Heer Halewijn
Want maegdenbloed dat spreidt zoo breed, Zoot u bespreide, het ware my leed.
One version however adds a footnote saying that the princess remained unmarried all her life because no suitor could ever match the passion she felt for Lord Halewijn.
Most of the more popular versions do away with the more descriptive parts or delete several scenes (for instance the confrontation with Halewijn's mother) thus shortening the song to about 20 verses.
Jan Frans Willems collected and wrote down the lyrics of the ballad around 1830 and published it in 1848 on pages 116-119 of his book "Oude Vlaemsche Liederen" (Old Flemish Songs).
The nature of the story itself dates it back to the early Middle Ages, yet it contains several elements of Carolingian culture[citation needed] and therefore is generally accepted to be much older than the comparable Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight.
Daer wierd gehouden een banket, Het hoofd werd op de tafel gezet.
The ballad is written in the third person and although it focusses on the princess rather than Halewijn, it describes her actions rather than to tell the story from her point of view.
As an example of the odd balance of the ballad compared to the story: A whole eight couplets tell of the princess asking first her father, then her mother, then her sister and finally her brother for permission to go to see Halewijn.
In contrast to this, the ballad contains an element seldom mentioned in the stories: After Halewijn was decapitated, his head still continues speaking and implores the princess first to rub on his neck a pot of ointment taken from beneath the gallows, then to take Halewijn's horn, go into a cornfield and blow it "Dat al myn vrienden het hooren!"
Of course the princess does neither but replies to the head: "Moordenaers raed en doen ik niet" (A murderer's advice I will not do).
Heer Halewyn zong een liedekijn Al die dat hoorde wou bi hem zijn.
Alsdan heeft hy tot haer gezeid: Mits gy de schoonste maget zyt, Zoo kiest uw dood!
According to the Aarne-Thompson system of classifying folktale plots, the tale of Halewijn is type 311 (the heroine rescues herself from a supernatural foe).
The Halewijn legend shares with all those tales the main theme of a woman lured by a powerful, handsome and implicitly sexual stranger who is in some way "otherworldly" or magical and hence has a bad fate in store for her.
Even when she submits to being killed, she implores Halewijn to take off his shirt because it would be unfitting if her maiden (virgin) blood were to leave a stain on him.
Want maegdenbloed dat spreidt zoo breed Zoot u bespreide, het ware my leed For maiden's blood it spreads so far, if it would stain you, it would be my grief The story also compares to the legend of the Scandinavian Nixen (strömkarlen), water spirits who played enchanted songs, luring women and children to drown (Meijer 1971:35).
Zy kwamen al aen een galgenveld Daer hing zoo menig vrouwenbeeld.
