"Such transformations as the song narrates," remarks Sir Walter Scott, "are common in the annals of chivalry. In the 25th and 26th cantos of the second book of the _Orlando Inamorato_, the Paladin, Brandimarte, after surmounting many obstacles, penetrates into the recesses of an enchanted palace. Here he finds a fair damsel, seated upon a tomb, who announces to him, that, in order to achieve her deliverance, he must raise the lid of the sepulchre, and kiss whatever being should issue forth. The knight, having pledged his faith, proceeds to open the tomb, out of which a monstrous snake issues forth, with a tremendous hiss. Brandimarte, with much reluctance, fulfils the _bizarre_ conditions of the adventure; and the monster is instantly changed into a beautiful Fairy, who loads her deliverer with benefits."
_Jomfruen i Ormeham_, in Grundtvig's _Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser_, ii. 177, is essentially the same ballad as _Kempion_. The characteristic incident of the story (a maiden who has been transformed by her step-mother into a snake or other monster, being restored to her proper shape by the kiss of a knight) is as common in the popular fiction of the North as Scott asserts it to be in chivalrous romance. For instances, see Grundtvig, l. l., and under the closely related _Lindormen_, ii. 211.
The name _Kempion_ is itself a monument of the relation of our ballads to the _Kæmpeviser_. Pollard of Pollard Hall, who slew "a venomous serpent which did much harm to man and beast," is called in the modern legend a _Champion_ Knight.
"Cum heir, cum heir, ye freely feed, And lay your head low on my knee; The heaviest weird I will you read, That ever was read to gay ladye.
"O meikle dolour sall ye dree, 5 And aye the salt seas o'er ye'se swim; And far mair dolour sall ye dree On Estmere crags[L8], when ye them climb.
"I weird ye to a fiery beast, And relieved sall ye never be, 10 Till Kempion, the kingis son, Cum to the crag, and thrice kiss thee."--
O meikle dolour did she dree, And aye the salt seas o'er she swam; And far mair dolour did she dree 15 On Estmere crag, when she them clamb.
And aye she cried for Kempion, Gin he would but come to her hand: Now word has gane to Kempion, That sicken a beast was in his land. 20