Note 119 — FRAGMENTS
Reading edition
But Jamieson confesses: “Of the verses which have been introduced I cannot answer for the exactness of any, except the stanza put into the mouth of the king of Elfland, which was indelibly impressed upon my memory [though J. was only seven or eight years old] long before I knew anything of Shakspere.” The stanza is: [in came the king of Elfland,]
‘With fi, fi, fo and fum! I smell the blood of a Christian man; Be he dead, be he living, wi my brand I’ll clash his harns frae his harn-pan.’