Proud Signild, and Other Ballads

In Short

Proud Signild, and Other Ballads collects traditional narrative poems translated or retold by George Borrow, focusing on stark, medieval tragedies of betrayal, family loyalty, and lethal retribution. In the title ballad, a woman takes a grim, calculated revenge upon the husband who murdered her father, while companion pieces like The Damsel of the Wood and Damsel Mettie trace the fatal cost of forbidden romance and testing a lover's fidelity. The book has lasted because Borrow captures the raw, unrelenting tempo and dramatic economy of traditional Scandinavian and English balladeering.

The Story

The title ballad opens on a grim domestic setup: Proud Signild's brothers have wedded her far from home to the very man who murdered her father. For eight long winters she hides her resentment, brewing wine and waiting. Finally, she invites her seven bold brothers to the castle. Though her infant child cries out in warning—prompting Sir Loumor, the husband, to kick the baby to death—Signild proceeds. She places her brothers in a stone chamber with weapons nearby, but while she sleeps, Sir Loumor sneaks into the hall and slaughters all seven. He brings their blood in a bowl to taunt her, but Signild suppresses her grief and bides her time. Later, she turns the tables: she hosts Sir Loumor's kin, weaves sleep-runes over their beds, and dispatches his five brothers and three sisters with a sword. She binds Sir Loumor, forces him to look upon his kindred's gore, and executes him for his crimes before dashing her surviving infant against the bedpost and returning to her own clan.

The volume continues with The Damsel of the Wood, where a knight meets a maiden in the forest and spends the night. Ignoring her warnings about her seven fierce brothers, he rides out the next morning. When the seven armed kinsmen confront him, he refuses to flee or surrender his newfound love. A brutal fight ensues, and though the knight slays all seven brothers, he dies of his wounds, leaving the maiden to weep twenty tears for him for every one shed for her kin.

Finally, Damsel Mettie relates a boastful wager between two comrades, Sir Peter and Sir Olaf. Sir Olaf brags that his golden horn can lure any maid to his bower. Sir Peter wagers his war courser that his betrothed, the proud Mettie, will never yield. Driven by the horn's music, Mettie wanders through the night to Sir Olaf's door, but out of fear of Sir Peter, Olaf turns her away cold and empty-handed. Mettie returns to the castle gates, where Sir Peter intercepts and accuses her. He abandons her to her fate, and she vanishes forever as her bower bursts into flames, leaving Sir Peter to grieve unto death while Sir Olaf stays away.

How It Unfolds

• The silent grudge: In Proud Signild, a trapped wife endures eight years of forced marriage to her father's murderer before finally sending a seemingly courteous invitation to her seven brothers.
• The infant's warning: A baby in a cradle speaks for the first time to warn that the husband's wild laughter bodes ill, resulting in the child being brutally killed on the spot.
• The midnight slaughter: Sir Loumor creeps into the dark hall to butcher his wife's visiting brothers, returning with their blood to mock her composure.
• The reversed trap: Signild bides her time for another eight winters, eventually lulling Sir Loumor's kin to sleep with runes before executing a symmetrical blood-revenge.
• The forest tryst: In The Damsel of the Wood, a knight spends a night under a linden tree with a maiden and proudly refuses to avoid her kinsmen the next morning.
• The fatal duel: Outmatched in number but fierce in resolve, the knight cuts down all seven brothers before dying of his own severe wounds.
• The golden horn: In Damsel Mettie, Sir Olaf plays a magical strain on his horn that compels the titular maiden to brave the chilly night to reach his bower.
• The turned-away maid: Rejected at the door by a cautious Olaf and interrogated by a cynical Sir Peter upon her return, Mettie disappears into a mysterious fire.

The People

Proud Signild wants justice and blood-retribution for her murdered father and kindred. Trapped in a violent marriage, she masks her agony behind brewing wine and steady nerves until she can trap her husband and his kin in a symmetrical cycle of slaughter. Sir Loumor is a cruel, remorseless lord who murdered Signild's father and casually slaughters both her family and his own infant child, confident in his dominance until his wife binds him. Sir Peter and Sir Olaf are boastful comrades whose pride and wagers ruin the innocent. Olaf toys with magic and dismisses a desperate woman out of cowardice, while Peter's cynical suspicion drives his betrothed, Damsel Mettie, to a fiery, tragic vanishing. The nameless knight in the second ballad is fiercely proud and chivalric, valuing his honor above self-preservation as he faces seven armed brothers alone. The damsels, including Mettie and the maiden of the wood, navigate a world governed by male pride, where following a horn's call or a lover's path leads straight to grief, danger, and isolation.

In Its Own Voice

• "Sir Loumor again a wild laughter outsent, / And the hard marble wall by that laughter was rent." This couplet captures the supernatural physical force and terrifying cruelty of the husband's laughter in Proud Signild.
• "And under their sides she placed slily their knives, / Which well they might trust in defence of their lives." Signild hides weapons near her doomed brothers while attempting to give them a fighting chance against her husband.
• "Thou shalt not get the maid for mate, / But thou shalt die, thou knight enamour'd." The hostile brothers give the knight his final ultimatum in the forest before the battle begins.

What It's Really About

These ballads investigate the terrifying weight of oaths, blood-feuds, and unyielding pride in a harsh world. They ask what happens when personal survival demands absolute emotional suppression, as seen in Signild hiding her rage for sixteen total years. The poems explore the mechanics of vengeance—how violence inexorably begets more violence, sparing neither infant nor kinsman. They also interrogate the perils of testing human loyalty through wagers and magic, demonstrating how casual arrogance and lack of trust destroy the vulnerable people caught in the crossfire.

Why Read It Today

Readers who love stark, uncompromising folklore, dark fairy tales, and traditional Northern European verse will find a compelling rhythm here. Reading it feels like sitting by a dying hearth while an old storyteller chants tales of ancient blood-guilt and unyielding resolve. The book does not offer modern comforts or soft resolutions; its pages are filled with archaic stiffness, rigid fatalism, and raw, unsettling brutality, including violence against children and bleak, abrupt endings. The language retains its period dialect and straightforward ballad meter, which can feel repetitive or distant to modern eyes. Yet, for those willing to confront its grim atmosphere, the unflinching psychological endurance of figures like Proud Signild leaves a haunting, unforgettable impression long after the book is closed.