He Followed Me Up, He Followed Me Down- Harrington (VT) 1930 Flanders F
[From 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.
F. He Followed Me Up and He Followed Me Down. Recorded in Bennington, Vermont, from the singing of Sharon Harrington, as remembered from his mother, Mrs. Rebecca smith Harrington. Published, in Vermont Folk-songs & Ballads, 190. In this song the last line is repeated, in the first and, last stanzas. George Brown, Collector. September 12, 1930. Structure: A1 A2 A1 B B (2,2,2,2,2); Rhythm D; Contour: descending; Scale: Mixolydian; t.c. D. For mel. rel. see ROl, 4l; DV, 5ag(BB); and (distant) Sharp I, 5 and 6. [music upcoming]
He Followed Me Up and He Followed Me Down
He followed me up and he followed me down,
And he followed me where I lie [1]
He followed me till I had not a tongue
To answer "yes" or "no."
"Go steal, go steal your mother's gold,
Likewise your father's fees
And go and steal two the very best of the steeds
Where in there stands thirty and three."
So she went and she stole her mother's gold
And likewise her father's fees,
And she went and she stole the very best of steeds
Where in there stood thirty and three.
Then she jumped onto the milk-white steed
And she led Nelly Grey.
She rode till she came to her lover's side
Four long hours before it was day.
Then he jumped onto the milk-white steed
And she rode Nelly Grey
And they rode till they came to the broad seashore
Three long hours before it was day.
"Get you down, get you down, my pretty Polly,
For I've something to tell to thee;
For six king's daughters I've drownded here
And you the seventh shall be.
"Take off, take off these gay clothing
And hang 'em on the willow tree.
For they are too rich and too costly
To rot with your body in the sea."
"Turn yourself around, turn yourself around,
Around to the limbs of the tree." [2]
[Two lines missing]
[Two lines missing]
And she grasped him around the middle so small
And threw him into the sea.
"Lay there, lay there, you false-hearted one,
Lay there in the room of me.
For it's six king's daughters you have drownded here
And the seventh has drownded thee."
Then she jumped onto the milk-white steed
And she led Nelly Grey.
She rode till she came to her father's barnyard
Two hours before it was day.
Then up speaks the pretty parrot
Who in his cage did lay,
Saying, "Why are you calling for pretty Polly,
So long before 'tis day?"
Then up speaks the good old man
Who in his bed did lie,
Saying, "Why are you calling for pretty Polly
So long before it is day?"
"There's been a black cat to my cage door
All for to devour me
And I've been calling for pretty Polly
All for to scat that cat away."
"Now hark your noise, my pretty parrot, [3]
And tell no tales on me
And your cage will be lined with a yellow beaten gold
And hung in the willow tree.''
1. Usually and ideally "lay," which rhymes with "nah" in last line (yes or nah).
2. I'm not convinced that missing lines need to be added here. The first stanza ends, "A naked woman for to see."
3. This stanza is out of place, and should be third from the end.