No. 27: The Whummil Bore
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (There are no footnotes)
3. Brief by Kittredge
4. Child's Ballad Text A
5. Endnotes
6. "Additions and Corrections"
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: The Whummil Bore
A. Roud number 3722; The Whummil Bore (5 listings)
2. Sheet Music: The Whummil Bore (Bronson's texts and some music examples)
3. US & Canadian Versions
4. English and Other Versions (Including Child version A with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative
A. a. Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 191.
b. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvi, No III.
This ballad, if it ever were one, seems not to have been met with, or at least to have been thought worth notice, by anybody but Motherwell. As already observed in the preface to 'Hind Horn,' stanza 2 seems to have slipped into that ballad, in consequence of the resemblance of stanza 1 to F 2, H 3 of 'Hind Horn.' This first stanza is, however, a commonplace in English and elsewhere: e. g., 'The Squire of Low Degree:'
He served the kyng, her father dere,
Fully the tyme of seven yere. w 5, 6.
He loved her more then seven yere,
Yet was he of her love never the nere. w 17, 18.
Ritson, Met. Rom. III, 145 f.
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
This ballad, if it ever were one, seems not to have been met with, or at least to have been thought worth notice, by anybody but Motherwell.
Child's Ballad Text A
The Whummil Bore; Version A a
a. Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 191.
b. Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xvi, No III.
1 Seven lang years I hae served the king,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
And I never got a sight of his daughter but ane.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
2 I saw her thro a whummil bore,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
And I neer got a sight of her no more.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
3 Twa was putting on her gown,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
And ten was putting pins therein.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
4 Twa was putting on her shoon,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
And twa was buckling them again.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
5 Five was combing down her hair,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
And I never got a sight of her nae mair.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
6 Her neck and breast was like the snow,
Fa fa fa fa lilly
Then from the bore I was forced to go.
With my glimpy, glimpy, glimpy eedle,
Lillum too tee a ta too a tee a ta a tally
End-Notes
a. 22. Variation: And she was washing in a pond.
62. Variation: Ye might have tied me with a strae.
b. Burden: Fa, fa, falilly
With my glimpy, glimpy, eedle,
Lillum too a tee too a tally.
Additions and Corrections
P. 255. Serving the king long without sight of his daughter. Prof. Wollner notes that this trait is rather frequently found in Slavic. For example, in Karadžič, II, 617, No 96, Yakšič Mitar serves the vojvode Yanko nine years and never sees his sister.