circumstance comes too soon). A hill-king asks his mother how he may get her. She asks in return, What will you give me to make her come of herself to the hill? He promises red gold and chestfuls of pence; and one Sunday morning Margaret, who has set out to go to church, is made—by magical operations, of course—to take the way to the hill.
A second form begins a stage later: Danish C, G, K, Swedish D, E, K, Norwegian A, C, E, G, H, I (?), K, L, M (?) N (?), Färöe A, B. We learn nothing of the device by which the maid has been entrapped. Mother and daughter are sitting in their bower, and the mother asks her child why her cheeks are pale, why milk is running from her breasts. She answers that she has been working too hard; that what is taken for milk is mead. The mother retorts that other women do not suffer from their industry; that mead is brown, and milk is white. Hereupon the daughter reveals that she has been beguiled by an elf, and, though living under her mother's roof, has had eight or nine children (seven or eight sons and a daughter; fifteen children, Färöe A, B), none of whom she ever saw, since after birth they were always transferred to the hill (see, especially, Danish C, G, also A; Norwegian H, I; Färöe A, B). The mother (who disowns her, Danish C, G, Swedish D, E, Norwegian K), in several versions, asks what gifts she got for her honor. Among these was a harp [horn, Norwegian L], which she was to play when she was unhappy. The mother asks for a piece, and the first tones bring the elf, who reproaches the daughter for betraying him: had she concealed their connection she might still have lived at home, C; but now she must go with him. She is kindly received by her children. They give her a drink which makes her forget father and mother, heaven and earth, moon and sun, and even makes her think she was born in the hill, Danish C, G, Swedish D, Norwegian A, C.[1]
Danish G, K, Färöe A, B, take a tragic turn the woman dies in the first two the night she comes to the hill. Danish C, one of the sixteenth-century versions, goes as far as possible in the other direction. The elf-king pats Maldfred's cheek, takes her in his arms, gives her a queen's crown and name.
He had himself christened and all his land!
A third series of versions offers the probable type of the much-corrupted Scottish ballads, and under this head come Danish E, F, H, I, L–R, T; Swedish A, B, F–I, and also C, after an introduction which belongs to the first class; Norwegian D, F. The characteristic feature is that the woman has been living eight or nine years in the hill, and has there borne her children, commonly seven sons and a daughter. She sets out to go to matins, and whether under the influence of runes, or accidentally, or purposely, takes the way to the hill. In a few cases it is clear that she does not seek the hill-man or put herself in his way, e. g., Danish N, Swedish G, but Swedish A, H, N make her apply for admission at the hill-door. In Danish I, N–R, T, Norwegian F, it is not said that she was on her way to church; she is in a field or in the hill. In Swedish F she has been two years in the cave, and it seems to her as if she had come yesterday. After her eight or nine years with the hill-man the woman longs to go home, Danish E, F, I, Swedish A, F, I, Norwegian D; to go to church, Danish L, M, N, P, T, Norwegian F; for she had heard Denmark's bells, church bells, Danish L–P, T, Swedish G, Norwegian
- ↑ The beauty of the Norse ballads should make an Englishman's heart wring for his loss. They are particularly pretty here, where the forgetful draught is administered; as Norwegian C, A:
Forth came her daughter, as jimp as a wand,
She dances a dance, with silver can in hand.
'O where wast thou bred, and where wast thou born?
And where were thy maiden-garments shorn?'
'In Norway was I bred, in Norway was I born,
And in Norway were my maiden-garments shorn.'
The ae first drink from the silver can she drank,
What stock she was come of she clean forgat.
'O where wast thou bred, and where wast thou born?
And where were thy maiden-garments shorn?'
'In the hill was I bred, and there was I born,
In the hill were my maiden-garments shorn.'
