Transcribed from the 1913 Thomas J. Wise pamphlet by DavidPrice, . Many thanks to Norfolk andNorwich Millennium Library, UK, for kindly supplying the imagesfrom which this transcription was made.
by
GEORGE BORROW
London:
printed for private circulation
1913
p. 4Copyright inthe United States of America
by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for ClementShorter.
The fair Sidselil, of all maidens the flower,
With her mother the Queen sat at work in her bower.
So hard at the woof the fair Sidselil plies,
That out from her bosom, so white, the milk flies.
“Now hear thou, O Sidselil, child of my heart,
What causes the milk from thy bosom to start?”
“O that is not milk, my dear mother, I vow,
It is but the mead I was drinking just now.”
“Unlike are the two, most unlike to the sight,
The one it is brown, and the other is white.”
p.6“I see it is best that the truth be declared,
The handsome Child Maidelvold me has ensnared.”
“And if it be truth what thou now hast declared,
And handsome Child Maidelvold thee has ensnared,
“Aloft on the gallows I’ll hang him, I trow,
And burn thee to ashes the gallows below.”
Proud Sidselil she her blue mantle puts on,
And unto Child Maidelvold’s bower she is gone.
With her fingers so tapering she twirled at the pin:
“Child Maidelvold rise, and with speed let mein.”
“I’ve summoned no one the tribunal before,
And at night to no one will I open my door.”
“Child Maidelvold rise, I beseech, in Christ’sname,
I’ve spoke to my mother who knows of my shame.
p.7“Aloft on the gallows she’ll hang thee, Itrow,
And burn me to ashes the gallows below.”
“O I will not hang, my sweet maiden, for thee
And thou shalt not burn, my sweet maiden, for me.
“Collect thou thy gold in the coffer with speed,
And I’ll to the stable and saddle my steed.”
He flung round the maiden his mantle so wide,
And he lifted her up on his courser of pride.
They came to the wood of the briar and rose,
There Sidselil craved for a while to repose.
“Now art thou fatigued by thy journey, sweet love,
Or say, does the saddle too close for thee prove?”
“I am not o’ercome by the journey, sweet love,
But the saddle too close for my burden doth prove.”
p.8He spread on the cold earth his mantle so wide:
“Here rest thee a space and I’ll watch by thyside.”
“O Jesus, that one of my maidens were near,
The pains of a mother are on me I fear.”
“Thy maidens are now at a distance from thee,
And thou hast no one to assist thee but me.”
“’Twere better to perish again and again,
Than thou should’st stand by me and gaze on mypain.”
“Then take off thy kerchief and cover my head,
And perhaps I may stand in the wise woman’sstead.”
“One draught of pure water could’st thou bring menow,
To cheer up my heart that is sinking so low?”
So faithful to her was the Child, and so true,
He fetched her the drink in her gold spangled shoe.
p.9Child Maidelvold sped through the forest so black,
He went to the fount