The rud it left her comely cheek; Her heart was clem'd wi' harm. 24. A waefu' woman then she was ane, How bard a weird 1 fa'! 25. "My fay I plight to the fairest wight That man on mold mat see;Maun I now mell wi' a laidly El, His light lemman to be?" 26. lle minted ance-he minted twice, Wae wax'd her heart that syth : Syne the laidliest fiend he grew that e'er To mortal ee did kyth. 27. When he the thirden time can mint To Mary's son she pray'd, And the laidly Elf was clean awa, And a fair knight in his stead. 28. This fell under a linden green, That again his shape he found; O' wae and care was the word nae mair, A' were sae glad that stound. 29. "O dearest Eline, hear thou this, And thou my wife sall be, And a' the goud in merry England Sae freely I'll gi'e thee ! 30. "Whan I was but a little wee bairn, My mither died me fra ; My stepmither sent me awa fra her; I turn'd till an E fin Gray. 31. "To tby husband I a gift will gie, As mends for Eline his huswife;- 32. "Thou nobil knygbt, we thank now God "That has freed us frae skaith; Sae wed thou thee a maiden free, And joy attend ye baith! 33. "Sin I to thee nae maik can be My dochter may be thine: And thy gud will right to fulfill, Lat this be our propine." 34. "I thank thee, Eline, thou wise woman, My praise thy worth sall ha'e; And thy love gin fail to win, Thou here at bae sall stay." 35.. The busbande biggit now on his oe, 36. Now Eline, the husbande's buswife, has Cour'd a' her grief and harms; She's mither to a noble queen That sleeps in a kingis arms. GLOSSARY. St. 1. Wold, a wood; woody fastness. Husbande, from the Dan. hos, with, and bonde, a villain, or bondsman, who was a cultivator of the ground, and could not, quit the estate to which he was attached, without the permission of his lord. This is the sense of the word, in the old Scottish records. In the Scottish "Burghe Laws," translated from the Reg. Majest. (Auchinleck MS. in the Adv. Lib.) it is used indiscriminately with the Dan. and Swed. bonde. 5. Weiest, smallest. Grim, fierce. 11. Winnock, window. 13. Norwart, northward. 14. Braids, strides quickly forward. Wad, would. 45. Canny, adroit. Bide, abide. Lemman, mistress. 48. Nae-gate, nowise. 19. Couth, could, knew how to. Dualling-stead, dwelling place. Rede, counsel; consultation. Forfairn, forlorn; lost; gone. Tyne, (verb neut.) be lost; perish. Crean'd, shrunk, diminished; from the 22. Will of rede, bewildered in thought; in Gaelic, crian, very small. Immert, emmet: ant. Christian, used in the Danish ballads, etc. in contradistinction to demoniac, as it is in England, in contradistinction to brute: in which sense, a person of the lower class in England, would call a Jew or a Turk, a Christian. Lat. the Danish original "vildraadige; "inops consilii;" Gr. άnopwv. This expression is left among the desiderata in the Glossary to Ritson's Romances, and has never been explained. It is obsolete in the Danish as well as in English. Fare, go. 23, Rud, red of the cheek. Clem'd, in the Danish, klemt; (which, in the north of England, is still in use, as the word starved is with us;) brought to a dying state. It is used by our old comedians. Harm, grief; as in the original, and in the old Teutonic, English, and Scottish poetry. 24. Waefu, woful. Moody, strongly and wilfully passionate. Kyth, appear. Fa, (Isl. Dan. and Swed.) take; get; acquire; Ma kunde med oyen see. procure; have for my lot.-This Gothic Der hand vilde minde den tredie gang," etc. verb answers, in its direct and secondary Syth, tide; time. significations, exactly to the Latin capio; and Allan Ramsay was right in his definition of it. It is quite a different word from fa', an abbreviation of fall, or befall; and is the principal root in FANGEN, to fang, take, or lay hold of. 25. Fay, faith. Mell, mix. El, an elf. This term, in the Welsh, signifies 26. Minted, attempted; meant; showed a gang; Hun giordisi hiortet sa vee: End blef hand den lediste deifvel 28. Stound, hour; time; moment. 29. Merry, (old Teut. mere,) famous; re- 51. Mends, amends; recompense. 35. oe, an island of the second magnitude; 36. Cour'd, recover'd. THE GHAIST'S WARNING. TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH KÆMPE VISER, p. 724. 4 By the permission of Mr. Jamieson, this ballad is added from the same curious Collection. It contains some passages of great pathos. Svend Dyring hand rider sig op under oè, (Varè jeg seiver ung) Der fæstè band sig saa ven en moè. (Mig lyster udi lunden at ridè,) ete. Child Dyring has ridden him up under oe, ' There wedded be him sae fair a may. AF the greenwood it lists me to ride.) Thegither they lived for seven lang year, And they seven bairns hae gotten in fere. Sae Death's come there intill that stead, And that winsome lily flower is dead. That swain he has ridden him up under oe, And syne he has married anither may. He's married a may, and he's fessen her hame; But she was a grim and a laidly dame. When into the castell court drave she, The seven bairns stood wi' the tear in their ee. "Under oè."-The original expression has been preserved here and elsewhere, because no other could be found to supply its place. There is just as much meaning in it in the translation as in the original; but if is a standard Danish ballad phrase; and as such, it is hoped, will be allowed to pass. 2 "Fair."-The Dan. and Swed. ven, væn, or venne, and the Gaël. bản, in the oblique cases bhûn ( vân,) is the origin of the Scottish bonny which has so much puzzled all the etymologists. 1 The bairns they stood wl' dule and doubt;- She took frae them the bowster blae, That heard the wife under the eard that lay: That wife can stand up at our Lord's knee, See prigged sae sair, and she prigged sae lang, That he at the last ga'e her leave to gang. "And thou sall come back when the cock does craw; Wi' her banes sae stark a bowt she gae ; "Why stand ye here, dear dochter mine? How are sma brithers and sisters thine?" "For sooth ye're a woman balth fair and fine; .i Och! how should I be fine or fair? My cheek it is pale, and the ground's my lair.”— "My mither was white, wi' cheek sae red; "Och how should I be white and red, When she cam till the chalmer in, Down the bairns' cheeks the tears did rin. She buskit the tane, and she brush'd it there: She kem'd and plaited the tither's bair. The thirden she doodl'd upon her knee, And the fourthen she dichted sae cannilie. She's ta en the fifthen upon ber lap, And sweetly suckled it at her pap. Till her eldest dochter syne said she, "Ye bid Child Dyring come here to me."'" Whan he cam till the chalmer in, "I left you routh o' ale and bread; The original of this and the following stanza is very fine. "Hun skod op sinè modigè been, Der revenedè muur og graa marmorsteen. Der bun gik igennem den by. De hunde de tudė saa hojt i sky." |