Читать книгу: «The Serpent Knight, and Other Ballads», страница 2

 
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
“O well may he look pale, I ween,
Who has felt the stroke of the Elfin Queen.”
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
“Sir Olaf, list, my joy and pride,
What shall I say to thy youthful bride?”
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
“Thou’lt tell my bride the wood I rove,
My courser and my hounds to prove.”
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
The next, next morn at break of day
The bride arrives with her friends so gay.
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
They skinkéd mead, they skinkéd wine:
“Where is Sir Olaf, bridegroom mine?”
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
“Sir Olaf’s gone the woods to rove,
His courser and his hounds to prove.”
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
She lifted up the mantle red,
There lay Sir Olaf stark and dead.
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
The next, next day at early morn,
Corses three from the gate are borne.
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 
 
Olaf the knight, and his youthful bride,
And his mother dear, who of care had died.
   Gaily they dance in the greenwood.
 

THE TREACHEROUS MERMAN

 
“Now rede me, mother,” the merman cried,
“How Marsk Stig’s daughter may be my bride.”
 
 
She made him of water a noble steed,
Of sands a saddle, and reins of reed.
 
 
To a young knight chang’d she then her son,
And to Mary’s church at speed he’s gone.
 
 
To the church’s ring his steed he bound,
And three times backward the church pac’d round.
 
 
When in he strode so proud and tall
Away the images turned them all.
 
 
The priest was standing with open book:
“O who is yon knight of stately look?”
 
 
Then laughed the maiden within her sleeve:
“If he were my husband I should not grieve.”
 
 
He step’d over benches one and two:
“O Marsk Stig’s daughter I doat on you.”
 
 
He stepped over benches three and four:
“Give me thy troth I thee implore.”
 
 
She gave him her hand with an air so free:
“Here take thy troth, I will go with thee.”
 
 
A bridal train from church they go,
They danc’d so lightly and free from woe.
 
 
And when they came to the salt sea strand,
The little boats turn’d away from the land.
 
 
“Now Marsk Stig’s daughter hold my steed,
To cross the water a boat we need.”
 
 
To a little boat he chang’d his steed,
And over the waves away they speed.
 
 
And when in the midst of the sound they were,
Dissolv’d the boat into water fair.
 
 
Up the land far was heard the cry
Of Marsk Stig’s maid in her agony.
 
 
Now will I caution each maiden bright,
To dance not away with an unknown knight.
 

Note. – The above Ballad is a later, and greatly improved, version of one which appeared under the title The Merman only, in the Romantic Ballads of 1826. The introduction of the incident of the changing by magic of the horse into a boat, furnishes a reason for the catastrophe which was lacking in the earlier version.