The Knavish Merman

Gay goes the dance in the kirkyard there,
—Welladay—
They dance, the knights, with blades so bare,
—Methinks ’tis hard to ride away.

They dance, the maidens, with hair unbound;
It was the King’s daughter sang the round.

Proud was the Princess, sweet was her song;
That heard the Merman, the waves among.

Up rose the Merman, thus spake he:
“Perchance the King’s daughter will wed with me!”

Garments he shaped and a golden ring,
He called him Sir Alfast, son of a King.

He shaped him a steed so black and bold,
He rode like a knight in a saddle of gold.

He tied his steed where the shade was mirk,
Withershins went he round the kirk.

Into the kirk the Merman hied,
And all the holy images they turned their heads aside

Up spake the priest by the altar that stood:
“Who may he be, this knight so good?”

The Princess smiled, her cloak behind:
“Now would to GOD the knight were mine!”

“Listen, proud Princess, and love thou me!
A crown of gold I’ll give to thee.”

“Over three kingdoms my father was King,
But ne’er did he give me so fair a thing.”

He wrapped her in his cloak of blue,
Forth from the kirk they fared, they two.

They met all on the wold
The steed with saddle of gold.

As they rode o’er the lea
He became a troll, so foul to see.

When they rode down to the water’s brim
He became a troll, so fierce and grim.

“Sir Alfast, thou art christened man,
What wilt thou with this water wan?”

“No knight am I, nor christened man,
My dwelling is in this water wan!”

And when they reached the midmost Sound
Fifty fathom they sank to ground.

Long heard the fishers with dread and dree
How the King’s daughter sobbed under the sea!
—Welladay!
Methinks ’tis hard to ride away.