Lord Thomas- Scarborough (NC) pre1943 Brown K
[Fragment from the Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Volume 2, 1952. Their notes follow. Complete MS unavailable, may be found where Brown MS and papers are housed (Duke University?).
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.
K. 'Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor.' From Mary Scarborough of Dare county; the only text from tidewater North Carolina. Eighteen stanzas. Has the familiar ballad repeat at the end of each stanza:
Lord Thomas he was a very fine man,
A hunter of the king's deer;
Fair Ellinor she was a very fine lady,
Lord Thomas he loved her well well well,
Lord Thomas he loved her well.
Thomas asks his father and mother to riddle his riddle, stanza 2; Ellinor does the same, stanza 7. Thomas
dressed himself in very red,
In very red and green,
and Ellinor repeats the procedure a few stanzas later.