Page:The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume 01.djvu/159

 tressed; he tries to stop the bleeding with his shirt; she begs that they may ride slowly. When they reach the house there is a splendid feast, and everything is set before the bride; but she can neither eat nor drink, and only wishes to lie down. She dies in the night. Her father comes in the morning, and, learning what has happened, runs Graf Friedrich through, then drags his body at a horse's heels, and buries it in a bog. Three lilies sprang from the spot, with an inscription announcing that Graf Friedrich was in heaven, and a voice came from the sky commanding that the body should be disinterred. The bridegroom was then buried with his bride, and this act of reparation was attended with other miraculous manifestations. As the ballads stand now, the kinship of 'Graf Friedrich' with 'The Cruel Brother' is not close and cannot be insisted on; still an early connection is not improbable.

The versions of 'Graf Friedrich' are somewhat numerous, and there is a general agreement as to all essentials. They are: A, a Nuremberg broadside "of about 1535," which has not been made accessible by a reprint. B, a Swiss broadside of 1647, without place, "printed in Seckendorf's Musenalmanach für 1808, p. 19;" Uhland, No 122, p. 277; Mittler, No 108; Wunderhorn,, 293 (1857); Erk's Liederhort, No 15a, p. 42; Böhme, No 79, p. 166 also, in Wunderhorn, 1808, , 289, with omission of five stanzas and with many changes; Simrock, No 11, p. 28, omitting four stanzas and with changes; as written down by Goethe for Herder, Düntzer u. Herder, Briefe Goethes, u. s. w., Aus Herder's Nachlass, 1, 167, with the omission of eight stanzas and with some variations. C, Wunderhorn (1857),, 299, from the Schwarzwald, Erlach, , 291, Mittler, No 113. D, Taschenbuch für Dichter, u. s. w., Theil , 122, from Upper Lusatia, = Erlach, , 448, Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 421. E, from the Kuhländchen, Meinert, p. 23, Mittler, No 109. F, Hoffmann u. Richter, Schlesische V. L., No 19, p. 35, = Mittler, No 112, Erk's Liederhort, No 15, p. 40. G, Zingerle, in Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, , 341, from Meran. H, from Uckermark, Brandenburg, Mittler, No 114. I, Hesse, from oral tradition, Mittler, No 111. J, Erk u. Irmer,, 54, No 54, from the neighborhood of Halle, Mittler, No 110. K, from Estedt, district of Magdeburg, Parisius, p. 31, No 9.

A Danish ballad, 'Den saarede Jomfru,' Grundtvig, No 244,, 474, has this slight resemblance with 'Graf Friedrich:' While a knight is dancing with a princess, his sword glides from the scabbard and cuts her hand. To save her partner from blame, she represents to her father that she had cut herself with her brother's sword. This considerateness so touches the knight (who is, of course, her equal in rank) that he offers her his hand. The Danish story is found also in Norwegian and in Färöe ballads.

The peculiar testament made by the bride in 'The Cruel Brother,' by which she bequeaths good things to her friends, but ill things to the author of her death, is highly characteristic of ballad poetry. It will be found again in 'Lord Ronald,' 'Edward,' and their analogues. Still other ballads with this kind of testament are: 'Frillens Hævn,' Grundtvig, No 208 C, 16–18,, 207; a young man, stabbed by his leman, whom he was about to give up in order to marry, leaves his lands to his father, his bride-bed to his sister, his gilded couch to his mother, and his knife to his leman, wishing it in her body. 'Møen paa Baalet,' Grundtvig, No 109 A, 18–21,, 587; Ole, falsely accused by her brother, and condemned to be burned, gives her mother her silken sark, her sister her shoes, her father her horse, and her brother her knife, with the same wish. 'Kong Valdemar og hans Søster,' Grundtvig, No 126,, 97, has a testament in A–E and I; in I, 14–19 (, 912), Liden Kirsten bequeaths her knife, with the same imprecation, to the queen, who, in the other copies, is her unrelenting foe: so Lillelin to Herr Adelbrand, Danske Viser, , 386, No 162, 16–18, Kristensen,, 262, No 100, A 20–23, having been dragged at a horse's heels in resentment of a taunt. 'Hustru og Mands Moder,' Grundtvig, No. 84,, 404, has a testament in A, B, D, H, and in the last