This week a ballad from “Westward Ho!” by Charles Kingsley.
One of the very first things I wrote for Ars Magica was a fairy queen with a courtship based on a series of impossible tasks. I’d stolen it from a folk song called Scarborough Fair. I’ve been looking for a way to bring that back in and reskin it, without being obvious, but times being what they are…a little view behind the curtain.
I found something that I think could be the same sort of creature. Here is a princess (or perhaps a fairy queen) and to wed her you must give her a mantle that is trimmed with the hair of other princesses.
I this scenario, I’m not sure if she’s the fairy, or the knight who comes to court her is. Alternatively, the knight might be a magus who is collecting vis.
This recording of the poem was released into the public domain through Librivox. Thanks again to the reader (it’s Sonia, who is one of my favourite readers).
It was Earl Haldan’s daughter,
She looked across the sea;
She looked across the water;
And long and loud laughed she:
‘The locks of six princesses
Must be my marriage fee,
So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
Who comes a wooing me?’
It was Earl Haldan’s daughter,
She walked along the sand;
When she was aware of a knight so fair,
Came sailing to the land.
His sails were all of velvet,
His mast of beaten gold,
And ‘Hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
Who saileth here so bold?’
‘The locks of five princesses
I won beyond the sea;
I clipt their golden tresses,
To fringe a cloak for thee.
One handful yet is wanting,
But one of all the tale;
So hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
Furl up thy velvet sail!’
He leapt into the water,
That rover young and bold;
He gript Earl Haldan’s daughter,
He clipt her locks of gold:
‘Go weep, go weep, proud maiden,
The tale is full to-day.
Now hey bonny boat, and ho bonny boat!
Sail Westward ho! away!’
Games From Folktales 