Fair Ellen- Moore (GA) 1909 Sharp J; Campbell-Rawn
[No date, assume it's 1909. My title, single stanza with music, additional text from her mother?, Mrs. Moore (Sharp B). From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell- Volume I; 1917 edition and 1932 edition edited by Maud Karpeles. The 1932 edition notes follow.
The unusual opening phrase also found in Sharp B is "roll a song" which is a verb meaning "advise (for me in) a song". It rivals "riddle my sport," which Belden, (and I believe mistakenly) says is a mishearing of "riddle my sword." I think sport is related to "old sport" or "jolly old sport" which is a slang for a term of endearment used to a friend or family member as in "old bean" or "old chap." "Riddle my sport" is found in North American versions only, although it may date back to the 1600s here.
This is apparently from Mrs. Moore's daughter? (see also Sharp B) so it should be a similar text and very similar melody. Version B is sung in the Lord Lovel form- this version is not.
Versions B and J were not collected by Sharp but were sent to him from Mrs. Campbell's collection which was in a collaboration with other members of the Council of Southern Mountain Workers, and were doubtless supplied by Isabel Rawn of the Martha Berry School in Georgia. Rawn was not credited in either the 1917 or the 1932 edition of EFSSA. (ref. In the world of my ancestors: The Olive Dame Campbell Collection of Appalachian folk song, 1908-1916; Turner).
R. Matteson 2014]
No. 19. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 73. Broadside by Catnach. C. S. Burners Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 545. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 135. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 235; xx. 254; xxviii. 152; xxxix. 94. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 45 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes:—Kidson's Traditional Tunes, p. 40. English County Songs, p. 42. E. M. Leather's Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 200. Sandys's Christmas Carols, tune 18. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 105; v. 130. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, p. 94. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), ii. 27 (also published in One Hundred English Folk Songs, No.28). Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 28. Scots Musical Museum, vi, No. 535. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, No. 6. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Songs, p. 14. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 128. British Ballads from Maine, p. 128, Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 191 and 568. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 28. Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 156.
J. [Fair Ellen]- Sung by Miss DELLA MOORE at Rabun Co., Ga.
Hexatonic. Mode 3, b.
1. O mother, O mother, go roll a song, go roll a song as one.
Which had you rather, I'd married fair Ellen,
Or bring the brown girl home?
The brown girl she has house and land,
Fair Ellender she has none;
There fore I warn you at your own ad-blessing
To bring the brown girl home.
2 It's, O my son, I'd advise you at your own blessing [1]
To bring the brown girl home;
For she has got both house and land
And fair Ellender she has none.
3 He dressed himself in the finest he had,
His image it was broad;
And every town that he rode round
They took him to be some lord.
4 He rode up to fair Ellender's gate
And jangled at the ring—
No one so ready as fair Ellen herself
To rise and let him come in.
5 Lord Thomas, Lord Thomas, she replied,
What news have you brought for me?
I've come to ask you to my wedding,
And that's bad news for to hear.
6 O mother, O mother, go roll a song,
Go roll a song as one,
Which had you rather, I'd go to Lord Thomas' wedding,
Or stay and tarry at home?
7 It's, O my daughter, I'd advise you at your own blessing
To stay and tarry at home.
8 I know I've got a-many- a friend,
Likewise many a foe,
But if my death coffin was at my door,
To Lord Thomas' wedding I'd go.
9 She dressed herself in the finest she had,
Her image it was green;
And every town that she rode round
They took her to be some queen.
10 She rode up to Lord Thomas's gate
And knocked so clear it rung.
No one so ready as Lord Thomas hisself
For to rise and let her come in.
11 He took her by her lily-white hand
And led her in the hall,
And seated her down by his bright side
Amongst the ladies all.
12 Lord Thomas, Lord Thomas, is this your bride?
I think she's very brown;
When you once might have had as fair a lady
As ever the sun shined on.
13 This brown girl she had a knife in her hand,
And the blade both keen and sharp.
'Twixt the long ribs and the short
She pierced it through fair Ellender's heart.
14 Fair Ellen, fair Ellen, he replied,
What makes you look so pale?
Your cheeks were once the rosy red,
And all your fine color has failed.
15 Lord Thomas, Lord Thomas, she replied,
Are you blind, or cannot you see?
Or don't you see my own heart's blood
Come twinkling down so free?
16 Lord Thomas had a sword hung by his side
With a blade both keen and sharp.
He cut this brown girl's head smooth off
And cleaved the body apart.
17 And then he pointed toward the floor
With the point toward his heart.
Did you ever see three own true loves
Sudden in death to part?
18 Go dig my grave both wide and deep
And paint my coffin black,
And put fair Ellender in my arms
And the brown girl at my back.
1. After the first stanza, text is supplied from Sharp B by Mrs. Moore.