Kitabı oku: «The Verner Raven, The Count of Vendel's Daughter, and Other Ballads»

THE VERNER RAVEN

 
The Raven he flies in the evening tide,
   He in day dares not intrude;
Whoever is born to have evil luck
   In vain may seek for good.
 
 
Lustily flies the Verner Raven,
   High o’er the wall he’s flown,
For he was aware that Irmindlin fair
   Sate in her bower alone.
 
 
He southward flew, and he northward flew,
   He flew high up in the cloud;
And he beheld May Irmindlin
   Who sorrowing sate and sew’d.
 
 
“Now hear me, little Irmindlin,
   Why weep in this piteous way?
For father or mother, or is it for brother,
   That adown thy cheek tears stray?”
 
 
It was Damsel Irmindlin,
   Swift out of the window looked she:
“O who is he that will comfort me,
   And list to my misery?
 
 
“Hear thou, wild Raven, bird of Death,
   Fly thou hither down to me;
And all my trouble and all my care
   I’ll straight relate to thee.
 
 
“My father gave me the son of a king,
   We were fitted the one for the other,
But he was into the Austrian land
   Dispatched by my cruel step-mother.
 
 
“So happily we should together have lived,
   For he my whole love won;
But she wished to give me her sister’s son,
   Who was liker a fiend than a man.
 
 
“I had a gallant brother once,
   Sir Verner by name was he,
But he was transformed by my cruel step-dame
   And driven to a strange countrie.”
 
 
“Hear thou, Damsel Irmindlin,
   What wilt thou give me, say?
I’ll carry thee straight to thy plighted youth,
   If with me thou wilt fly away.”
 
 
“Thou shalt from me the ruddy gold,
   And the silver white receive;
If thou bear me to my Bridegroom bold,
   And me from my woe relieve.”
 
 
“Keep thou thyself thy silver and gold,
   Such gifts I do not crave;
The first son thou conceivest of him,
   That, that from thee I’ll have.”
 
 
Then straight she took the Raven’s foot,
   Laid that her white hand upon;
She swore to him by her Christian faith,
   That he should have the son.
 
 
Then took he Damsel Irmindlin,
   He placed her on his back;
Then flew he over the wild sea waves
   As fast as he could track.
 
 
It was the Verner Raven wild,
   On the turret he alighted:
“Now sit we, Damsel, upon the house,
   Where dwells thy Bridegroom plighted.”
 
 
Out came bold Sir Nilaus,
   A silver cup in his hand:
“Be welcome, Damsel Irmindlin,
   Here to this foreign land!
 
 
“What shall I give to thee, Raven wild,
   That hast brought to me my Bride?
No better tidings I have heard,
   Since from Denmark forth I hied.”
 
 
Thanks be to brave Sir Nilaus,
   He kept his faith so well;
The Monday next that followed,
   His bridal it befell.
 
 
They their bridal solemnised
   With glee and utmost joy;
When forty weeks away had flown
 

 
   She brought into the world a boy.
 
 
It was the Verner Raven,
   Perched on the turret tall:
“What thou did’st promise me, Irmindlin,
   To thy mind I’d have thee call.”
 
 
So sorely she wept, and her hands she smote,
   Because it a girl was not:
“Thee shall the wild Death Raven have,
   That will cost thee thy life, I wot!”
 
 
There came flying over the house
   The Raven, with looks to scare;
So sorely then wept both Maidens and Dames,
   And their hands wrung in despair.
 
 
Sir Nilaus went, and proffered the bird
   Proud castles many a one;
He proffered him even the half of his land
   If he only might keep his son.
 
 
“If I get not the little babe,
   Thou sorely shall rue it straight,
Thee I limb from limb will tear
   And thy kingdom devastate.”
 
 
She has taken the babe, and in linen white
   Hath wrapped it tenderly;
“Farewell, farewell, my dearest son,
   Thou owest thy death to me.”
 
 
Then bore they out the little babe,
   On its mother’s breast that lay;
O’er the cheeks of all did big tears fall,
   Such woe was and wail that day.
 
 
The Raven took the child in his claw,
   He croaked in joyous guise;
Sir Nilaus stood and looked thereon,
   Pouring forth bitter sighs.
 
 
Then tore he amain its right eye out,
   Drank the half of its heart’s red blood;
Then he became the handsomest knight
   That upon earth e’er stood.
 
 
He changed into the loveliest knight
   That with eye man ever had seen:
It was Irmindlin’s brother himself,
   Who had long enchanted been.
 
 
All the folk that stood thereby,
   They fell upon their knees bare;
And the child it was to life restored
   When to God they had made their prayer.
 
 
Now sitteth Dame Irmindlin so glad,
   All her grief has from her hied;
For she has now both brother and son,
   And sleeps by Sir Nilaus’ side.
 

THE COUNT OF VENDEL’S DAUGHTER

 
Within a bower the womb I left,
   ’Midst dames and maids who stood to aid;
They wrapped me first in silken weft,
   And next in scarlet red array’d.
 
 
But a stepdame soon ’twas my lot to get,
   And fierce and wild she proved to me;
Within a coffer me she set,
   And pushed it out upon the sea.
 
 
By one wave I was borne to land,
   And by the next away was ta’en;
But God on High, it seems, had plann’d,
   That I should footing there obtain.
 
 
The tide it drove me to the shore,
   And in its backward course retook;
Sure ne’er had child of king before
   Such buffeting on sea to brook.
 
 
But God He help’d me, so that I
   Was cast above the billows’ reach;
And soon a savage wolf drew nigh,
   Was prowling on the sandy beach.
 
 
Soon prowling came a wolf so gray,
   And me up-taking in his jaws,
He carried me with care away
   Deep, deep into the forest shaws.
 
 
That self-same wolf he was so kind
 

 
I’ll ne’er become another’s spouse,
   But in religion I will die.
 
 
But first to all the country side
   I will declare my bosom’s grief;
I find, the more my grief I hide,
   The less, the less, is my relief.
 

THE CRUEL MOTHER-IN-LAW

 
From his home and his country Sir Volmor should fare,
His wife he commends to his mother’s best care.
 
 
Proud Lyborg she sang, as the dancers she watched,
Behind stood Dame Ingeborg, malice she hatched.
 
 
“To live to the Fall if the luck I enjoy
Fair lady, thy beautiful voice I’ll destroy.”
 
 
Proud Lyborg’s fair maidens upon the floor sprang,
And all through the evening she unto them sang.
 
 
But alack two short summer days scarcely had pass’d,
When in desperate sickness proud Lyborg lay fast.
 
 
Proud Lyborg fell sick, and lay stretched on her bed,
Then backwards and forwards Dame Ingeborg sped.
 
 
“Now hear me, Dame Ingeborg, dear mother mine,
Do bring me, I pray, either water or wine.”
 
 
“The water is frozen, and frozen the wine,
And frozen the tap in each barrel of mine.
 
 
“The door it is locked, and the keys are away,
But where, daughter dear, by the Saints I can’t say.”
 
 
“If I can nor water nor wine from thee win,
Then open the door that the dew may rush in.
 
 
“Cause the door to the North to be wide open set,
Then my feverish frame cool refreshment shall get.”
 
 
“The door to the South I’ll have straightway undone,
That the hot sun may flash in thy visage upon.”
 
 
“O would there were one that for sweet pity’s sake,
To my mother a message in secret would take.”
 
 
Then answer’d proud Lyborg’s own little foot-boy:
“Your message in secret I’ll carry with joy.”
 
 
That they were alone they with confidence thought;
Dame Ingeborg stood nigh, and every word caught.
 
 
The lad he upsprang on his courser so high,
He galloped as fast as the wingèd birds fly.
 
 
In, in came the lad, in a kirtle red drest:
“Your daughter, Dame Lyborg, in death will soon rest.
 
 
“She bids you to come with all possible quickness,
To live through this night she can’t hope from her sickness.”
 
 
Straight unto her servants proud Mettelil says:
“My horses go fetch from the meads where they graze.”
 
 
The horses they galloped, the chariot wheels turned,
Throughout the long day whilst the summer heat burned.
 
 
The midsummer’s sun with such fury it glows
Proud Lyborg swoons ’neath it in terrible throes.
 
 
A purse takes Dame Ingeborg fraught with gold treasure,
And she speeds to the hall, her heart bounding with pleasure.
 
 
“Whosoever will gold and will bounty derive,
Let him help me to bury proud Lyborg alive.”
 
 
Soon as she of the gold distribution had made,
Below the black earth the fair lily they laid.
 
 
To the gate of the castle proud Mettelil came,
Dame Ingeborg stood there, and leaned on the same.