Glasgerion [Child 67]

DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter declares her love for Glasgerion and invites him to her bed. He tells his servant of the tryst. The boy sneaks in in his stead. When the lady learns this, she kills herself. Glasgerion kills the lad, (then himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1750 (Percy Folio)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit love sex betrayal death suicide homicide trick
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,Wales)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Child 67, "Glasgerion" (3 texts)
Bronson 67, "Glenkindie" (1 version)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume I, pp. 246-252, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 45-49, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 222-229, "Glasgerion" (2 texts plus one "analogy")
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 40, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 71, "Glasgerion" (1 text, 1 fragment)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 216-218, "Glenkindie" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 41, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 340-342, "Glasgerion" (1 text, printed in the notes to "Lord Randal")
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 16, "Glasgerion" (1 text)
DT 67, GLENKIND
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 94
Roud #145
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Jack Orion" (on Lloyd2, Lloyd3, ESFB2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jack O'Ryan
Jack Orion
Jack O'Rion
Glenkindie
NOTES [675 words]: "Glasgerion" was famous enough to be mentioned in line 1208 of Chaucer's "House of Fame" in the context of Orpheus and other great musicians:
There herde I pleyen on an harpe
That sowned bothe wel and sharpe,
Orpheus ful craftely,
And on his syde, faste by,
Sat the harper Orion, [=Arion]
And Eacides Chiron, [i.e. the centaur Chiron]
And other harpers many oon,
And the Bret Glascurion;
[Lines 1201-1208 as given in Chaucer/Benson. The text as given on p. 85 of Chaucer/Havely is almost the same, apart from spelling variants, except that it reads "And on the syde" for "And on his syde" in line 1204. There are five sources for the "House of Fame," three manuscripts (F, B, P, of which F is the earliest and best) and two early printings, by Caxton (Cx) and Thynne (Th). In the key liine 1208, there are three variants. One, "As" for "And," is pretty definitely an error in the manuscript (P) which has it. "Bret" is the reading of B; F has the obvious error "Gret"; P has something like "Bretur," but corrected it; Cx Th read "Bryton." "Glascurion" is the spelling of F B; P Cx Th read "Glaskyrion." Despite all these differences, the essential meaning seems secure.]
"Glasgerion" is widely stated to be an anglicisation of "Glas Keraint," a legendary Welsh harper said to be able to harp "a fish out o' saut water Or water out o' a stane." Chaucer/Benson, p. 986, says there is a legend that he was a bard to Alfred the Great of England. Whoever he was, to be associated with Orpheus, Arion, and Chiron is high company indeed!
Glas Keraint is often stated to have been historical (though Chaucer/Benson, p. 986, notes that there are no truly contemporary mentions), in that there are chronicle mentions of him, but the stories are not very circumstantial. In fact, I couldn't find out anything about him except the Chaucer references. But no one knows how Chaucer heard of him. And there are some who disagree with the identification of Glasgerion with Glas Keraint. Chaucer/Havely, p. 197, reports, "Breeze suggests... that the real identity of Chaucer's Glascurion is 'to be found in Gwydion ... the famous otherworld magician, craftsman, storyteller, and bard' (*Glasgwydion). Meecham-Jones... argues that Chaucer is unlikely to have had access to the texts dealing with Gwydion (Bk 4 of the Mabinogi) and proposes two possible identifications: an anonymous Welsh exile and Merlin. His third suggestion (*Glastyrion) lacks support" (as it is based on a misreading of manuscript B).
Gwydion shows up in more places than just the fourth tale of the Mabinogi [i.e. the tale of Math son of Mathonwy]. Bromwich, pp. 392-393, says "there are a number of allusions to Gwydion in poems belonging to Hanes Taliesin [the history/tale of Taliesin], and in the main, these characterize Gwydion in a manner similar to that in Mabinogi Math. Here Gwydion is a powerful magician, who can make horses and hounds out of toadstools, shoes out of seaweed..., a woman out of flowers, and who can produce the illusion of a sea filled with hostile vessels." This would give Chaucer more chances to read of Gwydion, but it's still hard to see how he would have heard of him in London, and if he did hear of Gwydion, it would probably be as a magician and trickster, not a musician!
Sypherd, p. 153, does have a speculation, which apparently derives from an article by Kittredge. Chaucer knew a vintner named Lewis Johan (no surprise that Chaucer knew such people, since Chaucer's father was also a vintner). Johan had a Welsh father and mother, so perhaps Chaucer learned of Glascurion from them. Or possibly from fellow poet John Clanvowe, who in the 1380s had government responsibilities in Wales. But we cannot be sure of this, and in any case, the trail goes cold there.
All agree that, whoever Glascurion was, he is the same as the Glasgerion of this ballad.
The "Jack Orion" version sung by A. L. Lloyd, although the only version anyone ever hears, seems to be basically Lloyd's rewrite, with a tune of his choosing. It's not really traditional. - RBW
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