She gave him her hand with an air so free:
“Here take thy troth, I will go with thee.”
A bridal train from church they go,
They danc’d so lightly and free from woe.
And when they came to the salt sea strand,
The little boats turn’d away from the land.
“Now Marsk Stig’s daughter hold my steed,
To cross the water a boat we need.”
To a little boat he chang’d his steed,
And over the waves away they speed.
And when in the midst of the sound they were,
Dissolv’d the boat into water fair.
Up the land far was heard the cry
Of Marsk Stig’s maid in her agony.
Now will I caution each maiden bright,
To dance not away with an unknown knight.
Note.—The above Ballad is a later, and greatly improved, version of one which appeared under the title The Merman only, in the Romantic Ballads of 1826. The introduction of the incident of the changing by magic of the horse into a boat, furnishes a reason for the catastrophe which was lacking in the earlier version.