[Footnote 8]: The subject of the ballad of Ribéhuus is the taking of the castle of Ribé, which had fallen into the hands of the outlaws during the minority of Eric, by a party of fifty loyal knights, headed by Count Gerhard and Drost Hessel. In the middle ages it was not unusual for the knights to join in the public festivities of the burghers. At one of these, the king's knights took the opportunity of joining a dance by torch lights to be led according to usage through the streets up to the castle. The ballad describes the long row of dancers, as being kept in a straight file by a chain of wreathed green leaves and roses. Each knight held a lady in his left hand and a lighted torch in the right, their drawn swords being carefully concealed under their scarlet mantles. The castle bridge was lowered and the gates thrown open to admit the dancers by permission of the commandant, who in a few minutes found himself a prisoner, and the castle (which was wholly unprepared for the attack) in the hands of King Eric's adherents. The ballad concludes as follows;--
"Thus danced we into the castle hall,
With unsheathed sword 'neath scarlet pall,
The castle it is won!
Ne'er saw I before a castle by chance,
Won by rose-wreaths and the knightly dance,
For young Eric the feat was done!"--Translator.
[Footnote 9]: Bohemia.
[Footnote 10]: Rosmer. An allusion to an old Danish ballad, the hero of which is called "Rosmer the Merman."--Translator.