Recordings & Info 89. Fause Foodrage
[There are no traditional US or Canadian versions of this ballad. ]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 54: Fause Foodrage (15 Listings)
Alternative Titles
East Muir King
Fa'se Footrage
False Foudrage
Traditional Ballad Index: Fause Foodrage [Child 89]
DESCRIPTION: A lady courted by three kings weds one who is then slain (by one of the rivals/a rebel). Her not-yet-born child will be spared if female. She bears a boy, switches him with a baby girl. When grown the boy is told his heritage and avenges his father.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: royalty death murder children trick revenge
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Child 89, "Fause Foodrage" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 89, "Fause Foodrage" (3 versions)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 220-223, "Fa'se Footrage" (1 text)
GreigDuncan8 1930, "Tak Ye My Lad" (1 fragment)
OBB 70, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
DBuchan 14, "Fause Foodrage" (1 text)
DT 89, KINGLUVE
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 172-173, "Fause Foodrage" (1 tune)
Roud #57
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jellon Grame" [Child 90] (theme)
NOTES: Some texts of this ballad share a verse with Elizabeth Halket Wardlaw's "Hardeknute" (for which see Volume II of Percy's _Reliques_; at that time, the authorship of Wardlaw (1677-1727) had not been established). This caused Scott to wonder about the authenticity of the piece, but Child thought the informant might have taken the verse from the "tiresome and affected Hardyknute, so much esteemed in her day." - RBW
GreigDuncan8 quotes a Greig letter to the effect that his informant, Bell Robertson, did not know "False Foodrage" but told her mother's story "which Bell thinks must have been the same. She gives an outline of it bringing in a couple of ballad lines when the lady says to the gardener's wife 'Tak ye my lad, gie me your lass, Or else they'll gar 'im dee.'" Only Child 89A, and others that follow Scott's text (for example, Christie), have corresponding lines, 'To change your lass for this lad-bairn King Honor left me wi." Both GreigDuncan8 and Roud consider the fragment at least "closely associated" with Child 89 and I cannot justify making a separate entry of this two-line fragment. - BS
Child Collection- Child Ballad 086: Fause Foodrage
089 Brian Peters False Foudrage The Seeds of Time 1992 7:28 Yes
089 Brian Peters False Foudrage Songs of Trial and Triumph 2008 7:18 Yes
089 Chris Coe False Foodrage A Wiser Fool 2001 5:04 Yes
089 Hermes Nye King O'Luve - Fause Foodrage Ballads Reliques - Early English Ballads from the Percy and Child Collections 1957 1:25 Yes
089 Katherine Campbell East Muir King The Songs of Amelia and Jane Harris - Scots Songs and Ballads from Perthshire Tradition 2004 1:20 Yes
089 Sorten Muld Tor Af Hafsgaard Sorten Muld III 2000 5:39 Yes