This poem, fine as it is, foreshadows the decline of the Ballad pure and simple, and its supersession by the more lengthy and complicated Romance, or novel in verse.
There are other Ballads (not contemporary) dealing with the minor characters in the drama, which give picturesque glimpses of the outlaw’s adventurous life:
“Marstig he had daughters twain,
And all their lot was sorrow and pain.
The elder took the younger by the hand,
And thro’ the wide world did lead her.”
(Since, in some versions, the wandering maidens are the King of England’s daughters, it is probable that Marsk Stig’s name crept in from a semi-historical Ballad of Erik Mœndved’s Bridal, wherein the young Queen begs the release of Stig’s daughters from prison.)
Another sings the “Wooing of Ranild Jonson,” who by threats forces his beloved from her reluctant parents:
“Nought for their bridal bower they found
But the wood and the wild and the low green ground,