Recordings & Info 291. Child Owlet
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Mainly Norfolk
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 3883: Child Owlet (2 Listings)
Alternate Titles
Chylde Owlet
Giles Howlett
Traditional Ballad Index: Child Owlet [Child 291]
DESCRIPTION: Lady Erskine wants Child Owlet to sleep with her. Owlet will not; Lord Ronald (Erskine's husband) is Owlet's uncle. Erskine takes revenge by cutting herself and accusing Owlet of raping her. Owlet is torn to pieces between wild horses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: execution infidelity rejection lie
FOUND_IN:
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Child 291, "Child Owlet" (1 text)
DT 291, CHDOWLET*
Roud #3883
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sheffield Apprentice" [Laws O39]
NOTES: Compare this story to the biblical tale of Joseph and Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:1-20) - RBW
Child Ballad 291: Child Owlet
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
291 Alistair Hulett & Dave Swarbrick Chylde Owlett The Cold Grey Light of Dawn 1998 4:39 Yes
291 Ewan MacColl Chylde Owlet Blood and Roses - Vol. 2 1981 3:08 Yes
291 Ewan Maccoll Chylde Owlet No Tyme Lyke the Present - Traditional & Contemporary Folk Music 1976 3:00 Yes
291 John Faulkner Child Owlet The Very Best of Irish Music and Ballads 2001 3:32 Yes
291 John Faulkner Child Owlet + Erskine's Folly Fanaithe-Nomads 1999 3:30 Yes
291 Maddy Prior Chyld Owlett Ballads 1997 3:32 Yes
291 Mick West Chylde Owlett Sark O' Snaw 2009 3:35 Yes
291 Paul & Liz Davenport Giles Howlett Under the Leaves 2006 No
291 Steeleye Span Child Owlet They Called Her Babylon 2004 5:06 Yes
291 Ula Kapała Chylde Owlet Minstrel's Song 1997 2:09 Yes
291 Wheeler Street Child Owlett Roodumdah 2009 No
Mainly Norfolk: Child Owlet
[Roud 3883; Child 291; Ballad Index C291; trad. / Maddy Prior]
Maddy Prior sang the grizzly ballad Child Owlet in 1997 on the Fellside anthology Ballads and in 2004 on Steeleye Span's CD They Called Her Babylon. She commented in the former album's sleeve notes:
This extremely rare ballad is fairly horrific even by ballad standards. The failed seduction and the revenge of the spurned temptress provides another theme for the high drama of ballads, but it is the way his body is spread over the landscape which takes it one step beyond the more usual ballad disposal methods of poisoning, stabbing, drowning, burning and beheading.
and in the latter one's:
I originally heard this from the singing of Ewan MacColl but I have extended the tune to take it over two verses. If there is a lesson to be learned from this ballad it is that hell really hath no fury like a woman scorned. Also that being honest and upright does not necessarily result in affirmation and happy endings. Sometimes the cost of principles is very dear.
Lyrics
Lady Erskine sits intae her bower
A-sowing a silken seam
A bonny shirt for Child Owlet
As he goes out and in
His face was fair, long was his hair
She's called him to come near
“Oh, you must cuckold Lord Ronald
For all his lands and gear.”
“Oh, lady, hold your tongue for shame
For such should ne'er be done
How can I cuckold Lord Ronald
And me his sister's son?”
Then she's ta'en out a small penknife
That lay beside her head
She's pricked herself below her breast
Which made her body bleed.
Lord Ronald's come into her bower
Where she did make her moan.
“Oh, what is all this blood,” he said
“That shines on your breast bone?”
“Young Child Owlet, your sister's son,
Is new gone from my bower.
If I'd not been a good woman,
I'd have been Child Owlet's whore.”
Then he has taken Child Owlet
Thrown him in prison strong
And all his men a council held
To judge Child Owlet's wrong
Some said, Child Owlet he should hang,
Some said that he should burn,
Some said they would he Child Owlet
Between wild horses torn.
“Ten horses in my stable stand,
Can run right speedily.
It's you must to my stable go
And take out four for me.”
They tied a horse unto each foot
And one unto each hand.
They've sent them out o'er Elkin Moor
As fast as they could run.
There was no stone on Elkin Moor
No broom nor bonny whin
But's dripping with Child Owlet's blood
And pieces of his skin.
There was no grass on Elkin Moor
No broom nor bonny rush
But's dripping with Child Owlet's blood
And pieces of his flesh.
Acknowledgements
Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke. Thanks to Jim Lawton for correcting some errors.