Recordings & Info: 8. Erlinton
According to Coffin: There is no American text that can be for certain called a derivative of Erlinton.
[I consider the versions of Lady and the Dragoon/Bold Soldier to be part of Child 7. Earl Brand and are found under 7A. The Lady and the Dragoon, a title given by Cecil Sharp to the ballads he collected in the Appalachians from 1916-1918.
R. Matteson 2011]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
Alternative Titles
See 7A. Lady and the Dragoon (Bold Soldier; Red River Shore and related titles)
Robin Hood and the Tanner's Daughter
True Tamraas
Ballad Index: Erlinton [Child 8]
DESCRIPTION: (Erlinton) has a daughter, whom he confines to protect her virtue. A young man nonetheless spirits the daughter away. The lady's guards pursue; the young man slays all but one, and they escape.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: courting death fight escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 8, "Erlinton" (3 texts)
OBB 37, "Erlinton" (1 text)
DT, ERLINTON
Roud #24
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Earl Brand" [Child 7] (plot)
cf. "The Bold Soldier [Laws M27]" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Robin Hood and the Tanner's Daughter
NOTES: Child himself admits that it is "only with much hesitation" that he has separated "Erlinton" from "Earl Brand," and if they are in fact distinct, there has clearly been cross-fertilization. The distinction may not matter much; "Earl Brand" has a lively traditional history, but "Erlinton" was pretty much a dead end. - RBW
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Folk Index: Erlinton [Ch 8]
Rt - Earl Brand ; Poor Soldier
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Child Collection Index 8. Erlinton
Hester NicEilidh; Robin Hood and the Tanner's Daughter Robin Hood Ballad Project 2006 8:55 Yes
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8. ERLINTON- British Traditional Ballad in North America
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
Note: There is no American text that can be for certain called a derivative of Erlinton.
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Af>, 377 / Belden, Mo F-S, 103 / Brewster, \B/<& Sgs 2nd, 40 / Boston Evening Transcript Notes and Queries, 11 26 '21 / Brown Coll/ Bull TennFLS, II, #i, i / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 88 / Cox, F-S South, 375 / Creighton, Sgs Bids N Sc, 2$ / Davis, Trd Bid Va. 92 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 14 / Flanders, Garl GnMtSg, 55 / Flanders, Vt
F-S Bids, 232 / Gardner & Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 380 / Henry, *F-S So*Hghlds, 185 / JAFL, XXI, 575 XXIII, 447; XXX, 363 ; XLV, 1 14 / Pound, Am. Bids Sgs, 68 / Randolph, OzF-S, 303 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, I \ SharpK, EngF-S So\Aplchns, I, 333.
Local Titles: I'll Tell You of a Soldier, The Poor Soldier, The Soldier, The Soldier's Wooing, The Valiant Soldier.
Story Types: A: A soldier returns from war and courts a rich, fair lady against her father's wishes. The father and seven men attack them as they go to get married. The soldier fights bravely and is routing the assailants when the father offers to give up his daughter and a large sum of money. However, the girl refuses to let her lover stop the fight until the old man
offers all his wealth. She reasons that the fortune will be hers anyway if her father is slain. The father capitulates and takes the soldier home as his heir, more out of fear than agreement.
Examples: Belden; Randolph (A, B).
Disctission: There are a number of secondary versions of this ballad in circulation under the various "soldier" titles. However, the mood of these songs has become gay and humorous from tragic. Note the cold-bloodedness of the lady who willingly endangers her father's life in order to get the best bargain. This scene originates in the broadside texts. See The Masterpiece
of Love-Songs, in John Ashton's A Century of Ballads, 164 and the Roxburgbe Ballads, VI, 229, cited by Barry, JAFL, XXIII, 447. The outline of the tale, the elopement, and the lady who holds the horses and watches does, nevertheless, ally the American texts with Erlinton, or possibly Earl Brand.
See Gardner and Dickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 380; Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 14; and Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 40. Also check Child (I, 88, 106) who finds it difficult to separate the British forms of the two traditional ballads. There is a similar "sailor" song in the English broadsides. See Roxburgh Ballads, VII, 559-
The reason for my treating these songs as secondary of Erlinton rather than Earl Brand lies in the happy conclusion which in its sentimental form could only derive from the Erlinton ending. It should be noted, however, that there is no imprisonment of the girl or strict watch over her in the "soldier" songs as is the case in Child 8.
These "soldier" texts offer an example of an American oral tradition that has sprung from corrupted British forms of an old ballad. It is not uncommon for such to be the case. See also The Brown Girl (295) and the majority of the Kniherine J'affray (221) texts.