[4] ] The cathedral of Elgin naturally enough furnished similes to a man who had never in his life been twenty miles distant from it.
ROSMER HAFMAND,
OR,
THE MER-MAN ROSMER.
The ballad of Rosmer is found in Danish, Swedish, Faroish, and Norse. All the questions bearing upon its origin, and the relations of the various forms in which the story exists, are amply discussed by Grundtvig, vol. ii. p. 72. Three versions of the Danish ballad are given by Vedel, all of which Jamieson has translated. The following is No. 31 in Abrahamson.
There dwalls a lady in Danmarck,
Lady Hillers lyle men her ca';
And she's gar'd bigg a new castell,
That shines o'er Danmarck a'.
5 Her dochter was stown awa frae her;
She sought for her wide-whare;
But the mair she sought, and the less she fand,—
That wirks her sorrow and care.
And she's gar'd bigg a new ship,
10 Wi' vanes o' flaming goud,
Wi' mony a knight and mariner,
Sae stark in need bestow'd.