Hind Horn Giordana Dall'Armellina (child 17)

Hind Horn
Giordano Dall'Armellina
Old Time Ballads From The British Isles
Child Ballad #17
Hind Horn falls in love with the King's Daughter. They exchange tokens, the man giving her a silver wand and she giving him a diamond ring. She tells him when the stones grow pale, he has lost her love. One day the stones do grow pale. Hind Horn meets with a beggar man who tells him the news of the upcoming wedding. He trades clothes with the beggar, and has the beggar tell him how to be a beggar man. He goes on the King's castle, begs a glass of wine and he drops the ring into the glass. The Bride to be wants to know where he got the ring, and realizing that the beggar man is her love she declares she will tear off her fine clothing and beg with him from town to town. He reveals his disguise and lets her know she will be a fine, great Lady.
This ballad is an excerpt, basically the climax, to a much longer story. King Horn, written around 1225 was one of the earliest Middle English Romances. That story itself was based on Romance of Horn a story written around 1170. The ballad came along later some time in the fourteenth century. The story is available to read at Project Gutenberg, it is a short story in the book Hero-Myths and Legends of the British Race written by Ebbutt, M. I.