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236
RIBE.
Chap. XLVI.
deal of fun going on among the hay, dancing and
singing in chorus of national airs : very pretty were
some of the modern ones. The ancient Danish music
is awful: lugubrious to a degree not to be described—
worse than that of the Spanish muleteer. In England
we speak of the “ tune the cow died of,” though what
the melody was which caused so disastrous an event is
as yet a myth. My firm belief is that the unfortunate
animal met with her death from the imprudent singing
of some old Danish ballad within her hearing. I walked
about bouche béante with wonder and admiration,
staring at the town meadow, a present of Erik Menved to
the city: one sea of haycocks, eight English miles
square, without any separation, barrier or hedge; green
grass, fine as velvet!
To quit Ribe would be impossible without alluding
to the well-known ballad of Tovelil—not the Tove of
Gurre, but the Tove of the first Valdemar, the Fair
Rosamond of Danish story ; victim, like Liden Kirsten,
to the jealousy—in this case just, it must be avowed—
of Queen Sofie, one of the most unpopular queens of
early Danish story.
“ Merry did they dance in the castle-yard :
Then danced the queen with her maidens nine ;
And proud was Tovelil, the damsel fine ;
But King Valdemar he can love them both.
0 hear you, Tovelil, mine own heart’s dear,
1 would the queen would die in this year:
Heaven would it grant my wife were dead,
Then you should wear the crown so red !
Be silent, oh king, the queen stands near ;
To your idle talk she lends her ear.”
And so it goes on. Queen Sofie now sends for Tovelil,
and asks her what she is talking about ? Tovelil replies,
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