28
All so early, ere dawn was red,
Were three in Sir Oluf’s hold lay dead.
29
Sir Oluf lay dead, and his bride also;
The third was his mother, that died for woe.
—The dance goes gay by the greenwood tree.
XVIII, XIX
THE KNAVISH MERMAN
AGNES AND THE MERMAN
That the first of these Ballads is the more ancient appears probable through its conception of the Merman—the grim troll with his shape-changing and his glamour, fit image of the inexorable sea. The fine imaginative touch of the holy images averting their heads must have been borrowed from this by the later Ballad. Versions exist in Swedish, Norwegian, Faroëse, Icelandic, and English (“Clerk Colvill and the Mermaid”).
The “Agnes” Ballad must, I take it, have been known to Matthew Arnold, who enriched its simple folk-melody with the elaborate orchestration of his “Forsaken Merman.” But, for dramatic power and genuine feeling, the honours remain with the more primitive bard.