English (GE), Scottish (GSc), Manx (GM), Irish (GIr) Variants
[Under construction- Raw text, mostly unedited]
[G stand for Germanic variants. The E means is English version under the category of Germanic variants. Kemppinen's book was published in 1954 so any variants collected after 1954 will not be included.
R. Matteson 2014]
English Variants (GE)
The May Colvin Form (associated with the Scottish form of the same name: the maid pushes the knight into the water from the waterside)
GE 1. (570) Dixon AP 74 The Outlandish Knight, 18 4-line stanzas; (571) Bell 61; (572) Burne 548, Siriopshire, about 1870/80; (573) Broadwood-Maitland 164, somersetshire; (574) Child No. 4 E; (575) Williams, 159, from the upper course of the Thames [1913]; (576) Sharp-Marson IV,13, Somerset, 15 4-line stanzas; (577) Sharp, No. 11; (578) Kidson 27, North Riding of
Yorkshire, 2 initial stanzas; (579) Kidson 172, first stanza; (580) Journal FSS I, 246 No. 15, first stanza; (581) Journal FSS II, 282 No. 42, first stanza. p: An outlandish knight- A fair maiden. a: An outlandish knight from the Northern Countries comes to propose marriage to the maiden and asks her to follow him to the North (cf. GSw 4, GN 1, GSc 7 and the North pp. 248 - 257)
where he will marry her; the knight tells the maid to take with her, her father's gold and her mother's jewels and two steeds; they ride by night, for the three hours before dawn, to the seashore where the knight has already drowned six maids; the knight tells the maid to take off her clothes, since they are too costlv to rot in the salty sea.
b:>>If I am to pull off my Holland smock,
Pray turn your back towards me ;
For it is not fitting that such a ruffian
A naked woman should see.>>
c: He turned his back upon me there,
And viewed the leaves so green,
I caught him round the middle so small
And tumbled him into the stream.
The knight calls for help and asks the maid to give him her hand; the maid, however, says:
>>Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted man!
Lie there, instead of me!
For six pretty maidens hast thou drowned here.
But the seventh hath drowned thee.>
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d: The maid mounts her milk-white steed, leading the dapple-grey beside her and arrives home three hours before dawn; a parrot asks why the maid is about so early and the maid promises the parrot a golden cage to replace its wooden one if it will keep its mouth closed; the maid's old father overhears the conversation and asks the cause of it; the parrot says a cat came to the cage and it asked the maid to chase her away.
GE 2. (582) Journal FSS IV, 116 The Outlandish Knight, or, May Colvin, Cornwall, 1905, 14 4-line stanzas and prose narrative. p: Squire's son- Bailiff's daughter. a.
b: She said, >>Go, pick a prickle to keep away the thistle,
That grows by the river Fee,
That it may not mingle with my curly, curly locks,
Nor my lily, milk-white skin.>>
c, d.
GE 3. (583) Journal FSS IV, 118 Second Tune, Hertfordshire, about 1895, 1 4-line starrza; (SB4) Journal FSS IV, 118 Third Tune, North Devon, 1893. P: __ I. d.
GE 4. (584) Journal FSS IV, 119 Fourth Tune, Somerset, 1904, first stanza; (586) Journal FS,S IV, 120 Fifth Tune, Somerset, 1904; (587) Journal FSS IV, 120 Sixth Tune, Over Stowey, 1907; (588) Journal FSS IV, 121 Seventh Tune, Somerset, 1904; (589) Journal FSS Iv,rzr Eighth Tune An Outlandish Rover, Near Horsham, 1904; (590) Journal FSS IV, 122 Ninth Tune The Highway Robber, Herefordshire, 1909. p 2 An outlandish knight-I (first person singular). a.
Scottish Variants (GSc)
The Lady Isabel Form (the maid puts the knight to sleep and kills him)
GSc 1. (591) Buchan ABS I, 22 The Gowans sae Gay, Northern Scotland, r 3 2-line stanzas, refrains:
The gowans sae gay,
The first morning in May.[1]
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1 An almost similar refrain is also encountered in some other Scottish folk songs, vide e.g. Motherwell , Minstrelsy, Indroduction, p. lx; further, Song Xix of Forbes's >>Cantus>>r 3rd edition, Aberdeen 1682:
The gowans are gay,
The first morning of May.
The Aberdeen Cantus, printed in Aberdeen by John Forbes successively in the year 1662, 1666, and I682, though containing several old songs, English as well as Scottish; Laing MSS III,4go f. zz: Music book of John Squyer, MS, ff. 43-44, from about 1700, Edinburgh University Library, the ballad The Gowans are gay the content of which is altogether different from that
of Buchan's ballad of the same name though the refrain is the same ; vide also Ramsay IV, 404 There Gowans are gay which has the following refrain:
There gowans are gay,
The first morning of May.
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(592) Child No. 4 A Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight [Motherwell MS f. 563 Aye as the Gowans grow gay]; (593) Grundtvig ESF No. 37 Stolt Isabet og Elue-Ridderen; (594) Child ESB I,313; (595) Warrens, Schott. No. I; (596) Sargent-Kittredge
No. 4 A; (597) Ker II, 68, one 2-line stanza. p: The elf knight-Lady Isabel. a: Beautiful Lady Isabel sits in her bower sewing when she hears the elf-knight blow his horn.
>>If I had yon horn that I hear blawing,
And yon elf- knight to sleep in my bosom.>>
The maid has hardly uttered these words when the elf knight appears at her window and entices her away with him into a green forest where they ride on two horses; at the edge of the forest the knight announces that they have come to the place where the maid must die; he has already killed seven king's daughters at this spot and Isabel will now be the eighth.
b: >>O sit down a while, lay your head on my knee,
That we may hae some rest before that I die.>>
She stroakd him sae fast, the nearer he did creep,
Wi a sma charm she lulld him fast asleep.
c: Wi his ain sword-belt sae fast as she ban him,
Wi his ain dag-durk sae sair as she dang him.
>>If seven king's-daughters here ye hae slain,
Lye ye here, a husband to them a'.>>
d: - - -.
The King's Daughter Form (the maid pulls the knight off the saddle down to the stream and drowns him)
GSc 2. (598) Buchan MSS II f. Bo The Water o Wearie's Well, about 1828, MS, 14 4-line stanzas; (599) Buchan ABS II, 191, Northern Scotland; (600) Frarris MSS No. 19 Wearie's Wells, MS, fragmentary, 18 lines ; (601) Grundtvig ESF No. 96 Denfalske Bejler; (602) Dixon STV No. 11; (603) Child ESB I, 316; (604) Warrender 104; (605) Child No. 4 B [Motherwell MS f. 561]; (606) Sargent-Kittredge No. 4 B. p: A bird [the false knight] - King's daughter.
a: There came a bird out o a bush,
On water for to dine,
An sighing sair, says the king's daughter,
>>O wae 's this heart o mine!>>
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He's taen a harp into his hand,
He's harped them all asleep,
Except it was the king's daughter,
Who one wink couldna get.
The false knight jumps on his nut-brown horse, lifts the maid up behind him and rides to the shore of a water called Wearie's Well (Wearie: the devil) where he tells the maid to step into the water assuring her that nothing evil will happen to her for he has himself watered his horse in this water many a time; having taken a step the maid finds herself in water up to her knees,
at the second step, up to the waist and at the third up to her chin; when the maid has already begun to suspect the knight's intentions he says, indeed:
>>Seven king's-daughters I've drownd there,
In the water o Wearies's Well,
And I 'll make you eight o them,
And ring the common bell.>>
b: >>Since I am standing here,>> she says,
>>This dowie death to die,
One kiss o your comely mouth
I 'm sure wad comfort me.>>
c: He louted him oer his saddle bow,
To kiss heer cheek and chin;
She's taen him in her arms twa,
And thrown him headlong in.
>>Since seven king's-daughters ye've drowned there,
In the water o Wearie's Well,
I 'll make you bridegroom to them a',
And ring the bell mysell.>>
d: And aye she warsled [wrestled], and aye she swam,
And she swam to dry lan;
She thanked God most cheerfully
The dangers she oercame.
The May Colvin Form (the maid pushes the knight off the bank into the water; the parrot scene)
GSc 3. (607) Herd MSS I f. 166 May Colven, Scotland, 1776, MS, 17 4-tine stanzas ; (608) [Herd] ASS I,93 Ma2 Colvin; (609) thil-d No. 4 C; (610) Aytoun I,zig May Collean, 16 4-line stanzas; (611) Allingham No.45. p: False Sir John- May Colvin. a: The knight pays a lengthy court to the maid who is not in succession [to the throne] to her father; they choose from her father's stables the best horse of the realm and ride to a lonely place, to a
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rock on the seashore, where the knight tells maid to dismount and take off her clothes:
>>For I have drowned seven young ladies,
The eight one you shall be.> -
b: >>O turn you about, O false Sir John,
And look to the leaf of the tree,
!'or it never became a gentleman
A naked woman to see.>>
c: When the knight turns round the maid pushes him suddenly off the rock into the sea; the"knight calls on the maid for help and promises to take her back to her father's home, but the maid replies:
>No help, no help, O false Sir John,
No help, nor pity thee ;
Tho seven king's-daughters you have drorvnd,
But the eight shall not be me.>>
d:=GE 1.
GSc 4. (612) Motherwell, Minstrelsy 67 May Coluin, or False Sir John, 1776, 19 4-line stanzas; (613) Wolfe Halle I, 38 Maid Colvin oder der falsche Sir John, 18 4-line stanzas; (614) Wolf, Haussciatz 225; (615) Child ESB II, 272 May Colvin; (616) Warrens, Schott. No. 34. p: False Sir John , May Colvin. (the knight and the maid come to a broad stream by a desolate bay of the sea),
b, co d.
GSc 5. (617) Sharpe No. 17 May Collin, 30 4-line stanzas; (618) Buchan ABS II, 43; False Sir John and May Colvin, Northern Scotland, 36- 4-line stanzas; (619) Motherwell, Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xxi No. XXIV May Collean, first stanza; (620) Robert Chambers SB 232, 33 4-line stanzas; (621) Child No. 4 D; (622) Greig-Keith No. 2 May Caluin, Aberdeenshire, 23 stanzas, 98 lines; (0"3j 'Cftiia f,4.-AA The historical ballad of May Culean, an undated stall-copy, Edinburgh, 29 4-line stanzas. p: False Sir John, a bloody knight- May Colvin. a (the variants of the version begin by asking whether you heard of the bloody knight who lives in a southern country and has seduced eight beautiful maids and drowned them in the sea), b, c, d (the maid's father wants to go to the seashore and see the knight's corpse tossed by the waves onto the coast known as Carline Sands).
GSc 6. (624) Grundtvig ESF No. 35 Stolt Koluin, literary variant, 24 4-line stanzas. p: Herr John-Stolt Kolain. a, b, c, d.
GSc 7. (625) Hone III, 130 The Outlandish Knight- Six go true, the seventh askew, 1827; 22 4-line stanzas ; (626) Dixon STV 101 The Outlandish Knight; (627) Richardson VI,367; (628) Sheldon 194, 19 4-line-stanzas. p: An outlandish knight- A fair maiden. a (the knight comes from the Northern Countries) b (the maid asks the knight to look at the sun, which is just rising, while she undresses), c, d.
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GSc 8. (629) Roxburghe Ballads III, 449 The False Knight Outwitted, A new Song, 12 4-line stanzas ; (630) The Roxburghe Ballads, ed. by William Chappell and J. Woodfall Ebsworth, VII, 383; (631) Child No. 4F. p: The false knight- Pretty Polly. a.
b: >>Go fetch the sickle to crop nettle
That grows so near the brim;
For fear it should tangle my golden locks,
Or freckle my milk-white skin.>>
c, d.
GSc 9. (632) Additional MSS 20094, British Museum, 1829, MS, No. 4 The Knight and the Chief's Daughter, 16 4-line stanzas; (631) Child No. 4G (vol. II,497). p: The knight- The chief's daughter. a, b, c, d.
b: >>Oh turn away, thou false knight villain,
Oh turn away from me;
Oh turn away, with your back to the cliff,
And your face to the willow-tree.>>
GSc 10. (634) National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, MSS 877 Scotch Ballads, Materials far Border Minstrelry, f. 262 No. 146) May Collin, MS, 15, 62 lines ; (635) Child No. 4 H (vol. lY,44z); (636) Sargent-Kittredge No. 4H. p: Falsh Mess John (Falsh priest)- May Collin. a, b, c, d.
The Manx Variants (GM)
The May Colvin Form (associated with the Scottish form of the same name)
GM 1. (637) Journal FSS VII,3oo No. rto llliam Boght; or, Cur uss Jeed .Poor Wiilliam; or, Put afffrom Thee) ,3 z-line stanzas ; (6SB) Journal,FS'S VII,3o I
Jig; or, Currlt's JiS.pz llliam boght
a: >>Curry's jig yn (Cur as [uss] jeed dty) cap a cloak,
Curry's eh seeose (Cur ad sheese) er y clagh,
T' ad ro vie as ro geayr
Dy lhie ayn ushtey marish y corp.)> -
b: >Chyndaa dty hooii rhym, Illiam boght.>>
c: As sweepey Illiam boght dys y grunt.
d: -- -
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The Irish Variants (GIr)
The Cave Form (the maid pushes the knight into a cave)
GIr 1. (639) Once a.I,f::!_1I,53, [Connemara], a prose story. p: Captain
Wlb-A girl. a: Captain Webb ii inlne habit of ,riotaiing yorrrrg .oiuidr, uft..
yhl.! he alwa_ys undresses them and pushes them into a "i". (tnZ Murthering
Hole);- >this captain webb one day met a fine handsome girl, b.urtifulli
dressed, with a bran new cloak and gown. It was near the mouth oi tlr. M;;-
thering Hole that he met her. He first sthruve to get his will of her, but he
couldn't, for she was a very decent girl; so he tares off her cloak and drags
her to the mouth of the Hole, and says, ,Strip.,>> _
>>Go on.>> -
b: >>Well, sir, she takes off her new gown, and herfiannel petticoat, saving
your presence, and then she fails down on her knees and says to him, 'Oh;
for the Vargin's sake, turn vour head aside while I take off the rest of mr-
things.'>> _-
>Well ?) -
-_c: >Well, sir, he turned his back to her and his face to the Murthering
Hole, when she sprung up and made a dhrive at hinr, and pushecl him in.>> j
>And killed him ?>
>>Of course.>> -
d: >>Bravo!>>
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