The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)

by Unknown

F

Gibb MS., No 8: 'The Fair Flower o Northumberland,' from Jeannie Stirling, a young girl, as learned from her grandmother.

*   *   *   *   *

1
She stole the keys from her father's bed-head,
O but her love it was easy won!
She opened the gates, she opened them wide,
She let him out o the prison strong.

2
She went into her father's stable,
O but her love it was easy won!
She stole a steed that was both stout and strong,
To carry him hame frae Northumberland.

*   *   *   *   *

3
'I'll be cook in your kitchen,
Noo sure my love has been easy won!
I'll serve your own lady with hat an with hand,
For I daurna gae back to Northumberland.'

4
'I need nae cook in my kitchin,
O but your love it was easy won!
Ye'll serve not my lady with hat or with hand,
For ye maun gae back to Northumberland.'

5
When she gaed hame, how her father did ban!
'O but your love it was easy won!
A fair Scottish girl, not sixteen years old,
Was once the fair flower o Northumberland!'

10. The Twa Sisters.

Page [118] b. K is found in Kinloch MSS, VII, 256.

Add: V. 'Benorie,' Campbell MSS, II, 88.

W. 'Norham, down by Norham,' communicated by Mr Thomas Lugton, of Kelso.

X. 'Binnorie,' Dr Joseph Robertson's Note-Book, January 1, 1830, p. 7, one stanza.

Y. Communicated to Percy by Rev. P. Parsons, April 7, 1770.

[119] a. Note [127], first line. Read: I, 315.

[120] a, first paragraph. "A very rare but very stupid modern adaptation, founded on the tradition as told in Småland, appeared in Götheborg, 1836, small 8vo, pp 32: Antiquiteter i Thorskinge. Fornminnet eller Kummel-Runan, tolkande Systersveket Bröllopps-dagen." The author was C. G. Lindblom, a Swedish priest. The first line is:

"En Näskonung bodde på Illvedens fjäll."

Professor George Stephens.

[120] a. Note [129], lines 3, 4. Read: and in 14, 15, calls the drowned girl "the bonnie miller's lass o Binorie," meaning the bonnie miller o Binorie's lass.

[124] a, last paragraph. A drowned girl grows up on the sea-strand as a linden with nine branches: from the ninth her brother carves a harp. "Sweet the tone," he says, as he plays. The mother calls out through her tears, So sang my youngest daughter. G. Tillemann, in Livona, ein historisch-poetisches Taschenbuch, Riga u. Dorpat, 1812, p. 187, Ueber die Volkslieder der Letten. Dr R. Köhler points out to me a version of this ballad given with a translation by Bishop Carl Chr. Ulmann in the Dorpater Jahrbücher, II, 404, 1834, 'Die Lindenharfe,' and another by Pastor Karl Ulmann in his Lettische Volkslieder, übertragen, 1874, p. 199, No 18, 'Das Lied von der Jüngsten.' In the former of these the brother says, Sweet sounds my linden harp! The mother, weeping, It is not the linden harp; it is thy sister's soul that has swum through the water to us; it is the voice of my youngest daughter.

[124] b, first paragraph. In Bohemian, 'Zakletá dcera,' 'The Daughter Cursed,' Erben, 1864, p. 466 (with other references); Moravian, Sušil, p. 143, No 146. Dr R. Köhler further refers to Peter, Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien, I, 209, 'Die drei Spielleute;' Meinert, p. 122, 'Die Erle;' Vernaleken, Alpensagen, p. 289, No 207, 'Der Ahornbaum.'

[125] b. Add to the citations: 'Le Sifflet enchanté,' E. Cosquin, Contes populaires lorrains, No 26, Romania, VI, 565, with annotations, pp 567 f; Köhler's Nachträge in Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, II, 350 f; Engelien u. Lahn, Der Volksmund in der Mark Brandenburg, I, 105, 'Diä 3 Brüöder;' Sébillot, Littérature orale de la Haute-Bretagne, p. 220, Les Trois Frères, p. 226, 'Le Sifflet qui parle.' (Köhler.)

[132]. I. 10². Read: for water.

K. Say: Kinloch MSS, VII, 256.

1². And I'll gie the hail o my father's land.

2. The first tune that the bonnie fiddle playd, 'Hang my sister Alison,' it said.

3. 'I wad gie you.'

[136] a. R b. Read: Lanarkshire.