Kristensen’s copies do not differ materially. 11 A in his tenth volume (a very brief ballad) drops or lacks the manufacture of the bird-coat. Grundtvig’s D-G drop the bird quite.

The ballad occurs in Swedish, but in the form of a mere abstract; in Arwidsson, II, 188, No 112, MS. of the sixteenth century. A maid will have no man but one that can fly. A swain has wings made from five gold rings; he flies over the rose-wood, over the sea, sits on a lily-spray and sings, flies till he sleeps in the maid’s bosom.

A Färöe copy is noted by Grundtvig as in the possession of Hammershaimb, resembling his B, but about twice as long.

The lover in bird-shape is a very familiar trait in fiction, particularly in popular tales.

In Marie de France’s Lai d’Yonec, a lover comes in at his mistress’s window in the form of a hawk; in ‘Der Jungherr und der treue Heinrich,’ von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, No 64, III, 197, MS. of 1444, as a bird (by virtue of a stone of which he has possessed himself).[41] In Hahn, No 102, II, 130 (Albanian), a dove flies in at a princess’s window, and is changed to man’s shape by dipping in a dish of milk; Hahn, No 7, I, 97==Pio, No 5, dove (through a hole in the ceiling, dips in a basin of water); Δελτίον τῆς ἱστορικῆς καὶ ἐθνολογικῆς ἑταιρίας τῆς Ἑλλάδος, I, 337, golden eagle (through a window, in rose water); Schneller, No 21, p. 49, dove (dips in a basin of water); Coelho, Contos pop. portuguezes, No 27, p. 65, bird (dips in a basin of water); Braga, Contos tradicionães, No 31, I, 68, bird (dips in a basin of water); Pitrè, Fiabe, etc., No 18, I, 163, green bird (pan of milk, then pan of water); Bernoni, Fiabe, No 17, p. 87 (milk and water, milk, rose-water); Visentini, No 17, p. 95, dove; Gonzenbach, No 27, I, 167, green bird (through a hole in the wall); Nicolovius, p. 34, Asbjørnsen, Norske Folkeeventyr, Ny Samling, 1871, No 10, p. 35==Juletræet, 1851, p. 52, falcon; Grundtvig, Danske Folkeæventyr, No 14, p. 167, Madsen, Folkeminder, p. 19 (‘The Green Knight’), bird; Berntsen, Folke-Æventyr, No 13, II, 86, bird; Comtesse d’Aulnoy, L’Oiseau bleu,’ Cabinet des Fées, II, 67, king turned into bird for seven years.[42]

Translated by Gerhard, p. 44; Knortz, Lieder u. Romanzen Alt-Englands, p. 207, No 62.

1

It was intill a pleasant time,