Child No. 1, "Riddle Wisely Expounded" British & and Other Versions
Main Headnotes & All Variants
A*. "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo" acquired by Walter Pollard, of Plymouth, about 1445; the text is taken from Rawlinson MS. D. 328, fol. 174 b., Bodleian Library. Riddling contest between the maid and foul fiend (Devil). Child A*
A. "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (The knight is mortal) with "The Maid's Answer" Child A
a1. "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded; or, The Maid's Answer to the Knight's Three Questions." Wood, E.25, fol.15 (Bodleian), the same Euing, No. 253, Coles, Vere & Gilbertson London 1658-64.
a2. "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded; or, The Maid's Answer to the Knight's Three Questions."Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, I. Wright, and I. Clarke London, between 1674 and 1679. According to Barry, Aa was licensed, March 1, 1675.
a3. "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded" Pepys, III 19, No.17 (Magdalen, Camb.), Thackeray, Millet & Milbourn, c.1692.
a4. "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded; or, The Maid's Answer to the Knight's Three Questions." Printed by Tho. Norris, at the Looking glass on London-bridge, about 1711.
a5. "A Riddle Wittily Expounded" T. D'Urfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy, (London 1719-20); Vol.IV, p. 129.
a6. "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship[sic]" Jamieson's "Popular Songs and Ballads," 1806.
a7. "Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom;" Dixon (from print) edited by Bruce and Stokoe, 1882.
B. "The Three Sisters" Cornwall, from Davies Gilbert, Some Ancient Christmas Carols. London: John Nichols And Son, Second Edition, 1823, pp. 65-67. Child B is probably based on A.
C. "The Unco Knicht's Wowing" Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 647. From the recitation of Mrs. Storie (Mary MacQueen) of Lochwinnoch. Child C. See also Crawfurd's alternative text.
D. "Gar Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom" from Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 142; dated c.1825.
E. "There was a Lady in the West" traditional in Miss Mason's mother's family, the Mitfords, of Mitford, Northumberland. From Miss M.H. Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, p. 31; sung in Northumberland.
F. ["What's greener than the grass?"] fragment from Rev. William Findlay's MSS, I, 151, from J. Milne of Arbroath; dated c. 1865 but possibly later. From Additions and Corrections but not given a letter designation by Child.
G. "A Knight (Old Riddle Song)," sung Thomas Smart (1838-1919) of Blunsdon St Andrew, Wiltshire, published in 1915. Collected by Alfred Williams. Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, 16th October, 1915 p 2, Part 3, No. 1: Williams, A: Folk songs of the upper Thames, 1923, p 37.
H. The North American Cante-Fables (with sung stanzas)
a. "The Bride of the Evil One," 1898 Louisiana; A cante-fable version collected from "Old William" an African-American gardener and published in the 1898 Journal of American Folk-lore, page 126.
b. "The Three Sisters," 1907 Jekyll; A cante-fable version from Walter Jekyll's 1907 book, Jamaican Song and Story; p. 26. Notes by Lucy Broadwood.
c. "The Devil's Marriage," Young (NC-GA) 1917 Parsons; A cante-fable version from Georgia taken from Carter Young, which he heard in Macon, Georgia. Young was born circa 1847 in Guilford Co. NC. It was published in Tales from Guilford County, North Carolina by Elsie Clews Parsons; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 116 (Apr. - Jun., 1917), pp. 168-200.
I. "The Three Riddles" c. 1836; Sung by Florence Mixer, Stonington, Maine, 1934; learned from her father. Printed by Bronson; Barry and Bayard, BFSSNE, No. 10 (1935), p. 8 and No. 12 (1937).
J. "The Devil's Nine Questions" 1922 Virginia/Kentucky version, widely copied.
a1. "The Devil's Nine Questions" 1922 Virginia. published in Traditional Ballads from Virginia, 1929 as collected by Miss Alfreda M. Peel, of Salem, Va. Sung by Mrs. Rill Martin of Mechanicsburg, Va. Bland County (formerly of Giles County).
a2. "The Devil's Nine Questions" sung Texas Gladden of Virginia, on Texas Gladden, Ballad Legacy, The Alan Lomax Collection, Portraits, Rounder CD 11661-1800-2. Learned from Peel who got it from Martin.
a3. "Sing Ninety-Nine and Ninety" June, 1941; sent in by Mrs. P.O. Ivery of Bluefield WV then Narrows VA. From the James Carpenter Collection, Reference Code AFC 1972/001, MS p. 07630, titled Riddles Wisely Expounded.
a4. "The Devil's Questions," 1946 Virignia. From: Songs of all Time- 1946 page 11 and American Folk Tales and Songs- 1956 page 110; both by Richard Chase.
a5. "The Devil's Nine Questions," sung by Mildred Creighton; Carrie, Kentucky 1962, collected by George Foss. From Southern Folk Ballads Volume II; McNeil 1988.
a6. "Devil's Nine Questions." As sung by Nancy Philley, Fayetteville, Arkansas on February 14, 1963; Cat. #1495 (MFH #997) Max Hunter Folk Song Collection.
a7. "Nine Questions," sung by Margaret Tuckwiller, Greenbriar Co. WV. Collected by Vivian Richardson, no date given. Appears with music in Singa Hippy Doodle 1971.
b. "The Devil's Nine Questions" sung by Mary Estep, Clay Co. KY 1958, known by her grandfather. Her great aunt helped with the verses. From Robert's "In the Pines," 1978.
c. "The Devil's Nine Questions" recited by Mrs. Ota Jones of Tahlequah, who came to Oklahoma from Arkansas in 1920 at age seventeen. She learned this song from Pete Drain, who lived at Hulbert, Oklahoma. From Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest.
K. The Newfoundland Composite Version
a. "The False Knight On The Road." Sung by Mr. Faulkner completed by Ben Henneberry; Devil's Island, Nova Scotia; published in 1932; Creighton.
L. "There Was a Man Lived in the West." As sung by Mrs. Hattie Erdredge Eldred, of Hardwick, Vermont. Learned from her father, Sylvester Eldredge, born in Bakersfield, Vermont. Mrs. Eldred, feels sure he learned, this ballad from hearing it sung by his parents. M. Olney, Collector; May 12, 1955.
[Child No. 1, "Riddle Wisely Expounded" is a series of questions in the form of riddles asked by a male suitor (who ofttimes is the Devil or the Devil in disguise) to a maid in order (as Child says) to win her hand. Child chose three riddling ballads as his first ballad studies in Volume 1. The first edition of Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads with ballad studies 1-29 was published in December 1882. Perhaps it was the ancient pedigree of riddling ballads that persuaded Child to select them first. Child knew that similar Anglo-Saxon riddles were written in Old English as far back as the tenth-century in the Exeter Book[1]. Regrettably, an important antecedent of the riddle ballads Child selected for No. 1 "Riddle Wisely Expounded" was not discovered until after Child's 9th Volume was published in 1894. Child was alerted to an archaic antecedent of these courting riddles by his friend Professor Theodor Vetter, of Zürich after the first nine editions of ESPB were printed. The antecedent, titled "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo," was handwritten in a book acquired by Walter Pollard, of Plymouth, about 1445 and was included in Child's ESPB, Volume 10 in the Additions and Corrections section with brief notes. Child died in 1896 after preparing most of volume 10 which would be finished and published by Kittredge in 1898, two years after Child's death.
The homiletic riddle poem, "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo," is in the form of a ballad but without the standard refrains. This poem/ballad changed Child's opinion about the ballads he selected for "Riddle Widely Expounded" in his original 1882 headnotes. The text from "Inter Diabolus" as found in the Rawlinson MS. D. 328, fol. 174 b. (Bodleian Library), follows. The translation from Old English in italics is by R. Matteson & friends[2], 2018:
Inter Diabolus Et Virgo (c. 1445)
Talk [between] Devil and Virgin (Maid)
1 Wol ye here a wonder thynge
Betwyxt a mayd and the fovle fende?
[Narrator:] "Will you hear a wondrous story,
Between a maid and the foul fiend (Devil)?"
2 Thys spake the fend to the mayd:
'Beleue on me, mayd, to day.
Thus spoke the fiend (Devil) to the maid:
"Believe on me, maid, today."
3 'Mayd, mote y thi leman be,
Wyssedom y wolle teche the:
"Maid, if I thy lover be,
Wisdom I will teach thee."
4 'All the wyssedom off the world,
Hyf thou wolt be true and forward holde.
"All the wisdom of the world (will be yours),
If you wilt be true and mine henceforward."
5 'What ys hyer than ys [the] tre?
What ys dypper than ys the see?
"What is higher than is the tree?
What is deeper than is the sea?"
6 'What ys scharpper than ys the thorne?
What ys loder than ys the horne?
"What is sharper than is the thorn?
What is louder than is the horn?"
7 'What [ys] longger than ys the way?
What is rader than ys the day?
"What is longer(broader) than is the way?
What is redder than is the day?
8 'What [ys] bether than ys the bred?
What ys scharpper than ys the dede?
"What is better than is the bread?
What is sharper than is death?
9 'What ys grenner than ys the wode?
What ys sweetter than ys the note?
"What is greener than is the woods?
What is sweeter than is the nut?
10 'What ys swifter than ys the wynd?
What ys recher than ys the kynge?
"What is swifter than is the wind?
What is richer than is the king?
11 'What ys yeluer than ys the wex?
What [ys] softer than ys the flex?
"What is yellower than is the wax?
What is softer than is the flax?
12 'But thou now answery me,
Thu schalt for sothe my leman be.'
"But you now answer me,
Thou shall truly my lover be."
13 'Ihesu, for thy myld myyth,
As thu art kynge and knyyt,
"Jesus, [I ask] for thy mild might,
As you are king and knight,
14 'Lene me wisdome to answere here ryyth,
And schylde me fram the fovle wyyth!
"Lend me wisdom to answer here right,
And shield me from the foul being!.
15 'Hewene ys heyer than ys the tre,
Helle ys dypper than ys the see.
"Heaven is higher than is the tree
Hell is deeper than is the sea.
16 'Hongyr ys scharpper than [ys] the thorne,
Thonder ys lodder than ys the horne.
"Hunger is sharper than is the thorn,
Thunder is louder than is the horn.
17 'Loukynge ys longer than ys the way,
Syn ys rader than ys the day.
Looking[3] is longer(broader) than is the way,
Sin is redder than is the day.
18 'Godys flesse ys better than ys the brede,
Payne ys strenger than ys the dede.
"God's flesh[4] is better than is the bread,
Pain is stronger than is death.
19 'Gras ys grenner than ys the wode.
Loue ys swetter than ys the notte.
"Grass is greener than is the woods,
Love is sweeter than is the nut.
20 'Thowt ys swifter than ys the wynde,
Ihesus ys recher than ys the kynge.
"Thought is swifter than the wind,
Jesus is richer than is the king.
21 'Safer is yelner than ys the wexs,
Selke ys softer than ys the flex.
"Saffron[5] is yellower than is the wax,
Silk is softer than the flax.
22 'Now, thu fende, styl thu be;
Nelle ich speke no more with the!'
"Now thou fiend (devil), still thou be,
I speak no more with thee!
Child's original headnotes focused on foreign analogues instead of Old English ones. Because he had selected the 1675 broadside, "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded," as his A version with its insipid ending, he was not looking in particular for analogues of riddles with the Devil.
A similar riddle contest with the Devil is found in Caxton's translation of "The Golden Legend (1483)" in the Miracles of St. Andrew entitled: The Bishop and the Devil in Disguise of a Woman. In this story St. Andrew, disguised as a pilgrim, is refused entrance to see the Bishop by the Devil, who is visiting the Bishop disguised as a beautiful woman. To gain entrance through the Bishop's door-- the pilgrim must answer three riddles sent by a messenger from the woman(Devil).
The first question sent to the pilgrim: "What is the greatest marvel God made in little space?"
The pilgrim answered: "The diversity and excellence of the faces of men."
The second question: "Is the earth higher than the heaven?"
The pilgrim answered: "Where Christ's body is, in Heaven Imperial, he is higher than all the heaven."
The last question: "How much space is there from the abyss to heaven?"
The pilgrim then requested that the Bishop make the woman answer this herself, for she had recently fallen from heaven to the abyss.
These homiletic riddles of the same century are similar to those found in "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo" where the maid summons the power of Jesus to defeat the foul fiend. When Child gave the following paragraph of notes about "Inter Diabolus" in his Additions and Corrections Volume 10, it's clear his opinion of the ur-ballad had changed[6]":
The parties are the fiend and a maid, as in C, D, which are hereby evinced to be earlier than A, B. The “good ending” of A, B, is manifestly a modern perversion, and the reply to the last question in A, D, ‘The Devil is worse than eer woman was,’ gains greatly in point when we understand who the so-called knight really is.
"Inter Diabolus Et Virgo" was thereafter labeled Child A*while C and D (Child did not give E consideration in his Headnotes since it was recently published in 1878 before Volume 1 and was later added in Volume 5) were "evinced to be earlier than" the broadside A, an obvious redacted recreation, and B, a version based on A.
Although the riddles are similar in "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo" the "modern" story line[7] of the broadside A is different: A woman or widow from the North who has three daughters is visited by a Knight. The youngest daughter sleeps with the knight and in the morning, when she suggests they marry, the Knight says she must first correctly answer his three riddles. She does so and he is pleased. They are married and live happily-ever-after. This "happy ending" of broadside A as Child suggests is a "modern perversion" by a broadside writer of the ballad story told in C and D.
Even though the woman's answer to the final riddle in Child A (Coles' broadside, dated 1675, ref. Barry) is "The Devil is worse than eer woman was," and suggests that the knight is really the Devil, the broadside writer has rewritten the ballad so that the knight is a mortal man and the resulting marriage is a normal marriage and not the marriage of a woman to the Devil. Proof of this is found in the line: "The knight, of courage stout and brave," and the lines: "I wish that you may constant prove/ Unto the man that you do love." Clearly the knight of A is not the Devil. Kittredge corroborates this new position of the original texts[8],
"In the oldest version the devil threatens to carry off a maiden if she cannot answer certain riddles. She solves them all, and (at the end) calls the devil by his right name, thus no doubt putting him to flight. The 'good ending' of A (sts. 19-23) is a modern perversion."
These are not the only stanza perverted by the broadside writer and it's impossible to tell exactly what the original stanzas were that were used to create A. It could be the original ending was similar to the Scottish versions Child C and D (from Motherwell's MS) with "The Devil is worse" stanza-- we may never know. A, was reprinted a number of times (see Child Ab-Ad) including a broadside "Printed by Tho. Norris, at the Looking glass on London-bridge" about 1711. It was titled "A Riddle Wittily Expounded" in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy Vol. IV (1719). It was titled "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship[sic]" in Jamieson's "Popular Songs and Ballads," 1806 and "Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom," partially sanitized by Bruce and Stokoe (as taken from Dixon from print), in 1882.
The story line of A, B, C and E (D is missing the opening) is that of the woman or widow from the North with three daughters or in B, three sisters. Child B, "The Three Sisters" from Cornwall appears in Davies Gilbert's "Some Ancient Christmas Carols" which was published in London, 1823. B, also gives no indication that the Knight is the Devil and is surely based on A. Versions C and E are manifestly close to the complete ur-ballad story of the three daughters and the visit from the Unco Knight, who is the Devil. It may be presumed that the ur-ballad story of the three daughters sprung from A* or a similar early ballad or riddling poem. Since A was rewritten from that ur-ballad by 1675 the original is at least that old.
C, "The Unco Knight's Wowing [Mysterious Knight's Wooing] " by Mrs. Storie of Lochwinnoch (dated c.1925) was taken by Child from Motherwell's MS. The text is the most complete traditional exemplar of the older original ballad. Scottish C, found in Motherwell's MS copy is now corroborated by another authentic copy from the same informant, Mary Macqueen Storie which was published in Crawfurd's Collection by Emily Lyle. Mary Ann Macqueen (also MacQueen, McQueen) was born in 1803 to parents Osbourne and Elizabeth (Copeland) McQueen of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, Scotland and lived in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire. She married Willie Storie in 1821 at the age of 18. Crawfurd wrote "The same Mary Macqueen has a great number of auld ballads which I had fished out of her for Mr. William Motherwell" (Lyle 1975-1996/1: xxx). Her brother, Thomas, was a poet in the style of Robert Burns and collected ballads for Motherwell. Curiously, one of the great Scottish ballad singers moved with her family to Ontario, Canada in 1829. Thomas MacQueen relocated to Ontario with his sister and became the founder & publisher of The Huron Signal newspaper until death in 1861[9]. That area is now known as Renfrew County after the Macqueen's home county of Renfrewshire in Scotland. For a time Mary Macqueen Storie moved to Utah (US) with her daughter, Elizabeth. Mary died in Renfrew County, Ontario in 1877. What's curious is: no ballads have been reported from the Macqueen's family in Ontario or Utah-- their ballads were not disseminated in North America and their interest in balladry seems to have ended when they left Scotland.
The "Unco Knight" of Child C is the Devil in disguise. Important is MacQueen's ending, which is based on a superstition found in ballads and rooted in the Bible[10]-- if you call the Devil by name, he will flee from you [see also Barry, Bulletin from the Folk Song Society of the Northeast, Volume 11: calling his name puts the Devil to flight] . When the maid uses the Devil's name (the Fiend) in her answer to the last riddle, she wins the riddling contest and banishes him. Here are MacQueen's ending stanzas from the Crawfurd edition:
18 The Peas are greener than the grass
Sing the claret banks tae the bonny broom
An' the Fiend is waur than a woman's wuss[wish],
An' ye may beguile a young thing sune.
19 As sune as she the Fiend did name
Sing the claret banks tae the bonny broom
He flew awa in a fierie flam,
An' ye may beguile a young thing sune.
A comparison of the two texts by Motherwell and Crawfurd gives some insight into Motherwell's editing. He changes for example, "the Fiend is waur[worse]" to "And Clootie's waur."
F, "What's greener than the grass?" is a fragment taken from James Milne of Arbroath as found in the MSS of Rev. William Findlay of Saline, Fifeshire, as dated 1865-85. G, "A Knight (Old Riddle Song) was sung Thomas Smart (1838-1919) of Blunsdon, St Andrew, County Wiltshire. It surely dates well into the 1800s and was published in 1915 by the collector, Alfred Williams. G does not mention the three daughters and represents an abbreviated story line closer to A* which has the riddle contest between the maid and the Knight who is revealed as the Devil with these last lines:
Then he clapped his wings, and aloud did cry,
And a flame of fire he flew away.
* * * *
In North America the ballad is rare and has taken some of the British forms. Three cante-fables with short singing texts were collected from African-American sources in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the US South and Jamaica. "The Bride of the Evil One," from Louisiana was collected from "Old William" an African-American gardener and published in the 1898 Journal of American Folk-lore, page 126. "The Three Sisters," is a cante-fable version from Walter Jekyll's 1907 book, Jamaican Song and Story; p. 26 and "The Devil's Marriage," is a cante-fable version from Georgia taken from Carter Young, which he heard in Macon, Georgia. Young was born circa 1847 in Guilford Co. NC. It was published in Tales from Guilford County, North Carolina by Elsie Clews Parsons; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 116 (Apr. - Jun., 1917), pp. 168-200.
An excerpt from "The Bride of the Evil One," from Louisiana follows:
. . . he sang in an impudent, swaggering manner:—
What is whiter than any snow?
What is whiter than any snow?
Who fell in the colley well?
The gentle Maritta lifted her soft eyes, and raising her sweet voice sang in a pure and tender strain:
Heaven is whiter than any snow,
Heaven is whiter than any snow,
Who fell in the colley well?
Two versions collected in New England continue the tradition of Child A-E. "The Three Riddles," sung by Florence Mixer of Stonington, Maine, in 1934 was learned from her father. Phillips Barry has dated it c.1836 from her grandfather. It does not mention the Devil and is related to Child Aa although it has acquired a number of local stanzas. A second New England version titled, "There Was a Man Lived in the West" was sung by Mrs. Hattie Erdredge Eldred, of Hardwick, Vermont and is Flanders' A version (Ancient Ballads). Eldred's old version is similar to Child E but sung in the form and with the chorus of "The Two Sisters."
The standard US form is "The Devil's Nine Questions" which was first collected in 1922 from Rill Martin of Virginia and published in Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. The collector[11] learned the tune and passed it on Virginia singer Texas Gladden where it may further have been copied[12]. The same year as Gladden's recording (1941), a version was sent in to James Carpenter by Mrs. P.O. Ivery of Narrows, VA. and I've titled Ivery's version, "Sing Ninety-Nine and Ninety" (her text is available online at the James Madison Carpenter Collection, VWML). Ivery's text is very similar to the 1922 version from Martin which was published by Davis in 1929-- since it was sent in and not sung, its authenticity is questionable. Although "The Devil's Nine Questions" was never popular in America, this same Virginia version was collected by Richard Chase at a folk festival (possibly from Davis or through Gladden and her recording). Two similar "Devil's Nine Questions" versions which seem to be independent were collected in Kentucky and Oklahoma (see US versions).
A composite of some antiquity has been collected in Newfoundland about 1930 from Ben Henneberry at Devil's Island. Henneberry's version begins with the opening two stanzas of Child 3, False Knight on the Road and the encounter of the little boy with the Devil. The questions that follow, however, are borrowed from Child 1.
The extant British ballad texts, some with music, are attached to this page on left hand column. These are [A*] "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo" from Child's Additions and Corrections, Volume X (1898); Child A-E with a fragment [F] given by Child and G, a version collected by Alfred Williams in Wiltshire.
R. Matteson 2018]
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Footnotes:
1. The Exeter Book riddles appear in the last two sections: Anglo Saxon Riddles Of The Exeter Book.
2. Translated at Mudcat Discussion Forum online. See also Barry notes BFSSNE, No. 10 (1935), p. 8 and No. 12 (1937).
3. "Sight" or "Seeing"
4. The Host, or Holy sacrament
5. Barry's translation has "Sulfur"
6. Francis J. Child's ESPB, volume 10, Additions and Corrections.
7. Child calls the 1675 A version-- a "modern perversion" and "modern" in this sense means a story line created well after A*, which is dated 1445. This modern story line would be that of the ur-ballad while "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo," is an antecedent.
8. Kittredge's summation is found in his 1904 edition of ESPB.
9. From the "Find a grave" website online."
10. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)
11. Alfreda M. Peel.
12. Texas Gladden's "The Devil's Nine Questions" was recorded by Lomax in 1941-- it's on Texas Gladden, Ballad Legacy, The Alan Lomax Collection, Portraits, Rounder CD 11661-1800-2.
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BRITISH VERSIONS CONTENTS (attached to this page):
1) "Inter Diabolus Et Virgo," Rawlinson Broadside, MS dated c. 1445 Child A*
2) Lay the Bent on the Bonnie Broom c. 1675 - Child A
3) The Three Sisters- Gilbert 1823; Child B
4) "Cather Banks" or "The Unco Knicht's Wowing" c. 1825 Motherwell- Child C
5) Gar Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom c. 1825 Motherwell- Child D
6) There was a Lady in the West- Mason 1878 Child E
7) Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom- Bruce/Stokoe 1882 Child A
8) "What's greener than the grass?" fragment from Rev. William Findlay's MSS, I, 151, from J. Milne of Arbroath; dated c. 1865 but possibly later. From Additions and Corrections but not given a letter designation by Child.
9) "A Knight (Old Riddle Song)," sung Thomas Smart (1838-1919) of Blunsdon St Andrew, Wiltshire, published in 1915. Collected by Alfred Williams. Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, 16th October, 1915 p 2, Part 3, No. 1: Williams, A: Folk songs of the upper Thames, 1923, p 37.