Ellen of Villenskov and Other Ballads

Excerpt

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....