongs to the world of culture, and is entirely foreign to ballad style. On the whole, its accumulation of images and its use of proverbs agree but little with the language of popular ballads. This point will be discussed at more length later on. All in all, the form of the ballad seems to have been affected by subsequent accretions. It begins with the singer proposing to enter the cloister, but it ends with her being already an inmate, who wishes that it would burn down. Quite otherwise runs the Swedish version (Arwidsson No. 123), which consists of only five stanzas. In stanza 4 we find the line, " They led her into the cloister, "etc. Here, then, we notice that the first person is not employed throughout. When we take into further considera- tion the fact that this same subject is treated very vigorously in a German ballad, we seem to have sufficient ground for re- garding this ballad as heterogeneous and, at any rate, recent. Thus I have gone through all the modes in which the /manifests itself in the ballads. I have shown to what extent the balladist remains incognito, and how little it is known that some ballads are monologues which are spoken

THE I 65

by the chief characters, and that others are given up to subjective, lyrical expression. The two ballads that partake of this latter nature bear every token of belonging to the sixteenth century, and not to the Middle Ages. As a rule, the / and the pure lyrical element appear in the first stanza and in the refrain ; the remaining portion of the ballad is always taken up with objective, epical narrative.

How little known it is that the above is the main ten- dency of ballads is strikingly borne out by the following instance. On the basis of two ballad lines, which are pre- served in a runic manuscript of Skaane laws (c. 1 300), the learned Professor L. Fr. Laffler has recently composed a little song of five stanzas, " just as he thought the ballad would have continued it." *

I dreamed a dream late last night, Of silk and the velvet fine. He has won to his prize at last, This gallant knight of mine. But where — Oh / where will he find rest ?

He bore me away from the cloister wall, And set me on his charger brown. And so with pomp and prancing steed We rode into the town. But where — Oh ! where will he find rest f

The wedding passes off safely and merrily, and she sleeps in her lord's arms.

I awoke and still in my cloister bed I lay, cold and alone. Vanished were all my garments gay, The bridal feast was gone. But where — Oh / where shall I find rest f

1 Nyare bidrag till Kannedom om de svenska landsmalen och svenskt folklif, Vol. VI ; see Minor Articles, p. cl.

66 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

Granted that it be very pretty indeed, yet Professor Laffler has wholly missed the mark. Not only do the complaints of nuns dissatisfied with their chosen lot belong entirely to the close of the Middle Ages or to the period of the Reformation, but also the /-form, as has been pointed out, is practically unknown to our ballads of the Middle Ages. Above all, the poet failed to perceive that the two extant lines constitute an introduction, in which the /, in accordance with the old laws of poetry, has the right to appear ; and that it should vanish at once after having struck the key- note and possibly indicated the refrain. It is therefore utterly beside the mark to surmise how the ballad may have run. Thus much is certain, however, it was not a lyrical, erotic lament, but an epical ballad whose story was told in the third person.

V. THIS I SAY TO YOU IN SOOTH

Hitherto I have avoided mentioning one form of/, namely, that verse which we meet a hundred times : " This I say to you in sooth." We are fully aware by this time how seldom the / of the poet makes its appearance in the ballads, even if the / of the actor now and then is found. The poet can intrude himself only in the introductory stanza, and in the line just referred to, which greets us with such extraordinary frequency that it has come to be regarded as a character- istic of ballad form. Keeping in mind the fact that the /, as we have seen, is all but constantly held in leash, could we entertain the supposition that its continual appearance in the ballads resulted from the need which the / felt of expressing itself ? Or could it not rather be a line which,

THE 7 67

not the poet, but he who in later times sang or noted down the ballad used whenever his memory failed him ?

We meet with this line even in the first ballad of Grundtvig's collection — " Thor of Havsgaard " (No. i), which is handed down from antiquity in two old manu- scripts, A together with Vedel B. In A we find the line three times :

A 14. Then they brought the young bride forth, They brought her into the bridal court ; This I say to you in sooth : No gold was grudged the players' sport.

20. Eight there were of warriors They carried the hammer on a tree ; This I say to you in sooth :

They laid it over the bride's knee.

21. It was then the young bride Took the hammer in her hand ; This I say to you in sooth : She tossed it lightly as a wand.

Its very position here in the middle of the ballad goes to prove that it is a corruption, for certainly one would expect a heightening of expression or an unexpected turn in the thought to justify the use of the assertion that the balladist is telling the truth. There is nothing wonderful, however, in a warrior's placing a hammer on the bride's knee. Vedel, therefore, in his rendering, which is based on the two manuscripts, has corrected the line to :

They laid it then so artfully Right over the bride's knee.

The same general criticism holds true of line four in stanza 14 — "No gold was grudged the players," — which

68 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

appears constantly in the ballads, and which was never omitted by the " players " when they performed for money ; probably it was often introduced as a suggestive reminder to the audience. The insertion in this stanza, as well as that of the other line, seems wholly mechanical ; apparently the reciter had forgotten the two genuine lines. The text of the same ballad which Kristensen noted down in Jutland not long ago has the following stanzas corresponding to stanzas 20 and 2 1 above :

22. Twelve there were of warriors To lift the hammer at all ;

But eighteen there were of warriors Bore it into the hall.

23. Eighteen there were of warriors Bore it into the hall ;

But it was the stout young bride Raised it with her fingers small.

From this stanza then, it would seem possible to construct a more correct stanza than stanza 20 of Grundtvig's version ; as, for example :

Twelve there were of warriors Carried the hammer on a tree ; Eighteen there were of warriors Laid it over the bride's knee.

Furthermore it may be noted that the modern text men- tioned above contains in none of its twenty-five stanzas the line, " This I say to you in sooth " ; nor does the Swedish text, which is preserved in two manuscripts of the seven- teenth century. It can safely be affirmed that this line is not a part of the original ballad, and that accordingly it should be omitted.

THE / 69

Let us pass on to " Sivard Snarensvend " (No. 2), where the same peculiarity repeats itself. In A we find the line twice, but not at all in B. The story is concerned with Sivard's wonderful horse Skimling, or Gram :

A 9. It was Sivard Snarensvend,

He clapped his spurs to his steed ; It gave three bounds out o'er the field, And they served him not at need.

10. He gave three bounds out o'er the field, And they served him not at need ; This I say to you in sooth : He sweated drops of blood.

Every one must feel that this commonplace, tedious verse, with its endless repetitions, can be neither original nor correct. In B the corresponding stanza, though not per- fectly clear, is at least complete and is free from that line :

B 7. Gram he led out to the heath, It served him not at need ; Sorely wounded he sat in the saddle, He sweated the blood so red.

Further on in A runs a stanza as follows :

A 1 5. It was Sivard Snarensvend,

He clapped his spurs to his horse ; This I say to you in sooth : He leaped into the castle court.

Here are the first two lines of B 1 1 :

Gram took the bit between his teeth And sprang o'er the castle wall.

Perhaps it is not unreasonable therefore to conjecture the last two lines of A 1 5 to have run so :

Gram took the bit between his teeth And leaped into the castle court.

70 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

These characteristic lines occur again in a Jutland version of the ballad taken down by Kristensen (Grundtvig, IV, 583):

D 13. It was Sivard's gallant steed,

In his teeth he champed the bit ; Fifteen fathoms he plunged o'er the wall, So both their lives they quit.

In " The Lombards " (No. 21) occurs the stanza :

A 10. When they reached the open sea, Joyful grew each eye and heart; This I say to you in sooth : Of fame and wealth they had their part.

How flat and insipid this verse sounds ! And when we compare it with the last two lines of the other two texts, which are preserved in old manuscripts :

B 1 2. When they came to the foreign shore, They won both wealth and fame.

C 1 1 . When they fared them through the land, They won them many victories,

we cannot entertain the slightest doubt that the line in ques- tion is mere padding used to fill out a defective memory. In " Queen Dagmar's Ballad " (No. 135) we read :

A 6. St. Mary's book she then took up, She read it the while she might ; This I say to you in sooth : The salt tear blinded her sight.

The copy of this ballad noted down in recent times (Kristensen, I, No. 56) has a line which may well have stood here :

9. She took up the Bible and the holy book, And read all that she might ; And every line she read therein, The salt tear blinded her sight

THE 7 71

Grundtvig is of the opinion that this latter text has its original in Vedel's " Book of a Hundred Ballads " ; but Vedel's text wants this third line, which, however, reads as naturally as if it were native to the ballad. Thus this ballad goes to show that whenever the above notorious line creeps in, the expression becomes enfeebled and puerile ; whereas we should expect, according to the context of such an affirmation, — that is, from what is foreshad- owed, — a heightening of expression.

Furthermore, in all these ballads cited there is room nowhere for an 7, whether it be in the introduction or in the conclusion ; the narrative runs along entirely in the objective third person. Only in that one line an 7 sud- denly obtrudes itself. Is not this fact significant, and does not such an interpolation clash with all good rules of artistic composition ?

Let us look at it from another point of view. Here is a good, complete stanza from " German Gladensvend " (No. 33), which is found with some variations in four of the five texts of the ballad :

B ii. It was German Gladensvend, He rode by the salt sea strand ; He wooed the maiden Adelude, The fairest in the land.

Note how this stanza can be diluted. In the remaining version (A 14) we find the last two lines replaced by :

This I say to you in sooth : He wooed so fair a maid.

Curiously enough, Grundtvig, who, on the whole, has not been sensible of the peculiarity of this line, has refused to

72 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

adopt it in his popular edition of the ballads. And which of the two following forms is correct ?

B 24, C 27, E 22. She then took out her golden comb And combed his yellow hair ; With every lock she stroke, Let fall a bitter tear,

or as in the last two lines of D 20 ?

This I say to you in sooth : Let fall a bitter tear.

In this instance Grundtvig has not sanctioned the line. In both cases, however, there seems to be no doubt that it is an illegitimate verse which has displaced the genuine verse.

Another objection that follows in the wake of this verse is that it is never found twice in the same place in any two versions of the same ballad. For example, in "Peder Gudmandson and the Dwarfs" (No. 35), Grundtvig, who first regarded A as the best text, has later adopted the view that B " gives us everything that belongs to genuine old tradition, whereas A is a later, arbitrary ex- pansion of this framework " (IV, 790). In this Grundtvig is wholly right. Now in B we meet the stanza :

3. " Right welcome, Peder Gudmandson, Right welcome are you here ; This I say to you in sooth : You shall drink the Yule with dwarfs this year."

Although this line, since it is spoken here by a character other than the hero, does not wholly conflict with ballad style, yet beyond all question it ought to be omitted. In

THE I 73

the corresponding stanza of A the line is wanting, but its place is taken by an intolerable prolixity :

6. Right welcome, Sir Peder Gudmandson, Right welcome are you here ;

We '11 pour for you the mead so brown And the blood-red wine so clear.

7. We '11 pour for you the mead so brown And the blood-red wine so clear ;

By my faith, Peder Gudmandson,

You shall drink apart with dwarfs this year.

In addition A contains the following meretricious set of verses :

19. It was early in the morning, As soon as day was come ; It was Sir Peder Gudmandson Was fain to be up and gone.

20. It was Sir Peder Gudmandson, Was fain to be up and gone ; This I say to you in sooth : Of help was there none.

21. This I say to you in sooth :

It brought him grief and woe,

Since that (sic !) the elf-man's daughter

Was loath to let him go.

25. She yielded to his wish at last, He must away from the hill ; This I say to you in sooth : With her it never went well.

The amount of padding used in this ballad illustrates how memory is accustomed to stuff and patch its gaps. It is also significant that gauge (go) occurs as a riming word in stanzas 19 and 20; fromme (benefit, to go well with

74 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

one) in 16, 20, 24, 25 ; komme (come) in 13, 16, 17, 24, 25, 26. The stanza last enumerated Grundtvig considers to be " a late fabrication." The fact that it is found in such bad company is in itself a sufficient indication of its worth. " The Elfen Hill " (No. 46) is related entirely in the first person ; hence the line in question does not clash with the style. Nevertheless, even in this case, its genu- ineness is open to doubt. In " Queen Sophie's Ballad- Book " and in several other manuscripts, we find the following stanza :

63." Wake up, wake up, my bonny boy ! Come dance with us right f eatly ; My maiden shall sing a song for you, And Oh ! but she sings sweetly."

4. The maiden then began her song, Fairest was she under the sun ; The bustling stream it ceased to flow So fast was wont to run.

There is no call for regarding an interpolation necessary between these two stanzas ; this would result rather in weakening the dramatic force. Yet in A appears a stanza explaining that a stool was first handed to the maiden to sit upon while she was singing :

A 5. They brought a stool of the burnished gold, A seat for the elf en maid ; This I say to you in sooth : The game for me was badly played.

This stanza is inserted between the two cited above. It is found only in Sten Bille's manuscript ; neither text B nor any of the modern copies recognize it. To acquiesce in its usurpation would be an unparalleled instance of good nature.

THE 7 75

In the diffuse, spun-out romances of the Middle Ages, in which length and rime are aimed at, the above line, together with "What more can I say?" leads an accept- able existence. Compare, for example, verses 250, 269, 365, 477, 1375 in the romance of " Persenober and Con- stantianobis." In these romances the /of the singer con- stantly forces itself upon our notice. It has gained a place in the ballads as a result of the frequent use of the ballad in the dance, and of the unique mode of preservation by tradition instead of by writing. But since it originally had no place in the ballad, it should be banished entirely. I shall illuminate this point from another direction.

Although repetition is somewhat characteristic of ballad style, as I shall make clear later, yet, in many places, repetitions have crept in that were not part of the original ballad. In the Faroese ballad of " Regin the Smith " are met the stanzas :

74. The sword's pieces Sigurd struck With mighty blow across the knee ; Then shook with fear Regin the Smith Just like a lily leaf.

75. The sword's pieces Sigurd took And laid them in his hand ;

Then shook with fear Regin the Smith Just like a lily wand.

The communicator of this ballad, Pastor Lyngbye, remarks that the last stanza repeats with only slight variations the substance of the preceding. " I have omitted many such verses, which were patently variations ; yet I have allowed several to stand as specimens, for this repetition is some- what peculiar to old Faroese poetry (it is found sometimes

76 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

in the old Danish heroic ballads), and at times is neces- sary ; inasmuch as the songs were not preserved in writing, this repetition afforded the leader of the song a breathing- spell, during which he could recall to mind what was to follow" (" Faeroiske Quaeder," pp. 74 ff).

As we can readily see, the same observation applies equally well to our Danish ballads. Among others, the stanzas cited above from " Peder Gudmandson " could serve as examples. Now if it were the case that a singer was obliged to compose a new stanza alongside of the old with but trifling changes, here was a line— "This I say to you in sooth" — all ready to his hand as material toward such a stanza. It is now plainly conceivable how such a stanza as the second of the following, from " Marsk Stig" (No. 145), has originated:

B 24. It was Eric the king

Gazed out his window high ; " Yonder I see Sir Marsti Come riding his steed so gray.

25. " Yonder I see Sir Marsti

At the gate he stands to view ;

This I say to you in sooth :

He glistens like the dove so blue."

None of the other texts have a stanza corresponding to this last. The repetition in this case is not only super- fluous, but is also monotonous and wearisome. The stanza contains nothing new ; it is merely a dilution of the pre- ceding. It belongs solely to that style of verse which exists only for the convenience of the singer ; and it would never have been acknowledged by the original balladist as his own.

THE I 77

I shall illustrate by one more example how this super- fluous verse arose. In " Marsk Stig " (No. 145) we have :

F 7. It was Ranild Jensson,

He hewed both beam and board ; This I say to you in sooth : He proved a traitor to his lord.

8. They have stricken him in to his shoulder-bone, It stood out beyond his neck ;

This I say to you in sooth : It was a traitor's trick.

9. They have stricken him in to his shoulder, And out his left side too ;

" Now have we done a deed to-day All Denmark will sorely rue."

Not only the diffuseness, but also the quadruple rime (Balk, Skalk, Hals, Falsk}, clearly show that here lie before us an addition and an expansion ; the mortising line moreover is forced into service twice. The text most closely linked with F, namely G, runs as follows :

5. They have stricken their lord through the heart, And out his left side too ;

" Now have we done to-day a deed All Denmark shall rue."

6. It was then that Ranild

So fierce did hew and slay ; Upon the floor their king lay dead, For he got no help that day.

He who sang these lines had a good memory, he had no need of padding ; he knew that the beauty of the text was not to be measured by the number of words. And every one will find, by testing for himself, that the line which asserts

78 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

the truth of the singer's statements frequently makes its appearance in company with verse repetition and with lines whose riming words have been used before.

In conclusion I shall discuss an illuminating feature connected with the influence exercised on the original form of the ballad by the mode of delivery. I refer to the fashion of singing their runic songs in vogue with the Finns. These are commonly executed by two singers, of whom only one is properly the performer, the other acting merely as an echo, as an assistant or supporter. The two join hands and sit facing each other. Number one then chants a line. By the time he has reached the last stave his assistant has grasped what is to come and there- upon sings the same thing in concert with him. Now the second singer repeats the whole line by himself in a slightly varied pitch of voice, and usually with some little addition, such as "truly," "rightly," "indeed,""! say," " it was said," " in truth," etc. The last word of the line is sung anew in unison, after which the first man sings the second line of the poem. The second singer joins in on the last word and then repeats the line. Meanwhile the first man has had time to recall what is to follow. After the pair have sung the concluding word of the line as a duet, num- ber one takes up the third line. And so on to the end.1 Here is appended a specimen of such a poem in order to make clear how this performance looks. I omit, however, one of the duets, which, at any rate, is not always found, and have distinguished by different type the part sung by the fore-singer from the part sung by his comrade.

1 Gustaf Retzius, Finska Kranier jamte nagra natur- och literatur- studier, pp. 132 ff.

THE / 79

,-MJ cj ^ f Wainamoinen Old, confident-* „. ......

I. Watnamotnen

Old, confident Wainamoinen

. , u , r . f scabbard Drew the sharp steel from the -s , . .

{.scabbard

Drew so surely the sharp steel from the scabbard

{. water Thrust, I say, the sword deep into the water

\ vpsscl

Struck up from under the side of the \ .

t vessel

Struck up, in truth, from under the side of the vessel

. . ., ... f shoulder

Into the great pike's \ , , , ^shoulder

Into the great pike 's shoulder

. . ., , f backbone

Against the cruel water-dog's-^ , .,

[. backbone

Against the cruel water-dog's backbone

_ , A f Wainamoinen Old, confident \ ,,, ......

^ Wainamotnen

Old, confident Wainamoinen

Sought to draw the fish to the -I

\_surface

Sought, in fact, to draw the fish to the surface

Lifted the pike out of the \

\_ water

Lifted, they say, the pike out of the water

The pike burst into two \ ,

\_pteces

The pike, indeed, burst into two pieces

The tail sank and went to the-{ ,

t bottom

The tail sank, I say, and went to the bottom Only the upper half fell into the j ' . Only the upper half fell into the -vessel.

80 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

If one should here set down the version sung by the com- rade as the correct text of the poem, he would sin grievously against the poet. The same holds good of our Danish ballads ; namely, that the line " This I say to you in sooth " and many other repetitions are additions, a little dressed up, which arose from the manner of performing the ballad. They have nothing at all to do with the original ballad, and, for the reading of the ballad to-day, they work only for confusion.

Thus, I believe, I have thrown considerable light on the worth and significance of this well-known line. It is to be hoped that in the future efforts will be made to extir- pate this weed which has grown up in the garden of our popular ballads.

CHAPTER IV

THE REFRAIN

The refrain is a distinctive characteristic of the Scan- dinavian ballads and gives rise to a discussion of a varied nature. As is well known, it is most frequently found at the end of each stanza ; but double, and even triple, re- frains are not uncommon. The first part of such a many-jointed refrain can be interpolated in a two-line stanza after the first line, and in a four-line stanza after the second line, the second and third parts after the fourth line. The refrain is by no means unrhythmical, but its rhythm is not that of the ballad proper ; on the whole, it can show the widest variation. Time with its gnawing tooth has worked nearly as much destruction on the re- frains of our ballads as on the texts themselves. Many refrains have become meaningless ; by daily repetition their form has been marred and their substance rendered un- certain. Finally many ballads have lost their original refrains and have been forced to borrow others, in many cases get- ting hold of one which did not fit. At length they have ended up with the modern nonsensical refrains, nonnenino, didaderit, and the like.1

1 Note by translator : Instances of similar breakdowns of refrains into meaningless syllables will readily come to the minds of English readers, such as, for example, the " Downe a downe, hay down, hay down . . . with a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe," of the ballad of " The Three Ravens."

81

82 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

I. NATURE OF THE REFRAIN

Though our refrains are diversified and multifarious, yet they can be grouped into certain leading divisions.1 In the refrain the ballad may all but announce its title ; it may set forth its principal event or its chief personage and his attributes ; or it may specify the nature of the treatment to be meted out to him whom the ballad would especially emphasize :

No. 30. Holger Dansk has overthrown Burmand.

No. 92. Dead rides Sir Morten of Fuglsang.

No. 135. In Ringsted there dwells Queen Dagmar.

No. 145. My noble lord, that young Sir Marsti!

As it appears, this is particularly true of the historical ballads. But the refrain may likewise endeavor to accen- tuate the dominant mood, the ground tone of the subject matter that is to prevail :

No. 83. Sorrow is heavy when one must bear it alone.

No. 145. And we are driven from Denmark.

No. 146. And wide they roamed through the world.

More frequently, however, a joyous ring greets the listener's ear, such as is found, for example, in the references to the season of the year :

No. 45. While (men) * the linden grows leafy. No. 125. As far as the leaves are green.

1 Cf. N. M. Petersen, Den danske Literaturs Historic, 2d ed., II, 157 ; Rosenberg, Nordboernes Aandsliv, II, 524.

2 Men (but) possibly means here medens (while) ; yet, since this men occurs so frequently, I shall call attention to the fact that " the peasants in Jutland usually begin their conversation with this conjunction" (Lyngbye, Faeroiske Queeder, p. 577). Cf. Feiberg, Ordbog over jyske Almuesmaal, men. Ballad No. 298 L begins so : " But (men) there dwells a rich lady south of the river."

THE REFRAIN 83

No. 1 84. The woods are wondrous green —

In the growing summer time. No. 1 86. So early in summer. No. 199. It is so fair in summer.

No. 201. There stands a noble linden in the count's garden. No. 252. All through the winter so cold —

Await us, fair ladies, all through the summer No. 273. Both winter and summer time. No. 234. The leaves spring forth so green. No. 297. Why dawns not the day, I wonder.

In the case of the double refrain one can sometimes distinguish two chords in vibration :

No. 1 1 6. On grassy mountain-sides —

The king of Sweden's crown he seeks to avenge (or,

with the crown). No. 1 86. There fall so fair a frost —

So merrily goes the dance. No. 1 89. Forget me not !

She stepped so stately. No. 210. While the summer grows —

I cannot sleep for my longing.

Many ballads furthermore take into account the singer's environment. Attention has been called several times already to the mention of dancing; references are also made to riding and rowing :

No. 1 24. All ye row off !

No. 140. Betake yourself to your oar.

No. 460. To the north —

And now lay all these oars beside the ship. No. 244. (Norwegian). Row off, noble men !

To the maiden.

No. 399. Row out from shore, ye speak with so fair a one ! No. 1 6. Long before the dawn we come far over the moorland. No. 84. Beneath so green a linden —

Ye ride so wary through the woods with her.

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No. 141. Ye do not ride !

No. 134. Ride to the maiden's bower, comrade mine !

The word which we meet with most frequently in the refrains is certainly " maiden." Still it would be a mis- take to infer on that score that those who sang were in- variably young men ; there are ballads which allow the maiden herself to speak in the refrain :

No. 20. Whether you win me or so fair a one. No. 121. Would I were as fair as Tovelille was !

And indeed, according to the story related by the ballad, it is the maiden who very often leads off the singing. In one instance it would seem as though the balladist stood in a definite relation to the chief character of the ballad, namely, " Marsk Stig" (No. 145) : " My noble lord, that young Sir Marsti ! " I have pointed out before that sim- ilarly in the first stanza the singer at times considers himself to be present or to be taking part in the action.

That which we never find in our genuinely popular ballads, on the contrary, is those exclamations which occur so generally in the German ballads and which appear in late Danish copies, where they must have displaced, within the last two hundred years, the good, old refrains : namely, interjections such as Haa ! Haa ! or Eja ! which are usually accompanied by a repetition of the last line. In " Redselille and Medelvold " (No. 271), for instance, from a broadside of about 1770, we find the refrain " Haa, haa, haa ! " with a repetition of the last line. Such an exclama- tion might have exceptionally slipped into a ballad which could be traced back to an old manuscript, but rather under the guise of a preliminary chant at the beginning of the

THE REFRAIN 85

ballad, and later before each stanza. Similarly we find "Saa vel hei" (much the same as "hey noninony") as some such fore-song introducing each stanza in two ballads from Karen Brahe's Folio Manuscript (No. 25 and Unpublished No. 119) and also in a ballad from Anna Basse's manu- script (No. 373 ; cf. Grundtvig, I, 351). A German dance " Hoppeldei " and a related " Heierlei," in which the cry heiahei! was used, are known to have existed.1 The South German poet Nithart (ob. 1220) sings in one place :

die sah ich den heijerleis schone springen,

and in another place :

dennoch haben s' einen sit' : swer dem reigen volget mit, der muosz schrien heia hei ! unt hei !

It is my opinion that here we are to seek for the source of the exclamations in the Danish ballads. Since these ballads have in addition a regular refrain at the end of each stanza, it is manifest that here we have to deal with something out of the ordinary. On the other hand, such a cry can have a place in the refrain itself :

No. 37. Eia! Oh, sorrow, how heavy art thou!

All the refrains have this in common : they voice the mood. Even though they deal with a purely matter-of-fact situation, they can still indicate the fundamental tone ; or they may engross the reader's attention in a way that is explicable only at the close of the ballad. But the same

1 Weinhold, Die deutschen Frauen, p. 373 ; Bohme, Tanz, I, 35 ; Von der Hagen, Minnesinger, III, 189, 283.

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feeling may be roused by a variety of refrains, and the same fundamental mood may serve as the basis or the object of many ballads ; hence it follows that a ballad may well have several refrains, and that the refrains may easily be shifted from one ballad to another. At the same time the refrain often possesses a cohering quality ; it contains, to use the words of Wilhelm Grimm, " many a time the basis upon which the whole circumstance rests, it explains the connection, and again rings out as a voice of destiny." It creates a certain repose. While the body of the text forges ahead in its epical progress, the refrain remains stationary and reflective.1 It gives the listener time to apprehend the narrative ; it rounds off every stanza to a whole ; it provides the fore-singer with an opportunity to recall what is to follow. It is the custom in the Faroes, when the fore-singer cannot recollect the verse, for the participants to repeat the .refrain until- the missing lines come back to him, and in the Finnish runic song, as has been shown above, every single line is repeated in order to give the fore-singer time to recall those succeeding.

Geijer has been inclined to deny that the refrain was delivered by the chorus. But in support of such a theory there is plenty of testimony. There is a verse from an old German poet which runs :

ein maget in siiezer wise

diu sane vor, die andern sungen alle ndch.2

Both in Germany and in Scotland the chorus seems to have sung the refrain.3 In Iceland, according to an old

1 Peder Grb'nland, in Allgem. musikal. Zeitung, 1816, No. 35.

2 Bohme, Tanz, I, 27.

8 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 336.

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account,1 the chorus sang responsively to the fore-singer : first one took up the song, with two or more others repeat- ing the same after him, while the remainder danced to the rhythm ; the hemistich was repeated in unison by the general body. In the Faroes all, as a rule, took part in singing the ballad, and all, without exception, joined in the refrain.2

On the other hand, Geijer is right in his conclusion that the refrain is essentially a subjective element. It has been the main task of several of the above investigations to show with what extraordinary nicety the ballads have drawn the limits and bounds between the narrator and his story. As a result the poet has been denied all opportunity of inserting remarks and arguments of his own. It is only in the refrain that he finds such an opportunity ; there it is that the mood expresses itself ; and there it is, as is in- dicated by their responses, that the listeners are recognized as participants. It is precisely this participation of the singers and dancers in the lyrical utterance that works for the finest totality of the ballad and the refrain. Thus the refrain is preeminently a component part of the ballad ; aesthetically it is fully justified, but when read it becomes,

1 Crymogaea, per Arngrimum Jonam, p. 57 : staticulos voco saltatio- nem ad states musicos contentus; quae carmen vel cantilenam, quasi praeceptum saltandi adhibet: praecinit autemunus: duo pluresve paulo subcinunt : reliqui ad numerum seu rythmum saltant. Orbis saltatorius viris et faeminis alternatim incedentibus constabat et quodamodo inter- sectis et divisis (in the margin : wikivake) . . . hie singuli ordine canti- lenam aliquam cantant per certas pausas, dimidiis versibus (qui a choro reliquo una voce canendo repetuntur) constantes : ad finem singulorum versuum, principio vel fine primi versus reduplicatione quadam (aliquando etiam sine ea) intercalate.

2 Lyngbye, in Magazin f. Reiseiagttageher^ I, 2 1 6.

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on account of its constant repetition, very monotonous, and in consequence it has been shortened in the texts, or else omitted, except in the first and last stanzas. It is only when it is sung, when it is elevated by the melody ; only when another, in addition to the fore-singer, helps to deliver it, with the remainder joining in, and when the dance is combined with it, that it fully comes into its own. " The sentimental or, as it might be called, the egoistic song, in which the poet or singer is alone with himself, as it were, is not known to the old North, for here the individual never wanted for comrades and witnesses." 1

The refrain assumes a somewhat different character when it undergoes alteration in its text, namely, when indi- vidual words or phrases are changed with every stanza in order to bring it into a definite relation with the context of the stanza. That is scarcely in accordance with the good old ballad style. The result is that the singer has no chance to rest, for he must ever be reminding his com- pany of what they shall sing. This constant adjustment to every stanza easily goes over into something trivial or attenuated. In such a case the refrain becomes a definite part of the text, whereas it almost invariably forms a con- trast. That the variable refrain can be used with great success for comic purposes is brilliantly demonstrated by Baggesen's familiar song of "Sir Ro and Sir Rap" ; but this instance serves also to disprove the supposition that the variable refrain permits of a general usage in the ballads. And in a lengthy ballad, whatever the contents may be, the variable refrain will become downright intolerable. Even if we imagined ourselves to be present at the singing of a

1 Peder Gronland, in Allgem. musikal. Zeitung, 1816, column 597.

THE REFRAIN 89

song that altered its refrain with every stanza, we should not find the aesthetic result satisfactory. The great dearth of ballads that possess such a refrain indicates also that here lies before us an abnormal case.

The truth of the above statements is borne out by a consideration of every one of these ballads. In " Young Ranild" (No. 28), a ballad of thirty stanzas, we find a continual change :

1. Had I been so wise ! said Ranild.

2. I am not greatly afraid ! said Ranild.

3. It grieves me sore ! said Ranild.

4. So would I like to do ! said Ranild.

It is evident here that the fore-singer must also sing the refrain, since his company could not be expected to remem- ber what fitted in with each individual stanza. On the whole, the variable refrain seems better adapted to a ballad that is to be written down than to one that owes its pres- ervation to memory. Although " Young Ranild " may be an old ballad, yet it makes use of a number of modern expressions ; it is found only in a single manuscript, that of Anna Basse's, of about 1600.

Another ballad, " Gralver the King's Son " (No. 29), preserved in nine texts, of which four belong in manu- script to the time of Frederick II, evinces great pains and ingenuity in adapting the refrain by slight changes to every stanza. But in text B, which is preserved in a manuscript from the time of Christian III, the refrain runs constantly, " Because of her proud Signild beneath Stjernfeld " ; likewise two of Schoolmaster Kristensen's newly recorded copies have a constant refrain, "There lies a worm be- fore Isereland upon the flood." To this corresponds the

90 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

unchanging refrain found in two Norwegian copies, " Be- cause there lies a worm upon the flood." Grundtvig says that this refrain must certainly be an old one in the ballad here in Denmark. Thus all warrant for the variable re- frain disappears.

In texts A (64 stanzas !) and B of " Rane Jonsen's Marriage " (No. 48) there is also a variable refrain ; but Vedel, who seems to have used only B, prints the ballad with a constant refrain: "I have often been told — Although I am banished from friends and comrades." The same refrain is also found in No. 128 C (manuscript of 1555).

In " The Mermaid's Prophecy " (No. 42), on the other hand, Vedel has given a variable refrain, despite the fact that his source (" though possibly it was not his only one "), namely, the only copy preserved, has the constant double refrain : " The mermaid dances upon Tillie — For she had obtained her will." Kristensen's copies from modern times also make use of the variable refrain (I, No. 55; II, No. 82), but since their only source, as Grundtvig declares, is Vedel's " Book of a Hundred Ballads," they do not count for much. A corresponding Swedish ballad (Geijer and Afzelius, No. 94) does not employ the variable refrain.

The two copies of "Daniel Boson" (No. 421) which were recorded in olden times have a constant refrain, while the six from modern times show a variable one. The Norwegian form of " Dalebu Jonsen " cannot be con- sidered as belonging to the class of ballads with variable refrains, although its refrain, " Dost know Dalebu Jonsen ? " is changed in the sixteenth and last stanza to " Now dost know Dalebu Jonsen ? " (Landstad, No. 24). In like

THE REFRAIN 91

manner the Swedish form (Arwidsson No. 18) has, " But he was one ! — For he was one."

Finally we can cite the well known ballad of " Sir Lave and Sir Jon " (No. 390) with the trebled refrain, the middle one of which is variable:

You are well prepared,

I ride too, said Jon.

Tie up the helmet of gold and follow Sir Jon !

The same is true of Kristensen, I, No. 62 ; II, No. 86. In manuscript this ballad goes no farther back than to the middle of the seventeenth century.

These investigations seem to lead to the conclusion that at the most only a few old ballads preserved in old manu- scripts use the variable refrain. The latter was in accord, on the other hand, with the taste of the times in the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, when people having grown tired of much that belonged to the older form of the ballad desired a change ; at the same time, it is true, some of the most characteristic features of the old ballads were thus discarded.

The refrain is also known in other lands. In fact, it is found in folk poetry the world over. In the refrain the instinct for beauty finds one of its favorite modes of ex- pression, namely, the sense of rhythmic recurrence, the parallelism.1 But I doubt if the refrain has anywhere been felt to be so integral a part of the ballads as in the Scandi- navian, and especially the Danish, ballads.2 It follows also from the epic nature of our folk poetry that a far greater opportunity here offers itself for the contrast which a lyric

1 Talvj, Charakteristik der Volkslieder, p. 135.

2 Cf. also Rosenberg, Nordboernes Aandsliv, II, 531.

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refrain presents. The refrain is found in Germany, too, but particularly in narrative ballads, and by no means so generally as in Denmark. Many of the German refrains are doubtless lost, but in a number of ballads they were wanting originally.

I shall now call attention to how peculiarly the refrain and the text proper can be interwoven in the Danish ballads. In "Memering" (No. 14), for example:

1 . Memering was the smallest man

That ever was born in King Karl's land.

My fairest maidens.

The smallest man That ever was born in King Karl's land.

2. Even before he saw the light,

His clothes already for him were dight.

My fairest maidens.

He saw the light, His clothes already for him were dight.

3. Even before he had formed his gait, He bore the armor's weight.

My fairest maidens.

A ballad that progresses in this fashion is liable to prove, when read, tiresome and difficult ; when sung, however, it becomes all the more alive, since the refrain is taken up by the chorus. But the question involuntarily arises, Did the fore-singer join in also with the repeated lines of the stanza? It might seem plausible to wish for a variation here. If so, this would be secured provided there were two fore-singers, the one supporting the other by repeating half of what the first sang, and thereby leading the narrative one verse for- ward. The chorus meanwhile would constantly be chiming

THE REFRAIN 93

in as the third participant in the execution of the ballad. I am not the first to voice this theory ; it has already been advanced by Peder Gronland.1 But this interruption and repetition are found in many ballads, such as, for example, " Hildebrand and Hilde " (No. 83) :

1 . Proud Hildelil sits in her bower sewing, For the Danish queen a cap she is making.

Sorrow is heavy when one must bear it alone.

Sewing, For the Danish queen a cap she is making.

2. She sews with gold so red What calls for silken thread.

Sorrow is heavy when one must bear it alone.

In some copies of this ballad this repetition is not found ; in its place stands a double refrain.

Is it known that there were two fore-singers ? Yes, to be sure. We read in Roster's account of Ditmarsh that the fore-singer "either sings alone or else chooses another, who also can sing the song, in order that he may have assistance and relief. " 2 In Iceland, likewise, we see that the song was divided up between a fore-singer and others, who sing in response. How closely the fore-singer and his assistant are linked together in the Finnish folk poetry has already been pointed out.

But there are undoubtedly many ways in which a song could assert itself that are now not at all, or only in part, intelligible from the appearance which the ballad makes

1 Allgem. musikal. Zeitung, 1816, column 598.

* De Vorsinger, de wol alleine edder ok wol einen tho sick nimbt, de den Gesang mit singen kan, dat he ehne entlichtere unnd helpe, steidt unnd hefft ein Drinkgeschir in der Handt. Dahlmann's edition of Johann Adolfi's (called Neocorus) " Chronik des Landes Dithmarschen," I, 178.

94 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

on paper. I shall merely point out how marvelously the song and its refrain must have dovetailed when the two fore-singers led off the singing ; as, for example, in "Marsk Stig's Daughters" (No. 146):

FIRST SINGER

Marsti had two daughters fair,

And bitter fate fell to their share.

The eldest took the youngest by the hand,

CHORUS And wide they roam through the world.

SECOND SINGER

The eldest took the youngest by the hand, And so they journeyed to King Malfred's land. King Malfred home from the meeting rode.

CHORUS And wide they roam through the world.

FIRST SINGER

King Malfred home from the meeting rode ;

Before him Marsti's daughters stood :

11 What are these women that I see here ? "

CHORUS And wide they roam through the world.

Since we have ground for believing that the delivery of the ballad was made as lively and dramatic as possible, and since we know from the account just given 1 that in Ice- land the stanza was divided into halves, I do not think I am wrong in assuming that the ballad was sung in the manner detailed above.

1 See p. 87, note i.

THE REFRAIN 95

Finally it would be perfectly reasonable to conclude that the ballads in which the two refrains have a wholly different trend were sung each by its own circle; as, for example,

MAIDENS. Forget me not ! 189 YOUNG MEN. She stepped so stately!

KNIGHTS. Here stand the Duke's own men. 115 LADIES. They come not yet.

MAIDENS. Step boldly up, young knight ! 244 YOUNG MEN. Honor the maidens in the dance !

We might also conceive of a portion of the refrain as devolving upon the singer's assistant, and the remaining portion upon the chorus ; as, for example, in No. 278 :

FIRST SINGER Sir Peter mounts and rides away.

SECOND SINGER While the cuckoo calls,

FIRST SINGER He meets a woman who greets him good day.

SECOND SINGER Upon the balcony "walls.

CHORUS

In the tower Malfred is weeping. In the grove she is sorrowing.

II. BALLADS WITHOUT REFRAINS

Should the refrain be regarded as an essential constit- uent of our ballads ? It can by no means be denied that there are ballads which lack refrains. Geijer has answered the question thus : that as a rule refrains go with a ballad, but that they cannot be regarded as a necessary adjunct to

96 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

the ballads. Nevertheless it may very confidently be as- serted as a fundamental principle that the popular ballad is invariably attended by a refrain, and that every ballad which is not has either worn it out in the course of time, or else is assuredly not a genuine popular ballad. It is pre- cisely because this characteristic is so marked that further investigations on this point are necessary.

In Grundtvig's collection (completed by Axel Olrik) there are four hundred and eighty published ballads, and about forty more are known to me from his collected writ- ings or from other sources. Among these half a thousand ballads there are found about a score which have no refrain. These consequently form positive exceptions and are in no position to affect the general rule. Since the ballads were not recorded in writing until long after their genesis, it is in- deed very possible, not to say highly probable, that the ballads mentioned have lost something they possessed originally, especially as it is often forced upon our attention that, while the refrains are missing in several versions of a recorded ballad, they are present in other forms of the same ballad.

But let us turn to the above-mentioned score of ballads to see whether the majority of them do not present some additional peculiarities. Among these I find, for example, "The Murdered Housewife" (No. no), which was re- corded in 1845 ; " Child Jacob " (No. 253), whose earliest date of communication is 1840 (and one of the texts has a refrain yet) ; " The Meeting in the Woods " (No. 284), recorded in 1868; "Sir Sallemand " (Abr. No. 153), a prosaic, sentimental, romantic ballad, which ends so :

Never was told a tale of greater love,

Since the days of Tristram and his lady Isold.

THE REFRAIN 97

In addition may be cited an artistic, six-line song (Un- published No. 292) and the ballad "The Dialogue of Two Maidens" (Unpublished No. 291), which is translated from a German ballad, " Es waren einmal zwei Gespielen." The absence of refrains in these ballads manifestly does not affect our consideration of the question, What were the ballads of the Middle Ages like ?

Another example of this group is "Agnete and the Merman " (No. 38), which can show in the way of a refrain only a tiresome Haaja! together with a repetition of the last line of its two-line stanza :

Agnete walks on Highland bridge,

There mounts a merman to the top of the sea,

— Haa ja ! — There mounts a merman to the top of the sea.

Grundtvig has been slow in arriving at a clear decision over this ballad. Although he was obliged to admit in the second volume of his work that it had wandered up into this country " only a few hundred years ago," yet he retracted this statement immediately afterwards ; but in his fourth volume he repeated that "at a comparatively late period it had emigrated from Germany into Denmark, although it is impossible to state more explicitly the time and the way" (II, 39, 66 1 ; IV, 812). The possibility of an earlier immigration Grundtvig would meanwhile re- luctantly abandon, and accordingly he included the ballad of " Agnete " in his works " Heroic Ballads and Folk Songs of the Middle Ages" (1867, No. 9) and "The Popular Ballads of Denmark" (1882, II, No. 6). Here again I shall confidently assert that if one would really know what the poetry of the Middle Ages was like, he

98 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

must reject everything obscure and ambiguous and, above all, everything which lacks the remotest proof to substan- tiate its claim to so great an age. And this applies most peculiarly to the ballad of " Agnete." It can be traced back no farther than to a printed broadside belonging to the close of the eighteenth century ; moreover it contains not a single word, not a turn of phrase, not a glint of anything which would suggest antiquity.1 It is impossible to believe otherwise than that the connection with the popular poetry of the outside world, which we know existed in the Middle Ages, should have persisted in the following centuries ; and in such a manner the ballad of "Agnete," like many others, was attracted to this country.

This situation fits in admirably with what Grundtvig him- self has noted ; namely, that in contrast with those Norse ballads which treat of a similar subject (Nos. 37, 39, and 40) this ballad exhibits certain distinguishing marks that point to Germany. " First, the name Agnete appears in the German versions as Agnete, Agnese, Angnina, An- nerle, Hannale ; second, the mention of Engelland (she is the daughter of the king of England), her enticement down to the bottom of the ocean, the sea, or the flood, in contrast with her enticement into the mountain ; the

1 The kinship between the ballad of " Agnete " and Ewald's " Little Gunver " is rather distant. Ewald meant, if anything, to imitate the popular ballad in general, wherefore he also provides his song with a refrain. For the rest he might well have become acquainted with the ballad of " Agnete " in the course of his roving life in foreign lands, and even if he had known it in a Danish form, we could still maintain that he had led us back no farther than to the middle of the eighteenth century.

THE REFRAIN 99

sound of bells and the going to church ; — all these traits distinguish the borrowed ballad from the older Norse ballad, with which it has in modern tradition blended itself." To this I can add that precisely such an excla- mation as that Haa ja ! is just as general in German ballads as it is rare or rather wholly unknown in Danish. In his popular edition of the ballads, Grundtvig has given the double refrain " The birds sing . . . Beautiful Agnete ! " one of the refrains with which it is sung at present ; but that this is not good ballad style, nor in the least degree smacking of the Middle Ages, scarcely needs to be asserted. None of the old refrains are written or sung in such a dreamy mood. This ballad has therefore not the least claim to consideration when the discussion concerns the poetry of the Middle Ages.

There exist, in addition, several religious ballads which lack refrains; such as, for example, "The Boyhood of Jesus, Stephan, and Herod " (No. 96). The ballad was communicated in a work by Erik Pontoppidan, which appeared in 1736. It begins as follows:

A maiden pure is born to earth,

The rose among all women ;

She is the fairest the world has seen,

And she is called the Empress of heaven.

No less modern than this verse are the remaining verses. Over half of the eleven stanzas employ terminal rimes in all four lines, a feature wholly foreign to the ballads of the Middle Ages. Since Grundtvig groups this ballad with the Stephan ballads of the Middle Ages, attention must be called to the fact that only the three following stanzas out of the eleven have to do with Stephan, and that not even

100 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

the most discriminating critic will be able to recognize in them the style of the Middle Ages :

6. Saint Stephan he led the colts to drink, All by the starry glimmer ;

" For surely now the prophet is born Who shall save all sinners ! "

7. King Herod made him answer thereto : 11 1 do not believe this story :

Save that the roast cock on the table will crow And flap his wings so sturdy ! "

8. The cock he flapped his wings and crowed, Our Lord his natal hour :

King Herod fell down from his royal throne, And swooned for very sorrow.

As early as 1695 this last verse was referred to by Peder Syv as belonging to a ballad on Christ's boyhood ; there are found also Swedish and Faroese ballads on Stephan, but none older than the Danish. When one assumes these ballads to be relics from our Catholic days, he fails to take into account the fact that their form by no means points so far back, and also the ready possibility that many foreign Catholic ballads were later conveyed into Denmark orally. Several investigators have interpreted Saint Stephan's pat- ronage of horses as an offshoot of Frey's relation to that animal and to horse-racing at Yuletide ; but however one explains that question, the solution cannot affect the inter- pretation of the ballad, which has merely appropriated the popular belief. And even if one may be wholly disinclined to share the doubts here expressed, he can place no reliance on the absence of a refrain in the Danish ballad as proof of any- thing, for that seems to be due to pure accident ; a refrain is present in both the Faroese and the Swedish versions.

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A refrain is also wanting in " Grimild's Revenge " (No. 5). This ballad presents a most curious situation, and this I shall dwell upon at some length, since in many ways its striking colors illuminate and clarify, by way of contrast, what is genuinely Danish and old in Denmark. It treats of the destruction of the Nibelungs and relates how Grimhild, in order to avenge the murder of her hus- band, Sigfred, sends an invitation to such famous heroes as Hero Hagen and Folkver Spillemand. Hagen has been disquieted by a dream, which he gets a mermaid to read for him ; upon her finding it to portend evil, he slays her. He likewise slays a ferryman who refused to row him, and thereupon he ferries himself across to Grimhild's land. When they arrive there they are seized by the fol- lowers of Grimhild's consort, King Kanselin, but Folkver, snatching up a steel bar, slaughters a great number of his foes. The king himself receives a severe wound, and Folkver dies.

I entertain no doubt that Professor Sophus Bugge has pointed out the right source of this ballad. Professor Gustav Storm would maintain, on the basis of certain peculiarities in narration, that it had borrowed its sub- stance from the Swedish " Didrik Saga" or "Didrik Chronicle," which dates from the years 1420-1450, and not from German sources. Several details, however, should be credited to the German " Heldenbuch " (printed 1477), which the author of the ballad probably did not use di- rectly ; it was more natural to assume that the manuscript of the " Didrik Chronicle " which he used contained also this borrowing from the " Heldenbuch." Storm differs in his interpretation from Doring, whose line of proof

102 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

attempts to show that the chief sources were the Norse "Thidrik Saga" (of 1250) and the " Nibelungenlied." In opposition to these views, Grundtvig points out that the ballad must be regarded as a reshaping of a Low German ballad, which in turn stood closely related to the " Nibelungenlied " ; on the other hand, there is no evi- dence of any particular connection with the Norse or the Swedish " Didrik Saga." Moreover the Swedish " Chron- icle " was not very generally known, and the widely spread Didrik traditions could not have sprung from it.1

Bugge's arguments seem to me to be incontestable. In content the ballad clearly approximates most closely to the sources he has named, and the linguistic evidence certainly points toward a Low German form. In the following dis- cussion I shall have occasion to repeat the greater part of Bugge's proofs ; what I shall bring forward must be looked upon rather as a continuation of Bugge's line of argument. But at the same time I arrive at another conclusion ; namely, first that the ballad ought not to be regarded as a popular ballad, and next that it belongs to a very late period, a period much more recent than that to which Gustav Storm assigns it.

Bugge calls attention to the remarkable expression,

A 2. There was many a hero

Who should part with (fordoie) his young life.

7. Am I in the heathen land

To part (fordoje) with my young life.

9. You are parted (fordoif) with your young life.

1 Bugge in Grundtvig's Folkeviser, IV, 595 ff. ; Storm, Sagnkredsene om Karl den Store," pp. 197 ff. ; Doring in Hopfner u. Zacher, Zeit. /. d. Phil., II, 274.

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Beyond a doubt fordoje was used in old Danish in the sense of "to waste," "to squander " ; but there was scarcely ever a time when it could mean " to lose one's life." Hence it must be regarded as a rendering of Low German vordo- den, " to slay"; sik vordon, " to commit suicide," in mod- ern Dutch zijn kind verdoen, " to kill his child." In A 4 we read :

Frem da gick hun Buodel Hellet Hagens moder : " Mig tocte, de fogle alle dode vaar."

Forth then stepped Buodel, The Hero Hagen's mother; " The birds, it seemed to me, All were dead."

Here are wanting both rime and assonance, whereas in the model upon which the ballad was formed, — the " Nibe- lungenlied" (Lachmann's edition), — both, as Bugge points out, are present :

1449. Mir ist getroumet hinte von engestlicher n6t wie allez dasz gefiigele in disme lande waere t6t.

In verse 17,

Saa kast hand det blodige hoffuit,

han kaste hende udi sund,

saa kaste hand kropen effter

han bad, de skulde findes ved grund.

He cast away the bloody head,

He cast it far into the sound,

So cast he then the body after,

And bade at the bottom they both be found,

104 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

we find the same rimes as in the " Nibelungenlied " :

1502. Er sluoc im ab daz houbet unde warf ez an den grunt : diu maere wurden schiere den Burgonden kunt.

Compare, in addition, the following lines :

B 25. That heard Falcko Spillemandt,

And over the table he sprang (han snart offuer borden spranck)

with " Nibelungenlied," 1903 :

von dem tische spranc.

In B 22 slag (blow) does not rime with laa (lay), but the corresponding German words, slag and lag, rime well enough.

It may safely be granted that Bugge has made no mis- take in the line of argument he has chosen to follow. At the same time, according to my belief, it leads us much farther.

When Hagen steps ashore he finds a marraminde (mermaid) asleep upon the bank. The language of the Middle Ages offers us no clew to this word, although Anders Vedel uses it to suit himself in his version of the ballad on the Danish " Series of Kings" (No. 115, B 19). In version B of our ballad we read :

6. sig mig det, god marae,

mon du est en kunstig quinde : skal jeg paa det hedenske landt forlade unge liiff min.

Tell me this, good marcz, An thou be a canny woman : Am I in the heathen land To quit my young life ?

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Grundtvig ingeniously suggests that here we should read : god marcemon (mermaid) Du est, etc., and that mon is probably Old Norse man (girl), whence mareminde (mer- maid), which corresponds to the German mereminne. But man in the sense of girl is utterly unknown to the Danish, and hence it will not do to relate the word in any way to the Norse form. He who noted down the ballad heard sung the German mereminne, or some word formed upon it, which he did not understand, and for that reason he split the word, as it stands above. In the other transcript (A 6) stands mare-mynd, which is prudently glossed haff frue (the usual Danish for " mermaid "). As for the rest, how far it is good Danish to say forlade mit unge Liv (quit my young life) must be passed by ; Kalkar's Diction- ary gives no parallel to this. In Low German the expres- sion is dat levent vorlisen (ich verliese minen Up is also a standing formula with the German minnesingers). Hagen addresses the mermaid so :

7. Wake up, wake up, my mermaid, Pretty lande-viff!

Bugge remarks, " lande-viff I am not acquainted with ; vande-viff (water-wife) would give us a quite unknown ex- pression for ' mermaid.' " It seems to me that we need only to look to the Low German lantwif, which signifies a " countrywoman," "a girl native to the country " (Flensborg, " Stadsret," §n: " quaenaes lanzman til by eldaer lanz- quinnas giftaes til by : gyft sick eyn lantman edder lant- vrowe in de stat " [that is, if a country man marries into the city or a country woman marries into the city]).

Hagen thereupon rides saafriskelig (so heartily) (stanza ii) into the heathen land, and later we meet the expression

106 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

tresaafriske helt (three such hearty heroes) (stanzas 24,37). There is no doubt that by this is meant " intrepid," " bold " ; but when it is objected that the ballad " King Didrik and the Lion " (No. 9, B 2) has denfriske Love (the bold lion), we may reply that the word is rarely found in our older tongue, while, on the contrary, it is peculiar to the heroic language of Germany. In the unintelligible stanza 15,

Jeg kommer aldrig i den stad jeg tager ey for bender nod,

(meaning, no doubt, " I am never so situated as to have need of ") we seem to note the presence of the German nothebben (with the genitive), "to have need of something."

1 8. When they came into the sound,

A storm rose up /// haan (against them).

Bugge compares with this the Old Norse til handa ; it is true that Old Danish offers examples of the use of til hand, but in Icelandic and in Danish (see Kalkar's Dic- tionary) /// hand most frequently means " in favor of," "in support of," whereas a storm suggests precisely the oppo- site. It is but natural to call to mind the German to hunt, the usual German expression for " at once," "immediately." With stanza 20,

The man that next stepped after him, It was Falquor Spilmand,

can be compared " Nibelungenlied," 1416,

d6 kom der kiiene Volk^r ein edel spilman.

THE REFRAIN IO/

Here it must be remembered, however, that Spilmand is not an Old Danish word and never appears in the ballads ; on the contrary, we have "Folkvar Spillemand" in Nos. 7

and 8.

23. Den ene hand forde en hog, er det sinner skjold ; den anden hand forde en feddel, en hertugs son saa bold.

The one he bears a hawk, It is (on) his shield ; The other he bears a fiddle, A brave duke's son it wields.

The second line assuredly can only mean : ist es seiner schild (a hawk was pictured on his shield), and, as far as fiddles are concerned, they are never found in the ballads. The popular book " Lucidarius " mentions " the finest fiddle that one may hear"; otherwise "fiddle" is first spoken of in the sixteenth century (see Kalkar's Dictionary under Fidle).1

25. " Let them now all come in, Except Hero Hagen."

27. " We shall hold a rend (race) to-day With Hero Hagen (met Helle Hagen)."

Bugge remarks that here we must read " Hagen " with the accent on the last syllable. If we change the word to Hagenen (nominative Hagene\ as it is generally

1 In Thomas Gheysmer's " Chronicle," the man who sang before Erik Eiegod is called " citharedus vel fiellator," since apparently a foreign expression was used. The same holds true of the " Rimed Chronicle," which tells that King Erik brought a " Spelman " with him from Rome. Cf. A. Olrik in " Mindre Afhandlinger," ed. by the phil.- hist. Samfund, p. 265.

108 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

found in the German text, we shall have made good the missing syllable. When finally we run across stanzas 32, 33,

In nomine domini, said Hero Hagen, Now goes my fiddle well,

we learn what never before was heard of or known ; namely, that Latin was spoken in a popular ballad ! As for text B, Bugge has compared stanza 20,

Her maa ingen suerde paa dett slott nu drage,

" Here must be no sword Within the castle worn,"

with " Nibelungenlied," 1683,

man sol deheiniu wafen tragen in den sal.

One will notice here how slavishly and laboriously the Danish text follows the German, and how the verb and the word it governs fail to stand in the same line — a style foreign to ballads.

By this time, surely, the character of the ballad must, on the whole, have been sufficiently indicated. To press the conclusion home I shall call attention to the following lines and to the remarks subjoined thereto :

A 7. Skal jeg til den hedenske land fordoye mit unge liff ?

" Am I in the heathen land To part with my young life ? "

This must be, to demlande.

A 8. Thou art a knave so bold.

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But is a knave (Kncegi) mentioned anywhere else in the ballads, and is the word used to designate a warrior ? I recall having met with it in only one place, namely, in Vedel's version of the ballad " Queen Margrete " :

No. 1 59. 2. King Albret with his knights and knaves (Rytter oc

Knecte} And they would go to Skaane ;

where, however, all the older texts from various manu- scripts testify against Vedel : " King Albret and his good courtiers (HofmancT)" None of the citations in Kalkar's Dictionary are older than the sixteenth century, with the exception of a reference in an Inventory of Agerhus Castle from 1487, which says : " I Knecktpill with 6 Dozen " (Danske Magazin, 3d Series, II, 14). Such stanzas as the following have miscarried remarkably in their transit to Denmark :

A 9. Du haffuer paa dit eget land Saa meget gods saa fri.

10. Det vaar sollige marre-mind och der han hoffdet aff hug.

1 6. Det vor den sellige ferri-mand, der hand hoffden fra hug.

25. Ud stander frue Kremold I siner skind gron.

A 9. You have at home in your own country Castles and lands so free.

10. It was the silly mermaid

Her head he there struck off.

1 6. It was the silly ferryman, And off his head he struck.

25. Forth stands Lady Kremold Arrayed in green fur.

HO THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

In conclusion there are found everywhere inversions and absurd, annoying repetitions ; such as, for instance, in stanza 17 : "so cast ... he cast ... so cast ... he bade."

The result of the above investigations may be summed up thus : Here lies before us a translation, often meaning- less, of a Low German ballad, characterized by faulty meter and faulty Danish. That should by no means be regarded as a Danish form which has been patterned after a Ger- man model, itself an import into Denmark. The ballad is frankly a translation, made particularly by the pen, a translation that could never have resulted in a singable ballad. This view is strikingly confirmed by various con- ditions. Because of its form and meter this ballad stands unique among all other ballads. Both versions A and B are written in eight-line stanzas, and their division by Grundtvig into four-line stanzas (like that of Vedel's ear- lier) is wholly arbitrary. Several of the stanzas have now and then a couple of lines too many. Moreover the rhythm is incontestably foreign to that of the average popular ballad ; it is based on a meter that is ordinarily never found in Denmark, namely, that of the " Nibelungen " stanza (more of this later). Then, too, the absence of a refrain points to the conclusion that the ballad was never intended for singing. Of not the least significance is the fact that the ballad is preserved in only one manuscript, namely, Svaning's, and then in the composite, final section of the manuscript, where it appears in two different places. Hence this ballad, in all probability, never boasted of a wide circulation ; it progressed no farther than a single manor, where some German servant made it known to the housewife, who wrote it down twice. Or more likely, the

THE REFRAIN III

German's fellow-servants attempted to give the ballad a Danish dress, which, however, did not fit well ; this would account for the two copies of it.

There is not the slightest ground for assuming that a Danish ballad with so meaningless a verse, with so faulty and unintelligible a language, with so unsingable a form, would have been taken up by popular tradition. It has been preserved by the pen and is quite late, certainly as late as the sixteenth century.

Clearly, notwithstanding, this ballad has a certain amount of interest. It manifests to us the vital energy of the " Grimhild Saga," and instructs us concerning an unknown German poem ; through its wholly incongruous character it enables us to understand the remainder of our ballads. But its worth lies, not in its holding up to view a sample of ballad style prevailing in the Middle Ages, but in its furnishing a contrast to such a style.

With respect to the ballad of " The Nightingale " (No. 57), Grundtvig has gradually come to the right con- clusion. In the second volume of his work he had already pointed out its close relation to foreign versions ; the fol- lowing comparison will show what a family resemblance exists between it and a Netherlandish ballad :

i . I know well where a castle stands, And it is bedecked so richly With silver and the red, red gold, With carved stones walled rarely.

i. Daer staet een clooster in oostenrijc, Het is so wel ghecieret Met silver ende rooden gout, Met grauwen steen doormoeret.

112 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

6. Art thou a wild bird alone in the world And no man doth know thee ; Hunger will nip thee, and cold and snow That falls on thy way so lonely.

6. Sidi een clein wilt voghelken stout, Can u gheen man bedwinghen, So dwinghet u die haghel, die coude snee Die loovers vander linden.

Still these strophes are not entirely conclusive, since they belong to a kind of unsettled lyrical verse which recurs in various Swedish and German ballads. But the entire atmosphere of the ballad is foreign.

In the Danish ballad the nightingale tells the knight that she is a young girl who has been metamorphosed by her stepmother. She is captured by the knight and imprisoned in a cage. She then undergoes various trans- formations, ending up in the shape of a serpent ; when the knight cuts the serpent with his knife, it turns into a maiden, the daughter of an Egyptian king. Although the corresponding foreign ballads tell no such story of enchant- ment and disenchantment, yet Grundtvig entertains no doubt that the ballad originates in a foreign type, " its rich lyricism and its land of Egypt invest it with a decisively foreign appearance " ; yet he adds, " to regard one of them (the Danish or the Swedish text) as a matter-of-fact trans- lation made by the pen from another language is forbidden by nothing more than the defective rime of the text, for this bears earmarks of having been taken up by popular tradition before it came into print." Later Grundtvig has been more clearly impressed with the ballad's "lack of genuine popular foundation," and with the fact " that from

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the first it has worn an untraditional guise with, in part, a more artistic (though certainly not a prettier) form than belongs to the genuine popular ballad. It once had com- plete rime, whereas now it lacks even the ordinary half- rime" (III, 833). Grundtvig has also pointed out that no Danish tradition appears independently of the broad- side in which it first came out. Since this ballad is dated from the time of Frederic IV, having been "printed in the year," say somewhere previous to 1721, it seems to me to be a simple matter to name the ballad rightly. It is not a popular ballad, but it is a street song, translated from the German by some poet of Holberg's day.

A ballad which Grundtvig has treated with great fullness is "Fair Anna" (No. 258); it takes up forty pages of his text and is accompanied by a general synopsis. Beyond a doubt it has figured as the most popular ballad of the past few centuries. It tells of an abducted king's daughter, who had been bought by a knight and kept as his mistress, becoming by him the mother of seven sons. The knight concludes later to take another woman as his wife. When the concubine offers wine to the bride, the latter looks curiously at the sorrowing woman and asks her name. Thus she discovers that Fair Anna is her husband's mis- tress, and even learns that she is her own sister. She then withdraws, and Anna becomes the lawful wife. The ballad, which is found in two of our oldest manuscripts, — Sten Bille's and Karen Brahe's (c. 1550), — resembles very closely, as Grundtvig has pointed out, a German and a Netherlandish ballad. If we now examine text A, we shall find the following striking conditions : i. Der red en Mur ad stellen ud ;

114 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

that is to say, there rode a Moor out for to steal.

2. Fair Anneck is she called.

This German form of the name is found throughout the entire ballad.

1 7. I give to her my new mills all That lie on the plains so wide ; And they grind out the cinnamon meal, And nothing else besides.

30. She let fall many bitter tears Down into the cup they sank.

See the Netherlandish form (Grundtvig, App. 3, V, 17) :

zii liet er alzoo menigen traan al in de gouden wijnschaal zinken.

38. Had I now a lansquenet good Of honor and of price, Who would follow me all through the land Like as a faithful wife.

19, 23. Fair Anneck, my frynd-ynne (a female friend).

These specimens indicate sufficiently well that here we have to do with a German importation ; for our ballads in- deed never deal with Moors, cinnamon, or lansquenets — who first arose in Germany at the conclusion of the fif- teenth century. The language is superlatively un-Danish. Frynt, for Ven (friend), unquestionably found its way into Denmark during the sixteenth century, but scarcely earlier. No instance of it prior to this time is recorded in Kalkar, and hardly ever is it met with in the ballads. In Langebek's Quarto Manuscript of the time of Frederic II, is found the phrase (No. 2546) "With great frynt-lighed (friendship) she received him " ; the other two manuscripts of B, and also the other texts, have " With great tucht (propriety)."

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The other two texts of " Fair Anna " belonging to the sixteenth century exhibit German forms of words to a less degree :

B 27. Take with thee thy kamer-viff (lady of honor, German kammerweib),

but such a mode of address and such a splitting up of the speech as follows, though common to all the forms of this ballad, whether of our time or of that of the earliest re- corded copy, is unknown to our other ballads :

B 4. Fair Anne is to his mother gone ; " Mother ! " said she, " lady ! Will you ask your own dear son If me he will promise to marry ? "

1 2. Her lord is to Fair Anne gone ; 11 Anne, my trust, my treasure !

What gifts do you intend for my noble bride, Will surely give her pleasure ? "

13. " Gifts enow I '11 give to her,

My king ! " said she, " my master ! I '11 give to her my seven bold sons, Of whom I am the mother."

14. " That is not a generous gift, Anne, my trust, my treasure ! Other gifts you must give to her, If you hold dear my pleasure."

15. " Then I '11 give her gifts enow, My king ! " said she, " my master ! I '11 give to her your own dear self, And I live alone hereafter."

This mode of address, together with the attempt to employ two titles on either side, runs throughout the whole ballad. For counterparts to this usage our other

Ii6 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

ballads yield nothing ; besides it conflicts with all ballad style to introduce "said she" in the middle of a verse- line and in direct discourse. Foreign texts, on the contrary, furnish parallels to this practice : " och moeder, zeide ze, landsvrouwe ! " or " koning Alewijn, zeide ze, heere ! "

Whatever else comes to light in the Danish texts of this ballad, thus much is certain : none of them represent the genuine style of the Danish popular ballad ; some of them are German in language, and version A exhibits marks of the translation, which add in no way to its aesthetic value. Grundtvig declares that the ballad " could scarcely be dated back farther than about 1400." The facts, however, stand as follows : The ballad was written down in Denmark in 1550, and even at that time it bore most distinctly telltale marks of its homeland ; so over- whelmingly present are these that the language is mean- ingless. Hence it failed to get its German accent rubbed off ; if we then concede that it was translated into Danish during the sixteenth century, we surely give to the ballad all its due. It does no more than indicate the nature of the taste obtaining in the sixteenth century ; it has noth- ing to do with the fifteenth century or with the Middle Ages. It presents an incongruous appearance in the com- pany of our other ballads. If the art of song-writing had been known here in Denmark in the fifteenth century, it certainly would have exerted a lasting and unmistakable influence on Danish song-writing.

In " True as Gold " (No. 254) we have likewise a foreign ballad in Danish guise. A young man meets a maiden, who is listening to the song of a bird, and proffers his love to her ; but she replies that she already has a good friend.

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He then removes his hat from his head and discloses himself as her lover. The foreign and somewhat learned tone is repeated in practically all of the texts. Such verses as these, for example, run through nearly all versions :

A 3. I listen to peace and the song of birds In this the summer's verdure.

10. The birds they sang in a shady dale, The nightingales in song were wooing ; They both were afraid of calumny's tale, Which ever is joy's undoing.

C 10. The birds did sing within the dale,

Lady Nightingale in song was wooing.

Compare Grundtvig, App. 3, V, I :

Darauf da sitzt Frau Nachtigall,

Das kleine Waldvogelein vor dem Wald.

The ballad has near relatives in a number of lands, and its whole bearing shows its remoteness from the general popular style. The popular ballad falls short of such properly constructed verse. Especially open to suspicion is the precision of such lines as " I hold a youth so dear in my heart," " With all decorum (Tttgt} she received him then." (Bb has here " With great friendliness \Fryndt- lighed] she received him then.") Our ballads are not at all given to speaking of so abstract a thing as calumny, which is joy's undoing (more of this later) ; they do not treat of a youth and a maiden, but of Sir Oluf and Young Else. Hence one is no more surprised to find that a refrain is wanting than he is to find that texts A, B, and C begin the narrative in the /-form (though they conclude in the third person), for both of these features are character- istic of the German ballad.

II 8 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

11 Little Karen " (No. 101) is built upon the old legend of St. Catherine, whom the emperor attempts to make his mistress. She firmly defends her virtue, and as a result she is cast into the tower, there to suffer the painful tortures of being broken upon the wheel and stuck full of spikes. The ballad exists here in the North only in modern copies ; yet Peder Syv mentions a " St. Karen's ballad." On the other hand, there is found a series of German ballads on St. Catherine, one of which is so nearly akin to a Swedish ballad as to suggest that the ballad was translated either from the German into the Swedish or from the Swedish into the German. Grundtvig considers the original to have been Swedish, whereas Bergstrb'm and Hoijer1 take the opposite view. Six out of the seven Danish versions have no refrains and go to the other extreme in a repetition of the first or of both lines in a stanza. The seventh form has the refrain " Yes, it is you I was engaged to in my youth," which is also found in version M of " Ribold and Guldborg" (No. 82). It is certainly difficult to make good the assumption that this ballad can be assigned to the Middle Ages; we have far greater reason, or even right, to regard it as having been imported from Germany into Denmark in the seventeenth century. Why, indeed, should the importation have been impossible at this period ? At a very recent date, as Bugge has pointed out, the bal- lad has strayed from Sweden into Eastdale in Norway, and an almost perfect Danish form has forced its way even up to Telemark (II, 546, III, 895). As a final proof of its modern character let me call attention to its

1 E. G. Geijer och A. A. Afzelius, Svenska Folkvisor ; new, much enlarged edition, ed. by R. Bergstrom and L. Hoijer, 1880.

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meter, which is altogether different from that of all other ballads ; this feature will be dwelt upon more precisely in the following chapter.

"The Bald Monk" (No. 15) sings of one of those in- trepid monastic characters which were not infrequently the subject of song and popular tradition in the later periods of the Middle Ages. Twelve warriors lie in ambush before the cloister gate and kill the oxen and cows of the monks. Upon this the bald monk snatches up a heavy ax, and, engaging in combat with them, slays them all. Seized by a sort of Berserker fury the monk rushes out into the woods, where he meets a trold, whom he puts to such hard straits that the trold in order to persuade his foe to leave off must surrender to him a large amount of gold and silver. On his return home to the monastery the monk continues his violent behavior, mistreating his brother monks and striking out one of the abbot's eyes. The monks therefore conclude to choose him for their abbot.

Some of the verses must have been badly remembered ; as, for example :

7. de skreff krensen (Kredsen) paa den lord, de quad huer-ander en vise ; det vil jeg for sanden sige : det vaar saa beesk en lise.

They wrote a circle upon the ground They sang each one a ballad ; This I say to you in sooth : It was relief so wretched.

In others German words appear :

9. He fain then would be walking (spatzere).

120 THE MEDIEVAL POPULAR BALLAD

Stanza 13 has : " He struck the monk on the tonsure (plade)" where plade is the German word Platte, that is, "tonsure."

Only one version of the ballad is extant, and that be- longs to a broadside of the seventeenth century. Although the printed ballad in this case is virtually of the Middle Ages, we have no reason to assume that the ballad origi- nally lacked a refrain merely because one is not found in the broadside.

In "Henry of Brunswick" (No. 114) Henry has gone away to fight the heathen ; he bade his wife to wait for him seven years and not to put a hare in the bear's den. Henry is taken prisoner by the heathen and is compelled to draw the harrow and the plow. One day he sees a lion and a serpent fighting together ; he assists the lion, who thereupon follows him about as faithfully as though he were his hound. He sits down upon a stone and falls asleep. Then an angel appears and leads him seven hundred miles to Brunswick, where he arrives just as his wife is about to marry another. The following verses will, I believe, suffi- ciently indicate the character of this ballad :

A i. The Duke of Brunsvig,

hvor finder man ien iginn nu slig ! 1 A ii. Du laeg aldrig Hare in Bjornens Leie. 12. Fangen blev Hertugen, det var vaerre. 1 8. Saa underlig Ting emthyrit ham. 25. Saa underlig Ting wyndthyres han. 28. Du saette Dig neder og hvile Dig, men jeg vil bede min Skaber for Dig.

1 Cf. " Persenober," stanza 4 (Brandt, II, 35) : "man finder ikke nu mange slig" (one finds not now many such).

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I. The Duke of Brunswick,

Where will one find again now such !

1 1. Never lay a hare in the bear's den.

12. A captive was the Duke, that was true. 1 8. So wonderful a thing befell him.

25. So wonderful a thing he had to endure. 28. Now sit you down and rest you, But I shall pray my Maker for you.

If it were really true that the language of the old ballads knew a verb emthyre, " to experience," " to endure," such a word would have been found in daily use, for so largely is the language of our ballads a part of common speech ; but this is not the case. Just as little do the ballads speak of " my Maker," and just as little do they speak, on the whole, in the language of this ballad. It presents essen- tially nothing more than the character of a rimed tale.

Two forms of the ballad, A and B, are found ; but B, according to Grundtvig, bears throughout " the stamp of an untraditional revision " ; "it seems to be an arbitrary revision, for which A has furnished the basis, but for which, in addition, was used another genuine copy, which is not now known." A is found in Karen Brahe's Folio Manuscript and in two other manuscripts, which had a common source, but the first-named manuscript, accord- ing to Grundtvig, furnishes the oldest and best text. The text is written, however, in six-line stanzas, of which the first and second lines are a repetition of the last line and a half of the preceding stanza ; the third and fourth lines rime together, likewise the fifth and sixth. B has four- line stanzas with the first and second lines riming, and the third and fourth ; the repetition, however, is absent (though it may have been present originally). Hence only

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Ab and Ac have the general two-line stanza, of which one and a half lines are repeated ; but it is extremely doubt- ful whether this form is not a reworking and an expansion of the heterogeneous form, by which it was forced more into the general style of the popular ballad.

"St. George and the Dragon" (No. 103) is a rather dull and unpoetic composition ; its three Swedish forms have the following introductory stanza :

Praised be the Virgin Mary

And her well-blessed Son !

A ballad will I sing to you,

It was made on the knight St. Orrian.

"Beyond a doubt such a stanza was present in our ballad too," says Grundtvig. If this be the case, the ro- mances and the religious poetry of the monasteries come into close touch with each other. In the Battle of Brun- kebjerg (1471) the Swedes are said to have sung the ballad of " St. George." Possibly that is the one which has been preserved ; though it is hard to understand how the ballad could serve as a war ballad. At any rate it dates from the late Middle Ages, and it properly belongs to the romances.

The historical ballad " The Defeat in Ditmarsh " (No. 170) (1500 A.D.) is, as Grundtvig says, "composed in an entirely new style, — the allegorical," and it "has a verse-form differing from that of every other old popular ballad. Nevertheless it is neither an art form, nor even a rimed chronicle, but a genuinely popular ballad ; it was the property of the people and remained so down to the time when half a century later it was put to paper. All three versions are much distorted, first by oral tradition, and second by the pen." Of the ballad's aesthetic worth I

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shall not speak here. Thus much, at all events, is certain : the ballad with its stanzas in from three to five lines, with its whole vacillating, enigmatical, and allegorical character, is such a departure from the hundreds of other ballads that it cannot enter into any discussion of the general structure of the popular ballad. The closing lines of version B, " this says the boy who accompanied the host," remind one of the German historical ballads, in which the con- clusion often states that the ballad was sung "von einem, der auch dabei gewesen."

There are found a few other ballads which lack refrains ; but these are cases where the refrain has been lost. The most noteworthy of these is " Niels Ebbeson " (No. 1 56), a genuine popular ballad ; in none of its five forms nor in Vedel's text is there any refrain. The ballad must conse- quently be regarded as a peculiar exception. Yet there is no doubt that only by an untoward chance was it robbed of what it originally possessed.

The results of the foregoing detailed investigations may be summed up thus. There are extant only a very few ballads which possess no refrains, and in the majority of these cases the absence of this feature should certainly be charged to an accidental loss attendant upon the course of time. With a few of these exceptions, the lack of a re- frain is peculiarly significant, in that a close examination makes them stand forth as ballads that do not belong to the Middle Ages, or, at any rate, to Danish popular poetry. Several of them were imported into Denmark during either the last two hundred years or the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; others are downright translations, bearing both in their language and in their form marks of their original

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nature and birthplace ; others again can be looked at only as pseudo-popular ballads, since they appear neither to have been sung nor to have been constructed for being sung, but simply and solely to have been written. As a consequence they are met with in only one manuscript.

In the next chapter, when we come to discuss the gen- uine ballad style and genuine ballad tone, and to investi- gate what is unique