English Fairy Talesso—should be so”; “and his lady, him behind”); and x. and
xxxii. are rhythmical if not rhyming. As most of the remain-
der are drolls, which have probably a different origin, there
seems to be great probability that originally all folk-tales of a
serious character were interspersed with rhyme, and took
therefore the form of the cante-fable. It is indeed unlikely
that the ballad itself began as continuous verse, and the cante-
fable is probably the protoplasm out of which both ballad
and folk-tale have been differentiated, the ballad by omit-
ting the narrative prose, the folk-tale by expanding it. In
“Childe Rowland” we have the nearest example to such pro-
toplasm, and it is not difficult to see how it could have been
shortened into a ballad or reduced to a prose folk-tale pure
and simple.
The subject-matter of “Childe Rowland” has also claims
on our attention especially with regard to recent views on
the true nature and origin of elves, trolls, and fairies. I refer
to the recently published work of Mr. D. MacRitchie, “The
Testimony of Tradition” (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner &
Co.)—i.e., of tradition about the fairies and the rest. Briefly
put, Mr. MacRitchie’s view is that the elves, trolls, and fair-
ies represented in popular tradition are really the mound-
dwellers, whose remains have been discovered in some abun-
dance in the form of green hillocks, which have been artifi-
cially raised over a long and low passage leading to a central
chamber open to the sky. Mr. MacRitchie shows that in sev-
eral instances traditions about trolls or “good people” have
attached themselves to mounds, which have afterwards on
investigation turned out to be evidently the former residence
of men of smaller build than the mortals of to-day. He goes
on further to identify these with the Picts—fairies are called
“Pechs” in Scotland—and other early races, but with these
ethnological equations we need not much concern ourselves.
It is otherwise with the mound-traditions and their relation,
if not to fairy tales in general, to tales about fairies, trolls,
elves, etc. These are very few in number, and generally bear
the character of anecdotes. The fairies, etc., steal a child,
they help a wanderer to a drink and then disappear into a
green hill, they help cottagers with their work at night but
disappear if their presence is noticed; human midwives are
asked to help fairy mothers, fairy maidens marry ordinary
men or girls marry and live with fairy husbands. All such