Ellens Gesang III (Hymne an die Jungfrau / Ave Maria), D 839

Ellen's song III (Hymn to the Virgin / Ave Maria)

(Poet's title: Ellens Gesang III (Hymne an die Jungfrau / Ave Maria))

Part of  Sieben Gesänge aus Walter Scott’s Fräulein vom See 

All translations into English that appear on this website, unless otherwise stated, are by Malcolm Wren. You are free to use them on condition that you acknowledge Malcolm Wren as the translator and schubertsong.uk as the source. Unless otherwise stated, the comments and essays that appear after the texts and translations are by Malcolm Wren and are © Copyright.

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Ellen’s prayer to the Virgin is sung on the eve of a battle to be fought on the banks of Loch Katrine. In her anxiety for the fate of her father, James Douglas, Ellen begs for protection and comfort, even on the hard rocks where the combatants are preparing for battle.

Roderick Dhu, the Chief of Clan Alpine, is leading an uprising against King James V of Scotland. His initial intention had been to marry Ellen and form an alliance with Douglas against the King. Although Ellen and her father had resisted his advances, he had nevertheless summoned his warriors to prepare for battle. The Third Canto of The Lady of the Lake narrates how the soldiers had been mustered and it ends with Roderick reviewing the lay of the land as evening falls:

     XXVII.

     Now eve, with western shadows long,
     Floated on Katrine bright and strong,
     When Roderick with a chosen few
     Repassed the heights of Benvenue.
     Above the Goblin Cave they go,
     Through the wild pass of Beal-nam-bo;
     The prompt retainers speed before,
     To launch the shallop from the shore,
     For 'cross Loch Katrine lies his way
     To view the passes of Achray,
     And place his clansmen in array.
     Yet lags the Chief in musing mind,
     Unwonted sight, his men behind.
     A single page, to bear his sword,
     Alone attended on his lord;
     The rest their way through thickets break,
     And soon await him by the lake.
     It was a fair and gallant sight
     To view them from the neighboring height,
     By the low-levelled sunbeam's light!
     For strength and stature, from the clan
     Each warrior was a chosen man,
     As even afar might well be seen,
     By their proud step and martial mien.
     Their feathers dance, their tartars float,
     Their targets gleam, as by the boat
     A wild and warlike group they stand,
     That well became such mountain-strand.

     XXVIII.

     Their Chief with step reluctant still
     Was lingering on the craggy hill,
     Hard by where turned apart the road
     To Douglas's obscure abode.
     It was but with that dawning morn
     That Roderick Dhu had proudly sworn
     To drown his love in war's wild roar,
     Nor think of Ellen Douglas more;
     But he who stems a stream with sand,
     And fetters flame with flaxen band,
     Has yet a harder task to prove,—
     By firm resolve to conquer love!
     Eve finds the Chief, like restless ghost,
     Still hovering near his treasure lost;
     For though his haughty heart deny
     A parting meeting to his eye
     Still fondly strains his anxious ear
     The accents of her voice to hear,
     And inly did he curse the breeze
     That waked to sound the rustling trees.
     But hark! what mingles in the strain?
     It is the harp of Allan-bane,
     That wakes its measure slow and high,
     Attuned to sacred minstrelsy.
     What melting voice attends the strings?
     'Tis Ellen, or an angel, sings.

     XXIX.

     Hymn to the Virgin.

     Ave. Maria! maiden mild!
          Listen to a maiden's prayer!
     Thou canst hear though from the wild,
          Thou canst save amid despair.
     Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
          Though banished, outcast, and reviled—
     Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;
          Mother, hear a suppliant child!
                                              Ave Maria!

     Ave Maria! undefiled!
          The flinty couch we now must share
     Shall seem with down of eider piled,
          If thy protection hover there.
     The murky cavern's heavy air
          Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled;
     Then, Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer,
          Mother, list a suppliant child!
                                              Ave Maria!

     Ave. Maria! stainless styled!
          Foul demons of the earth and air,
     From this their wonted haunt exiled,
          Shall flee before thy presence fair.
     We bow us to our lot of care,
          Beneath thy guidance reconciled:
     Hear for a maid a maiden's prayer,
          And for a father hear a child!
                                              Ave Maria!

     XXX.

     Died on the harp the closing hymn,—
     Unmoved in attitude and limb,
     As listening still, Clan-Alpine's lord
     Stood leaning on his heavy sword,
     Until the page with humble sign
     Twice pointed to the sun's decline.
     Then while his plaid he round him cast,
     'It is the last time—'tis the last,'
     He muttered thrice,—'the last time e'er
     That angel-voice shall Roderick hear''
     It was a goading thought,—his stride
     Hied hastier down the mountain-side;
     Sullen he flung him in the boat
     An instant 'cross the lake it shot.
     They landed in that silvery bay,
     And eastward held their hasty way
     Till, with the latest beams of light,
     The band arrived on Lanrick height'
     Where mustered in the vale below
     Clan-Alpine's men in martial show.

     XXXI.

     A various scene the clansmen made:
     Some sat, some stood, some slowly strayed:
     But most, with mantles folded round,
     Were couched to rest upon the ground,
     Scarce to be known by curious eye
     From the deep heather where they lie,
     So well was matched the tartan screen
     With heath-bell dark and brackens green;
     Unless where, here and there, a blade
     Or lance's point a glimmer made,
     Like glow-worm twinkling through the shade.
     But when, advancing through the gloom,
     They saw the Chieftain's eagle plume,
     Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide,
     Shook the steep mountain's steady side.
     Thrice it arose, and lake and fell
     Three times returned the martial yell;
     It died upon Bochastle's plain,
     And Silence claimed her evening reign.

Ellen’s Ave Maria is thus not a standard liturgical prayer. It is rooted in the desperate situation that she and her father find themselves in, and it is sung not primarily as a personal (inward) cry for help but is performed in a bardic context, with the clan bard (Allan-bane) accompanying Ellen on the harp. We need to remember too that when Scott wrote The Lady of the Lake Roman Catholicism had been outlawed in Scotland for centuries. Indeed the story is set in the final generation (the 1530’s) in which Catholic piety was pervasive throughout the whole of the country. It is part of Walter Scott’s intention to evoke the romantic atmosphere of this pre-modern (and pre-Protestant) Scotland, and so he uses the Latin ‘Ave Maria’ to signal Ellen’s simple (but old-fashioned and vulnerable) piety.

She appeals to the Virgin in her capacity as a virgin herself. She appeals to the holy mother in her capacity as a daughter. From a bare, rocky hillside she invokes the scents of a rose garden, since Mary the Virgin was so often portrayed standing within an enclosed garden (a hortus conclusus), which both symbolised her virginity and the fact that she was the second Eva, who had restored the purity of the Garden of Eden. Indeed the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary at the Annunciation (‘Ave Maria’) was taken by a number of medieval theologians as a sign that Mary had reversed the Fall precipitated by Eve in Eden. Eva (the Latin form of ‘Eve’) has been reversed and has become Ave. Eve’s disobedience has been reversed in Mary’s submission and willingness to bear the son of God. Her son Jesus has become the Second Adam. Just as we all died in Adam, so in Christ the second Adam, we shall all be made alive. The tree which tempted Adam and Eve became the tree on which Christ was crucified. The Virgin is our restored mother.

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Original Spelling

Ellens Gesang III
(Hymne an die Jungfrau)

Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild,
Erhöre einer Jungfrau Flehen,
Aus diesem Felsen starr und wild
Soll mein Gebet zu dir hinwehen.
Wir schlafen sicher bis zum Morgen,
Ob Menschen noch so grausam sind.
O Jungfrau, sieh der Jungfrau Sorgen,
O Mutter, hör ein bittend Kind! 
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! Unbefleckt!
Wenn wir auf diesen Felsen sinken
Zum Schlaf, und uns dein Schutz bedeckt,
Wird weich der harte Fels uns dünken.
Du lächelst, Rosendüfte wehen
In dieser dumpfen Felsenkluft.
O Mutter, höre Kindes Flehen,
O Jungfrau, eine Jungfrau ruft!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! Reine Magd!
Der Erde und der Luft Dämonen,
Von deines Auges Huld verjagt,
Sie können hier nicht bei uns wohnen.
Wir woll'n uns still dem Schicksal beugen,
Da uns dein heil'ger Trost anweht;
Der Jungfrau wolle hold dich neigen,
Dem Kind, das für den Vater fleht.
Ave Maria!

            Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Das Fräulein vom See. Ein Gedicht in sechs Gesängen von Walter Scott. Aus dem Englischen, und mit einer historischen Einleitung und Anmerkungen von D. Adam Storck, weiland Professor in Bremen. Zweite, vom Uebersetzer selbst noch verbesserte Auflage. Essen, bei G. D. Bädeker. 1823, pages 127-128; and with Das Fräulein vom See. Ein Gedicht in sechs Gesängen von Walter Scott. Aus dem Englischen, und mit einer historischen Einleitung und Anmerkungen von D. Adam Storck, Professor in Bremen. Essen, bei G. D. Bädeker. 1819, pages 135-136.

To see an early edition of the text, go to page 127 here: https://books.google.at/books?id=p0YRAQAAMAAJ

For the full text of The Lady of the Lake: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3011/3011-h/3011-h.htm