238 NORDIC BALLADS

The twin legends of the lover's and the brother's return from the
grave have often been deemed to be one. To identify them appears
to me wrong, both because the motivation is different, and because
the lines of their diffusion indicate foci at opposite ends of Europe,
Excessive grief interferes with the repose of the dead in The Unquiet
Grave (78) and The Wife of Usher's Well (79). To this class of
ballads we have to assign also Proud Lady Margaret (47), Fair
Margaret (74), the late James Harris, the demon lover (243)—more
impressive in the superscription than in the text—and Willie's
fatal Visit (255).

Child's first three ballads and Captain Wedderburn (46) are
riddling ballads, belonging to the same tradition as the Eddie
Almsmdl and the Danish Ungen SvejdaL

The use of the supernatural is, thus, a characteristic mark of
English and Scottish balladry when contrasted with that of France,
and it is also a principal link of union with Denmark and Norway.
The bulk of the corpus, however, consists of those stock amatory
adventures and conspicuous crimes which fill most European ballad
books. The themes come from all sides; they are almost as often
southern as northern. The Clerk's twa Sons of Oxenford (72) is the
French Scholars of Ponthieu, and The gay Goshawk (96) is the
French King Louis' Daughter, which seems to have Italian ele-
ments. The twa Magicians (44), concerning the pursuit of a loved
one by a lover who will persist however she transform herself,
reproduces a widespread theme which is ultimately connected
with the Greek myth of Proteus; another use, and a finer one, is
made of transformations in Tarn Lin. Reedisdale and Wise William
and The twa Knights (246, 268) are independent Scottish versions
of Mariansoris Rings, which has its centre probably in Italy.
Curiously enough the march of the story in The twa Knights
resembles more intimately the Greek Maurianos than any of the
intervening versions, though there is no reason in this case to infer
a direct contact between a Scottish and a Greek ballad-monger.
The baffled Knight (112) is English, and belongs to a tradition begun
by France; it happens also to correspond with a Danish ballad.
On the other hand, a Scandinavian origin must be postulated for
Fair Annie (62) and Lord Thomas and fair Annet (73), Earl Brand
or the Douglas Tragedy (7), The twa Sisters (10), and a considerable
number more. A notable feature is the absence of German or
Dutch ballads among us. Arising in the fourteenth century, and