The Elfin Knight

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"The Elfin Knight" (Roud #12; Child #2) is a traditional Scottish folk ballad of which there are many versions, all dealing with supernatural occurrences, and the commission to perform impossible tasks. In the oldest versions of this ballad (15th century), an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task; she responds with a list of tasks which he must first perform, thus evading rape. The plot is closely related to Riddles Wisely Expounded, (Child Ballad #1), in which the Devil proposes to carry off a woman unless she can answer a number of riddles.

Later versions invert the direction of desire, with the elf proposing tasks which the lady must perform in order to be accepted as his lover. The first verse usually opens with the introduction of the title character:

The elphin knight sits on yon hill,

Blaw, blaw, blaw, wind blaw.

He blaws his horn both lewd and shril.

The wind hath blown my plaid awa.

(Note that this verse appears to be taken directly from "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight", Child Ballad #4; in this ballad, the horn is magic and arouses desire in the hearer.)

Meanwhile a maid lies in bed, wishing she could marry the knight. Upon her speaking these words, the knight appears, telling her he will marry her if she will perform numerous tasks, all impossible.

"For thou must shape a sark to me,

Without any cut or heme," quoth he.

She promptly responds with her own list of impossible tasks, and thereby gains her supernatural husband.

The song is most well known today for being the basis for "Scarborough Fair", a later version most famously recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. It also has several American variants, which differ greatly, among them "My Father Had an Acre of Land", "The Parsley Vine", and "The Shirt of Lace".

Another tale, "The Witch of Wookie Hollow", has a similar plot. A witch imprisons a girl who was stealing apples from her orchard. She sets her seemingly impossible tasks every day, but a bird tells the girl how they can cleverly be performed. After the girl has completed each task, the bird asks for a kiss and the girl refuses. Finally the bird does not know how to do one of the tasks and he begins to cry. The girl kisses him and he turns back into a boy, previously imprisoned by the witch, and the two escape together.