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THE ELFIN KNIGHT. |
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Reprinted from A Collection of Curious Old Ballads and Miscellaneous Poetry. Edinburgh. David Webster, 1824.
Other versions are given in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, (see the Appendix to this volume;) Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, (p. 145 ;) Buchan's Ancient Ballads, (ii. 296.)
Similar collections of impossibilities in The Trooper and Fair Maid, Buchan, i. 230 ; Robin's Tesment, id., i. 273, or Aytoun, 2d ed. ii. 197; As I was walking under a grove, Pills to purge Melancholy, v. 37^ See also post, vol. ii. 224, 352, vol. iv. 132, 287; and in German, Von eitel unmoglichen Dingen, Erk's Lieder-hort, p. 334-37; Uhland, Eitle Binge, No. 4, A, B; Wunderhorn, ii. 410.
The Elfin knight sits on yon hill, Ba, ba, ba, UUie ba. He blaws his horn baith loud and shrill. The wind hath blawn my plaid awa.
He blaws it east, he blaws it west, He blaws it where he liketh best.
" I wish that horn were in my kist, i
Yea, and the knight in my arms niest."
She had no sooner these words said, Than the knight came to her bed. |
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