The passage in which the lady refuses male assistance during her travail—found as well in almost all the Danish versions of 'Redselille and Medelvold,' in the German and French, and imperfectly in Swedish D—occurs in several other English ballads, viz., 'The Birth of Robin Hood,' 'Rose the Red and White Lily,' 'Sweet Willie,' of Finlay's Scottish Ballads, II, 61, 'Burd Helen,' of Buchan, II, 30, 'Bonnie Annie,' No 23. Nearly the whole of the scene in the wood is in 'Wolfdietrich.' Wolfdietrich finds a dead man and a woman naked to the girdle, who is clasping the stem of a tree. The man, who was her husband, was taking her to her mother's house, where her first child was to be born, when he was attacked by the dragon Schadesam. She was now in the third day of her travail. Wolfdietrich, having first wrapped her in his cloak, offers his help, requesting her to tear a strip from her shift and bind it round his eyes. She rejects his assistance in this form, but sends him for water, which he brings in his helmet, but only to find the woman dead, with a lifeless child at her breast. He wraps mother and child in his mantle, carries them to a chapel, and lays them on the altar; then digs a grave with his sword, goes for the body of the man, and buries all three in the grave he has made. Grimm, Altdänische Heldenlieder, p. 508; Holtzmann, Der grosse Wolfdietrich, st. 1587-1611; Amelung u. Jänicke,[158] Ortnit u. die Wolfdietriche, II, 146, D, st. 51-75; with differences, I, 289, B, st. 842-848; mother and child surviving, I, 146, A, st. 562-578; Weber's abstract of the Heldenbuch, in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 119, 120.
'Herr Medelvold,' a mixed text of Danish II, Danske Viser, No 156, is translated by Jamieson, Illustrations, p. 377; by Borrow, Romantic Ballads, p. 28 (very ill); and by Prior, No 101. Swedish, II, A. is translated by Jamieson, ib., p. 373.
A.
a. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 38. b. Motherwell's MS., p. 626.
1
My boy was scarcely ten years auld,
Whan he went to an unco land,
Where wind never blew, nor cocks ever crew,
Ohon for my son, Leesome Brand!
2
Awa to that king's court he went,
It was to serve for meat an fee;
Gude red gowd it was his hire,
And lang in that king's court stayd he.
3
He hadna been in that unco land
But only twallmonths twa or three,
Till by the glancing o his ee,
He gaind the love o a gay ladye.
4
This ladye was scarce eleven years auld,
When on her love she was right bauld;
She was scarce up to my right knee,
When oft in bed wi men I'm tauld.
5
But when nine months were come and gane,
This ladye's face turnd pale and wane.