Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 22

PART II

BALLADS

BALLADS

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

I. The ballads of the Faroe Islands aroused the interest of Ole Worm as early as 1639; but the five ballads which he took down are no longer extant, and we know of them only from a reference by Peder Syv[1] towards the close of the seventeenth century. In 1673 Lucas Debes[2] wrote a description of the islands which contained an account of their dances and songs; but unfortunately he did not transcribe any of the ballads. Indeed the balladry and songs attracted little general attention till the close of the eighteenth century, when Jens Kristjan Svabo devoted himself to a careful study of the language and a collection of the ballads of his native Islands.

In 1781-2, during a visit to the Faroes, Svabo turned his attention especially to Faroese folk-songs and made a ms. collection of fifty-two ballads, which were purchased by the Crown Prince and presented to the Royal Library at Copenhagen. It is interesting to note that Svabo, like his contemporary Bishop Percy[3], thought it necessary to apologise in his preface for making the collection, and humbly claims for it an interest merely antiquarian. It is clear, however from his tone throughout the Preface, that Svabo had a far more scholarly appreciation of the value of his material than had Percy. Indeed it would be difficult to overestimate the debt which all succeeding students of Faroese ballads owe to him. Disappointed in his hopes of public recognition of his work done for the Civil Service, he retired to the Islands, where, in solitude and poverty, he devoted himself, till his death in 1829, to the collection and transcription of ballad material. His personal help and example inspired other Faroe-islanders to make collections for themselves, some of which, notably Klemmentsen's _Sandoyjarbok_, are among our best authorities for the ballads today. His own ballad collection, still in ms. in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, has never been published; but Schrter, Lyngbye and Hammershaimb all owed their incentive and inspiration to his work. To study the history of Faroese ballad collections without realising the force of Svabo's personality is to leave Hamlet out of the play.

In 1817 the Danish botanist, Hans Kristjan Lyngbye visited the Faroes, where he became acquainted with "the learned Svabo" as he calls him, and also with Johan Henrik Schrter, a clergyman on Suder, himself a keenly interested ballad collector, and, incidentally, the first to make a collection of Faroese folk-tales in prose. Partly from these men, and partly from oral recitations and material supplied by Provost Hentze, Lyngbye was able to gather together a considerable body of Faroese ballads which, with the support and encouragement of Bishop P. E. Muller, he published at Copenhagen in 1822, under the t.i.tle of _Faeroiske Kvaeder om Sigurd Fofnersbane og hans aet_.

Unfortunately Lyngbye knew no Icelandic and very little Faroese, and his work necessarily suffers in consequence. Still more unfortunate was his unscientific handling of material and lack of literary conscience, which permitted his cutting out, adding and transposing stanzas--and again we are reminded of the _Reliques_--till the original form of a ballad is sometimes entirely lost. Fortunately, however, most of the material that he had at his command is still preserved. It is to be noted that the qualities which go to make an ideal _collector_ of ballads do not always imply an ideal editor of the material collected. The great collector of Jutland ballads and folk-lore, Evald Tang Kristensen, has started a new and sounder tradition by a reverent in-gathering of all that formed part of the common stock of peasant lore in his day[4]. The sifting of material is wisely left to the trained scholar, and, one hopes, to a later and less intrepid generation[5].

The tradition started by Svabo and Lyngbye was carried on by V. U.

Hammershaimb, himself a native of the Islands and a great lover of Faroese folk-lore. During the years 1847-8, and again in 1853, he visited the Faroes expressly to study the dialects, and to collect the native ballads and folklore, which he published under the t.i.tle of _Faeroiske_ _Kvaeder_ in the _Nordiske Literatur-Samfund_, the _Antiquarisk Tidsskrift_, etc.

Like Svabo, Hammershaimb eventually returned and settled on the Faroes; but unfortunately, owing to the pressure of his administrative duties, he was never able to spare time for a final revision of his collection, though urged repeatedly to the work by his friend Svend Grundtvig. Ultimately, however, when Grundtvig himself undertook to make an exhaustive critical edition of the Faroese ballads in all their variant forms, Hammershaimb placed all his material in his hands.

Svend Grundtvig and his colleague J. Bloch, of the Royal Library staff, completed in 1876 their great fifteen vol. MS. collection of Faroese ballads with all their known variants, _Froyja Kvaei_--_Corpus Carminum Faeroensium_--_Faerernes Gamle Folkeviser_.

This was afterwards increased by Bloch to sixteen volumes by the addition of much new material, some of which was collected by Jakobsen in his journey to the Faroes in 1887[6]. Before beginning the work Grundtvig had every available version, whether in public or private hands, at his disposal, so that he had a magnificent apparatus criticus. Unfortunately the work has never been published, so that owing to the difficulties of communication with Denmark (which have proved to be insuperable) it has been impossible for me to consult it. The first three volumes, however, which include all the Faroese ballads translated below, are based on Hammershaimb's collections of 1851-1855. Hammershaimb was himself a genuine scholar with a sensitive literary conscience and a thorough knowledge of all the Faroese dialects, and his work is spoken of in the highest terms by Grundtvig in his article on the _Corpus Carminum Faroensium_[7]. Moreover Hammershaimb had consulted all the other available versions of these ballads before printing; so that it is improbable that when a comparison of the texts can be made much alteration will be required.

II. The Faroe Islands are probably the only place to be found in Western Europe where ballads are still sung to the accompaniment of the dance. The dance and song, it must be confessed, are gradually losing their original character, while the ballads are often long and unwieldy, sometimes, as in the Ballad of ivint Herintsson, running to five divisions (_Taettir_) and over three hundred and fifty verses. The verses are frequently chanted in a solemn recitative, while the ballad tunes tend to be confined chiefly to the refrains. The method of supplying the melody, however, is subject to almost endless variation.

Sometimes old native folk tunes are attached to special ballads, e.g.

in the case of _Vi hugged mid kaarde_; sometimes native ballads are sung to Danish folk melodies and refrains as, e.g. _Grindevisen_, sung to the tune of the Danish _Burmand holder i Fjaeldet ut_. Sometimes in the Faroese repertoire, Norse ballads are found complete with their own melodies, e.g. _Smandsviserne_, or sung to Danish folk-tunes, e.g. _Zinklars Vise_. Most curious of all is the method not infrequently resorted to in modern times of singing native ballads, often of modern origin, to the tunes of the Protestant Psalmody--a custom which may have had its origin in the common practice of singing both ballads and psalms on all momentous occasions, such as on the night of a wedding, or before starting on a big fishing expedition.

The Islanders have little idea of tone or melody and do not sing well; and eye-witnesses of some of the ballad dances at Thorshaven aver that the tunes sound less like dance music than melancholy dirges.

In _Folkesangen paa Faererne_ (_Faerske Kvadmelodier_), pp. 85-140, Thuren has published a large number of original ballad tunes. The characteristic motifs of folk tunes are traceable throughout, as well as their elusive qualities. Thus we find, side by side with airs based on the ordinary major and minor scales, others which, like mediaeval church music, are based on a 'modal' or 'gapped' tonal system.

Indeed traces of the pentatonic scale are not infrequently met with, especially in the tunes attached to the earlier ballads. The majority of Faroese melodies, however, have only one gap and have more in common with the system of notation found in Gregorian music than with the pentatonic scale of many Hebridean lays. A further characteristic of folk music which appears in most Faroese airs is the curious form of close which rarely occurs on the tonic. Not infrequently the theme ends on the leading note or supertonic which strikes the ear with a perpetual surprise, the cadence leading one to antic.i.p.ate a repet.i.tion rather than a conclusion of the air. The reason is that these tunes, like many folk songs from Somerset, the Appalachians and the Hebrides, were 'circular,' that is, formed for continuous repet.i.tion to suit the lengthy nature of the songs and ballads.

The ballad however is not a mere historical relic on the Faroes, but a living literary form. The simplicity of the life, and the absence of cla.s.s distinction[8], still const.i.tute an atmosphere in some respects not unlike that of Mediaeval Denmark, and the ballad is the favourite form of artistic expression. A whale-hunt, a shipwreck, or the adventures of fishermen in the far north are still made the subject of a new ballad, composed by one or more of the community; and if the result finds general favour it is added to the ballad repertoire along with the ballads of Sir Tristram or Childe Sigurth[9].

In his description of his travels on the Faroes 1847-8, V. U.

Hammershaimb[10] says that he took down the greater number of his ballads at Sumb on Suder, the most southerly village in the Islands.

He describes the ballad dance as follows:

It is the custom here that the same ballad should not be sung more than once a year[11] in the 'dancing-chamber,' so that the repertoire is obviously extensive, seeing that they dance at wedding feasts, generally for three days and nights without cessation. In the special dancing season from Yule till Lent, the ballads are danced not only on Sundays but also on the so-called 'Feast Days.' (They do not dance again from the beginning of Lent till the day after Christmas.) The dance at Sumb has characteristics of its own which differ from those of the rest of the Faroes. The people here generally sing well and know how to put expression into the actual dance.

Elsewhere on the Islands this is now for the most part reduced to a uniform stamp with the feet, marking the melody of the ballad. Moreover they still continue here in common use both the 'Walking Verse' (_stigingar stev_) and the more rapid measure 'Tripping Verse' (_trokingar stev_) of the Round Dance, in which, as a rule, the dancers hold one another by the hand, forming a circle, dancing backwards while the verse (_orindi_) is sung, and reversing the movement with considerable energy during the singing of the refrain (_vigangur, niurlag, stev_). This round dance is characteristic of Sumb[12].

For the most part the dance is now performed with the same speed in both verse and refrain[13], and though little changed since Hammershaimb wrote, it tends more and more to become a solemn and joyless function; and there is a curious unanimity today among eyewitnesses as to the depressing effect it has on them. Hjalmar Thuren, writing in later times (1908), furnishes some additional information as to the manner of the ballad dance[14]. The ballads are danced with special zest on the 29th of July, the day of the anniversary of the death of Saint Olaf, when all the islanders who can leave their homes flock to Thorshaven and dance from sunset till sunrise. Sometimes the ballads are danced in the open air, and it has been the custom in certain districts from ancient times to hold a.s.semblies for dancing out in the fields on certain fixed days. On the 12th Sunday after Trinity people meet in definite places on the Northern Islands. On the other hand the dance is often the spontaneous outcome of the desire of the moment, "as much to keep themselves warm as for the sake of entertainment." Thus after a whale-hunt the men sometimes dance in their wet, b.l.o.o.d.y clothes, singing the popular ballad of the ca'ing whale with the refrain:

To us bold men great joy it is To slay a whale!

The dance is always accompanied by song, but instrumental music has never been in use on the Faroes. The time and character of the dance are indicated at the beginning of the ballad by the precentor. This post of honour was originally much sought after and some precentors were famous over the islands for their special rendering of certain ballads, some of which were family possessions in the old days.

When a ballad is concluded, one of those who are taking part straightway begins on a new one, the dance frequently continuing uninterrupted, even when the song is ended. The precentor must have a strong voice and great powers of endurance as the ballads are often very long. He is generally of a lively disposition with some dramatic power, so that by imitating his gesticulations the dancers give character and individuality to the ballad. Thus in the refrain to the _Death-Song of Ragnar Lobrok_:

_We struck with the sword_

the dancers stamp on the floor and clap hands together; but they are solemn and silent during the singing of a sorrowful ballad such as

Queen Dagmar lies sick, etc.

With the ballad dances of the Faroes it is interesting to compare the ballad dances of the Ukraine and also the choral dances of a community so far removed as the Torres Straits. Of these latter Dr Haddon writes[15]:

The dancing-ground was an oblong s.p.a.ce.... The drummer with the singers generally struck up a song, but sometimes the dancers sang a refrain or called for a song by name. Each song seemed to be a.s.sociated with its own particular dance and to be _accompanied by some story or incident_ which was ill.u.s.trated by the movements of the dancers.

A much closer parallel, however, is furnished by the [Cyrillic: Khorovod] or choral dance of Little Russia. The [Cyrillic: Khorovod], according to the account of an eye witness[16], is not only a song sung to the accompaniment of a dance; but the song is narrative in form and answers in all respects to the ballad of North Western Europe. The dancers join hands and dance in a circle from west to east, in a contrary direction to the sun's movements--_withershins_ as the Scots peasants have it. Then, because it is considered unlucky to do anything _withershins_, in the refrain the motion is reversed and the dancers pa.s.s from east to west, to counteract the baleful effects of the first direction. Here too, however, it is interesting to note, the dance is sometimes stationary.

III. Into the rise of the ballads on the Faroes and their exact relation of form and content to the Icelandic _Fornkvaei_[17], and to the _Viser_ of Norway[18], Sweden[19], and above all of Denmark[20], it is impossible to enter here. Perhaps the relationship between the ballads of the various countries of the North will never be fully understood. The ramifications are too many and too complex, while too many links in the chain have already been lost in the "scrubby paper books" such as that with which Bishop Percy found the housemaid lighting the parlour fire. And those who would too hastily dogmatise on the 'conveyance', translation, and borrowing of the various versions receive a wholesome warning from Dr Axel Olrik's a.n.a.lysis[21]

of the ancestry and parallel versions of the Scots, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish forms of the ballads of Earl Brand (Dan.

_Riboldsvisen_). Moreover it is no easier to generalise about the sources of the Faroese ballad material than about the Danish. The motif of the Faroese _Tristrams Tattur_, also found in the Icelandic ballad of _Tristram_ comes ultimately (through the Tristram's Saga one would suppose) from a French romance; that of Nornagest, changed though it is in form, is surely founded on the Icelandic Saga; _Olufu Kvaei_ comes no doubt from a Spanish story; and the motif of the Scots ballad of _Binnorie_ is "found also among the people of Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Faroes[22]."

It would be pleasant to develop a theory that the purveyors of ballad material were the sailors and merchants who plied up and down the great trade routes in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, or even earlier. It has been suggested by Professor Ker[23] and others that Shetland _may_ have been "the chief meeting-place or trading station between the ballads of Scotland and Norway." The Shetland ballad of _Sir Orfeo_ actually has a refrain in Norn, the Norse dialect spoken in Shetland and the small neighbouring islands till the eighteenth century; while the ballad of _Hildina_ taken down by Low[24] on the Island of Foula off Shetland (cf. p. 217 below) is entirely composed in Norn. Indeed we know from Low's account[25] that many ballads and songs must have perished with the language:

Nothing remains but a few names of things and two or three remnants of songs which one old man can repeat;

and further on he continues:

Most of the fragments they have are _old historical ballads and romances_.... William Henry, a farmer in Guttorm in Foula has the most knowledge of any I found; he spoke of three kinds of poetry used in Norn, and repeated or sung by the old men; the Ballad (or Romance, I suppose); _the Vysie or vyse, now commonly sung to dancers_[26]; and the simple song.... Most of all their tales are relative to the history of Norway; they seem to know little of the rest of Europe but by names; Norwegian transactions they have at their fingers' ends.

One would like to have known more about Norn and its 'Vysies,' which might have formed an interesting and instructive link between some of the Northern ballads. On the other hand, the Scandinavian colonies in Ireland, and settlers in English ports such as Bristol, may have done not a little, through their trade with France and the Mediterranean countries, to spread the new rhyming four line verse and the romantic stories of southern and eastern Europe[27].

While this obscurity remains as to the connection between the Faroese ballads and those of neighbouring countries, notably Denmark, the questions of the age and origin of many of the Faroese ballads in their present form are also frought with difficulty. Of the Danish ballads, which sometimes offer parallels so close as to suggest translation from one language to the other, the first MS. collection that can be dated with certainty was written down in 1550. But there is much evidence, both internal and external, for a.s.signing a much earlier date to the historical ballads at least. It has been suggested by Olrik[28], who supports his view by arguments which it would be extremely difficult to contest, that many of the historical ballads are practically contemporaneous with the events which they describe, and some of these took place in the thirteenth century, while others, e.g. _Riboldsvisen_, are possibly of the twelfth century.

Unfortunately we have fewer data, whether philological or historical, for a.s.signing dates to the Faroese ballads than we have for the Danish. There can be little doubt, however, that the ballads translated below had their origin in the _Fornaldar Sogur_ composed in Iceland during the thirteenth century or in some fourteenth century _Rimur_ derived from the sagas. That many of the Faroese ballads were literary in origin[29], and were based on either Sagas or Rimur, is conclusively established by the opening lines of many of the ballads themselves, notably that of the _Olufu Rima_:

Ein er riman ur islandi komin, Skriva i bok so breia.

("This story is come from Iceland, written in a book so broad.")

And _Trollini i Hornalandum_:

Verse 1. Fri er komi fra islandi Skriva i bok so via _etc._

Verse 2. Fri er komi fra islandi Skriva i bok so breia _etc._

Verse 3. Fri er komi fra islandi Higar i skald ta tok, Havi taer hoyrt um kongin tann, i skrivaur stendur i bok?

("This poem has come from Iceland, brought hither by a _skald_. Have you heard of the king about whom this book is written?")