"Kemp Owyne" (or "Kempion") is

Child Ballad The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...

number 34.

Synopsis

The heroine is turned into a

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

(dragon), usually by her

stepmother A stepmother, stepmum or stepmom is a non-biological female parent married to one's preexisting parent. A stepmother-in-law is a stepmother of one's spouse. Children from her spouse's previous unions are known as her stepchildren. Culture Step ...

, who curses her to remain so until the king's son comes to kiss her three times. When he arrives, she offers him a belt, a ring, and a sword to kiss her, promising the things would magically protect him; the third time, she turns back into a woman. In some variants, he asks who enchanted her, a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely ...

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

; she says it was her stepmother and curses her into a monstrous creature, permanently.

Variants

The hero of the story appears to be

Ywain Sir Ywain , also known as Yvain and Owain among other spellings (''Ewaine'', ''Ivain'', ''Ivan'', ''Iwain'', ''Iwein'', ''Uwain'', ''Uwaine'', etc.), is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, wherein he is often the son of King Urie ...

, from Arthurian legend. It is not clear how he came to be attached to this story, although many other Arthurian knights appear in other ballads with as little connection to their roles in the Arthurian legend, for instance Sir Lionel, who appears in a ballad of the same name.

Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Jacobs ...

has suggested that "

The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh ''The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh'', also known as ''The Laidly Worm of Bamborough'', is a Northumbrian ballad about a princess who is changed into a dragon (the "laidly worm" of the title). Synopsis In the Kingdom of Northumbria, a kind k ...

" (which he collected for his ''English Fairy Tales'' with touches from the ballad of "Kempion") is a localised version of the ballad of "Kemp Owyne",

, ''English Fairy Tales''
"The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh"
/ref> itself possibly a version of the Icelandic saga of Áslól and Hjálmtèr. In the variant collected by

Francis James Child Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of ...

, the three magical items all had the same property; he believed that originally, each one had a unique property, but these were lost. "Dove Isabeau" (1989), written by

Jane Yolen Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...

and illustrated by Dennis Nolan, shifts the title character to the transformed heroine but retains the narrative of the ballad, with the addition of a pet cat inhabited by the spirit of Isabeau's dead mother, who assists the hero in his rescue. Brian Peters included a recording titled "Kemp Owyne" on his album ''Sharper Than the Thorn''.

Frankie Armstrong Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to m ...

included a recording titled "Kemp Owen" on her album ''The Garden of Love''.

Fay Hield Fay Hield is a traditional English folk singer and a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield. Career ''Looking Glass'', released September 2010, was Hield's debut solo album. The material consists mainly of tradition ...

includes a recording titled "Kemp Owen" on her album ''Looking Glass''. Bryony Griffith sings "Kemp Owen" on her 2014 debut solo album ''Nightshade''. This ballad was one of 25 traditional works included in ''Ballads Weird and Wonderful'' (1912) and illustrated by Vernon Hill.

Scandinavian ballads

Child notes similarities with several

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

n ballads: " Jomfruen i ormeham" ( DgF 59, TSB A 28 – maid transformed into snake); " Jomfruen i linden" (DgF 66, SMB 12, NMB 15, TSB A 30 – maid transformed into lime tree); " Trolden og bondens hustru" (DgF 52, TSB A 14 – knight transformed into troll); and " Lindormen" (DgF 65, SMB 11, NMB 14, TSB A 29 – prince transformed into serpent (a

lindworm The lindworm (''worm'' meaning snake), also spelled lindwyrm or lindwurm, is a mythical creature in Northern and Central European folklore living deep in the forest that traditionally has the shape of a giant serpent monster. It can be seen as a ...

)).

Translations

*(Modern English translation)

References

External links