The Enchanted Maiden

Oh, well I wot where the greenwood grows
That standeth beside the firth,
And in it there grow the fairest trees
That a man may see on earth!

Therein the willow and linden grow,
The fairest a man may find,
And under them play the lordly beasts
That men call hart and hind.

There they play, both hind and hart,
And the beasts of the fair forest,
And there she plays, the lily-white hind,
With gold beneath her breast.

It was Nilus Erlandsson
Rode forth the deer to take;
There he saw the lily-white hind
That ran thro’ bush and brake.
—So the knight hath won his lady.

After went Nilus Erlandsson
That longed for her so sore;
But never might he reach the hind
For three days’ space and more.

Snares he set on every path
Where’er the hind might go,
But all so cunning was she
He might not take her so.

Sir Nilus thro’ the greenwood
Rode after her in vain;
His hounds he loosed by two, by three,
To run her down amain.

So hot the hounds went on her trail
That never might she ’scape;
She changed her all by grammarye
And fled in a falcon’s shape.

She shaped her as a falcon fleet,
And perched in the linden green;
Under the tree Sir Nilus stood
And sighed for toil and tene.

Sir Nilus took an axe in hand
To fell the linden-tree,
When out there sprang a yeoman fierce
That smote the shaft in three.

“And wilt thou fell my father’s wood
And all by wrongful power,
I swear to thee, Nilus Erlandsson,
Thou shalt abye it sore!”

“Now let me fell this single tree,
This tree alone of thine,
For, but I take the falcon fair,
I die of dule and pine!”

“Now lithe and listen, thou fair young knight,
To the counsel that I bring;
Ne’er shalt thou take her until she taste
The flesh of a tamèd thing!”

A gobbet he hewed from out his breast,
(And that was mickle pain!)
She spread her wings and down she flew
And fell on the bait amain.

She spread her wings and down she flew
And on the bait she fell;
She changed her shape to the fairest maid
That ever tongue might tell.

She stood in a sark of silk so red
Where the linden-tree did blow;
The knight he took her in his arms,
And there she wept her woe.

“Oh, I sat and broidered lily and rose,
I guided my father’s gear,
When in she came, my false stepdame,
That never held me dear.

“She shaped me all as a lily-white hind
To run in fair greenwood,
And my seven maidens as seven wolves,
And bade them have my blood.”

The maid stood under the linden-tree,
And loosed her golden hair,
And thither they came that erst were wolves,
Her seven maidens fair.

“Now thanks to thee, Nilus Erlandsson,
Hast loosed me from sore alarms!
Never shalt thou seek slumber
But in my lily-white arms.

“Now thanks to thee, Nilus Erlandsson,
Hast saved me from pain and pest!
Never shalt thou seek slumber
But on my lily-white breast.”
—So the knight hath won his lady.