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Ellen of Villenskov and Other Ballads



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ELLEN OF VILLENSKOV.

There lies a wold in Vester Haf,   There builds a boor his hold;And thither he carries hawk and hound,   He’ll stay through winter’s cold.

He takes with him both hound and cock,   He means there long to stay;The wild deer in the wood that are   For his arrival pay.

He hews the oak and poplar tall,   He fells the good beech tree;Then fill’d was the laidly Trold with spite   That he should make so free.

He hews him posts, he hews him balks,   He early toils and late;Out spake the Trolds within the hill:   “Who knocks at such a rate?”

Then up and spake the youngest Trold,   As emmet small to view:“O here is come a Christian man,   But verily he shall rue.”

Upstood the smallest of the Trolds,   And round he roll’d his eyes:“O we will hie to the yeoman’s house,   And o’er him hold assize.

“He hews away our sheltering wood,   Meanwhile shall we be tame?No! I from him his wife will take,   And make him suffer shame.”

All the Trolds in the hill that were   Wild for the fray upbound;They hie away to the yeoman’s house,   Their tails all curling round.

Seven and a hundred were the Trolds,   Their laidliness was great;To the yeoman’s house they’ll go as guests,   With him to drink and eat.

The hound is yelling in the yard,   The herdsman blows his horn;Crows the cock and clucks the hen   As the yeoman throws them corn.

Of Villenskov the yeoman saw   The Trolds the window through:“Now help me Jesu, Mary’s son,   Those trolds have me in view.”

He sign’d the cross in every nook,   But mostly in his room;Some of the Trolds in fright thereat   Flew to the forest’s gloom.

Some flew east, and some flew west,   And some flew north away;And others flew to the valleys deep,   Where still, I trow, they stay.

But ah! the smallest of the Trolds   Bold enter’d at the door;For crossing he refus’d to flee,   Was bent on mischief sore.

The housewife thought of a good device,   She plac’d him at the board,And before him set both ale and meat,   With many a courteous word.

“Hear, husbandman of Villenskov,   Attend to what I say;Who has to thee permission given   To build where I have sway?

“Since thou to build within my bounds   Hast ta’en the liberty,Thou shalt to me thy housewife give,   For I with her will lie.”

Then answer made the hapless man,   As God gave him the thought:“Thou shalt not Ellen get from me,   Like her I value nought.”

He answer made unto the Trold:   “Let but my wife alone,And do thou take my money and goods,   And keep them for thy own.”

“Then I will Ellen take, and thee,   And tread ye both to gore;And I will take thy silver and gold   And hide it ’neath my floor.”

The yeoman and his household all   Were seized with mighty fright:“Better that one of us be lost   Than all destroy’d outright.”

Then up and stood the desp’rate man,   With sore affliction rife;And he has given his Ellen dear   To the young Trold for wife.

Then wax’d he glad, and sprang about,   So fondly her he pressed;O then how pale her cheeks became,   She was so sore distrest!

Then out and spake the afflicted Dame   Whilst shedding many a tear:“O God in mercy look on me,   My fate is hard to bear.

“I did possess as fair a man   As ever walk’d-on mead,But now perforce with laidly Trold   Must do adulterous deed.”

He kiss’d her once, he kiss’d her twice,   Her heart yet sadder grew;The laidliest Devil he became   That man did ever view....