Origins: Sir Olaf

Subject: ADD: Sir Olaf
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 May 08 - 03:50 PM

For many years I've been singing a ballad called Sir Olaf, from the singing of an old friend who I've long lost touch with. I've no idea where she got it, or anything else about it really. Could anyone shed any light on this?
^^
SIR OLAF

Sir Olaf went out at early day
The dance goes well, so well in the grove
And there he came on an elf dance gay
And we'll tread the dance in the morning,
we'll tread the dance in the morning

The elf lord reached out his right hand free;
Come Sir Olaf tread the dance with me

Oh not I will and not I may
Tomorrow it is my wedding day

The elf lady reached out his right hand free;
Come Sir Olaf tread the dance with me

Oh not I will and not I may
Tomorrow it is my wedding day

***

The bride unto her maid spoke so
What does it man that the bells thus go?

It's the custom of this our isle they reply
That each young swain ringeth home his bride

The truth to you to tell I fear
Sir Olaf is dead, and he's laid in his beir

And on the morrow, e'er light wa the day
Around Sir Olaf's house three ghosts did stray

It was Sir Olaf and his young bride
And also his mother, of sorrow she died

Subject: ADD: The Elf King's Daughter^^
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 May 08 - 04:34 PM

Just found this in Elemental Beings and Human Destinies - A lecture by Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, December 6, 1919

^^
THE ELF KING'S DAUGHTER

Sir Olaf rides from house and hall
Till late, his wedding guests to call.

There elves are dancing on the green,
Elf King's daughter amidst them is seen.

"Welcome Sir Olaf, your hand I'll take,
Come dance and join us for my sake."

"I shall not dance nor dance I may,
Tomorrow will be my wedding day!"

"Mark well, Sir Olaf, and dance with me —
Two golden spurs I'll give to thee!

A silken sark snow white and fine —
My mother bleached it by moonshine."

"I shall not dance nor dance I may
Tomorrow will be my wedding day!"

"Mark well, Sir Olaf, and dance with me —
A mountain of gold I'll give to thee!"

"To a mountain of gold I'll not say nay,
But I shall not dance nor dance I may."

"If you refuse to dance with me
Illness and pest shall follow thee."

Over his heart she struck amain,
Never he felt such bitter pain.

Pale-faced he sat on his horse so tame —
"Go back", she cried, "to your worthy dame."

And when at last he reached his gate
Trembling his mother stood to wait.

"My son, my son, oh tell me true
Why is your face of deathlike hue?"

"Of deathlike hue it needs must be
For Elf King's daughter did I see."

"My son so dear, and loved so well,
What to your bride I needs must tell?"

"Tell her that to the woods I'm bound —
To exercise my horse and hound."

At early dawn, at break of day,
Came bride and guests in their wedding array.

They feasted and drank of wine and beer —
"Where is Sir Olaf, my bridegroom dear?"

"Sir Olaf to the woods is bound
To exercise his horse and hound!"

The bride she lifted the cloth so red
There lay Sir Olaf — and he was dead.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 02 May 08 - 07:18 PM

As it happens, about an hour ago I was reading Child's notes to No. 42, Clerk Colvill. He mentions numerous Scandinavian ballads about Olaf/Olof/Olafi. I suspect that the English versions above are either translations or remakes based on one or other of the Scandinavian versions.

What got me both reading Child and visiting Mudcat this evening was looking for a version of George Collins that I have the tune of in my head. I drew a blank on that, but was fascinated by the variations on the story in the numerous ballads cited by Child for Clerk Colvill.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Nerd
Date: 02 May 08 - 07:45 PM

Sir Olaf is a widespread medieval Scandinavian ballad. An English translation similar to Sedayne's English-language version appears in Thomas Keightly's 1892 book The Fairy Mythology, and I suspect Sedayne's is ultimately derived from it. My copy does not credit the translator.

The Orkney band The Knowe O'Deil recorded a very similar version on one of their albums, and Sedayne's is certainly derived from that or from a common source.

Other sources:

Scandinavian groups still record it in their own languages (Garmarna have done so).

The Steeleye Span song "Dance with Me" is a version of "Sir Olaf."

Many also believe that Le Roi Renaud is related to Sir Olaf. Part of Olaf's story involves returning home after the elf-blow, and hiding his condition from his bride, as Renaud hides his from his wife.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Nerd
Date: 02 May 08 - 08:33 PM

I've just found Keightly's version in an older book, The Poets and Poetry of Europe, edited by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1845).

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 May 08 - 12:30 PM

"Sir Oluf and the Elf-King's Daughter" (another translation) is in Francis James Child's English and Scottish Ballads, vol. 1 (1860 ed., pp. 298-301). In Notes, he says, "This is a translation by Jamieson (Popular Ballads and Songs, i. 219), of the Danish Elveskud (Abrahamson, i. 123). Lewis has given a version of the same in the Tales of Wonder, (No. 10.) The corresponding Swedish ballad, The Elf-Woman and Sir Olof (Afzelius, iii. 165) is translated by Keightley, Fairy Mythology, p. 84. This ballad occurs also in Norse, Faroish, and Icelandic."

See also Keightley, The Fairy Mythology (1860), pp. 84-86.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 May 08 - 01:03 PM

Two translated versions of Sir Olave are in R.C. Alexander Prior's Ancient Danish Ballads, vol. 2 (1860), pp. 298-309, with detailed notes.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 May 08 - 01:20 PM

The original Danish versions (A-F) of "Elveskud" are in Sven Grundtvig's Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser, vol. 2 (1856), pp. 109-119.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
Date: 03 May 08 - 08:03 PM

Purely by coincidence, in the same book that I have "Die Lore Lay" (see "Die Lorelei"), there is "Erlkoenig's Tochter", described as a Volksballade, uebersetz von Johann Gottfried von Herder, though he doesn't say what or where he translated it from, which begins:

Herr Oluf reitet spaet und weit,
Zu bieten auf seine Hochszeitleut.
Aber der Tanz geht so leicht durch den Hain.

Da tanzen die Elfen auf gruenem Land,
Erlkoenig's Tochter reicht ihm die Hand".

usw.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 May 08 - 04:45 AM

Thanks to all for this; at least now when I introduce the song I can say a little more than I don't where this comes from but my suspicions have it rooted in the genuine rather than the spurious...

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 04 May 08 - 06:42 AM

Pul Anderson included a version of this in his short story "The Queen of Air and Darkness" which Clam Chowder has recorded:
^^
Queen of Air and Darkness               
Sir Bela of Eastmarch   (Poul Anderson)                                    

It was the Ranger Arvid,
rode homeward through the hills,
among the shadowy shiver leaves,
along the Chiming Rills.
The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

The night wind whispered round him,
with scent of Brock and Rue.
Both moons rose high above him,
and hills aflash with dew.
            The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

And dreaming of that maiden,
who waited in the sun,
he stopped, amazed by starlight,
and so he was undone.
            The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

For there beneath a Barrow,
that bulked athwart a moon,
the Outling Folk were dancing
in glass and golden shoon.

The Outling Folk were dancing,
like water, wind and fire.
To frosty-ringing harpsstrings
and never did they tire.
            The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

To Arvid came she striding,
from where she watched the dance,
the Queen of Air and Darkness
with starlight in her glance.

With starlight, love and terror
in her immortal eye,
the Queen of Air and Darkness
cried softly under sky.

"Light down, you Ranger Arvid,
and join the Outling Folk.
You need no more be human,
which is a heavy yoke."
            The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

He dared to give her answer,
"I may do naught but run.
A maiden waits me dreaming
in lands beneath the sun.

And likewise wait me comrades,
and tasks I would not shirk.
For what is Ranger Arvid,
if he lays down his work?

So cast your spells, you Outling,
and wreak your wrath on me.
Though, maybe, you can slay me,
you'll not make me unfree."
    The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

The Queen of Air and Darkness,
stood wrapped about with fear.
And north-light flares and beauty,
he dared not look too near.

Until she laughed like harpsong,
and said to him in scorn,
"I do not need a magic,
to make you always mourn.

I send you home with nothing,
except your memory,
of moonlight, Outling music,
night breezes, dew and me.

And that will run behind you,
a shadow on the sun,
and that will lie beside you
when every day is done.

In work and play and friendship,
your grief will strike you dumb
for thinking what you are - and
what you might have become.

Your dull and foolish woman,
treat kindly as you can.
Go home now, Ranger Arvid,
set free to be a man."
    The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

In flickering and laughter,
the Outling Folk were gone.
He stood, alone, by moonlight
and wept until the dawn.
    The Dance weaves under the Fire-thorn

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 May 08 - 07:05 AM

Fire-thorn - that would be pyracantha, right?

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 May 08 - 11:58 AM

Herder's Erlkönigs Tochter is a translation of Danish "Elveskud". He says it's a Danish ballad in his Volkslieder.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: masato sakurai
Date: 05 May 08 - 03:15 PM

For Herder's "Erlkönigs Tochter (Dänisch)," see Volkslieder, vol. 2 (1840), pp. 236-239.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 03:44 AM

Catriona Macdonald has this as a bonus track on one of her albums, in the informantion given, she says

"Sir Olaf is a Trowie ballad taken from a dusty old book I found in the School of Scottish Studies, called "Rambles in the Far North". I've married the text with a favourite traditional Norse melody.."

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Nerd
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 12:22 PM

Thanks, GUEST. Which album is it?

The thing about Rambles in the Far North" is that the author, R. Menzies Fergusson, took most of the folklore in it from other books rather than collecting anything new. So given that it came out in 1887, his version could have come from Child, Prior, or Longfellow. I wish I had the book so I could compare!

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 12:31 PM

Fergusson's Rambles in the Far North (1884?) is at Internet Archive.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Nerd
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 01:40 PM

I just checked in the book, and he got it from Keightley. I didn't realize there was an 1870 edition of Keightley, which predates Fergusson.

There's a good browseable version of keightley at sacred texts, here.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 06:10 PM

At least one version of Sir Olave can be found in every Danish Collection in English. There are also Italian (Morte Occulta) and Breton (Sir Nann and the Fairy) and Icelandic (Olaf along the Mountains rode)versions.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 06:13 PM

I should have added there are at least 2 other Sir Olaf ballads in Scandinavian collections with no connection to this ballad ''Sir Olave and Fair Mette' and 'Sir O and his Gilded Horn' a version of 'The Power of the Runes'

Subject: Lyr Add: SIR OLAF
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 12:07 AM

This seems to be a different translation from the same original as some of the other versions posted above.

From Rosenberg, James N., and Joseph M. Proskauer. Columbia Verse, 1892-1897. New York: W.B. Harison, 1897, page 102.


SIR OLAF
(A GERMAN BALLAD)

Sir Olaf rideth late and far.
His wedding guests all bidden are.

The elves are dancing o'er the land.
The Erlking's daughter waves her hand.

"Now welcome, Sir Olaf. Why haste from me?
Come hither; I'll dance a dance with thee."

"I dare not dance, nor dance I may;
To-morrow morn is my wedding-day."

"Now hearken, Sir Olaf, hearken to me:
Two golden spurs will I give to thee.

"A silken doublet, white and fine,
My mother bleached in pale moon-shine."

"I dare not dance, nor dance I may;
To-morrow morn is my wedding-day."

"Hark, Sir Olaf, come dance with me,
A heap of gold will I give to thee."

"A heap of gold I would take with me,
Yet dare I not to dance with thee."

"And wilt thou, Sir Olaf, not dance with me,
May plague and sickness follow thee!"

Upon his breast she touched him twice;
Sir Olaf shivered. His heart was ice.

She raised him pale upon his steed.
"Now spur to thy bride I give thee rede."

And as he came to the postern door,
His mother trembling stood before.

"Now hearken, my son, what can thee ail?
Why is thy face so cold and pale?"

"And why should it not be cold and pale?
The Erlking's daughter I met in the vale."

"Hearken, my son, and what shall I say
To-morrow morn on thy wedding-day?"

"Say that I went forth into the wood
To prove if my steed and my hound be good."

Upon the morn ere the sun was high
The wedding guests were coming by.

They poured out mead and they poured out wine;
"Now where is Sir Olaf, bridegroom mine?"

"Sir Olaf has gone forth into the wood
To prove if his steed and his hound be good."

The bride drew back the curtain red,
There lay Sir Olaf, and he was dead.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 10:17 AM

Someone commented that the song is genuine rather than spurious.

Let us keep in mind that even though it's old, it's still spurious. There never have been elves, and humans have never been spirited to the netherworld by them. And I'm sure the people who were capable of writing these songs were aware of that.

However, it beats a real-life verse, which would go

'And why were you missing, my bridegroom dear?'
'The bachelor party had far too much beer.'

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 10:34 AM

There never have been elves, and humans have never been spirited to the netherworld by them

Although I like to think of myself as a material pragmatist in all things, I would have to say never say never to this particular statement if only on the old more things in heaven and earth clause, not to mention no smoke without fire, and even certain childhood encounters which persist as being vivid if not wholly corporeal. In this sense at least, Sir Olaf rings true, to me at least, and in singing it I'm always aware of other presences lurking just beyond my field of vision...

Whither, I wonder, the well-springs of the wee-folk? Or of the supernatural per se? Why do we fear it if it doesn't exist? And why the persistence of this most objectively subjective realm of wonderment even in these sour times?

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST,Maggie
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 05:04 PM

Somewhat tangentially, the King of Norway recently created a new knight, Sir Nils Olaf, who lives in Edinburgh.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7563844.stm

Maggie

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 03:55 AM

Thanks for the link, Maggie. Sir Nils Olaf is a very dear friend of ours; no visit to Edinburgh would be complete without popping in to see how he's doing.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 11:08 AM

'And why the persistence of this most objectively subjective realm of wonderment even in these sour times?'

Let's ask Sir Nils Olaf.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:50 PM

Nerd - the nameless guest here - album is "Over the Moon".

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 04:56 PM

How can a ballad be spurious just because of its content? If these were the beliefs of the time (very likely) then the ballad is as genuine as any based completely on historical fact. None of the Robin Hood ballads are based on fact, they're all fiction, based I might add on earlier fictions. This doesn't make them spurious. I also might add that there are a very tiny number of ballads that are historically accurate. The best ones are based on beliefs and opinions.
The spurious ones are those made up by antiquarians and passed off as traditional.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sir Olaf
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 08:54 PM

My Creed: I believe in Intrinsic Corporeality of Traditional Folk Song and Balladry, Supernatural or Otherwise.

Subject: Lyr Add: SIR OLAF AND THE FAIRY DANCE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 12:43 PM

From Notes and Queries, 4th Series, Vol. 1, No. 13, March 28, 1868:

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM FOREIGN BALLAD LITERATURE.

SIR OLAF AND THE FAIRY DANCE.

Absence from England prevents my knowing whether "Sir Olaf" has appeared in any recent ballad-book. I only know one translation—that in the Tales of Terror* I think it purports to be from the German, but I have not the book at hand. The commencement was truly ludicrous—

"O'er moorlands and mountains, Sir Olaf he wends,
To bid to his wedding relations and friends!"

This may be in accordance with some German version; it certainly is not with any Swedish, Danish, or Norse one! The following is from a common Swedish song-book lent to me by a Swedish lady at Lausanne. There is a resemblance between some verses of "Sir Olaf" and certain stanzas in the "Ballad of Renaud" (3rd S. iv. 221). Compare the 7th stanza of "Renaud" with the llth of "Sir Olaf"; also the 16th of "Renaud" with the 12th and 13th of "Sir Olaf." While on the subject of resemblances, I may observe that in the Breton ballad, "Aotrou Nann Hag, ar Gorrigan," there are no less than eight verses which are almost word for word with a similar number of stanzas in "Renaud." The following version of "Sir Olaf" is very literal. I have even given the unmeaning burden, which I fancy is the same as one given by Jamieson in his translation of some Danish ballad. I suppose that the chorus is a common one:—

"Sir Olaf bestrides his courser proud,
When the matin sun shines fair;
Sir Olaf rides thro' the green forést,
When the moonbeams glimmer there.
(The deer and the does sleep in the shaws, out.)

"A sound comes waft on the forest breeze,
Of music and mirthsome glee;
For the fairies are tripping their mystic round,
All under the greenwood tree.

"And aye they sang and merrily sang
'How blest is the elfin crew!
О the dance is sweet, when the green-folk meet,
And the sward is starred wi' the dew.'

"And out and spake the Elfin King,
As his right arm tender'd he,
'Welcome! sir knight, to our moon-lit dance;
Sir Olaf! wilt dance with me?'

"'Now, nay! now, nay! thou Elfin King,
The evening speeds away;
The night-shades fly, for the dawn is nigh,
And the morn is my wedding day.'

"And out and spake the Elfin Queen,
As her white arm tender'd she;
'Welcome! sir knight, to our forest dance,
Sir Olaf! wilt dance with me?'

"'Now, nay! now, nay! thou Elfin Queen,
I may not brook delay;
Late, late is the night, and the morning light
Will soon on the dim fells play.'

"And out and spake the Queen's sister,
As she tender'd her lily hand;
'Sir Olaf will sure be a gallant knight,
And dance with our merry band?'

"'Now, nay! now, nay! thou pretty elf,
The morn is my wedding day;
It would go to the heart of my fair young bride
If I danced with another may.'

. . . . . .

"Sir Olaf is sick at heart, at heart
As he stands at his castle door:
'Take my barb to his stable, brother,
I never shall mount him more.

"'Spread my couch, my dear sister,
I am stricken by fairy spell;
The morrow morn ye may sing my dirge,
And may toll my passing-bell.'

"At early morn the bells rang out
Slow and sad from the belfry gray;
'Fain would I know why the bells are rung?'
'They peal for your wedding-day.'

"'But what is that solemn strain, mother,
So unmeet for a bridal song?'
'Sir Olaf is dead, and the mass-rite is said,
As his corse is aborne along.'

. . . . . .

"Three are laid in the chapel-garth
(All for grief they died),
Sir Olaf the knight, and his mother dear,
And Sir Olaf's fair young bride.
(The deer and the does sleep in the shaws, out.)"

James Henry Dixon.
Florence, Dec. 26, 1867.

* I will take this opportunity of noting that the Tales of Terror are not, as some suppose, by M. G. Lewis, alias Monk Lewis. The work was a miserable attempt at imitation and burlesque of Lewis's style. Some of Lewis's ballads were bad enough, but he never wrote such stuff as we find in the Tales of Terror. The only readable ballad is "The Black Canon of Elmham, or St. Edmond's Eve." and that is no great performance.—J. H. D.