Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.2003, Síða 88
74
Michael Chesnutt
All four of the legendary ballads are provided with the names of tunes to
which they may be sung, in two instances the popular late medieval
Christmas tune Dies est laetitiae, which was adapted after the Reforma-
tion to the Danish text It lidet Barn saa lysteligt and appears no less than
three times in Hans Thomissøn’s hymnal of 1569.133 The ballads with
which this tune is associated in 2397 are those about the uncanonical
popular saint Anders of Slagelse (cf. VSD 409-18, no. VIII) and Duke
Knud Lavard; the latter text was first brought to light by the brothers
Axel and Hans Olrik and republished with commentary by H. Griiner
Nielsen, who identified the poet’s source as the Vita altera or some se-
condary version of the Passion legend.134 In faet the ballad probably
draws direetly on the Vita, for it has characteristic features not in the
printed breviaries, in particular the messenger’s song of warning (st. 5,
DV’s punetuation):
Saa Aarlig vdj then morgen stund
thet bud bad Knud wære rede,
Møde strax Magnus wdj then lund,
siden monne budet quede:
“Du, Hertug, rider nu saa glad,
Thu suigis nu wdj samme stad,
kunde thu thet besinde.”
Paa suig rey kunde [Knud ey monne corr. Vedel] grunde,
oc falsk hånd ey tencke kunde,
thet monne hånd tha besinde,
with which may be compared K 319-20, 327-32. Several isolated lines
are direct translations of the Latin model, e.g. st. 7,5 Knud, huem hører
nu Danmarck till - K 364—65 Kanute, cuius est Dada?', st. 8,3 Thet
weed then som inthet dyli, cf. K 371 scit qui omnia nouif, st. 8,8-9 huor
er nu tro, huor er nu fred, / ret broderskaff huor er nu thet? = K 372-73
Vbi fedus. ubi fides<.) ubi uerafraternitas? On the other hånd, the ballad
interpolates two motifs that are unknown to the Vita. In st. 9,8 it tells us
133 Den danske Psalmebog, met mange Christelige Psalmer, Ordentlig tilsammenset, for-
meret oc forbedret. Aff Hans Thomissøn (1569), faesimile ed. with afterword by Erik Dal,
Copenhagen 1968, ff. 7r-12r, nos. VI-VIII; cf. Dal, afterword 14, 22, Griiner Nielsen DV
IV 117, and Nils Schiørring DV VII 388-89.
134 See Hans Olrik (n. 33 above) 297-302 and DV no. 39 (as n. 131); commentary by
Griiner Nielsen in DV IV 117-18, 120.