“My Step-dame chang’d me, as you see,
She’d ruin me to eternity.
“About the wild forest I have run,
To the boors much scathe and violence done.
“In winter and in summer’s tide
In peace for me they could not bide.
“But they may thank my cruel Dame,
For ’twas through her I a bear became.
“She plac’d around my neck so tight
An iron band in wrath and spite.
“If thou this accursed band canst break
Thy life from thee I will not take.”
“O I will help thee from thy thrall;
Maria’s son who has power for all
“Will loosen from thee this stubborn band,
Full able thereto is his right hand.”
O’er him the cross the knight did make,
The iron burst from the bruin’s neck.
He became a youth as fair as day,
His father’s realm he went to sway.