(29) [Axel Thordson: 1913]
Axel Thordson / and Fair Valborg / A Ballad / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.
Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 45; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a notice regarding the American copyright upon the reverse) pp. 3–4; and text of the Ballad pp. 5–45. The head-line is Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg throughout, upon both sides of the page. Upon the reverse of p. 45 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A to C (Three sheets, each eight leaves) inset within each other. The last leaf of Sig. C is a blank.
Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.
Thirty Copies only were printed.
Contents.
| page | |
| Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg. [At the wide board at tables play] | 5 |
In some respects Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg is the most ambitious of Borrow’s Ballads. It is considerably the longest, unless we regard the four “Songs” of which Marsk Stig is comprised as forming one complete poem. But it is by no means the most successful; indeed it is invariably in his shorter Ballads that we find Borrow obtaining the happiest result.
Two Manuscripts of Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg are available. The first was prepared in 1829 for the Songs of Scandinavia. The second was revised in 1854 for the Kœmpe Viser. This later Manuscript is in my own possession. I give herewith a reduced facsimile of one of its pages.
There is a copy of Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is C.44.d.38.
