Lord Thomas & Fair Ellenter- (NC) c1906 Brown C
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Volume 2, 1952. Their notes follow. No informant date or place is given. The MS is probably available at Duke University library, or where his MS papers reside.
Frank Brown had this ballad in his possession by 1906 when he made his report, with a list of Child ballads found within the state, to the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet (Child 73)
Of all the old ballads, this probably stands next to 'Barbara Allan' in popular favor. For its range in living tradition, both the old country and in America, see BSM 37-8 and add Tennessee (SFLQ XI 122-3), North Carolina (FSRA 23-4), Florida (SFLQ
VIII 147-50), Arkansas (OFS i 99-101, 106-8), Missouri (OFS 1 94-9, 1 01 -6), Ohio (BSO 29-34), Indiana (BSI 58-70), Illinois (JAFL Lii 75-6), and Michigan (BSSM 37-9). American texts follow one general pattern with various differences in detail — mostly cases of leaving out or putting in. Of the fourteen texts in the Brown Collection only a few are here given in full.
C. 'Lord Thomas and Fair Ellenter.' From the collection of Miss Louise Rand Bascom, Highlands, Macon county. [Frank Brown had this ballad in his possession by 1906 when he made his report to the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.] It is a somewhat defective text — lines are missing in places. Only Ellenter asks advice from her mother; as the lines stand, she does not get it, but declares that she will go to the wedding anyhow:
It's I would go to Lord Thomas's weddin'
If my coffin was in at my door.'
Miss Bascom notes a distinction of sex in the matter of summoning people to the door: Lord Thomas "jangled up the rein" but Fair Ellenter "jingled at the rein." This text, also, ends with the burial directions.