Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The rud it left her comely cheek;

Her heart was clem'd wi' harm.

24.

A waefu' woman then she was ane,
And the moody tears loot fa':
"God rew on me, unseely wife,

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,
WI' mickle state and gear,

As mends for Eline his huswife;-
Thou's be my heartis dear."-

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,
And nae ane wrought him wrang;
His dochter wore crown in Engeland,
And happy lived and lang.

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.

[blocks in formation]

5. Weiest, smallest.

Grim, fierce.

11. Winnock, window.
Mint, aim at.
12. Coost, cast.
Chalmer, chamber.
Muist, most.
Ava, of all.

13. Norwart, northward.
Trow, believe.

14. Braids, strides quickly forward. Wad, would.

45. Canny, adroit.
Mony, many..
Well-waled, well-chosen..
17. An, if.

Bide, abide.

Lemman, mistress.

48. Nae-gate, nowise.

19. Couth, could, knew how to.
Lat be, let alone.
Gude, goods; property.
20. Aneath, beneath.

Dualling-stead, dwelling place.
21. Sary, sorrowful.

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.

[blocks in formation]

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.
Rew, take ruth; pity.
Unseely, unhappy; unblest.
Weird, fate.

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.
Mold, mould; earth.
Mat, mote; might,
Maun, must.

Mell, mix.

El, an elf. This term, in the Welsh, signifies
what has in itself the power of motion;
a moving principle; an intelligence; a
spirit: an angel. In the Hebrew, it bears
the same import.

26. Minted, attempted; meant; showed a
mind, or intention to. The original is :
"Hand
mindte hende forst-og anden

gang;

Hun giordisi hiortet sa vee:

End blef hand den lediste deifvel

28. Stound, hour; time; moment.

29. Merry, (old Teut. mere,) famous; re-
nowned; answering, in its etymological
meaning, exactly to the Latin mactus.
Hence merry-men, as the address of a
chief to his followers; meaning, not men of
mirth, but of renown. The term is found
in its original sense in the Gaël. mará,
and the Welsh mawr, great; and in the
oldest Teut. Komances, mar, mer, and
mere, have sometimes the same significa-
tion.

51. Mends, amends; recompense.
33. Maik, match; peer; equal.
Propine, pledge; gift.

35. oe, an island of the second magnitude;
an island of the first magnitude being
called a land, and one of the third mag-
nitude a holm.

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, '
(And O gin I were young!)

There wedded be him sae fair a may.

AF the greenwood it lists me to ride.)

Thegither they lived for seven lang year,
(And O, etc.)

And they seven bairns hae gotten in fere.
(I' the greenwood, etc.)

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 up wf her foot, and she kick'd them out.
Nor ale nor mead to the bairnies'she gave:
"But hunger and hate frae me ye's have."

She took frae them the bowster blae,
And said, "Ye sall ligg i' the bare strae!"
She took frae them the groff wax-light:
Says, "Now ye sall ligg i' the mark a' night!"
'Twas lang i' the night, and the bairņies grat :
Their mither she under the mools heard that;

That heard the wife under the eard that lay:
"For sooth maun I to my bairuies gae!"

That wife can stand up at our Lord's knee,
And "May I gang and my bairnies see ?"

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;
For thou nae langer sall bide awa."

Wi' her banes sae stark a bowt she gae ;
She's riven baith wa' and marble gray.1

[ocr errors][merged small]

"Why stand ye here, dear dochter mine?

How are sma brithers and sisters thine?"

"For sooth ye're a woman balth fair and fine;
But ye are nae dear mither of mine."-

.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;
But thou art wan, and liker ane dead."-

"Och how should I be white and red,
Sae lang as I've been cauld and dead?"

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,
Wi' angry mood she said to him:

"I left you routh o' ale and bread;
My bairnies quail for hunger and need.

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."

« AnteriorContinuar »