The Nightingale / The Valkyrie and Raven / and Other Ballads / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.
Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 27; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Title-page, as above (with a note regarding the American copyright upon the centre of the reverse) pp. 3–4; and Text of the Ballads pp. 5–27. There are head-lines throughout, each page being headed with the title of the particular Ballad occupying it. Upon the reverse of p. 27 is the following imprint: “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A (a quarter-sheet of 2 leaves), B (a half-sheet of 4 leaves), and C (a full sheet of 8 leaves), all inset within each other.
Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.
Thirty Copies only were printed.
Contents.
page
The Nightingale, or The Transformed Damsel. [I know
where stands a Castellaye]
5
The Valkyrie and
Raven. [Ye men wearing bracelets]
Previously printed in Once a Week, August
2nd, 1862, pp. 152–156, where the Ballad was
accompanied by a full-page Illustration engraved upon wood.
[See post, pp. 302–305.]
11
Erik Emun and Sir Plog.
[Early at morn the lark sang gay]
21
The Elves. [Take
heed, good people, of yourselves]
There are two Manuscripts of The Elves available.
So far as the body of the poem is concerned the texts of these
are identical, the fifth line alone differing materially in
each. This line, as printed, reads:
The lass he woo’ d, her promise
won.
In the earlier of the two MSS. it reads:
Inflamed with passion her he
woo’d.
A cancelled reading of the same MS. runs:
Whom when he saw the peasant
woo’d.
But the Ballad is furnished with a repeated refrain.
This refrain in the printed version reads:
Take heed, good people, of
yourselves; And oh! beware ye of the elves.
In the earlier MS. the refrain employed is:
’Tis wonderful the Lord can brook The insolence of the fairy folk!
A reduced facsimile of the first page of the later MS. will be
found facing the present page.
The entire poem should be compared with The Elf Bride,
printed in The Brother Avenged and Other Ballads, 1913,
pp. 21–22.
25
Feridun. [No face of
an Angel could Feridun claim]
