Page:Old English ballads by Francis Barton Gummere (1894).djvu/463

Rh NOTES. 359 the ballad to closer relations with the original ; but critics agree that 63-66 are Percy's own manufacture, and we have to reckon with the usual editorial corrections in other parts of the text. — See Child, III, 49ff. I 4. ^<7r«^ = dissyllable {boren). 4 4. able = of proper rank : cf . * capable ' in Lear^ ii, i : * Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means To make thee capable,' — />. ' able to inherit, though illegitimate,' — said to Edmund. 6 4. * Between me and the lady.' II 3. ' Take her to wife.' 12 3. The usual phrase is * nicked wUA nay.' See Scotish Ffeildey Percy Folio^ I, 215, v. 53. 15 2. in halle = among the men. So, in the Nibelungen^ it is a great favor to Siegfried that Kriemhild is brought to court where he may see her. The attendance, moreover, is much the same as Kriemhild's : N. Z., st. 277 ff. 25 4. the = they. 36 2. gramarye = magic, which of course had its connection with runes, with writing, and then with abstruse lore of every kind. 47 1. The gift of an arm-ring was the commonest form of reward among the Germanic races. A king, from his habit of breaking off rings from the long spiral on his arm, and giving these as rewards, was called in A.-S. 'the ring-breaker.' It is with arm-rings that Hildebrand makes a last appeal to his son : see Hildebrandslied^ V. 33 ff- 47 3. * And ever we desire thee,' etc. 49. Cf. Chaucer, SqUire's Tale, v. 69 ff.: Whil that the kyng sit thus. . . In atte halle dore al sodeynly Ther com a knight upon a steed of bras. For other references for this custom, as well as for that of stabling the steed irfthe hall, see Child, III, 51. 54 2. Looked at him narrowly, at close quarters. KEMP OWYNE. Child, II, 306 ; printed in Motherwell's Minstrelsy. Another version is Kempion in Scott's Minstrelsy. The central motive of the ballad is found frequently in popular tradition: see Child, p. 307 f. Owyne is in name identical with the Owain or Ywein of the romances, though the latter say nothing of this adventure. Digitized by LjOOQIC