Month: August 2021

Bessy Bell and Mary Gray are “twa bonnie lassies”, is the subject of Child Balad No. 201. According to the ballad, Bessy and Mary were daughters of two Perthshire gentlemen, who in 1666 built themselves a bower to avoid catching a devastating plague. The girls were supplied with food by a lad in love with […]

“Geordie” is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child No. 209 and No. 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. […]

Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer (1220 – 1298]), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called “Erceldoune”) in the Borders. Thomas’ gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability. He is often cited as the author of the English […]

“The Twa Magicians”, “The Two Magicians”, “The Lady and the Blacksmith”, or “The Coal Black Smith” (Roud 1350, Child 44) is a British folk song. It first appears in print in 1828 in two sources, Peter Buchan’s Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland and John Wilson’s Noctes Ambrosianae No. 40. It was […]

We begin the week with a futher dip into the Francis Child bag of ballads. “Lord Randall“, (Child 12, Roud 10) is an Anglo-Scottish Border ballad consisting of dialogue between a young Lord and his mother. Similar ballads can be found across Europe in many languages. The Italian variants are usually titled “L’avvelenato” (“The Poisoned […]

I am taking a break from my Child Ballad series to celebrate the life of Nanci Griffith, who sadly died on Friday. She was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, raised in Austin, Texas, who lived in Nashville, Tennessee. Her career spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she termed “folkabilly.” Griffith […]

“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, […]

“The Elfin Knight” (Child 2; Roud 12) is a traditional Scottish Folk Ballad of which there are many versions, all dealing with supernatural occurrences, and the commission to perform impossible tasks. The ballad has been collected in different parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, the US, and Canada. As is the case with most traditional folk […]

“Sir Patrick Spens” is one of the most popular of the Child Ballads (No. 58), Roud (No.41), and is of Scottish origin. It is a maritime ballad about a disaster at sea. It remains one of the most anthologized of British popular ballads, partly because it exemplifies the traditional ballad form. The strength of this […]

“John Barleycorn” is an English/Scottish folk song listed as number 164 in the Roud Folk Song Index. John Barleycorn, the eponymous protagonist, is a personification of barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. In the song, he suffers indignities, attacks, and death that correspond to the various stages of barley […]