Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth. Sidgwick Frank
Tho’ after it but few enquires.
13.
13.2 ‘lillie leven,’ smooth lawn set with lilies.
‘And see not ye that braid braid road,
That lies across yon lillie leven?
That is the path of wickedness,
Tho’ some call it the road to heaven.
14.
‘And see not ye that bonny road,
Which winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where you and I this night maun gae.
15.
‘But, Thomas, ye maun hold your tongue,
Whatever you may hear or see,
For gin ae word you should chance to speak,
You will ne’er get back to your ain countrie.’
16.
16.1 ‘even cloth,’ cloth with the nap worn off.
He has gotten a coat of the even cloth,
And a pair of shoes of velvet green,
And till seven years were past and gone
True Thomas on earth was never seen.
THE QUEEN OF ELFAN’S NOURICE
The Text.—As printed in Sharpe’s Ballad Book, from the Skene MS. (No. 8). It is fragmentary—regrettably so, especially as stanzas 10–12 belong to Thomas Rymer.
The Story is the well-known one of the abduction of a young mother to be the Queen of Elfland’s nurse. Fairies, elves, water-sprites, and nisses or brownies, have constantly required mortal assistance in the nursing of fairy children. Gervase of Tilbury himself saw a woman stolen away for this purpose, as she was washing clothes in the Rhone.
The genuineness of this ballad, deficient as it is, is best proved by its lyrical nature, which, as Child says, ‘forces you to chant, and will not be read.’
‘Elfan,’ of course, is Elfland; ‘nourice,’ a nurse.
THE QUEEN OF ELFAN’S NOURICE
1.
1.4 ‘ben,’ within.
‘I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,
An’ a cow low down in yon glen;
Lang, lang, will my young son greet
Or his mother bid him come ben.
2.
‘I heard a cow low, a bonnie cow low,
An’ a cow low down in yon fauld;
Lang, lang will my young son greet
Or his mither take him frae cauld.
*****
3.
‘. … .
. … .
Waken, Queen of Elfan,
An’ hear your nourice moan.’
4.
‘O moan ye for your meat,
Or moan ye for your fee,
Or moan ye for the ither bounties
That ladies are wont to gie?’
5.
‘I moan na for my meat,
Nor moan I for my fee,
Nor moan I for the ither bounties
That ladies are wont to gie.
6.
‘. … .
. … .
But I moan for my young son
I left in four nights auld.
7.
‘I moan na for my meat,
Nor yet for my fee,
But I mourn for Christen land,
It’s there I fain would be.’
8.
‘O nurse my bairn, nourice,’ she says,
‘Till he stan’ at your knee,
An’ ye’s win hame to Christen land,
Whar fain it’s ye wad be.
9.
9.2 i.e. till he can walk by holding on to things.
‘O keep my bairn, nourice,
Till he gang by the hauld,
An’ ye’s win hame to your young son
Ye left in four nights auld.’
*****
10.
‘O nourice lay your head
Upo’ my knee:
See ye na that narrow road
Up by yon tree?
11.
. … .
. … .
That’s the road the righteous goes,
And that’s the road to heaven.
12.
‘An’ see na ye that braid road,
Down by yon sunny fell?
Yon’s the road the wicked gae,
An’ that’s the road to hell.’
*****
ALLISON GROSS
The Text is that of the Jamieson-Brown MS.
The Story is one of the countless variations of the French ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ A modern Greek tale narrates that a nereid, enamoured of a youth, and by him scorned, turned him into a snake till he should find another love as fair as she.
The feature of this ballad is that the queen of the fairies should have power to undo the evil done by a witch.
ALLISON GROSS
1.
O Allison Gross, that lives in yon tow’r,
The ugliest witch i’ the north country,
Has trysted me ae day up till her bow’r,
An’ monny fair speech she made to me.
2.
She stroaked my head, an’ she kembed my hair,
An’ she set me down saftly on her knee;
Says, ‘Gin ye will be my lemman so true,
Sae monny braw things as I woud you gi’.’
3.
She show’d me a mantle o’ red scarlet,
Wi’ gouden flow’rs an’ fringes fine;