oted in J. O. Halliwell's collection, which, in
its absence, may be called _The Owl, or the Baker's Daughter_. For
Ophelia knew that they said the owl was the baker's daughter. And the
story of her metamorphosis is exactly paralleled by the Norse story of
_Gertrude's Bird_, translated by Dasent.

Gertrude was an old woman with a red mutch on her head, who was kneading
dough, when Christ came wandering by, and asked for a small bannock.
Gertrude took a niggardly pinch of dough, and began to roll it into a
bannock; but as she rolled, it grew, until she put it aside as too
large to give away, and took a still smaller pinch. This also grew
miraculously, and was put aside. The same thing happened a third time,
till she said, 'I cannot roll you a small bannock.' Then Christ said,
'For your selfishness, you shall become a bird, and seek your food
'twixt bark and bole.' Gertrude at once became a bird, and flew up
into a tree with a screech. And to this day the great woodpecker of
Scandinavia is called 'Gertrude's Bird,' and has a red head.

III

The Ballads of Riddle and Repartee do not amount to very many in our
tongue. But they contain riddles which may be found in one form or
another in nearly every folklore on the earth. Even Samson had a riddle.
Always popular, they seem to have been especial favourites in early
Oriental literature, in the mediaeval Latin races, and, in slightly more
modern times, amongst the Teutonic and Scandinavian peoples. Perhaps
_King John and the Abbot_ is the best English specimen, for it is to-day
as pleasing to an audience as it can ever have been. But _Lady Isabel
and the Elf Knight_, better known as _May Colvin_, is the most startling
of any, in its myriad ramifications and supposed origin.

IV

The 'Fyttes of Mirth' conclude the present volume. It may be as well to
say here that I have placed under this head any ballad that tells of a
successful issue and has a happy ending or mirthful climax.

The version I have given of that famous ballad _The Lord of Learne_ (or,
more commonly, _Lorne_) is most enchanting in its _naivete_, and, when
read aloud or recited, is exceedingly effective. The curious remark that
the affectionate parting between the young Lord and his father and
mother would have changed even a Jew's heart; the picturesque
description of the siege of the castle, so close that 'a swallow could
not have flown away'; the sudden descent from romance to a judicial
trial; the r