sail of his desires—ho-i-ho! But soon a storm rises, the horizon grows dark, the wind's bride[1] howls, the planks crack, the waves break the rudder, and the poor ship is wrecked on romantic rocks, or stranded on damp, prosaic sandbanks; or perhaps, brittle and broken, with its masts gone, and without an anchor of hope, it returns to its old harbour, and there moulders away, wretchedly unrigged, as a miserable wreck.
- ↑ Wind's bride. The breeze which precedes a tempest. This passage recalls one in Shakespeare, "How like a younker or a prodigal."
the verses of Sir Vonved recall an old English ballad, which ia probably of Danish origin:—
"Oh, what is longer than the way?
And what is deeper than the sea?
And what is louder than the horn?
And what is sharper than the thorn?
And what is greener than the grass?
And what is worse than a woman was?"
ANSWER.
"Oh, Love is longer than the way,
And hell is deeper than the sea,
And thunder is louder than the horn,
And hunger sharper than the thorn,
And poison is greener than the grass,
And the devil is worse than a woman was."
When she these questions answered had,
The knight became exceeding glad.
Vonved's mother (a witch) had sent him forth to revenge his father's death. The last verse, which Heine omits, states that he was son of Siegfried the dragon-killer. This ballad made a great impression on George Borrow, who alludes to it in "Lavengro."
