Norwegian C, E, G, I resemble A. H is more definite.
6
Whether wilt thou go off sick, "under isle,"
Or wilt thou marry an elf-maid?
7
Whether wilt thou go off sick, under hill,
Or wilt thou marry an elf-wife?
To which Olaf answers that he lists not to go off a sick man, and he cannot marry an elf.
The two last stanzas of English C, which correspond to these,
'Will ye lie there an die, Clerk Colin,
Will ye lie there an die?
Or will ye gang to Clyde's water,
To fish in flood wi me?'
'I will lie here an die,' he said,
'I will lie here an die;
In spite o a' the deils in hell,
I will lie here an die,'
may originally have come in before the mermaid and the clerk parted; but her visit to him as he lies in bed is paralleled by that of the fairy to Staufenberg after he has been persuaded to give up what he had been brought to regard as an infernal liaison; and certainly Clerk Colin's language might lead us to think that some priest had been with him, too.
Upon Oluf's now seeking to make his escape through the elves' flame, ring, dance, etc., Norwegian A, B, C, E, G, I, H, K, the elf-woman strikes at him with a gold band, her wand, hand, a branch or twig; gives him a blow on the cheek, between the shoulders, over his white neck; stabs him in the heart, gives him knife-strokes five, nine; sickness follows the stroke, or blood: Danish A, B, F, N, O, R, V, Z, Æ, Ø, Swedish D, G, Norwegian A-E, H, I, Icelandic. The knife-stabs are delayed till the elves have put him on his horse in Danish D, G, X; as he sprang to his horse the knives rang after him, H. "Ride home," they say, "you shall not live more than a day" [five hours, two hours], Danish A, C, K-N, S, U, V. His hair fades, Danish E; his cheek pales, Danish E, Norwegian A; sickness follows him home, Swedish A, C, D, E; the blood is running out of the wound in his heart, Swedish G; when he reaches his father's house both his boots are full of blood, Danish R, Æ.
His mother [father] is standing without, and asks, Why so pale? Why runs the blood from thy saddle? Oluf, in some instances, pretends that his horse, not being sure-footed, had stumbled, and thrown him against a tree, but is told, or of himself adds, that he has been among the elves. He asks one or the other of his family to take his horse, bring a priest, make his bed, put on a bandage. He says he shall never rise from his bed, Swedish C, Danish F; fears he shall not live till the priest comes, Danish O, P.