E. M. Smith-Dampier

“ The people was one; it was the élite, the best among them, who interpreted what all felt, but all could not express—who sang in the name of all. And thus it is that this poetry belongs to the populace as a whole.... It resembles a stone constantly rolled by the waves” (Pineau) .
Child, moreover, points out that the British Ballad “was not originally the property of the common orders among the people”—and in Denmark, says Henderson, “it was fostered and favoured more particularly by the upper classes, and was for some centuries the chief medium of literary expression and culture.” ”

“ Ere he would burst that band.
44
“Now harken, haughty Signelil!
Wilt show thy love to me,
Then burn thy bower and all therein
When they hang me to a tree!”
45
“Oh, is there a man of my father’s men
That in thy death hath part,
Be sure I will avenge it
All on his own sweetheart!”
46
Up spake Havbor, the son of kings,
When first he saw the tree:
“Hang up my cloak of scarlet
A sign for all to see!
47
“Hang up my cloak of scarlet
That is both fair and fine!
The ladies all will weep and wail
When first they see the sign.” ”

“ Generally speaking, it is acknowledged that Denmark’s literary output was influenced far less by Britain than by France and the other Latin countries.
But, be the themes what they may, the Danish Ballads inform them with their own characteristic spirit—the glamour and grimness of the North. The battle-scenes show us glimpses of Bersark fury, and weapons with demon souls. The Dark Powers in the Ballads of magic are those born of long winter nights and misty waters. Here and there we meet with the gods of Valhalla, and the heroes sung in Old Norse Lays. ”

“ This Ballad, indeed, brings down the story from the misty peaks of Valhalla into the garrulous region of fairy-tale. It is faithful to the primitive tradition which depicts the dead as waking unwillingly from their slumbers. ”

“ The bride rode in with glad array
22
They poured the mead and they poured the wine:
“Now where is Sir Oluf, dear bridegroom mine?”
23
“Sir Oluf is in the mead
A-proving hound and steed.”
24
“Oh, doth he love hound and horse of pride
Better than he loves his bride?”
25
She sought him alow, she sought him aloft,
She found Sir Oluf sleeping soft. [119]
26
She lifted the cloak of scarlet red,
There lay Sir Oluf, was cold and dead.
27
She kissed him in the bridal-bower,
She died herself the self-same hour. ”

“ Forth he flew to Norrefjeld, all over the salt sea-swell.
4
All in the castle-garth his garment changèd he,
Then entered in the stone-built hall, the Giant-King to see.
5
“Now welcome, little Loki, be thou right welcome here!
How fares the country round Hafsgaard, and the land that lies anear?”
6
“Well fares the country round Hafsgaard, and the land that lies anear,
But Thord hath lost his hammer of gold, and therefore am I come here.”
7
“Never shall Thord have his hammer again, altho’ ye seek and strive!
Under the earth ’tis buried deep, full fifty fathom and five! ”

“ Towards the close of the Middle Ages manners underwent a change; antique simplicity was corrupted. These unpretentious knights were swamped by the rise of a more powerful nobility, who united their estates through intermarriages, and followed the fashions of the court. The round dance was driven from the castle to the farmhouse. Persons of quality, however, retained a certain amount of interest in the old Ballads; and to this interest the fact is owing that Ballads in Denmark were earlier written down than those of any other European country. ”

“ The hero, who in his Bersark blood-lust spares neither wife, maid, nor suckling—whose brother the sword is possessed by a demon—who has ranged the world in pursuit of revenge—ranges it again as a penitent pilgrim, bound, for the heavier penance, in iron chains. Since, however, the Ballads concern themselves little with ecclesiastical orthodoxy, the penance is depicted as ending, not at any saintly shrine, but at the grave of his enemy. ”

“ The oldest Danish ballad of Holger describes his victory over Burmand, an amorous Troll, who would fain carry off the Lady Gloriant, the King of Hungary’s daughter, from her rightful lover King Karvel. This chivalrous deed of Holger’s captivated the popular fancy, which adopted him henceforth as national hero, crowned him with the “red, red gold” and pictured him as defending Denmark against the power of the German Empire, personified in the giants Sverting and Bermer-Ris. “Holger Danske and Stout Didrik may,” says Olrik, “be considered Denmark’s first patriotic song.” ”

“ On the restoration of the Thunderer’s hammer hangs the fate of the Æsir in their endless warfare with the Frost Giants; its loss is a calamity such as was never known in heaven nor earth. When Freyja is asked to play the Bride, her stamp shakes the celestial floor. When Thor drives to the wedding feast, earth burns under his chariot wheels. Whereas the Thord of the Ballad might, for aught we are told, be a mere bonnet-laird; and it is only by implication that we gather any idea of his hammer’s importance. ”

“ Now shall I pour thee mead or wine?”
14
“I will have nor mead nor wine,
But I will see Vesselil, niece o’ thine!”
15
“But five years old is Vesselil,
She bides with her foster-mother still.”
16
“And an she were but three years old,
These eyes the maiden must behold!” [149]
17
“My other maids sit sewing still,
But never of sleep can she have her fill.” ”

“ Such leave is a free man’s due. [55]
18
“For this is the Danish custom,
And hath been from days of yore,
If a swain would cease his service,
He should have leave therefor.”
19
Up and spake Sir Gert the Count
That liked his words right ill:
“Oh, never a vassal should leave his lord
Save with his lord’s good-will!”
20
“Oh, none is joined with a holy vow
Save a monk to his cowl of grey!
Let chieftains come and chieftains go,
Men serve them as best they may!”
21
“Overbold is his speech, Niels Ebbeson,
Dares bandy words with me!
Or thou shalt depart from Denmark
Or I’ll hang thee to a tree!” ”

“ Dragomir the Bohemian came to Denmark in 1205, bore the King a son, Valdemar, and died two years later, probably in childbirth. From the first she was the people’s darling; her Slav name was changed to Dagmar (Dag-mø = day-maid or light-bringer) “by reason,” says a contemporary chronicler, “of her great beauty.”
The Ballads of her Bridal and Death were probably composed by the next generation, and [24] have little pretension to historical accuracy. Bishop Valdemar, for instance, was not the Queen’s uncle, but the King’s first cousin—son of Knud Magnusson, whose sister was Valdemar’s mother. ”

“ Of devoted loyalty, of patriotism identified with the royal person, we find traces only in the most ancient historical Ballads—with an occasional after-echo such as the Page’s words in the “King-Slaying in Finderup” (No. 6) . His courtiers and [8] “captains” are derided by the country-bred minstrel: “So long have they served in the royal court they can bear nor heat nor smoke!”
The Church, too, is only seen afar off—affects the Knight chiefly through the convent school, where young ladies are educated. ”

“ The foreign men-at-arms are much to be blamed for defending their lord so ill; and they were forced with shame and scathe to return to the far countries whence they came.”
We learn from other sources that the patriots fired a house to divert the Germans’ attention, and that they escaped over Randers Bridge, which—having previously loosened the timbers—they broke down behind them. Thus they, and their leader Niels Ebbeson, saved Denmark from becoming a German province. ”

“ All proper names are to be pronounced after the Danish fashion—with the one exception of “Sir Klaus Krummerdike” (“Niels Ebbeson,” Revised Conclusion, v. 46) —a lapse which, from a sorely-tried rhymester’s point of view, surely deserves rather mercy than judgment.
The Burdens should, of course, be repeated with each verse, but, for convenience’ sake, I have followed the modern custom in placing them only at beginning and end of the Ballads.
I am deeply indebted to the late Dr. Axel Olrik, who gave me invaluable criticism on my work as a translator. ”

“ Niels Ebbeson was the man of his hour; and the hour was one of the blackest in Danish history. The worthless King Christopher was dead, his son Valdemar abroad, and the greedy Holstein nobles were scrambling for the choicest parts of the kingdom. One of these local tyrants, Count Gert, or Gerhardt, held Fyn and Jutland in pledge ”

“ Be that as it may, the round dance became popular [3] throughout Europe during the early Middle Ages (roughly speaking, between 1149-1400) , and took the North by storm, from the King’s court to the Icelandic farmstead. The dance-songs made light of frontiers, just as the Australian corroborees pass, irrespective of language, from tribe to tribe. Vainly did Saxo Grammaticus record his opinion that “such mountebank antics” (gøglerspring) were unworthy of persons of quality. Every knight had his own dancing-ground—as do Papuan chiefs at the present day. ”

“ Ballad do we hear of the rich merchants, with houses in “Randers street,” whose gilded vanes gleam over the walls, shaming the castles of envious Knights.
The Yeoman (Bonde) class was that with which this lesser nobility was most intimately connected—the class whence it sprang, wherein it was merged after the Peasant Revolt of 1584. Well-born youths are described as “noble yeomen’s sons” (ædelige Bøndersønner) , and a yeoman’s wife makes occasional appearance as heroine of a Ballad. The Knight defends the yeoman against pillage and oppression. ”

“ The story told by this Ballad takes us into no very remote region of Faërie; wicked stepdame, enchanted maid, and knightly deliverer are all familiar personages. The belief in human blood as means whereby the bewitched mortal is delivered from the beast-likeness is found in the folk-lore of many nations, and may be a dim memory of sacrificial cannibal feasts. But the beautiful Introductory Stanzas are noteworthy; for such detailed descriptions of Nature occur but rarely in Ballads, Danish or other. ”

“ THE ELFIN SHAFT
“After the old gods had vanished,” says Olrik, “and before the Christian God was personally apprehended, arose the rich poetry which deals with Nature-Spirits.”
They always appear in the older Ballads under a grim and treacherous aspect; the Nixies, for instance, are such as we find in the “Ballad of Annan Water.” ”

“ The svalegang plays its part in the story, since it is along this open gallery-stair that Sir John lights the bride to her bower. The Burden is handled with singular skill; the concluding line in verses 2, 3, and 4 forms no part of the dialogue, but is an aside spoken by the poet.
“Gallant knight” in “Tyge Hermandsson,” v. 21, is literally “lady’s swain” (Jomfrusvend) —squire of dames, first in love as in war.
XXVIII
LOVEL AND JOHN
Lo now, I bid you, my merry men all,
Put your armour on! [3]
Bind on your helms of the burning gold,
And follow Sir John! ”

“ Denmark shall feel my foot, I trow,
Both winter and summer and spring!”
...
95
It was young Sir Marstig,
Home to his hold did fare;
It was beauteous Ingeborg
Came forth to meet him there.
96
Up spake young Sir Marstig,
And held her in his arm:
“Now have I slain King Erik
That wrought thee hurt and harm! [47]
97
“Now wilt thou follow an outlawed man
To dwell a landless dame,
Rather than be a light o’ love,
And bear the King his name?”
98
“Oh, rather I’d follow an outlawed man
To dwell a Danish dame,
Than I would be a light o’ love
And bear the King his name!” ”

“ The social conditions depicted in these Ballads are, in many respects, peculiar to Scandinavia. The atmosphere is distinctly democratic. Denmark had no school of court-poetry, no minstrel-class corresponding to the Troubadours and Minnesingers. Her kings made foreign marriages, and imported foreign talent; no petty courts, princely or ducal, existed to serve as centres of culture. [1] The native singers found patrons among the native gentry, or lesser nobility—the Knights, whose position in many respects was that of the old-time English country squire. ”

“ In the Eddic mythology the Dwarfs had their own recognized place, whereas their semi-descendants, the Fairies or Nature-Spirits, not being Angels, were regarded as Devils by priestly eyes. Only in later Ballads, such as “Agnes and the Merman,” and “The Mermaid’s Soothsaying,” do we find any hint of compassion for the soulless fay.
The theme of this Ballad—the fairy’s fatal love for a mortal—originated in Northern France, whence it crept into the folk-lore of Europe in [115] general. ”

“ The second Ballad is that which, greatly daring, sings the praises of simple worth—thus expressing a tendency doomed by the spirit of later times. Unlike the reprover of Clara Vere de Vere, the minstrel adorns his theme with a dry humour, that spares neither hero nor heroine—dowdy country maid and dandified lordling. That [133] is an excellent touch (verse 3) which shows the former’s resentment of the pert page’s remarks on her garments; so is her artful reference to the excellent appetite which will reward her future lord’s agricultural exertions—the ancient wisdom of “Feed the brute!” ”

“ A certain number of Ballads borrowed their subjects from the Old Norse Lays, making of them, not translations, but fresh creations; for the Lays tower above the many-coloured ballad-world like ice-peaks that loom over flowery meads. The story of Young Svejdal is derived from two Lays dealing with the adventures of Svipdag, who wakes Menglad from her trance on the magic mountain; but
“there is a vast difference between the simplicity of the Ballad and the stately measure and rhetorical pomp of the original:—
‘Svipdag is my name ”