FOOTNOTES:
[159] This I should have missed but for the kindness of Mr W. Macmath.
[160] Motherwell's printed copy, Minstrelsy, p. 36, is thus made up: stanzas 1, 2, 3, 8, 15, from Cromek (D); 4-7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 24-28, 30-37, from B; 12, 17, 18 from E. 23 == A 14. 10, 21, 22, 29, have not been found in his manuscripts. The first line of the burden is from B, the second from E. Motherwell alters his texts slightly, now and then.
[161] C 16, 17 are corrupted, and also F 19, 23, G 21; all three in a way which allows of easy emendation. Hymon [high, man] in C should of course be Hyn Horn. The injunction in G, H should be to ask nothing for Peter or Paul's sake, but all for Horn's.
[162] When Horn was near the city, he stopped to see how things would go. King Modun passed, with Wikel, in gay discourse of the charms of Rimild. Horn called out to them insultingly, and Modun asked who he was. Horn said he had formerly served a man of consequence as his fisherman: he had thrown a net almost seven years ago, and had now come to give it a look. If it had taken any fish, he would love it no more; if it should still be as he left it, he would carry it away. Modun thinks him a fool. (3984-4057, and nearly the same in 'Horn Childe and Maiden Rimild,' 77-79). This is part of a story in the Gesta Romanorum, of a soldier who loved the emperor's daughter, and went to the holy land for seven years, after a mutual exchange of fidelity for that time. A king comes to woo the princess, but is put off for seven years, upon her alleging that she has made a vow of virginity for so long. At the expiration of this term, the king and the soldier meet as they are on the way to the princess. The king, from certain passages between them, thinks the soldier a fool. The soldier takes leave of the king under pretence of looking after a net which he had laid in a certain place seven years before, rides on ahead, and slips away with the princess. Gest. Rom., Oesterley, p. 597, No 193; Grässe, II, 159; Madden, p. 32; Swan, I, p. lxv. A similar story in Campbell's Tales of the West Highlands, I, 281, 'Baillie Lunnain.' (Simrock, Deutsche Märchen, No 47, is apparently a translation from the Gesta.) The riddle of the hawk, slightly varied, is met with in the romance of Blonde of Oxford and Jehan of Dammartin, v. 2811 ff, 3143 ff, 3288 ff (ed. Le Roux de Lincy, pp. 98, 109, 114), and, still further modified, in Le Romant de Jehan de Paris, ed. Montaiglon, pp. 55, 63, 111. (Le Roux de Lincy, Köhler, Mussafia, G. Paris). 'Horn et Rimenhild,' it will be observed, has both riddles, and that of the net is introduced under circumstances entirely like those in the Gesta Romanorum. The French romance is certainly independent of the English in this passage.
[163] See the excellent studies of King Horn by Wissmann, in Quellen und Forschungen, No 16, and Anglia, IV, 342 ff.
[164] A, B, and E, which had not been printed at the time of his writing, will convince Professor Stimming, whose valuable review in Englische Studien, I, 351 ff, supplements, and in the matter of derivation, I think, rectifies, Wissmann's Untersuchungen, that the king's daughter in the ballads was faithful to Horn, and that they were marrying her against her will, as in the romances. This contingency seems not to have been foreseen when the ring was given: but it must be admitted that it was better for the ring to change, to the temporary clouding of the lady's character, than to have Horn stay away and the forced marriage go on.
[165] See the ample introduction to 'Henrik af Brunsvig,' in Grundtvig, No 114, II, 608 ff.
[166] It appears that these half rings are often dug up. "Neuere Ausgrabungen haben vielfach auf solche Ringstücke geführt, die, als Zeichen unverbrüchlicher Treue, einst mit dem Geliebten gebrochen, ja wie der Augenschein beweist, entzwei geschnitten, und so ins Grab mitgenommen wurden, zum Zeichen dass die Liebe über den Tod hinaus daure." Rochholz, Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau, II, 116.
[167] Translated, with introduction of verses from A, by Prior, Ancient Danish Ballads, II, 71.