Transcribed from the 1913 Thomas J. Wise pamphlet by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org. Many thanks to Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, UK, for kindly supplying the images from which this transcription was made.
HAFBUR AND SIGNE
a ballad
by
GEORGE BORROW
London:
printed for private circulation
1913
HAFBUR AND SIGNE
Young Hafbur King and Sivard King
They lived in bitter enmity;
’Twas Signe proud that caused their feud,
Of maidens all the fairest she.
It was youthful Hafbur King
Awaked at midnight with a bound,
And full of dread he straightway said
His wondrous dream to all around.
“Methought I was in heaven’s domain,
Within that place so fair to view,
And held to my breast my loved one prest,
When down we fell the cloudlets through.”
And there sat all the Dames and maids
And little heeded what he said;
But lent an ear his mother dear,
’Twas she alone attention paid.
“My son do thou to the mountain go,
And look that thou dost go with speed;
The Daughter demand of Elfin land,
And she to thee thy dream will rede.”