The response lines in John Stickle's version were translated to me on one of my visits to Shetland as "The wood (forest?) grows green early" and "The hart runs through the forest." so it cannot be said to have much to do with the ballad. Neither can they have much to do with that environment because a) there have never been deer on Shetland and b) there is nothing that resembles a wood or a forest only a few stunted trees at best. There are/were a few spruce, birch, rowan and alder but they were first planted in the early 20th century. The ballad has been collected as a story or song in various places where the Vikings had an presence or influence - Lapland, Shetland, The Faroes and even Iceland.

Richard Mellish wrote: "Although John Stickle regarded the fragment that he knew as a bit of nonsense....." Well, he did say that but also told Pat Shaw that his lovely comic song When I was a Little Boy was a bit of nonsense and that one truly was. Apart from the response lines, the ballad is that strange mix of English with some Norn words that the older people from the remote parts spoke to one another, though they would always speak in English to visitors like me. When an informant speaks to a song collector he will sometimes describe an odd piece different from the rest of their repertoire as "nonsense". A good example would be when Professor Ives from the U. of Michigan was recording songs from the retired logger in New Brunswick, Joe Estey. He sang some well known songs such as Martha the Watercress Girl and then asked if Ives would be interested in "this piece of nonsense" and then sang his magnificent version of Hind Horn.