Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/196

 188  Burd Ellen" were the only names introduced in his recitation, and that the others inclosed within brackets are assumed upon the authority of the locality given to the story by the mention of Merlin. In every other respect I have been as faithful as possible.

It was recited in a sort of formal, drowsy, measured, monotonous recitative, mixing prose and verse, in the manner of the Icelandic Sagas, and as is still the manner of reciting tales and fabulas aniles in the winter evenings, not only among the Islanders, Norwegians, and Swedes, but also among the Lowlanders in the north of Scotland, and among the Highlanders and Irish. This peculiarity, so far as my memory could serve me, I have endeavoured to preserve; but of the verses which have been introduced, I cannot answer for the exactness of any, except the stanza put into the mouth of the King of Elfland, which was indelibly impressed upon my memory, long before I knew anything of Shakespeare, by the odd and whimsical manner in which the tailor curled up his nose, and sniffed all about, to imitate the action which "fi, fi, fo, fum!" is intended to represent.

Jamieson's reference to Shakespeare may lead us to direct our attention in the first place to the very distinguished literary history of our story, at least according to my opinion. Browning found in King Lear a line of dark import—

and made out of it a mystical poem. He little thought he was dealing with a fragment of a fairy tale. Yet there can be little doubt that Edgar, in his mad scene in King Lear, is alluding to our tale, which indeed has some faint analogy with its plot, when he breaks into the lines: