There is a resemblance in two points between this ballad and the Danish Greve Genselin (Grundtvig, No. 16, translated by Jamieson, Illustrations, p. 310). The characters in both are giants: the smallest kemp that danced at Genselin's bridal was "fifteen ells to his knee." Secondly, the bridal in the one ballad and the wooing in the other are described in a style of extravagant parody; more gross in the English, however, than in the Danish, where it is confined to the bride's enormous appetite. This portion of Greve Genselin occurs also in Tord af Havsgaard (Grundtvig, No. 1), which ballad is founded upon the story of Thor's Hammer in the Edda.
Kempy Kaye's a wooing gane,
Far far ayont the sea,
An' he has met with an auld auld man,
His gudefather to be.
"Gae scrape yeersel, and gae scart yeersel, 5
[And mak your bruchty face clean,]
[For the wooers are to be here the nicht,]
And yeer body's to be seen.
"What's the matter wi' you, my fair maiden,
You luk so pale and wan? 10
I'm sure you was once the fairest maiden
That ever the sun shined on."
Sae they scrapit her, and they scartit her,
Like the face of an assy pan,
And in cam Kempy Kaye himself, 15
[A clever and tall young man.]
His teeth they were like tether sticks,
His nose was three feet lang;
Between his shouthers was ells three,
Between his een a span. 20
"I'm coming to court your dochter dear,
An' some pairt of your gear:"
"An' by my sooth," quo' Bengoleer,
"She'll sair a man o' weir.
"My dochter she's a thrifty lass; 25
She span seven year to me;
An' if it war weil counted up,
Full ten wobs it would be."
He led his dochter by the han',
His dochter ben brought he; 30
"O is she not the fairest lass
That's in great Christendye?"
Ilka hair intil her head
Was like a heather cow,
And ilka louse aninder it 35
[Was like a lintseed bow.]