False Linfinn- Harding (ME) 1934 Eckstorm B; Flanders B
[From: Two Maine Texts of "Lamkin" by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan. - Mar., 1939), pp. 70-74. Her notes follow.
This is Flanders B version; Ancient Ballads, 1961.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
The other text (See: Lamkin- Morris) was from Mrs. Susan M. Harding, of Hampden, Maine, recorded June 16, 1934, on the first visit made that year by Mr. Barry. I had previously located the song and made a list of the songs Mrs. Harding knew. One Saturday afternoon we drove about twelve miles, found her home and arranged to come to her the Monday following. On Monday we found her ill in bed and unable to do anything. A few days later we went again. She was then sitting up, and although far from well, she obliged us with several songs and airs, including this text, and arranged to see us again later. This time she was in the hospital. On Mr. Barry's second trip in August we learned that she had died. Again a text was saved by the narrowest margin, and this is even more important than the first, for it contains the only hint we have of the real meaning of the song about "the bloody mason".
FALSE LINFINN - From the singing of Mrs. Susan M. Harding, Hampden, Me., June 16, 1934. Air recorded on the dictaphone by Philips Barry. Mrs. Harding said that the song came from her mother's family, the Knowltons, who came early from England to Massachusetts.
1. Said the lord to his lady as he went away from home,
"Beware of the Linfinn, for he'll do you much harm."
2. "I care not for Linfinn nor none of his kin,
I keep my doors bolted and my windows pinned in."
3. "How shall I get her down?". . .
. . . . . . . .
4. They pricked it and they pricked it and they pricked it full sore
Till the blood ran from the cradle in streams on the floor.
5. "I've rocked it and fed it on breast milk and pap,
Why can't you come down and rock it on your lap?"
6. "How can I come down so late in the night
Without any fire or bright candlelight?"
7. "There are fifteen bright candles burning and one as bright as the sun;
You can come down here by the light of one of them!"
8. She started to come down, not thinking any harm,
And the Linfinn stood ready to catch her in his arms.
9. "O spare me, Mr. Linfinn, till one o'clock at night,
And you shall have as much money as you can carry in your cart."
10. "If I had as much money as I could haul in my cart,
I'd rather see a sword run through your red heart."
11. "O spare me, O spare me, O spare me," she cries,
"And you shall have my daughter Betsy, she's the pride of all flowers."
12. "Bring down your daughter Betsy, she may do some good
For to hold the silver basin for to catch your heart's blood."
13. "O Betsy, dearest Betsy, stay right where you be,
Until your noble father comes a-riding home from sea."
14. As Betsy was a-sittin' in her chamber most high,
She saw her noble father come a-riding close by.
15. Says, "Father, dearest father, pray do not blame me,
For the Linfinn and the wet nurse has murdered Ma-mee."
16. The wet nurse was hung on the gallows so high,
And the Linfinn was burned to a stake standing by.
17. "Farewell to old England, old Ireland," says he,
And the landlord went a-mourning for his fair ladye.
This is clearly the same version as Mrs. Morris's, though there is no possibility of a common source short of the old country. If we insert into Mrs. Morris's version stanzas 4, 7, 8, , 10 and 13, we greatly improve the story and get a text of twenty-eight stanzas. That the original was an Irish tradition Mr. Barry felt sure from the phrase about Betsy being "the branch of all flowers", which occurs in Mr. Mace's text in British Ballads from Maine, p. 205. It is also found, in variants, in both these texts. The reference to Ireland in the concluding stanza of both texts may be significant, but these are not the important features of Mrs. Harding's song. While Mr. Barry was recording the song on the dictaphone, I sat by as usual with paper and pencil, making notes of anything not in the record; for often the side remarks of a singer were important, and Mr. Barry might not even notice them. This day, because the song itself was a rare one, I took down the whole text in longhand, as given above. That evening, as we were going over the day's work, Mr. Barry looked at my notes and suddenly pounced upon the name "the Linfinn", which, for no reason whatever I had written with a doubled final letter. "Did she say that?" he demanded.-"She certainly did," I replied.-"That explains it," he said, and fell musing; and when he had gathered his thoughts a little he expounded the inner meaning of the old ballad as it had never been explained before. Without attempting to quote his words, I may venture to reproduce his idea. "The Linfinn" was Irish for the "white man who lives by the linn" or stream. Why white? Because he was a leper, forced to live apart by himself. The cure for leprosy was blood, the blood of some innocent human being and the ceremonial of taking it required that it be collected in a silver basin. Mr. Barry, with his great learning, had at hand the references needed to uphold his theory. I believe I am not far wrong in saying that he explained the idea of the Linfinn being a mason as a probable later intrusion, after leprosy had ceased to be feared. Irish masons were said to be superior and they had a recipe for making cement with blood, it might be of animals though it was also claimed that human blood was used. This would explain how the leprosy-ceremonial became grafted upon the mason, and why the ballad has its Irish turn. Perhaps it originated in Ireland, and travelled from there.
One thing is evident: if Lamkin is based upon the idea of a cure for leprosy, it is very much older than any student has hitherto dreamed and should stand near the head of the ballad list.