Overview

Throughout Scott's

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

 literary career he continued to imitate and translate poems from German sources. The resulting collection was gradually expanded over successive editions of Scott's poetry until it included seven items, which are introduced below.

Each ballad is a narrative poem

Narrative poetry

Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually nondramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter. Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays.Some narrative...

 retelling a popular German fairy-tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

: including poignantly drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

tic and tragic

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 themes.

William & Hellen

William - long thought dead - unexpectedly returns at midnight from the crusades to marry his betrothed. Helen - relieved at his return - joyfully agrees, after initial misgivings: follows him on horseback on a wild gallop through the night. Approaching the church in which they will celebrate their wedding: it is clear to Helen that all is not what it seems. But, with their mutual love strong enough to transcend death itself - what can possibly go wrong?

The Wild Huntsman

Sometimes referred to under its alternative title The Chase, this ballad describes the testing and judgment upon a profligate, noble-born keeper of the royal forest. The nobleman cruelly uses and mistreats his fellow-men: and is avidly addicted to the pleasures of hunting. One day God's messengers come to test him: executing sentence immediately in just proportion to the huntsman's responses.

The Fire King

Count Albert never returns from crusade: having being imprisoned by Saracens. Rosalie, his betrothed, swears to leave at once for Lebanon to find him. Rosalie succeeds - but alas, all is changed between them forever: and their parting is death itself.

Frederick & Alice

Frederick breaks troth and abandons the beautiful Alice: sending her mad with grief. But Alice contrives to meet her faithless lover once more: beyond the grave.

The Battle of Sempach

This ballad translates an original written to celebrate the Swiss victory during the Battle of Sempach

Battle of Sempach

An armistice was agreed upon on 12 October, followed by a peace agreement valid for one year, beginning on 14 January 1387.The battle was a severe blow to Austrian interests in the region, and allowed for the further growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy....

: by which the Swiss cantons established their independence.

The Noble Moringer

This ballad describes the ordeal of the Baron of Märstetten

Märstetten

Märstetten is a municipality in the district of Weinfelden in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-History:Scattered finds from the Neolithic era, Roman ruins and a series of grave from the Early Middle Ages show that there was a continuous settlement in the area. In the High Middle Ages the...

: who departs upon a pilgrimage which lasts seven years. While sleeping, the Baron is shown in a vision that his faithful wife believes that he is dead, and is preparing to re-marry. Interceding with Saint Thomas

Thomas the Apostle

Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

, he is transported back to Switzerland; where he reveals himself to his wife (after the manner of a modern Ulysses

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....

) and both are joyfully reunited.

The Erl-King

The Erl-King (or Oak-King) sings for the soul of a human boy: who cringes for dear life within the arms of his father riding home through the dreary wood. But do spirits really have power to charm away the lives of the living?

External links

• full text at the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  
• audiobook at LibriVox
  LibriVox
  LibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers and is probably, since 2007, the world's most prolific audiobook publisher...