If you had not done all three,
I’d tear you as the withered leaves
Are torn from off the tree.”
And the maiden, released from her bond, sings:—
“Now I have mourned upon his grave
A twelvemonth and a day,
I’ll set my sail before the wind
To waft me far away.”
Another ballad of the same class is that of the knight who betrays a maiden, and refuses to marry her unless she can answer certain riddles. These are:—
“What is louder than a horn?