The important passage which relates the arrival of the bride, the ominous circumstances at the bridegroom's house, the attempts to keep the bride in ignorance of his death, and her final discovery that she is widowed before marriage, occupies some thirty stanzas in Danish A, the oldest of all copies; in Danish B it is reduced to six; in other Danish versions it has a range of from fifteen to two; but, shorter or longer, it is found in all versions but R, Ø, and the fragments G, L, Q, X, Z. All the Swedish versions have a similar scene, extending from three to nine stanzas, with the exception of G and of A, which latter should perhaps be treated as a fragment. In Norwegian A, again, this part of the story fills ten stanzas; B lacks it, but C-H (which have not been published in full) have it, and probably other unpublished copies.
The bride is expected the next day, Danish D, F, I, K, N, O, S, T, U, Swedish A, D. In Danish A Oluf begs his brothers, shortly after his reaching home, to set out to meet her; he fears she may arrive that very night, Danish Æ. "What shall I answer your young bride?" asks the mother, Danish B, C, D, etc., Swedish H. "Tell her that I have gone to the wood, to hunt and shoot, to try my horse and my dogs," Danish B, C, D, F, H, I, K, O, S, T, U, Swedish D, H, Norwegian A, L; in Danish N only, "Say I died in the night." Oluf now makes his will; he wishes to assign his bride to his brother, Danish L, O, R, Norwegian C, F; he dies before the bride can come to him. (Norwegian F seems to have gone wrong here.)
The bride, with her train, comes in the morning, Danish B, D, E, I, M, T, Swedish D, Norwegian D; Swedish C makes her wait for her bridegroom several days. As she passes through the town the bells are tolling, and she anxiously asks why, Danish A, K, O, S, U; she is told that it is a custom there to ring when the bride comes, Danish A, Swedish B. In Danish H, though it is day, she sees a light burning in Oluf's chamber, and this alarms her. When she comes to the house, Oluf's mother is weeping, all the ladies are weeping, or there are other signs of grief, Danish A, C, H, U, Æ. When she asks the reason, no one can answer, or she is told that a woman, a fair knight, is dead, A, C, H. Now she asks, Where is Oluf, who should have come to meet me, should have been here to receive me? Danish K, O, S, U, D, E, I, T, etc. They conduct the bride into the hall and seat her on the bride bench; knights come and go; they pour out mead and wine. "Where is Oluf," she asks again; the mother replies, as best she can, that Oluf is gone to the wood, Danish B, H, Norwegian A, D, Swedish H, etc. "Does he then care more for that than for his bride?" Danish A, D, I, M, etc., Swedish C, D, Norwegian A, E, G.
The truth is now avowed that Oluf is dead, Danish A, D, I, T, Y, Æ, Swedish B, Norwegian G. The bride begs that she may see the dead, Danish A, C, P, Æ, Swedish F, Norwegian D, E, and makes her way to the room where Oluf is lying. She puts aside the cloths that cover him, or the curtains, or the flowers, Danish A, B, K, V, etc., Swedish C, D, Norwegian C, D, E, G; says a word or two to her lover, Danish A, C, E, H, Swedish E, F, Norwegian G; kisses him, Danish A, C, H; her heart breaks, Danish A, C; she swoons dead at his feet, Danish K, M, S, U. In Norwegian A, C, D, she kills herself with Olaf's sword; in Swedish E, with her own knife. In Danish R she dies in Oluf's mother's arms. On the morrow, when it was day, in Oluf's house three corpses lay: the first was Oluf, the second his maid, the third his mother, of grief was she dead: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, passim.[355]
Breton ballads preserve the story in a form closely akin to the Scandinavian, and particularly to the oldest Danish version. I have seen the following, all from recent tradition: A, C, 'Ann Aotro ar C'hont,' 'Le Seigneur Comte,' Luzel, I, 4/5, 16/17, fifty-seven and fifty-nine two-line stanzas. B, 'Ann Aotro Nann,' 'Le Seigneur Nann,' Luzel, I, 10/11, fifty-seven stanzas.[356] D, 'Aotrou Nann hag ar Gorrigan,' 'Le Seigneur Nann et la Fée,' Villemarqué, p. 25, ed. 1867, thirty-nine stanzas. E, 'Monsieur Nann,' Poésies populaires de la France, MS., V, fol. 381, fifty-three verses. F, 'Sonen Gertrud guet hi Vam,' 'Chant de Gertrude et de sa Mère,' L. Kérardven [== Dufilhol], Guionvac'h, Études sur la Bretagne, 2d ed., Paris, 1835, p. 362, p. 13, eleven four-line stanzas. G, Rolland in Romania, XII, 117, a somewhat abridged literal translation, in French.
The count [Nann] and his wife were married at the respective ages of thirteen and twelve. The next year a son was born D]. The young husband asked the countess if she had a fancy for anything. She owned that she should like a bit of game, and he took his gun [lance] and went to the wood. At the entrance of the wood he met a fairy E; a hind, G; saw a white hind, which he pursued hotly till evening, when he dismounted near a grotto to drink, and there was a korrigan, sitting by the spring, combing her hair with a gold comb, D]. The fairy [dwarf, hind] said that she had long been looking for him, A, B, C, E, G. "Now that I have met you, you must marry me."[357] "Marry you? Not I. I am married already." "Choose either to die in three days or to lie sick in bed seven [three] years" [and then die, C]. He would rather die in three days, for his wife is very young, and would suffer greatly [he would rather die that instant than wed a korrigan, D].
On reaching home the young man called to his mother to make his bed; he should never get up again. [His mother, in C 21, says, Do not weep so: it is not every sick man that dies, as in Danish A 22.] He recounted his meeting with the fairy, and begged that his wife might not be informed of his death.
The countess asked, What has happened to my husband, that he does not come to see me? She was told that he had gone to the wood to get her something, A [to Paris, C; to the city, D]. Why were the men-servants weeping? The best horse had been drowned in bathing him, A, E; had been eaten by the wolves, B; had broken his neck, C; had died, F. They were not to weep; others should be bought. And why were the maids weeping? Linen had been lost in washing, A, C, E, F; the best silver cover had been stolen, F. They must not weep; the loss would be supplied. Why were the priests chanting? [the bells tolling, E, F]. A poor person whom they had lodged had died in the night, A-E F]. What dress should she wear for her churching,—red or blue? D, F.[358] The custom had come in of wearing black [she asks for red, they give her black, F]. On arriving at the church, or cemetery, she saw that the earth had been disturbed; her pew was hung with black, B; why was this? "I can no longer conceal it," said her mother-in-law: "your husband is dead." She died upon the spot, A, D. "Take my keys, take care of my son; I will stay with his father," B, C. "Your son is dead, your daughter is dead," F.[359]
This ballad has spread, apparently from Brittany, over all France. No distinct trace of the fairy remains, however, except in a single case. The versions that have been made public, so far as they have come to my knowledge, are as follows, resemblance to the Breton ballad principally directing the arrangement.
A. 'Le fils Louis,' Vendée, pays de Retz, Poésies populaires de la France, MS., III, fol. 118, printed in Romania, XI, 100, 44 verses. B. Normandy, 1876, communicated by Legrand to Romania, X, 372, 61 verses. C. "Forez, Frédéric Noëlas, Annales de la Société impériale d'agriculture, industrie, sciences, arts et belles-lettres du département de la Loire, Année 1865, p. 210, 64 verses," Grundtvig, IV, 867-70. D. Victor Smith, Chants populaires du Velay et du Forez, Romania, X, 583, 68 verses. E. The same, p. 581, 64 verses. F. Saint-Denis, Poés. pop. de la France, III, fol. 103, Romania, XI, 98, 74 verses, as sung by a young girl, her mother and grandmother. G. Poitou et Vendée, Études historiques et artistiques par B. Fillon et O. De Rochbrune, 7e-10e livraisons, Fontenay-le-Comte, 1865, article Nalliers, pp 17, 18, nineteen four-line stanzas and a couplet; before by B. Fillon in "L'Histoire véridique des fraudes et exécrables voleries et subtilités de Guillery, depuis sa naissance jusqu'à la juste punition de ses crimes, Fontenay, 1848," extracted in Poés, pop., III, fol. 112; other copies at fol. 108 and at fol. 116; Romania, XI, 101, 78 verses. H. Bourbonnais, Poés. pop. III, fol. 91, Romania, XI, 103, 38 verses, sung by a woman seventy-two years old. I. Bretagne, Loudéac, Poés. pop., III, fol. 121, Romania, XI, 103 f, 64 verses. J. Poés. pop., III, fol. 285, Romania, XII, 115 (I), 50 verses. K. Bretagne (?), Romania, XII, 115 f, 36 verses. L. V. Smith, Chants pop. du Velay et du Forez, Romania, X, 582. 57 verses. M. 'Le roi Renaud,' Flévy, Puymaigre, I, 39, 78 verses. N. Touraine, Bléré, Brachet in Revue Critique, II, 125, 60 verses. O. The same, variations of a later version. P. 'L'Arnaud l'Infant,' Limoges, Laforest, Limoges au XVIIe siècle, 1862, p. 300, Poés. pop., III, fol. 95, Romania, XI, 104, 82 verses. Q. Charente, Poés. pop., III, fol. 107, Romania, XI, 99, 60 verses. R. Cambes, Lot-et-Garonne, Romania, XII, 116, 46 verses. S. Jura, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1854, Août, p. 486, 50 verses. T. Rouen, Poés. pop. III, fol. 100, Romania, XI, 102, 60 verses, communicated by a gentleman who at the beginning of the century had learned the ballad from an aunt, who had received it from an aged nun. U. a, Buchon, Noëls et Chants populaires de la Franche-Comté, p. 85, 34 verses; b, Tarbé, Romancero de Champagne, Vol. II, Chants Populaires, p. 125, 32 verses; c, G. de Nerval, La Bohème Galante, ed. 1866, p. 77, Les Filles du Feu, ed. 1868, p. 130, 30 verses; d, 'Jean Renaud,' Bujeaud, Chants et Chansons populaires des Provinces de l'Ouest, II, 213, 32 verses. V. Poés. pop., III, fol. 122, Romania, XI, 100 f, 32 verses. W. Le Blésois, Ampère, Instructions, etc., p. 37, 36 verses. X. Provence, Poés. pop., III, fol. 114, Romania, XI, 105, 44 verses. Y. 'Lou Counte Arnaud,' Bivès, Gers, Bladé, Poés. pop. de la Gascogne, II, 134/135, 48 verses. Z. Vagney, Vosges, Mélusine, p. 75, 44 verses. AA. Cambes, Lot-et-Garonne, Romania, XII, 116 f, 40 verses. BB. Quercy, Sérignac, Poés. pop., Romania, XI, 106, 34 verses. CC. Quercy, Poés. pop., Romania, XI, 107, 26 verses. DD. Bretagne, Villemarqué, Barzaz-Breiz, ed. 1846, I, 46, 12 verses. EE. Orléans, Poés. pop., III, fol. 102, Romania, XI, 107, 10 verses. FF. Auvergne, Poés, pop., III, fol. 89, Romania, XI, 107 f, 6 verses. GG. Boulonnais, 'La Ballade du Roi Renaud,' E. Hamy, in Almanach de Boulogne-sur-Mer pour 1863, p. 110 (compounded from several versions), 16 four-line stanzas.[360]