`Allison Gross' was printed by Jamieson, Popular Ballads, II, 187, without deviation from the manuscript save in spelling.

In a Greek tale, a nereid, that is elf or fairy, turns a youth who had refused to espouse her into a snake, the curse to continue till he finds another love who is as fair as she: `Die Schonste,' B. Schmidt, Griechische Marchen, etc., No 10. This tale is a variety of `Beauty and the Beast,' one of the numerous wild growths from that ever charming French story (note 1).

An elf, a hill-troll, a mermaid, make a young man offers of splendid gifts, to obtain his love or the promise of his faith, in `Elveskud,' Grundtvig, No 47, many of the Danish and two of the Norwegion copies; `Hertig Magnus och Elfvorna,' Afzelius, III, 172; `Hr. Magnus og Bjaergtrolden,' Grundtvig, No 48, Arwidsson, No 147B; `Her Magnus och Hafstrollet,' Afzelius, No 95, Bugge, No 11; a lind-worm, similarly to a young wman, `Lindormen,' Grundtvig, No 65. Magnus answers the hill-troll that he should be glad to plight faith with her were she like other women, but she is the ugliest troll that could be found: Grundtvig, II, 121, A 6, B 7; Arwidsson, II, 303, B 5; Afzelius, III, 169, st. 5, 173, st. 6. This is like what we read in stanza 7 of our ballad, but the answer is inevitable in any such case. Magnus comes off scot-free.

The queen of the fairies undoing the spell of the witch is a remarkable feature, not paralleled, so far as I know, in English or northern tradition. The Greek nereids, however, who do pretty much everything, good or bad, that is ascribed to northern elves or fairies, and even bear an appellation resembling that by which the fairies are spoken of in Scotland and Ireland, "the good damsels," "the good ladies," have a queen who is described as taking no part in the unfriendly acts of her subjects, but as being kindly disposed towards mankind, and even as repairing the mischief which subordinate sprites have done against her will. If now the fairy queen might interpose in behalf of men against her own kith and kin, much more likely would she be to exert herself to thwart the malignity of a witch (note 2).

The object of the witch's blowing thrice on a grass-green horn in stanza 8 line 2 is not clear, for nothing comes of it. In the closely related ballad which follows this, a witch uses a horn to summon the sea-fishes, among whom there is one who has been the victim of her spells. The horn is appropriate. Witches were supposed to blow horns when they joined the wild hunt, and horn-blower, "hornblase," is twice cited by Grimm as an equivalent to the Witch: Deutsche Mythologie, p. 886.

Translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 19; by Rosa Warrens, Schottische Volkslieder, No 7; Knortz, Lieder und Romanzen Alt-Englands, No 9; Loeve-Veimars, Ballades de l'Angleterre, p. 353.

	1   O Allison Gross, that lives in yon towr,
	      The ugliest witch i the north country,
	    Has trysted me ae day up til her bowr,
	      An monny fair speech she made to me.
	
	2   She stroaked my head, an she kembed my hair,
	      An she set me down saftly on her knee;
	    Says, Gin ye will be my lemman so true,
	      Sae monny braw things as I would you gi.
	
	3   She showd me a mantle o red scarlet
	      Wi gouden flowrs an fringes fine;
	    Says, Gin ye will my lemman so true
	      This goodly gift it sal be thine.
	
	4   'Awa, awa, ye ugly witch,
	      Haud far awa, an lat me be;
	    I never will be your lemman sae true,
	      An I wish I were out o your company.'
	
	5   She neist brought a sark o the saftest silk,
	      Well wrought wi pearles about the ban;
	    Says, Gin you will be my ain true love,
	      This goodly gift you sal comman.
	
	6   She showd me a cup of the good red gold,
	      Well set wi jewls sae fair to see;
	    Says, Gin you will be my lemman sae true,
	      This goodly gift I will you gi.
	
	7   'Awa, awa, ye ugly witch,
	      Had far awa, and lat me be;
	    For I woudna ance kiss your ugly mouth
	      For a' the gifts that ye could gi.'
	
	8   She's turnd her right and roun about,
	      An thrice she blaw on a grass-green horn,
	    An she sware by the meen and the stars abeen,
	      That she'd gar me rue the day I was born.

	9   Then out had she taen a silver wand,
	      An she's turnd her three times roun an round;
	    She's mutterd sich words till my strength it faild,
	      An I fell down senceless upon the ground.
	
	10  She's turnd me into an ugly worm,
	      And gard me toddle about the tree;
	    An ay, on ilka Saturdays night,
	      My sister Maisry came to me,
	
	11  Wi silver bason an silver kemb,
	      To kemb my heady upon her knee;
	    But or I had kissed her ugly mouth,
	      I'd rather a toddled about the tree.
	
	12  But as it fell out on last Hallow-even,
	      When the seely court was ridin by,
	    The queen lighted down on a gowany bank,
	      Nae far frae the tree where I wont to lye.
	
	13  She took me up in her milk-white han,
	      An she's stroakd me three times oer her knee;
	    She chang'd me again to my ain proper shape,
	      An I nae mair maun toddle about the tree.

Note 2: B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, pp 100 f, 107, 123. Euphemistically the nereids are called [BUNCH OF GREEK STUFF I CAN'T TYPE], etc.

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