In came the laidly bird of prey,
And stood the Queen before:
“Dost thou remember, gracious Queen,
Thy gift to me of yore?”
She swore by God, and by the saints,
By all that’s good she swore,
That son nor daughter in the world
She never, never bore.
Then flew away the bird of prey,
With an eldritch shriek he’s flown:
“Whene’er I meet Germand Gladenswayne
I’ll remember he’s my own.”
When Germand fifteen years had reached
He’d fain a damsel wed;
He loved the daughter of England’s king,
The angel-lovely maid.
His longing to be with his plighted maid
He might no more withstand:
“O how shall I come across the foam
To the flood-encircled land?”
It was Germand Gladenswayne,
He donned his best array;
And he has ta’en to his mother dear
To the lofty hall his way.
In came Germand Gladenswayne,
In scarlet clad was he:
“O mother lend me thy feather robe
To fly across the sea.”
“My feather robe hangs upon the crook,
The feathers droop so low,
If thou dost fly to the foreign land
I shall see thee never moe.
“The pinions are so broad that they
Grow heavy in the air,
I’ll have another made for me
If I live another year.”
He set himself in the feather robe,
Flew o’er the ocean straight;
And there met him the raven wild,
Beneath a rock did wait.