Färöe. A, B, Grundtvig, IV, 803 f.
Icelandic. 'Rika álfs kvæði,' Íslenzk fornkvæði, No 4.
Danish A, one of the three sixteenth-century versions, tells how a knight, expressing a strong desire to obtain a king's daughter, is overheard by a dwarf, who says this shall never be. The dwarf pretends to bargain with the knight for his services in forwarding the knight's object, but consults meanwhile with his mother how he may get the lady for himself.[338] The mother tells him that the princess will go to even-song, and the dwarf writes runes on the way she must go by, which compel her to come to the hill. The dwarf holds out his hand and asks, How came ye to this strange land? to which the lady answers mournfully, I wot never how. The dwarf says, You have pledged yourself to a knight, and he has betrayed you with runes: this eve you shall be the dwarf's guest. She stayed there the night, and was taken back to her mother in the morning. Eight years went by; her hand was sought by five kings, nine counts, but no one of them could get a good answer. One day her mother asked, Why are thy cheeks so faded? Why can no one get thee? She then revealed that she had been beguiled by the dwarf, and had seven sons and a daughter in the hill, none of whom she ever saw. She thought she was alone, but the dwarf-king was listening. He strikes her with an elf-rod, and bids her hie to the hill after him. Late in the evening the poor thing dons her cloak, knocks at her father's door, and says good-night to the friends that never will see her again, then sadly turns to the hill. Her seven sons advance to meet her, and ask why she told of their father. Her tears run sore; she gives no answer; she is dead ere midnight.
With A agrees another of the three old Danish copies, B, and three modern ones, D, M, N, have something of the opening scene which characterizes A. So also Swedish C, I, and the Icelandic ballad. In Swedish C, Proud Margaret, who is daughter of a king of seven kingdoms, will have none of her suitors (this circumstance comes too soon). A hill-king asks his mother how he may get her. She asks in return, What will you give me to make her come of herself to the hill? He promises red gold and chestfuls of pence; and one Sunday morning Margaret, who has set out to go to church, is made—by magical operations, of course—to take the way to the hill.
A second form begins a stage later: Danish C, G, K, Swedish D, E, K, Norwegian A, C, E, G, H, I (?), K, L, M (?), N (?), Färöe A, B. We learn nothing of the device by which the maid has been entrapped. Mother and daughter are sitting in their bower, and the mother asks her child why her cheeks are pale, why milk is running from her breasts. She answers that she has been working too hard; that what is taken for milk is mead. The mother retorts that other women do not suffer from their industry; that mead is brown, and milk is white. Hereupon the daughter reveals that she has been beguiled by an elf, and, though living under her mother's roof, has had eight or nine children (seven or eight sons and a daughter; fifteen children, Färöe A, B), none of whom she ever saw, since after birth they were always transferred to the hill (see, especially, Danish C, G, also A; Norwegian H, I; Färöe A, B). The mother (who disowns her, Danish C, G, Swedish D, E, Norwegian K), in several versions, asks what gifts she got for her honor. Among these was a harp [horn, Norwegian L], which she was to play when she was unhappy. The mother asks for a piece, and the first tones bring the elf, who reproaches the daughter for betraying him: had she concealed their connection she might still have lived at home, C; but now she must go with him. She is kindly received by her children. They give her a drink which makes her forget father and mother, heaven and earth, moon and sun, and even makes her think she was born in the hill, Danish C, G, Swedish D, Norwegian A, C.[339]
Danish G, K, Färöe A, B, take a tragic turn: the woman dies in the first two the night she comes to the hill. Danish C, one of the sixteenth-century versions, goes as far as possible in the other direction. The elf-king pats Maldfred's cheek, takes her in his arms, gives her a queen's crown and name.
And this he did for the lily-wand,
He had himself christened and all his land!
A third series of versions offers the probable type of the much-corrupted Scottish ballads, and under this head come Danish E, F, H, I, L-R, T; Swedish A, B, F-I, and also C, after an introduction which belongs to the first class; Norwegian D, F. The characteristic feature is that the woman has been living eight or nine years in the hill, and has there borne her children, commonly seven sons and a daughter. She sets out to go to matins, and whether under the influence of runes, or accidentally, or purposely, takes the way to the hill. In a few cases it is clear that she does not seek the hill-man or put herself in his way, e.g., Danish N, Swedish G, but Swedish A, H, N make her apply for admission at the hill-door. In Danish I, N-R, T, Norwegian F, it is not said that she was on her way to church; she is in a field or in the hill. In Swedish F she has been two years in the cave, and it seems to her as if she had come yesterday. After her eight or nine years with the hill-man the woman longs to go home, Danish E, F, I, Swedish A, F, I, Norwegian D; to go to church, Danish L, M, N, P, T, Norwegian F; for she had heard Denmark's bells, church bells, Danish L-P, T, Swedish G, Norwegian D, F. She had heard these bells as she watched the cradle, Danish T, P, Swedish G; sat by the cradle and sang, T 4; compare English C 7. She asks the hill-man's permission, and it is granted on certain terms: she is not to talk of him and her life in the hill, Danish E, I, Swedish A, F, I, is to come back, Danish F, must not stay longer than an hour or two, Norwegian D; she is not to wear her gold, her best clothes, not to let out her hair, not to go into her mother's pew at the church, not to bow when the priest pronounces the holy name, or make an offering, or go home after service, etc., Danish I, L-P, T, Norwegian F. All these last conditions she violates, nor does she in the least heed the injunction not to speak of the hill-man. The consequence is that he summarily presents himself, whether at the church or the paternal mansion, and orders her back to the hill, sometimes striking her on the ear or cheek so that blood runs, or beating her with a rod, Danish E, I, L, M, S, T, Swedish A, B, C, H, I, Norwegian F. In a few versions, the hill-man tells her that her children are crying for her, and she replies, Let them cry; I will never go back to the hill; Danish M, N, O, Norwegian F. In Danish E, Swedish G, a gold apple thrown into her lap seems to compel her to return; more commonly main force is used. She is carried dead into the hill, or dies immediately on her arrival, in Norwegian F, Danish T; she dies of grief, according to traditional comment, in Norwegian D. They give her a drink, and her heart breaks, Swedish A, G, H, M; but elsewhere the drink only induces forgetfulness, Danish L, M, Swedish B, C, F.
Much of the story of 'Jomfruen og Dværgekongen' recurs in the ballad of 'Agnete og Havmanden,' which, for our purposes, may be treated as a simple variation of the other. The Norse forms are again numerous, but all from broadsides dating, at most, a century back, or from recent tradition.
Danish. 'Agnete og Havmanden,' Grundtvig, No 38, A-D, II, 51 ff, 656 ff, III, 813 ff. Copies of A are numerous, and two had been previously printed; in Danske Viser, I, 313, No 50, and "in Barfod's Brage og Idun, II, 264." E, Rask's Morskabslæsning, III, 81, Grundtvig, II, 659. F, one stanza, Grundtvig, p. 660. G, H, the same, III, 816. I, Kristensen, II, 75, No 28 C, Grundtvig, IV, 807. K, Grundtvig, IV, 808.[340]