Fishes war loupin' a' aroun', And sparklin' to the light: "Whan as he laved, sounds cam sae sweet. Frae ilka rock an' tree, The brief was out, 'twas him it doomed "Frae 'neath a rock, sune, sune she rose, And stately on she swam, Stopped in the midst, an' becked an' sang To him to stretch his haun'. "Gowden glist the yellow links, That round her neck she'd twine; Her een war o' the skyie blue, "The smile upon her bonnie cheek Her voice excelled the birdies' sang "Sae couthie, couthie did she look, Out shot his hand, alas, alas! Fast in the swirl he screeched. "The mermaid leuch, her brief was gane, "Aboon the stream his wraith was seen, That e'en was coarse, the blast blew hoarse, E'er lang the waves war foamin'." Another and more familiar ballad, which relates the disappearance of a man to the elfin world, is Thomas the Rhymer,1 in which the Queen of the Fairies herself plays the charmer's part. The hero of this ballad, as is well known, occupies a distinguished place in the legendary history and literature of Scotland. Gifted, in popular tradition, not only with the power of the poet, but with the insight of the prophet, he was believed to have attained his superhuman knowledge by a daring intrigue with the Fairy Queen, as the legend of the pious Numa Pompilius attributed to his intercourse with the nymph Egeria the suggestion of the religious institutions which were traced to his reign. As True Thomas lay on the fairy-haunted Huntly Bank,2-so runs the legend,—he saw a bright lady in raiment of "grass green silk," with innumerable silver bells tinkling at her horse's mane. Warned that if he kiss her lips she will become mistress of his fate, he cries "Betide me weal, betide me woe, That weird shall never daunton me.' All underneath the Eildon Tree. 1 Scott's "Border Minstrelsy," vol. iv. p. 117. The reader will find it interesting to compare the English ballad on the same subject given by Jamieson ("Popular Ballads and Songs," vol. ii. p. 11). This ballad is preserved, with variations, in three MSS., which are collated by Jamieson. A beautiful Danish ballad on a similar legend, Sir Olaf and the Elf King's Daughter, has been translated into Scotch by the same writer (Ibid. vol. i. p. 219). 2 This spot in the neighbourhood of Melrose was purchased by Sir Walter Scott, at probably fifty per cent. above its real value, that it might be included in the Abbotsford estate. 666 'Now, ye maun go wi' me,' she said; Through weal or woe as may chance to be.' She mounted on her milkwhite steed; The steed flew swifter than the wind.” So sped on the elfin steed with elfin velocity, till they reached a wide desert, where "living land was left behind." Here they lighted down,, and while True Thomas rests his head upon the Fairy Queen's knee, she shows him three wonders. First, she reveals to him the narrow road of righteousness, beset with thorns and briars; then "the braid, braid road" of wickedness that lies across a lawn of lilies; and last of all, she points to a "bonny road that winds about the fernie brae," as the road to fair Elf-land, by which they must go. Again they mount the elfin steed, which flies on as before :— "O they rade on, and farther on, And they waded through rivers aboon the knee, And they saw neither sun nor moon, But they heard the roaring of the sea. “It was mirk mirk night, and there was nae stern light, And they waded through red blude to the knee; For a' the blude that's shed on earth Runs through the springs o' that countrie. "Syne they came to a garden green, And she pu'd an apple frae a tree, 'Take this for thy wages, true Thomas; It will give thee the tongue that can never lie." "My tongue is my ain,' true Thomas said; I neither dought to buy nor sell, At fair or tryst where I may be. "I dought neither speak to prince or peer, "He has gotten a coat of the even cloth, And till seven years were gane True Thomas on earth was never seen.". The gift of the Fairy Queen from the fruits of fairyland, which True Thomas seeks, with amusing naïveté, to decline, is evidently connected with his alleged prophetic powers. Indeed, this ballad appears, from other sources,1 to be merely an introduction to a larger poem on the prophecies attributed to the hero.2 The legend further tells, that although Thomas was allowed to revisit the earth and there deliver his prophecies, yet he continued under an obligation to return to fairyland whenever the Queen of the Fairies should intimate her wish. "Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry with his friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, a person came running in and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the street of the village. The prophet instantly 1 See the English ballad above referred to as given by Jamieson. His prophecies will be found, with interesting historical comments, in Chambers' "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," pp. 210-224. D arose, left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popular belief, he still 'drees his weird' in fairyland, and is one day expected to revisit the earth.' 1 There is one element in the development of this legend, which has dropt out of the above ballad; I refer to the reason why the hero was restored to the earth after seven years' residence in fairyland. This element, which we are able to supply from the English ballad on the subject,2 is founded on one point of the creed about fairies, which looks almost like a satisfaction to Christian dogma for allowing the existence of such beings. Though they belonged to no limbo in the peculiar world of Christian thought, it was believed that they required every seven years to pay a "teind" or "kane "3 to hell, similar to that which the Athenians, in the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, used to pay to the 1 Scott's "Border Minstrelsy," vol. iv. pp. 114-15. 2 "To morne of helle the foulle fende Among these folke shall chese his fee; "Ffore all the golde that ever myght be "She broght hym agayn to the Eldyntre, In Huntley Banks ther for to be, Ther foulys syng bothe nyght and daye." 8 Teind is technical Scotch for tenth, English tithe. Kane, Cane, or Kain is a duty paid in kind by a tenant to a landlord. |