XL.

Loud and chill blew the westlin wind,
Sair beat the heavy showir,

Mirk* grew the nicht eir Hardyknute
Want neir his stately towir:

His towir that us'd with torches bleise
To shyne sae far at nicht

Seim'd now as black as mourning weid :
Nae marvel sair he sich'd.

XLI.

"Thairs nae licht in my lady's bowir, "Thairs nae licht in my hall;

"Nae blink shynes round my Fairly fair, "Nor ward§ stands on my wall. "Quhat bodes it? Robert, Thomas, say,"

Nae answer fits their dreid.

"Stand back my sons, I'll be zour gyde;"

But by they past with speid.

* Mirk, dark.

+ Wan, got, arrived.

Blink, lively intermitting flashes of light.

§ Ward, warden.

XLII.

"As fast I haif sped owre Scotland's faes"

There ceist his brag of weir,

Sair schamit to mynd ocht but his dame,

And maiden Fairly fair.

Black feir he felt, but quhat to feir

He wist not zit with dreid:

Sair schuke his body, sair his limbs,
And all the warrior fled.

NOTES

ON

HARDYKNUTE.

St. I. Stately stept he east the wa'.
Stately stept he east the ha'.

Var.

St. II. Hie on a hill his castle stude,
With halls and touris a hicht.
On yonder hill a castle standes,
With walles and towres bedight.

PINKERTON.

The Child of Elle.

Scottish Songs, Edin. 1776,

St. V. The tydings to our gude Scots king,
Came as he sat at dyne,

With noble chiefs in braif array,
Drinking the blude-red wyne.

This stanza appears to have been imitated from two ancient ballads:

The king sits in Dumfermline town,

Drinking the blude-red wine.

SIR PATRICK SPENS.

The king but, and his nobles a',

Sat drinking at the wine;

He would ha' nane but his ae daughter,
To wait on them at dyne.

BROWN ROBIN.

St. VI. Full twenty thousand glittering spears,
The king of Norse commands.

The ballad here agrees with Fordun. Boece slays twenty-four thousand out of this number, and Buchannan sixteen thousand, not venturing to follow Boece, as he usually does. The Norwegian narrative, given in the Introduction, differs widely from all of these; but it is the only contemporary one that enters into the particulars of the expedition; and, from the minuteness of the descriptions, and the accuracy of the names, it is evidently the production of an eye-witness himself, or of one who had his relation from an eye-witness. Goodall, the editor of the Scotichronicon, who is disposed to controvert its accuracy, as given by Torfæus, alleges, that this minuteness of detail was purposely affected with the design of giving the work an air of

authenticity. But the materials whence Torfæus collected his information, were not then known. Our own more early accounts state nothing that would lead us to suppose, that a battle of such decisive importance had taken place. These are the Chronicles of MelThey merely mention the failure of

rose and of Man.

Haco's expedition.

St. XVII. and XVIII. were not in the first edition.

St. XVII. Full lowns the shynand day.

Var.

Bricht lows the schynand day.

PINKERTON.

St. XVIII. To me nae after day nor nicht
Can eir be sweit or fair.

To me nae after days nor nichts

Will eir be saft or kind.

Id.

Var.

GIL MORRICE.

With him nae pleiding micht prevail,

Braif Hardyknute to gain,

With fairest words and reason strang,

Straif courteously in vain.

With argument but vainly strave,

Lang courtiously in vain.

DR CLERK'S MS.

Still him to win strave Hardyknute,

Nor strave he lang in vain ;

Short pleading eithly micht prevail

Him to his lure to gain.

PINKERTON.