False-Hearted Knight- Burling (RI-IO) 1944 Flanders A
[Flanders- Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin follow.
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight
(Child 4)
This song is known to practically all the ballad-singing people of Europe from Scandinavia to the Latin countries and into Poland to the Netherlands. Its theme, the story of the ogre who decoys maidens to their deaths but who is at last thwarted by an opportunistic girl, is widespread in tales (see Bluebeard and related matter) as well. Longer versions of the song may involve a conversation in which the girl asks her brother's permission to go with the lover who has sung irresistible melodies; a choice given the maid between hanging and being stabbed; remarks by the head of the decapitated lover; a meeting between the girl, who is carrying the ogre's head, and the ogre's mother; and the conquering maiden's blowing her horn like a warrior as she
approaches her father's castle. It is easy to see that the Anglo-American texts, where even the supernatural nature of the lover has pretty well vanished and where the naive chivalry of the villain gives the girl her chance, are abbreviated and somewhat pale. However, the true core of the story, the vigorous nature of the heroine, is preserved faithfully--almost as well as in French Canada where Jeanneton kicks the man in the stream as he pulls off her stocking and then holds him under with a branch.
Versions similar to A and B below (see Child E), in which the girl is told to remove a series of garments, are more common to New England than to the rest of the United States. Texts C and D, in which nettles or other brambles are removed from the river's edge, are not until except in the opening stanza which is borrowed from Child 105, nor are texts like L where the parrot (note he is a pirate in A) has been omitted. The parrot in "Lady Isabel" and the parrot in "Young Hunting" (Child 68) often get confused anyhow. It is somewhat unusual, however, to find as one does in Versions L and M that the girl recites what has happened to her. Obviously, from what goes on between her and the parrot, in Anglo-American tradition she would prefer to drop the subject.
The European backgrounds of this have been intensively studied. Grundtvig (Danmark's gamle Folkeviser (Copenhagen, 1853-90], IV) made an elaborate investigation of its dissemination; Child, 22 f., spent a long introduction on it; and more recently it has come under the thorough attention of Iivar Kemppinen (The Ballad of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, Heisinki, 1954) and Holger Nygard. Nygard's two articles, in JAF, LXV, 1-12, and LXVIII, 141-52, give one a start on a bibliography and a nice introduction to the problems involved; his book, The Ballad of Heer Halewijn (Knoxville, 1958), is a complete study. Anglo-American bibliographies and discussion, are found through Coffin, 32-35, Belden, 5-6; and Dean Smith, 97. The song is included in Barry's British Ballad's from Maine, 14.
The large group of tunes for this ballad falls (indistinctly) into two groups: 1) the versions of Burling, Harrington, Moses, Amey, Russel, Fish (which is especially close to Moses) and perhaps Pease (close to Russell?); and 2) Lougee, with Daniels and George (distantly close to Lougee, but close to each other). The Hayes version seems outside these groups, as does that of Lane which may be related to group I. Comparison with BCI groups reveals that our group I is part of BCl's group A, and our group 2, part of his group B.
A. "The False-Hearted Knight." This version of "The Outlandish Knight" was sent in a letter from Dr. Temple Burling, 100 North Main street, Providence, Rhode Island. He says: "I heard, this sung in Iowa, and I once heard a sea chantey sung to the same tune." It was also sung on January 22, 1945; with three alterations as noted. Published in Ballads Migrant in New England, 4. H. H. F., Collector December 4, 1944; Structure: A1 A2 A2 B1 B2 (2,2,2,2,2); Rhythm D; Contour: generally descending; Scale: major t.c. C. For mel. rel. see DV, 549, No. B(B); FCB4, 6(D); ROI, 41; and distant, Sharp I, 5 and 6.
The False-Hearted Knight
Come listen, come listen, my good people all;
Come listen awhile unto me,
Of the false-hearted knight and the little Golden,
The truth unto you I will sing, sing, sing;
The truth unto you I will sing.
He follered [1] her up, he follered her down;
He follered her to her bed chamber side.
She had not the wings to fly away from him
Nor the tongue to say[2] him "O nay!" "O nay!" "O nay,"
Nor the tongue to say him "O nay!"
"Oh, get you up, my little Golden,
And come along with me,
And I'll take you to old Scotland
And there I'll marry thee.
(Follow pattern)
"Oh, take of your father's yellow beating[3] gold,
Likewise of your mother's fee,
And the two best horses in your father's stable,
Where they stand, thirty and three," etc.
She took of her father's yellow beating gold,
Likewise of her mother's fee,
And the two best horses in her father's stable,
Where they stand, thirty and three, etc.
He mounted on the bonny, bonny brown,
And she on the dappl' and gray,
And they rode till they came to the sea-beating shore,
Three long hours before it was day, etc.
"Oh, get you down, my little Golden,
And come along with me.
Six king's daughters have I drownded here,
And the seventh you air for to be, etc.
"Take off, take off that gown so fine
And deliver it unto me,
For it is not meet that so costly a thing
Should rot in this wat'ry tomb, etc.
"Take off, take off those shoes so fine
And deliver them unto me,
For it is not meet that so costly a thing
Should rot in this wat'ry tomb, etc.
"Take off, take off those stockings[4] so fine
And deliver them unto me,
For it is not meet that so costly a thing
Should rot in this wat'ry tomb, etc.
"Take off, take off that smock so fine
And deliver it unto me,
For it is not meet that so costly a thing
Should rot in this wat'ry tomb," etc.
"Oh, turn you all around and about
And gaze on the leaves of the tree,
For it is not meet that a villain like thou
A woman unclad should see," etc.
He turned him all around and about
And gazed on the leaves of the tree.
She catched him 'round his middle so small
And tumbled him into the sea, etc.
"Lie there, lie there, thou false-hearted knight,
Lie there instead of me.
Six king's daughters have you drownded here
But the seventh hath drownded thee," etc.
She mounted on the bonny, bonny brown,
Led home the dappl' and gray,
And she rode till she came to her father's stable,
Three long hours before it was day, etc.
It's up speaks the pirate [5] then
To the Golden and did say,
"O my little Golden, it's where have you been,
So long before it was day?" etc.
"Oh, hold your tongue, my pretty pirate,
And tell no tales on me,
And your cage shall be lined with yellow beating gold
And hung on yon willow tree," etc.
It's up speaks the father then
To the pirate and did say,
"O my pretty pirate, why are you prattling
So long before it is day?" etc.
"Oh, I dreamed seven cats came to my cage door
And said that they would eat me,
And I was calling my little Golden
To drive those cats all away," etc.
1 "followed" when sung January 22, 1945
2 "tell" when sung
3. beaten
4 "hose" when sung
5 "parrot"