“The Maid Freed from the Gallows” is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. In the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late 19th century, it is indexed as Child Ballad number 95; 11 variants, some fragmentary, are indexed as 95A to 95K. The Roud Folk Song Index identifies it as number 144.
There are many versions, all of which recount a similar story. A maiden (a young unmarried woman) or man is about to be hanged (in many variants, for unknown reasons) pleads with the hangman, or judge, to wait for the arrival of someone who may bribe him. Typically, the first person (or people) to arrive, who may include the condemned person’s parent or sibling, has brought nothing and often has come to see them hanged. The last person to arrive, often their true love, has brought the gold, silver, or some other valuable to save them. Although the traditional versions do not resolve the fate of the condemned one way or the other, it may be presumed that the bribe would succeed. Depending on the version, the condemned may curse all those who failed them.
It has been suggested that the reference to “gold” may not mean actual gold for a bribe, but may instead stand for the symbolic restoration of condemned person’s honor, perhaps by proving their innocence, honesty, or fidelity, or the maiden’s virginity. Such an interpretation would explain why a number of the song’s variations have the condemned person asking whether the visitors have brought gold or paid the fee. In at least one version the reply is: “I haven’t brought you gold / But I have paid your fee.” The song is also known as “The Prickly Bush”, a title derived from the oft-used refrain lamenting the maiden’s situation by likening it to being caught in a briery bush, which prickles her heart.
Lucy Broadwood published a version of the song in her influential book “English Country songs” (1893). In the early 1900s, Cecil Sharp collected many versions throughout England, from Yorkshire to Somerset. Many audio recordings have been made by folk song collectors of traditional versions of the song. The English version of the song tends to be called “The Prickle Holly Bush”, several recordings of which were made around the middle of the twentieth century, particularly in the south of England. The song seems far less prevalent in Ireland and Scotland.
Folksinger Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who also popularized such songs as “Cotton Fields” and “Midnight Special”, first recorded a version of the song under the title “The Gallis Pole” in the 1930s. His haunting, shrill tenor delivers the lyrical counterpoint, and his story is punctuated with spoken-word, as he “interrupts his song to discourse on its theme”. Folk singer John Jacob Niles recorded the song at least twice: In March 1940 as “The Maid freed from the Gallows”, re-issued on the compilation album “My Precarious Life in the Public Domain” and in April 1960 in a dramatic version as “The Hangman” on his album “The Ballads of John Jacob Niles”.
Led Zepplelin recorded the song for their album Led Zeppelin III in 1970. The album is a shift in style for the band towards acoustic material, influenced by a holiday Jimmy Page and Robert Plant took to the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in the Welsh countryside. The sleeve notes include the songwriting credit “Traditional: Arranged by Page and Plant”. Page adapted the song from a version by American folk musician Fred Gerlach, which is included on his 1962 album Twelve-String Guitar.
