Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/294

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272

THE KLUDDE.

Sometimes I meete them like a man,
Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound,
And to a horse I turn me can,
To trip and trot about them round.

But if to ride
My backe they stride,
More swift than wind away I go:
O’er hedge and lands,
Through pools and ponds,
I whirry laughing, Ho! ho! ho!^[1]

The Kludde of Brabant and Flanders, an evil spirit of a Proteus-like character, a good deal resembles the Hedley Kow, though, perhaps, he is of a yet more alarming and dreadful character. In fact, he inspires such fear among the peasants, that they will on no account venture into a forest, field, or road which is haunted by him.

↑ The Dunnie, Brag, and Hedley Kow are probably the same as the Nick or Nippen. The Irish Phooka takes the shape of a horse, and induces children to mount him, then plunges with them over a precipice. The Scotch Water Kelpie (Sir W. Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, p. 3) performs the same pranks. (Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 93; Buchan’s Ancient Ballads, vol. i. p. 214.) The Icelanders have a lay to this effect. A damsel (Elen) goes to the waterside and is carried off on the grey Nykkur-horse, which she foolishly mounts. The Nykk claims her as his bride, but she escapes by saying that she will marry Nobody; and, as nobody is the Nykk’s name, the spell is broken and she escapes.
This is a widespread legend. It exists as a ballad in Faroese, as Nikurs Visa, hitherto unpublished.
In Norwegian it is found in Lanstad, No. 39, and in Fayes’s Norske Folksagn, second edition, p. 49.
In Swedish it is contained in Afzel, Nos. 11 and 89, and also in Sagohafder, vol. ii. p. 154.
In Danish we find it in Syv, No. 91; and in Danmarkes gamte Folke Viser, No. 39.
There are numerous German versions of the same: Meinert’s Altdeut. Volkslieder, i. 6, No. 4; Wunderhorn, iv. p. 77; Zuccalmaglio’s Deut. Volkslieder, No. 29; Deutsches Museum für 1852, ii. p. 164, &c.
A Wendish version occurs in Haup tu Schmaler, i. No. 34: a Slovakian ballad to the same effect in Achacel og Korytko, i. p. 30; Grimm’s [[:de:Deutsche Sagen|]], No. 51; a Bohemian form of the same in Ida v. Dürengsfeld’s Bohmische Rosen, p. 183.
There is also a Breton popular ballad, very similar, in Villemarqué’s Barzaz Breiz, fourth edition, vol. i. p. 259.

The Icelandic version is in Islenzk fornkvœde ved Svend Grundtvig, pt. i. No. 2—S. B. G.

[1] The Dunnie, Brag, and Hedley Kow are probably the same as the Nick or Nippen. The Irish Phooka takes the shape of a horse, and induces children to mount him, then plunges with them over a precipice. The Scotch Water Kelpie (Sir W. Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, p. 3) performs the same pranks. (Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. 93; Buchan’s Ancient Ballads, vol. i. p. 214.) The Icelanders have a lay to this effect. A damsel (Elen) goes to the waterside and is carried off on the grey Nykkur-horse, which she foolishly mounts. The Nykk claims her as his bride, but she escapes by saying that she will marry Nobody; and, as nobody is the Nykk’s name, the spell is broken and she escapes.
This is a widespread legend. It exists as a ballad in Faroese, as Nikurs Visa, hitherto unpublished.
In Norwegian it is found in Lanstad, No. 39, and in Fayes’s Norske Folksagn, second edition, p. 49.
In Swedish it is contained in Afzel, Nos. 11 and 89, and also in Sagohafder, vol. ii. p. 154.
In Danish we find it in Syv, No. 91; and in Danmarkes gamte Folke Viser, No. 39.
There are numerous German versions of the same: Meinert’s Altdeut. Volkslieder, i. 6, No. 4; Wunderhorn, iv. p. 77; Zuccalmaglio’s Deut. Volkslieder, No. 29; Deutsches Museum für 1852, ii. p. 164, &c.
A Wendish version occurs in Haup tu Schmaler, i. No. 34: a Slovakian ballad to the same effect in Achacel og Korytko, i. p. 30; Grimm’s [[:de:Deutsche Sagen|]], No. 51; a Bohemian form of the same in Ida v. Dürengsfeld’s Bohmische Rosen, p. 183.
There is also a Breton popular ballad, very similar, in Villemarqué’s Barzaz Breiz, fourth edition, vol. i. p. 259.

The Icelandic version is in Islenzk fornkvœde ved Svend Grundtvig, pt. i. No. 2—S. B. G.

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