"Hand heede hertug Hyldebraand,
Kongens sönn aff Engeland."
The "old Carl Hood" who gives the alarm in this ballad, is called in most of the Danish ballads "a rich earl"; in one a treacherous man, in another a young Carl, and in a third an old man; which together furnish the elements of his character here of a treacherous old Carl.
O did you ever hear of the brave Earl Brand?
Hey lillie, ho lillie lallie!
He's courted the king's daughter o' fair England,
I' the brave nights so early.
She was scarcely fifteen years that tide,
When sae boldly she came to his bed-side.
"O Earl Brand, how fain wad I see5
A pack of hounds let loose on the lea."
"O lady fair, I have no steed but one,
But thou shalt ride and I will run."
"O Earl Brand, but my father has two,
And thou shalt have the best of tho."10
Now they have ridden o'er moss and moor,
And they have met neither rich nor poor.
Till at last they met with old Carl Hood,
He's aye for ill, and never for good.