The / Death of Balder / From the Danish / of / Johannes Ewald / (1773) / Translated by / George Borrow / Author of “Bible in Spain,” “Lavengro,” “Wild Wales,” etc. / London / Jarrold & Sons, 3 Paternoster Buildings, E.C. / 1889 / All Rights Reserved.
Collation:—Crown octavo, pp. viii + 77; consisting of: Half-title (with Certificate of Issue upon the centre of the reverse) pp. i–ii; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. iii–iv; Preface and List of The Persons (each with blank reverse) pp. v–viii; and Text pp. 1–77. The reverse of p. 77 is blank. The head-line is Death of Balder throughout, upon both sides of the page. At the foot of p. 77 is the following
imprint, “Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. / London and Edinburgh.” The signatures are A (4 leaves), and B to F (5 sheets, each 8 leaves). Sig. F 8 is a blank.
Issued in dark brown ‘diced’ cloth boards, with white paper back-label. The leaves measure 7¾ × 5 inches. Two Hundred and Fifty Copies were printed. The published price was 7s. 6d.
The Death of Balder was written in 1829, the year during which Borrow produced so many of his ballad translations, the year in which he made his fruitless effort to obtain subscribers for his Songs of Scandinavia. On December 6th of that year he wrote to Dr. [afterwards Sir] John Bowring:
“I wish to shew you my translation of The Death of Balder, Ewald’s most celebrated production, which, if you approve of, you will perhaps render me some assistance in bringing forth, for I don’t know many publishers. I think this will be a proper time to introduce it to the British public, as your account of Danish literature will doubtless cause a sensation.”
Evidently no publisher was forthcoming, for the work remained in manuscript until 1889, when, eight years after Borrow’s death, Messrs. Jarrold & Sons gave it to the world. In 1857 Borrow included the Tragedy among the series of Works advertised as “ready for the Press” at the end of the second volume of The Romany Rye. It was there described as “A Heroic Play.”
Although published only in 1889, The Death of Balder was actually set up in type three years earlier. It had been intended that the book should have been issued in London by Messrs. Reeves & Turner, and proof-sheets exist carrying upon the title-page the name of that firm as publishers, and bearing the date 1886. It would appear that Mr. W. Webber, a bookseller of Ipswich, who then owned the Manuscript, had at first contemplated issuing the book through Messrs. Reeves & Turner. But at this
juncture he entered into the employment of Messrs. Jarrold & Sons, and consequently the books was finally brought out by that firm. The types were not reset, but were kept standing during the interval.
Another version of the song of The Three Valkyrier, which appears in The Death of Balder, pp. 53–54, was printed in Marsk Stig’s Daughters and Other Songs and Ballads, 1913, pp. 19–20. The text of the two versions differs entirely, in addition to which the 1913 version forms one complete single song, whilst in that of 1889 the lines are divided up between the several characters.