Lord Nelson- Bracey (ME) 1947 Flanders N
[Title should be "Sweet Nelson," I'm leaving it as it appears. From Ancient Ballads 1966, Flanders, version N with music. The intro notes are by Coffin- which follow. Cf. Flanders O which is from the same region.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lord Randal
(Child 12)
"Lord Randal" has a vigorous oral tradition. Known from Italy to Iceland and to the Slavic countries, it has managed to spread across America with almost no aid from broad sheets and songsters. With its incremental repetition, its dialogue and testament, and its popularity, it makes the model folk song. Even the anthologists and critics are willing to accept the better variants as great poetry.
The details of the story of Randal's fate differ widely. The murderess may vary, as she does in the Flanders texts, from the sweetheart (A-E), to the wife (F, G), to the mother in league with the girl (H, I), to the grandmother O, K); the poison may be the usual snakes, or eels, or cakes, or what have you; and the possessions willed at the end may be almost anything at all. But the cole of the tragic event, the fatal disillusionment of a young man, remains firm. Perhaps the universal retention of this core can be laid to the fact that the song has already been reduced to its climax scene everywhere it is found. Unless the testament ending is dropped (see L f.), there is not much a singer can leave out if he recalls the story at all.
In truth, we know little about "Lord Randal"--why his sweetheart killed him, why he meets the girl in the woods, why his mother might be in league with the girl. The song can be traced back only as far as the late 1700's (except in Italy where a text "L'Avvelenato" was printed about 1600).
Archer Taylor attempts to explain the greenwood meeting by relating the song to "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (Child 52), and Coffin has associated the testament ending with incest motives in "The Murder Motive in 'Edward' " (WF, VIII, No. 4, 314-19). However, Child's descriptions of British and European texts (I, 151 f.) and Barry's remarks in conjunction with the texts he prints in British Ballads from Maine, 64 f., are the best summaries of the history of the song. To start a bibliography, see Coffin, 42-45 (American); Dean-Smith, 85 (English); Ord, 458, and Greig and Keith, 13-15 (Scottish); and Paul Brewster, Ballads and Songs of Indiana (Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series, No. I [Bloomington, 1940], 51 [European]). Reed Smith has written a chapter on the degeneration of the song ("The Road Downhill") in his South Carolina Ballads (Cambridge, Mass., 1928). [Actually, this is incorrect; Smith has only a brief paragraph listing the various titles.]
The Flanders texts are pretty typical of New England. J and Q-R retain the characteristic northeastern "Tyranti" as the hero's name; D has both "Randal" and "Tyranti" and J-K, with the grandmother as the villain, are, as Barry says, probably descended from the Scottish "Croodlin' Doo." L & M seem to be mixed in the singer's mind with "Billy Boy"; A, with its refrain, is unusual.
The twelve tunes given here show a remarkable degree of diversity within basically two tune families. 1) The Shepard, Tatro, and Degreenia tunes correspond to group Ab in BC1; a comparison of the Degreenia and Sullivan tunes reveals that this group is also close to the next, 2) Sullivan, Bourne, Wheeler, Lewis, and Hills, which correspond to BC1 tune group Ac. The Dennison tune belongs with BC1 group Aa, the Cobleigh tune with BC1 group Ba; The Bracey tune seems independent of the others, and the Lorette tune, which may be a fragmented version of the Wheeler and Hills tunes, seems to fit into BC1 group Bc.
N. "Lord Nelson." As sung by Mrs. Lilla Bracey of the Agamenticus section of York, Maine, as learned from her parents, who were descendants of the early settlers, of this part of Maine. September 21, 1947; Structure: A1 b Cb A2 (2,2,2,2); Rhythm C; Contour: arc; Scale: Aeolian; t.c. G.
Lord Nelson
"Oh, where have you been, sweet Nelson, my son?
Oh, where have you been, my own dearest one?"
"I've been to see my sweetheart, make my bed soon,
For I'm poisoned to the heart, and I fain would lie down."
"What did you have for supper, sweet Nelson, my son?
Oh, what did you have for supper, my own dearest one?"
"Fresh water eels, mother, make my bed soon
For I'm poisoned to the heart and I fain would lie down."
"Oh, what was their color, sweet Nelson, my son?
Oh, what was their color, my own dearest one?"
"Black, white and speckled, mother, make my bed soon
For I'm poisoned to the heart and I fain would lie down."