It turned out they both knew a different version.So I was embarrassingly excited by the fact that Vi

It turned out they both knew a different version.

So I was embarrassingly excited by the fact that Vilja sings The Blacksmith and The Cruel Sister since I’m a huge folk music nerd, and I was thinking about what other songs I could imagine her singing. The idea of Nordic and Dunmeri variations to The Outlandish Knight/The Elf Knight came pretty easily for uh, pretty obvious reasons I think, but also because irl it has such a huge range and number of variations.

(Some more rambling and lyrics for the Dunmer version under the cut)

I think that in the Morrowind and Skyrim variants the action of the song takes place in the Velothi mountains, whereas versions from Solstheim tend to just refer to the sea shore. I think that the versions from Eastmarch and the Blacklight region are considered the ‘standard’ versions, so they’re the ones you’re most likely to hear bards singing, but the further west you go in Skyrim the more likely you are to encounter versions where the knight character is either just some ambiguous figure or a fine Cyrodiilic lord, and on Vvardenfell the knight is often an Ashlander (though in the Ashland version he’s usually a Telvanni)

An outlandish knight came from the northlands
And he’s courted a lady fair,
He said he would take her to those northern lands,
And there he would marry her.
 
“Go fetch me some of your father’s gold
And some of your mother’s fee,
And two of the guar from out of the stable
Where there stand thirty and three.”
 
So she’s fetched him some of her father’s gold
And some of her mother’s fee,
And two of the fine guar from out of the stable
Where there stood thirty and three.
 
She mounted on the milk white steed,
And he on the dappled grey,
And they rode till they came unto the high hills
Three hours before it was day.
 
“Light off, light off thy milk-white steed
And deliver it unto me.
For six pretty maidens have I slain here
And the seventh will surely be thee.
 
“Take off, Take off off thy silken clothes,
And deliver them unto me;
For I do fear that they are too fine
To rot along with thee.
 
“If I must take off my silken clothes
Pray turn your back to me.
For it is not fitting that such a rogue
A naked woman should see.”
 
So he’s turned his back all on that maid,
To view the hills so high.
And she caught up his little pen knife
And she’s thrust it to his heart.
 
Well out then came the thick thick blood,
And out then came the thin.
“Oh spare me my life, my pretty fair maid,
And I will make thee my bride.”
 
“Lie there, lie there you false hearted man,
Lie there instead of me.
For six pretty maidens have you slain here
And the seventh hath surely slain thee.”
 
She mounted on her milk white steed
And she led the dappled grey,
And she rode till she came to her father’s house
Three hours before it was day.

(I based the lyrics on Nic Jones’ arrangement of The Outlandish Knight)