Читать книгу English and Scottish Ballads (Vol. 1-8) - Various Authors - Страница 56

Table of Contents

From Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, ii. 201. Repeated in Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads, Percy Society, xvii. 63.

The three ballads which follow, diverse as they may now appear, after undergoing successive corruptions, were primarily of the same type. In the first (which may be a compound of two ballads, like the preceding, the conclusion being taken from a story of the character of May Colvin in the next volume) the Merman or Nix may be easily recognized: in the second he is metamorphosed into the Devil; and in the third, into a ghost. Full details upon the corresponding Scandinavian, German, and Slavic legends, are given by Grundtvig, in the preface to Noekkens Svig, Danmarks G. Folkeviser, ii. 57: translated by Jamieson, i. 210, and by Monk Lewis, Tales of Wonder, No. 11.

There came a bird out o' a bush,

On water for to dine;

And sighing sair, says the king's daughter,

"O waes this heart o' mine!"

5 He's taen a harp into his hand,

He's harped them all asleep;

Except it was the king's daughter,

Who ae wink cou'dna get.

He's luppen on his berry-brown steed,

10 Taen her on behind himsell;

Then baith rade down to that water,

That they ca' Wearie's well.

"Wide in, wide in, my lady fair,

Nae harm shall thee befall;

15 Aft times hae I water'd my steed,

Wi' the water o' Wearie's well."

The first step that she stepped in,

She stepped to the knee;

And sighing sair, says this lady fair,

20 "This water's nae for me."

"Wide in, wide in, my lady fair,

Nae harm shall thee befall;

Aft times hae I water'd my steed,

Wi' the water o' Wearie's well."

25 The next step that she stepped in,

She stepped to the middle;

And sighing, says, this lady fair,

"I've wat my gowden girdle."

"Wide in, wide in, my lady fair,

30 Nae harm shall thee befall;

Aft times hae I water'd my steed,

Wi' the water o' Wearie's well."

The niest step that she stepped in,

She stepped to the chin;

35 And sighing, says, this lady fair,

"They shou'd gar twa loves twine."

"Seven king's-daughters I've drown'd there,

In the water o' Wearie's well;

And I'll make you the eight o' them,

40 And ring the common bell."

"Sin' I am standing here," she says,

"This dowie death to die;

Ae kiss o' your comely mouth

I'm sure wou'd comfort me."

45 He louted him ower his saddle bow,

To kiss her cheek and chin;

She's taen him in her arms twa,

And thrown him headlang in.

"Sin' seven king's daughters ye've drown'd there,

50 In the water o' Wearie's well,

I'll make you bridegroom to them a',

An' ring the bell mysell."

And aye she warsled, and aye she swam,

Till she swam to dry land;

55 Then thanked God most cheerfully,

The dangers she'd ower came.