he
fights. The very name 'Brand' is doubtless a direct derivative of
'Hildebrand.' Winchester (13.2), as it implies a nunnery, corresponds to
the cloister in the Danish ballad. Earl Brand directs his mother to
marry the King's daughter to his youngest brother; but her refusal, if
she did as Guldborg did, has been lost.

_The Douglas Tragedy_, a beautiful but fragmentary version, is, says
Scott, 'one of the few to which popular tradition has ascribed complete
locality.' The ascribed locality, if more complete, is no more probable
than any other: to ascribe any definite locality to a ballad is in all
cases a waste of time and labour.

_The Child of Ell_, in the Percy Folio, _may_ have contained anything;
but immediately we approach a point where comparison would be of
interest, we meet an _hiatus valde deflendus_. Percy, in the _Reliques_,
expanded the fragment here given to about five times the length.

EARL BRAND

(From +R. Bell's+ _Ancient Poems, Ballads_, etc.)

1.
Oh did ye ever hear o' brave Earl Bran'?
_Ay lally, o lilly lally_
He courted the king's daughter of fair England
_All i' the night sae early_.

2.
She was scarcely fifteen years of age
Till sae boldly she came to his bedside.

3.
'O Earl Bran', fain wad I see
A pack of hounds let loose on the lea.'

4.
'O lady, I have no steeds but one,
And thou shalt ride, and I will run.'

5.
'O Earl Bran', my father has two,
And thou shall have the best o' them a'.'

6.
They have ridden o'er moss and moor,
And they met neither rich nor poor.

7.
Until they met with old Carl Hood;
He comes for ill, but never for good.

8.
'Earl Bran', if ye love me,
Seize this old earl, and gar him die.'

9.
'O lady fair, it wad be sair,
To slay an old man that has grey hair.

10.
'O lady fair, I'll no do sae,
I'll gie him a pound and let him gae.'

11.
'O where hae ye ridden this lee lang day?
O where hae ye stolen this lady away?'

12.
'I have not ridden this lee lang day,
Nor yet have I stolen this lady away.

13.
'She is my only, my sick sister,
Whom I have brought from Winchester.'

14.
'If she be sick, and like to dead,
Why wears she the ribbon sae red?

15.
'If she be sick, and like to die,
Then why wears she the gold on high?'

16.
When he came to this lady's gate,
Sae rudely as he rapped at it.

17.
'O where's the la