Fause Knight Upon the Road, The [Child 3]
CONTENTS:
1. Alternative titles
2. Tradtional Ballad Index
3. Notes from Mudcat- False Fly
4. Folk index
5. Child Ballad Collection: List of recordings sources
6. 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;
7. Excerpt from: The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Fause Knight upon the Road: A Reappraisal
2) The Fause Knight upon the Road- MacSweeney
3) Roud 20: Fause Knight (82 Listings)
Alternative Titles:
False Knight On the Road
The False Knight
Smart Schoolboy
The False Knight and the Wee Boy
The Child on the Road
False Fly
False, False, Fly
Knight on the Road
False Fidee
Où Vas-tu, Mon P’tit Garcon?
Ballad Index: Fause Knight Upon the Road, The [Child 3]
DESCRIPTION: A grown man (knight, churl, demon) meets a schoolboy on the road. The schoolboy matches wits with the man, finding a defense or matching insult for each thrust, and so survives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Motherwell, _Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern_)
KEYWORDS: contest Devil virtue questions
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(Ap,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 3, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Bronson 3, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (10 versions plus 2 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 11-14, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text)
Belden, p. 4, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 46-47, "The False Knight on the Road" (1 text) {Bronson's #10}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 79-81, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #10}
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 119-121, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-Ballads 2, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Davis-More 3, pp. 14-15, "The Fause Knight Upon the Road" (1 fragmentary text)
Brewster 2, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Creighton/Senior, p. 1, "The False Knight upon the Road" (1 text plus 1 excerpt, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
Creighton-NovaScotia 1, "False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Manny/Wilson 51, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 13, "Harpkin"; 14, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (2 texts)
Niles 3 "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 2 "The False Knight Upon the Road" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, #6}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 2, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
OBoyle 13, "The Knight On the Road" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 197, "(O, where are you going?)" (1 text)
TBB 31, "The False Knight upon the Road" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 20, p. 48, "The False Knight" (1 text)
DT 3, FALSKNGT* FALSKNT2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 62-64, "The Fause Knight and the Wee Boy"; p. 66, "Harpkin"
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #344, "The False Knight Upon the Road" (1 text);cf. the notes to #343, with "Meet-on-the-Road," evidently a literary rewrite
Roud #20
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Henneberry [and Kenneth Faulkner], "The False Knight Upon the Road" (on NovaScotia1) {Bronson's #9}
Duncan McPhee, "The False Knight Upon the Road (on FSBBAL1)
Frank Quinn, "The False Knight [Up]on the Road" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Devil and the Schoolchild
The False Knight
The Smart Schoolboy
The Knight on the Road
NOTES: One of Child's three texts is "Harpkin," which he places in an appendix. The two are distinct in plot ("Harpkin" is apparently a contest between two rivals; "The Fause Knight" involves an innocent youth), but the form of the two is so similar that they cannot be reliably distinguished.
Bertrand Bronson discusses the original form of this ballad in "The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts" (first printed in the California Folklore Quarterly, II, 1944; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, The Critics and the Ballad. The relevant discussion is on pages 80-82).
American versions of this piece can be quite degenerate. Pound's text, for instance, sounds very much like a schoolyard quarrel, except that one of the disputants is "false knight Munro." But he sounds just like a bully: "Give your lunch to my dog or I'll throw you down the well." The boy responds by throwing Munro down the well first.
In the "strange footnotes" department, this has to be one of the few ballads to have been turned into a comic book by a famous Hollywood writer. Sing Out!, volume 40, #4 (1996) contains an illustrated version "The False Knight on the Road" by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. - RBW
Notes from Mudcat on "False Fly":
Thought I might as well add this from Wimberley's Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (p.307):
The Fause Knight upon the Road (3), an old ballad with a striking parallel in a curious Swedish piece, furnishes still another example of riddlecraft. Matched by a witchlike old crone in the Swedish song, the false knight here, none other than the devil himself, tries to nonplus a wee boy by asking him questions and making evil wishes. Needless to say, the youthful replicant is capable of clever rejoinders and has the last word, a matter of paramount importance in these verbal conflicts with Otherworld folk. Child observes that our ballad is known only through Motherwell, but it is interesting that copies have been recovered in America by Phillips Barry, H. M. Belden, and Cecil Sharp. The false knight is called the "fol fol Fly" in Barry's Maine text, a probable corruption, as Barry points out, of "foul, foul Fiend." This text, Barry further observes, retains "a form of the theme more primitive than that of Motherwell's version."
The only Barry publications I have are the Journals of the Folksong Society of the Northeast, edited by Bayard, and British Ballads from Maine, and I find no "fol fol Fly" text in either. Bruce, can you locate the Barry text Wimberley is referring to?
The Alan Kelly version appears in Bronson's addenda at the end of Volume 4, by the way, as it was originally recorded by Lee Haggerty for Folk-legacy: "Fol, Fol, Folly" and all.
Sandy: This one is fascinating to me! In the early 60's we collected a version of "The False Knight Upon the Road" from a singer named Alan Kelly in New Brunswick. When he first sang it for us, he sang "The fol, fol, folly on the road." We were excited to find a version of the ballad, as we had never collected one before, and we told Helen Creighton about Alan having it in his English-language repertoire (he sang songs from both the Irish and French traditions of the area). The next year, we returned to make a serious recording of Alan's songs, and found that he had been told that "fol, fol, folly" was a corruption of "false knight on the road," and as a result he had changed the words he had always known in order to conform to what he'd been told was correct! The result was a recording with a confused text, as Alan stumbled over his new words. I've often used this as an example of what not to do as a collector.
So, thank you for pointing me toward a "fly" version from which "folly" could easily have been derived. Now I'll have to go check Bronson, etc.
Bronson has 10 versions with tunes. The third from Brewster's 'Ballads and Songs of Indiana', has something similar. Interlaced refrain, after 1st line - "Said the False, fie, the False Fidee"; and for last "Said the child and still she stood". The fourth version from Davis's 'Trad. Ballads of Virginia', has for the 2nd line "Said the false so rude"
At one point, Alan Kelly told Lee Haggerty, who was recording Alan Kelly on our first trip to the Miramichi (I was busy recording Marie Hare at the same time), "Well, that's all of the English language songs I'm going to sing. Now, I'll give you some songs in my mother's language, French." But Lee, who had always joked with us about finding a version of this ballad someday, said "Wait a minute. Do you happen to know a song about a knight meeting a boy on the road?" Without hesitation, Alan replied, "That wasn't a knight! That was the devil!" He then proceeded to sing his "Fol, fol, folly" version, which he later tried to change.
I've read, Lord only knows where, that the "and still he stood" suggests that the boy was standing within a charmed circle, and the devil couldn't take him away as long as he remained there. Fakelore? Possibly, but fun. Also, in answer to the question above, the devil was seeking to whisk the lad off to hell, which he would do if the boy failed to answer the challenging questions. The little smarty was successful, however, in warding him off. Max Hunter, from Springfield, Missouri, has an Ozark version of this ballad, and the Nova Scotia version sung to the tune of "The Flowers of Edinburgh" is superb. And who was it who sang that splendid version from Ireland on the Caedmon ballad series? Someone out there will remember, saving me the trouble of trotting downstairs to look through the record shelves. God, that one was glorious!
British Ballads from Maine doesn't seem to have a "False Fly" version, so it must be the one in the JAFS of 1907.
Sandy, Barry, 'Bulletin of the Folk Song Society of the Northeast', ii, p. 8-9, 1936, (AFS reprint,1960) has a text, without tune, from Maine, but quite normal. I see from his headnote that Barry reported another text from Maine in JAFS, 1907, and in 'British Ballads from Maine'. I have neither of these.
Cross checking of song title and contributor listings in Coffin's 'An Analytical Index to the Journal of American Folklore', it appears that Barry's text must be in the 1911 volume of JFSS. I don't know what Barry might have meant in BFSSNE when he said the song 'was first reported in 1907 from Maine'. No Barry contributions in 1907, and first of two "False Knight upon the Road" texts in JAFS is 1911.
Two more odd things: looking at Creighton, Nova Scotia I see that there is a chorus - this is described by Belden as a unique nonsense refrain (not exact words) and this is repeated by Tristram Coffin in The British Traditional Ballad in North America. They're all wrong - all that happened was that the singer using the Flowers of Edinburgh tune lilted the tune between verses - this was slavishly noted by the collector as Hi diddle deedle dum etc - in this case the vocables are not prescribed - there may be some consistency, but would not have been repeated;
John Moulden
The full text version of "The False Knight upon the Road" in the Introduction to 'Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern' (Child #3A) was that from a Mrs Dole or Doll of Galloway. Except for spelling it is identical to that in Emily Lyle's 'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads', I, #31, where she notes, p. 213, that it was in Motherwell's introduction. [Crawfurd and Motherwell got songs from many of the same sources, often through Thomas MacQueen. Andrew Blaikie collected 10 of Thomas's sister Mary MacQueen's tunes and gave them in the Appendix of Motherwell's 'Minstrelsy'. See Emily Lyle's book for these. For the cassettte tape of Mary MacQueen's ballads to her tunes see the introduction on my website homepage.]
Keefer's Folk Index
The False Knight On the Road [Ch 3/Sh 2]
Clayre, Alasdair (ed.) / 100 Folk Songs and New Songs, Wolfe, Sof (1968), p 92 (Fause Knicht Upon the Road)
Wells, Evelyn Kendrick (ed.) / The Ballad Tree, Ronald, Bk (1950), p174 (False Knight Upon the Road)
Blue Velvet Band. Silver Meteor; A Progressive Country Anthology, Sierra/Briar SRS 8706, LP (1980), trk# 11 (Knight on the Road)
Blue Velvet Band. Sweet Moments with the Blue Velvet Band, Warner W 1802, LP (1969), trk# A.03 (Knight Upon the Road)
Christl, Margaret. Looking Towards Home, Canadian River LLR 3529 C, Cas (1984), trk# A.02a
Coates, Mrs. T. G. Sharp, Cecil & Maude Karpeles (eds.) / Eighty English Folk Songs from th, MIT Press, Sof (1968), p 22 [1917ca]
Coates, Mrs. T. G. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 3/# 2A [1916/09/01]
Coolfin. Coolfin, Metro Blue 7243 4 83542, CD (1998), trk# 7 (False Fly)
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p 4/# 2B [1916/09/12]
Gentry, Jane Hicks. Smith, Betty N. / Jane Hicks Gentry. A Singer Among Singers, U. Ky, Sof (1998), p140/# 1 [1916/09/12] (False Knight in the Road)
Hart, Tim; and Maddy Prior. Summer Solstice, Shanachie 79046, LP (1984), trk# A.01
Henneberry, Edmund. Folk Music from Nova Scotia, Folkways FM 4006, LP (1961), trk# B.13a
Hickerson, Joe. Joe Hickerson, Folk Legacy FSI 039, CD (1970), trk# 13 (Devil and the Schoolchild)
Johns, Mrs. J. D.. Pound, Louise (ed.) / American Ballads and Songs, Scribner, Sof (1972/1922), p 48/# 20 [1916]
Kennedy, Norman. Ballads and Songs of Scotland, Folk Legacy FSS 034, LP (1968), trk# 5
Langstaff, John. Nottamun Town, Revels 2003, CD (2003/1964), trk# 1
Long, Maud Gentry. Anglo-American Songs and Ballads, Library of Congress AFS L21, LP (196?), trk# B.04 [1947]
Long, Maud Gentry. McNeil, W. K. (ed.) / Southern Folk Ballads, Vol 2, August House, Sof (1988), p119 [1936/06/28]
McPherson, James. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 11/# 3 [1940s]
Muller, Eric. Muller, Eric & Barbara Koehler / Frailing the 5-String Banjo, Mel Bay, Sof (1973), p75 (Fause Knight on the Road)
Quinn, Frank. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 4. The Child Ballads, I, Caedmon TC 1145, LP (1961), trk# A.02 [1950s]
Saletan, Tony and Irene. Continuing Tradition. Volume 1: Ballads. A Folk Legacy Sampler, Folk Legacy FSI 075, LP (1981), trk# A.01
Seeger, Peggy. Blood and Roses, Vol. 1, Blackthorne ESB 79, LP (1979ca), trk# B.03
Smith, Betty. Songs Traditionally Sung in North Carolina, Folk Legacy FSA 053, LP (1975), trk# 2
Steeleye Span. Lark in the Morning, Castle Music CMCD 781, CD (2003/1972), trk# 1.18 [1970] (Knight on the Road)
Wolford, Preston. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p 21/N 3 [1935] (Smart Schoolboy)
False Knight Upon the Road [Ch 3]
Us - Knight on the Road
Faulkner, Mr.; and Ben Henneberry. Creighton, Helen / Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, Dover, sof (1996/1933), p 1/# 1 [1927-32]
Child Ballad Collection
Alan Mills & Hélène Baillargeon Où Vas-tu, Mon P’tit Garcon? Canadian Folk Songs - Chansons Folkloriques du Canada [Canadian Folk Songs: a Centennial Collection] 1967
Amps for Christ; False Knight on the Road; Hand/Eye 2002- 5:43
Archie Fisher; The Child on the Road Archie; Fisher 1982- 2:23
Artus Moser; The False Knight Upon the Road; North Carolina Ballads 1955- 2:33
Bella Higgins; The False Knight Upon the Road; Folksongs and Music from Berryfields of Blair 196?
Bella Higgins + Duncan MacPhee + Nellie MacGregor; The False Knight upon the Road; Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs - Classic Scottish Ballads 1992 1:57 Yes
Ben Henneberry False Knight Upon the Road (1) The Helen Creighton Collection
Ben Henneberry False Knight Upon the Road (2) The Helen Creighton Collection
Ben Henneberry False Knight Upon the Road (3) The Helen Creighton Collection
Betty Smith; False Knight in the Road Songs; Traditionally Sung in North Carolina 1975 3:08
Cammi Vaughan; The False Knight Upon the Road; Lass of Roch Royal 2005
Charles Jordan & Joyce Sullivan; The False Knight Upon the Road; Canadian Folk Songs - Chansons Folkloriques du Canada [Canadian Folk Songs: a Centennial Collection] 1967
Charlotte Higgins; The False Knight; The Carry-On in the Berryfields - The Travellers Campfire 2 1979
Chris & Siobhan Nelson; False Knight on the Road; Day Has Dawned 2006
Dick Miles; False Knight on the Road; <website> 2007- 5:06 Yes
Dolly Gray; False Knight on the Road; Reluctant Sailor 1979
Donal Lunny; False Fly; Coolfin 1998 3:41 Yes
Duncan McPhee; The False Knight upon the Road; Come Fee Wi' Me, Tam Buie - The Travellers Campfire 1 1979
Duncan McPhee; The False Knight Upon the Road The Elfin Knight - The Classic Ballads 1 1976
Duncan McPhee + Frank Quinn; The False Knight Upon the Road; Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 1 2000 2:56 Yes
Edmund Henneberry & Ken Faulkner; False Knight Upon the Road; The Helen Creighton Collection
Edmund Henneberry & Kenneth Faulkner; The False Knight upon the Road; A Folksong Portrait of Canada - Un Portrait Folklorique 1994 1:59
Edmund Henneberry & Kenneth Faulkner The False Knight Upon the Road Folk Music from Nova Scotia `1961
Evelyn Richardson & Anne Wickens False Knight Upon the Road The Helen Creighton Collection
Ewan MacColl; The False Knight and the Wee Boy [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 3:39 Yes
003 Ewan MacColl The False Knight Upon the Road [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 1:21 Yes
003 Fiddler's Dram False Knight on the Road To See the Play 1978 5:22 Yes
003 Five Hand Reel Child on the Road Earl O'Moray 1978 4:31 Yes
003 Five Hand Reel The Child on the Road Five Hand Reel + For A' That + Earl O' Moray 2007 4:31 Yes
003 Fleet Foxes The False Knight on the Road Fleet Foxes 2008 3:46 Yes
003 Frank Quinn The False Knight on the Road The Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 4: The Child Ballads 1 1961 1:48 Yes
003 Frank Quinn The False Knight Upon the Road The Elfin Knight - The Classic Ballads 1 1976
No
003 Jane Siberry False False Fly Hush 2000 3:11 Yes
003 Jeff Wesley Ninety Nine and Ninety John Howson Collection 1970-1995
No
003 Jock Tamson's Bairns Fause Knicht on the Road Rare 2005 3:03 Yes
003 Jock Tamson's Bairns Fause Knicht on the Road Bar Edinburgh - Classic & New Scottish Flavours 2008
No
003 Joe Hickerson The Devil and the School Child With a Gathering of Friends 2002 2:00 Yes
003 John Langstaff The False Knight Upon the Road John Langstaff Sings - Archival Folk Collection 1949-1961 2004
No
003 John Langstaff The False Knight Upon the Road Nottamun Town: British and American Folk Songs and Ballads 2003 2:46 Yes
003 Joyce Sullivan & Charles Jordan The False Knight Upon the Road Folk Songs of Canada 1955 2:16 Yes
003 Jumbo Brightwell The False Knight Songs from the Company of the Butley Oyster 1999
No
003 Jumpleads False Knight Jali House Rock 1989 2:12 Yes
003 Jumpleads False Knight on the Road The Stag Must Die 1982 2:08 Yes
003 Jumpleads False Knight on the Road Fylde Folk Festival '83 1983 2:30 Yes
003 Jumpleads False Knight on the Road Roots - 20 Years of Essential Folk Roots & World Music - Britain, Ireland & North America 1999 No
003 Lea Nicholson The False Knight on the Road Horsemusic 1971 No
003 Len Graham, Garry O'Briain & Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin The False Knight When I Was Young: Children's Songs from Ireland 1999 2:55 Yes
003 Lorna Anderson The False Knight Upon the Road Britten - the Folksong Arrangements 2000 No
003 Maddy Prior, Eliza Carthy, John Kirkpatrick & Martin Carthy The False Knight on the Road Martin Carthy's 60th Birthday 2000 4:16 Yes
003 Mara! The Knight on the Road On the Edge 1987 5:03 Yes
003 Margaret Christl The False Knight on the Road/The Atholl Highlanders Looking Towards Home 1984 2:53 Yes
003 Maxine Hight The Knightman The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection 2:32 Yes
003 Mirella Murray & Tóla Custy The False Knight on the Road Three Sunsets 2002 3:35 Yes
003 Mrs. Byron Mitchell False Knight Upon the Road The Helen Creighton Collection No
003 Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan False Knight on the Road The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
003 Mrs. Maud Long The False Knight Upon the Road Folk Music of the United States - Anglo-American Songs and Ballads (4) 1959 1:35 Yes
003 Norman Kennedy The Fause Knight upon the Road Ballads & Songs of Scotland 2002 1:21 Yes
003 Oyster Band The False Knight on the Road This Is the Voice 1999 3:45 Yes
003 Oyster Band The False Knight on the Road The Oxford Girl and Other Stories 2008 4:01 Yes
003 Peggy Ashcroft & Martin Best The False Knight on the Road Sense and Nonsense 1976 No
003 Peggy Seeger The False Fidee [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 1:57 Yes
003 Peggy Seeger The False Knight on the Road Blood and Roses - Vol. 1 1979 2:42 Yes
003 Peggy Seeger The False Knight Upon the Road [Nova Scotia] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 3:21 Yes
003 Pete Astor False Knight of the Road Hal's Eggs 2005 3:24 Yes
003 Pete Castle The False Knight on the Road Xtracted 1997 Nee
003 Peter & Chris Coe False Knight Open the Door and Let Us In 1972 1:38 Yes
003 Philip Langridge & Osian Ellis The False Knight Upon the Road Britten: Folk Song Arrangements 2 - The English Song Series, Vol, 13 2005 3:40 Yes
003 Philip Langridge & Osian Ellis The False Knight Upon the Road Benjamin Britten - The Folk Songs 1995 No
003 Raymond Crooke The False Knight on the Road <website> 2007 2:34 Yes
003 Shanahy False Knight on the Road Far Away 1999 No
003 Sherry Minnick False Knight on the Road Look Ma, No Hands 2006 No
003 Simon Nicol The False Knight on the Road Before Your Time .. - Consonant Please Carol 1992 4:25 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road Please to See the King 1971 2:46 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road (broadcast) Please to See the King 1971 No
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road The Carthy Chronicles 2001 6:08 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road The Hills of Greenmore - An Anthology 1998 2:46 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road A Stack of Steeleye Span - Their Finest Folk Recordings 1970-1971 1996 2:46 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road Almanack 1973 2:45 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road Marrowbones 2002 2:45 Yes
003 Steeleye Span The False Knight on the Road Spanning the Years 1995 6:09 Yes
003 Steeleye Span The False Knight on the Road Peel's Sunday Concert 1971 4:24 Yes
003 Steeleye Span The False Knight on the Road Live at Last! 1978 6:08 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road Collected [Steeleye Span] 1998 No
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road Adam Catched Eve 1979 No
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road The Lark in the Morning: The Early Years 2003 No
003 Steeleye Span The False Knight on the Road Another Parcel of Steeleye Span - Their Second Five Chrysalis Albums 1976-1989 2010 No
003 Stephan Smith The False Knight on the Road The Bell 2003 2:26 Yes
003 Steeleye Span False Knight on the Road Ten Man Mop or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again 1971 4:13 Yes
003 Stone Angel False Knight on the Road The Holy Rood of Bromholm 1998 2:21 Yes
003 Tabache The Knight on the Road Are You Willing? 1996 3:14 Yes
003 Teresa Doyle False Knight on the Road Dance to Your Daddy 1996 2:02 Yes
003 The Bitter Withy The False Knight on the Road The Golden Bird 1969 No
003 The Blue Velvet Band The Knight Upon the Road Sweet Moments with the Blue Velvet Band 1969 3:43 Yes
003 The Blue Velvet Band The Knight Upon the Road Silver Meteor - a Progressive Country Anthology 1980 No
003 Tim Hart & Maddy Prior False Knight on the Road Summer Solstice 1971 3:01 Yes
003 Tim Hart & Maddy Prior False Knight on the Road Heydays 2003 No
003 Tim Hart & Maddy Prior False Knight on the Road Walking on the Moon 1991 3:01 Yes
003 Tim Hart & Maddy Prior False Knight on the Road Individually and Collectively 2000 3:02 Yes
003 Tim Hart & Maddy Prior False Knight on the Road Folk Heartbeat - 16 Original Folk Classics 1999 3:03 Yes
003 Tim Hart & Maddy Prior False Knight on the Road Homegrown 1998 No
003 Tony & Irene Saletan False Knight Upon the Road The Continuing Tradition, Vol. 1: Ballads - A Folk Legacy Sampler 1981 3:31 Yes
003 Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer Little William Gleowien 2009 No
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;
3. THE FALSE KNIGHT UPON THE ROAD
Texts: American Songster (Cozzens, N. Y.) / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 1 1 / Belden, Mo F-S, 8 / Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 29 / BFSSNE, XI, 8 / Charley Fox's Minstrel's Companion (Turner and Fisher, Philadelphia): "Tell-Tale Polly" / Creighton, Sgs Bids NSc, i / Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 61 / JAFL, XXIV, 344; XXX, 285 / The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (Monroe and Francis, Boston, 1833), 6 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 4.8 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, #i / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 1 } I Fa FLS Bull, #7, 4.
Local Titles: False Fidee, The' False Knight, The False Knight on the Road, Fause Knicht and the Wee Boy.
Story Types: A: A child, sometimes a boy and sometimes a girl, is detained by the Devil or a "false knight". A number of questions are asked, but the child is ready with witty answers and eventually names the questioner. Little of the situation or setting is revealed in the dialogue. Examples: Brewster; Davis; SharpK (A).
B: The question-and-answer sequence is similar to that of Type A, but the child throws the questioner in a well at the end.
Examples: Belden, Pound.
Discussion; American texts of this song are quite rare, and it is Davis' opinion they emanate from Virginia (Trd Sid Va, 61) to a large extent. The Type A stories are generally close to Child A. The Type B songs, where the boy throws the questioner in the well, show a dramatic flourish which stretches logic to make "right" triumph fully.
The Nova Scotia (Creighton) version has a long and unique nonsense refrain added to an incomplete text, and Sharp (SharpK, Eng F-S Aplcbns, 1, 41 1) points out that the introduction "A Knight met a child in the road . . " in his Tennessee version is unusual. The Maine (BFSSNE, XI, 8) version is interesting in its fiddle sequence and the boy's final wish that the fiddle bow
will stick in his questioner's throat.
Gerould (MLN, LIII, 5967) advances the idea that the Davis (Va.) and the SharpK (N. C.) versions may be of Irish origin, although he states this is not likely in the case of the Northern and Western texts. Barry, (JBFSSNE, XI, 89) discusses the song as a homily and treats its European affiliations.
_____________________
Gerould. G. H. An Irish Version of 'The False Knight upon the Road'. MLN. liii, 1938
An Irish Version of 'The False Knight upon the Road'
An Irish Version of The False Knight upon the Road
by Gordon Hall Gerould
from Modern Language Notes, Vol. 53, No. 8 (Dec., 1938), pp. 596-597
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
AN IRISH VERSION OF THE FALSE KNIGHT UPON THE ROAD
Although half a dozen versions of The False Knight upon the
Road (Child, 3) have been found in America, the existence of this
haunting ballad in the British Isles has been attested hitherto only
by the two versions in Motherwell's Minstrelsy (Child A and B)
and the one from Galloway collected by Macmath (Child C). We
have had no clear evidence therefore of its circulation outside of
Scotland, although the interesting version printed by Mr. Phillips
Barry in The Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxiv, 344, was sung
by a French girl, who had learned it from an Irish source.
In these circumstances it is enlightening to discover that an Irish
version of the ballad has been of record for nearly a century and a
quarter. C. R. Maturin, in his very feeble novel Women; or, Pour
et Centre, Edinburgh, 1818 (I, 27-28), makes a madwoman sing
as follows:
Oh, I wish you were along with me,
Said the false-knight, as he rode;
And our Lord in company,
Said the child, and he stood.
Oh, I wish you were in yonder well,
Said the false knight, as he rode;
And you in the pit of hell,
Said the child, and he stood.
That Maturin had heard this sung is clear from his comment,
to the effect that the woman " was singing a fragment of an Irish
ballad evidently of monkish composition, and of which the air has
all the monotonous melancholy of the chaunt of the cloister." As
Motherwell did not publish his collection until 1827, this Irish
version is thus the earliest of which we have any record. One wonders whether it caught the eye of Sir Walter Scott, since he recommended Women to Constable, read the preface before the book was
published,' and wrote an elaborate notice of it for the Edinburgh
Review.2 He scarcely could have failed, one would think, to notice
the ballad.
Apart from its interest as showing that the ballad was sung in
Ireland during the early years of the nineteenth century, Maturin's
fragment throws some light on two of the versions found in
America. It resembles only remotely those from Maine and Mis souri, but is similar to Sharp's version B from North Carolina 3
and extraordinarily close to the one published by Professor Davis
from Virginia.4 The striking parallelism must convince one, I believe, that at least the version of which the two specimens mentioned are variants was brought to America by Irish settlers.
GORDON HALL GEROULD
Princeton University
1 See his tactful letter of advice to Maturin, February 26, 1818, Lockhart,
Life of Sir Walter Scott, v, 300-303.
2. m 234-257.
3 Campbell and Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appa-
lachians, ed. M. Karpeles, 1932, I, 4.
4 A. K. Davis, Jr., Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929, p. 61
________________-
Excerpt from: The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts
by Bertrand H. Bronson
California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul., 1944), pp. 185-207
When we find a ballad text which notably fails to conform to this pattern of a minimum of four equivalent phrases, what is to be concluded? Child, following Motherwell, prints his A text of "The False Knight upon the Road" (3) in this fashion:
1. "O whare are ye gaun?"
Quo the fause knicht upon the road:
"I'm gaun to the scule,"
Quo the wee boy, and still he stude.
2. "What is that upon your back?" quo, etc.
"Atweel it is my bukes," quo, etc.
3. "What's that ye've got in your arm?"
"Atweel it is my peit."
And so on. Now it is obvious that the first and third lines are in general abnormally short. To lengthen them, nothing seems detachable from the alternating refrain lines, because we can hardly borrow less than the two-stress phrases, "Quo the fause knicht" and "Quo the wee boy," and borrowing so much would leave us in worse case than before, with only two stresses for the refrain lines. Moreover, the refrain lines look as if they were to be regarded as proper fourstress lines as they stand. Can we, then, put any trust in this text as one actually sung? On the contrary, when we turn to Motherwell's Appendix of tunes, we
find a tune for this ballad with variant words for the first stanza as follows:
"0 whare are ye gaun?" quo' the false knight,
And false false was his rede.
"I'm gaun to the scule," says the pretty little boy,
And still still he stude.
The evidence of this variant suggests that the first was given inaccurately, either to save space or to avoid unnecessary repetition. Unless there was a sharp cleavage in the tradition, we should suppose that "quo the false knicht" was after all part of the first line, and was repeated to fill out the second. Thus:
"0 whare are ye gaun?" quo the fause knicht
[Quo the fause knicht] upon the road:
"I'm gaun to the scule," quo the wee boy,
and so on. Motherwell's giving "quo, etc." on the same line of text, after the first stanza, might hint corroboration. Looking for further light, we come upon a North Carolina variant collected by Sharp in 1916. (The first, of course, was Scottish, 1827.) The first two phrases of the music carry the following text:
"Where are you going?" says the knight in the road.
"I'm going to my school," said the child as he stood.
A Virginia variant confirms this pattern, as do two others, from Tennessee and Indiana. A connection in the melodic tradition can be traced through all these with one another and with Motherwell's tune. One would consider the case closed, therefore, were it not for an odd little circular tune preserved by Macmath from Scottish tradition about the end of last century. This tune has the look of being much worn down in tradition, but as it stands it carries the exact counterpart of Motherwell's first text, and so ought finally to settle the question of line adjustment. Well, it does! It proves that the stanzas should be printed as long couplets, and that it is a violence to split them in two. For the tune is one of those which forego any real first and third cadence, and bring you to the mid-point without a break. Any fixing of first and third cadence would have to be arbitrarily determined by the words, for it would have no musical significance. Musically, an arbitrary cadence point would be possible on any one of four successive beats-which is but to say again that there is no real cadence. If we divided exactly in half, which would be the musical norm, we should get the textual absurdity of
"0 whare are ye gaun?" says
The fause knicht upon the road.
"I'm gaun to the scule," says
The wee boy; and still he stude.
But the musical phrase, I repeat, begs not to be divided at all: then why should the words? There is, I might add in lieu of further discussion, a melodic connection between this tune and a Nova Scotian one; and since that is connected with the Appalachian variants, we can link the whole series onto the traditional melodic chain-though not in a straight line of descent.
________________________________
Randome notes;
Date collected
Format
Till Doomsday in the Afternoon: The Folklore of a Family of Scots ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0719018137
Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger - 1986 - Preview - More editions
'I am go-ing to the school ,' said the wee boy and still he stood. "O, where are you going?" said the false knight upon the road, "I am going to the school", said the wee boy and still he stood. "What is that upon your back?" said the false knight upon the road, "That's my bannock and my book", said the wee boy and still he stood. "O, will you give me share?" said the false knight upon the road, "No, I will not give you share", said the wee boy and still he stood. "O, if I had you on the sea",
Scottish Studies - Volumes 9-10 - Page 11
https://books.google.com/books?id=F5ZnAAAAMAAJ
1965 - Snippet view - More editions
The Nova Scotia tune collected by Helen Creighton seems to have the same dance associations: her indication of tempo is "Very quickly, in jig time" (1933:1). B The late Mrs. Bella Higgins of Blairgowrie, whose tune for the ballad is almost identical with that sung by Duncan McPhee, contributed the following text shortly after he recorded his version : 1. "O where are you going?" said the false knight upon the road, "I'm going to the school," said the wee boy, and still he stood. 2. "What's that upon your back?" said the false knight upon the road. "My bonnock and my books," said the wee boy, and still he stood. 3. "If I had you at the sea," said the
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The version of the "False Knight on the Road" which started this thread was collected in 1975/6 by Angela Bourke from Brid an Gamha of Carna, [Joe Heaney's homeplace] Co Galway. It is probably in the Folklore collection at University College Dublin. Barry Gleeson, Dublin sings it also.
The genesis and development of the false, false fly, chorus is interesting - do the various extant versions give any clear idea of how it happened?
The singer of the version on the Caedmon/Topic "Folksongs of Britain" series was Frank Quinn of Coalisland, Co Tyrone. His brother Edward was the source of the rollicking version of the Jug of Punch, though that wasn't how he sang it.
Donal Lunny's album "Coolfin" sung by Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill. I have looked high and low for this song.
Oh where are you going
Said the false false fly
to the lovely little child on the road
I am going to me school
said the lovely little child
she was only but seven years old.
What have you in your bag
Said the false false fly
To the lovely little child on the road
Me bread and me books
Said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old.
Oh will you come along with me
Said the false false fly
To the lovely little child on the road
I won't come along with you
Said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old
I will give you a ball
Said the false false fly
To the lovely little child on the road
Ah then you'd be lord of all
Said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old
What is rounder than a wheel
Said the false false fly
To the lovely little child on the road
The earth is rounder than a wheel
Said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old.
What is higher than the sky
Said the false false fly
to the lovely little child on the road
Heaven is high than the sky
Said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old.
What is deeper than the sea
Said the false false fly
to the lovely little child on the road
Hell is deeper than the sea
said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old
Then he went on _____ ___________[1]
to the false false fly
with the lovely little child on the road
Twas the devil in disguise
Said the lovely little child
She was only but seven years old.
1. "Then he went all on fire did the false, false, fly with the lovely little child on the road"
Gleeson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXY2F3FMWzE
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Traditional Scottish Nursery Rhymes - Page 134
https://books.google.com/books?id=T7wqAAAAYAAJ
Norah Montgomerie, William Montgomerie - 1985 - Snippet view
Quo the fause knicht upon the road ; "I'm gaun tae the schule, " Quo the wee boy, an still he stude. "Whit is that upon yer back ?" Quo the fause knicht upon the road ; "Atweel it is ma bukes, " Quo the wee boy, an still he stude. "Whit's that ye've got in yer airm ?" Quo the fause knicht upon the road ; "Atweel it is ma peat, " Quo the wee boy, an still he stude. "Wha's aucht thae sheep ?" Quo the fause knicht upon the road ; "They're mine an ma mither's, " Quo the wee boy, an still he stude.
News Out of Scotland: Being a Miscellaneous Collection of Verse and ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=bpdAAAAAIAAJ
Eleanor Mabel Valentine Brougham (Hon.) - 1926 - Snippet view
Quo' the fause knicht 1 upon the road : " I'm gaun to the scule," Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude. " What is that upon your back ? " Quo' the fause knicht upon the road : " Atweel it is my bukes," Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude. " What's that ye've got in your arm ? " Quo' the fause knicht upon the road : " Atweel it is my peit," 2 Quo' the wee boy, and still he stude. " Wha's aucht thae sheep ? " Quo' the fause knicht upon the road : " They are mine and my mither's," Quo' the wee boy, .
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m: Sandy Paton - PM
Date: 13 Mar 99 - 08:36 PM
Several additional thoughts about this ballad:
At one point, Alan Kelly told Lee Haggerty, who was recording Alan Kelly on our first trip to the Miramichi (I was busy recording Marie Hare at the same time), "Well, that's all of the English language songs I'm going to sing. Now, I'll give you some songs in my mother's language, French." But Lee, who had always joked with us about finding a version of this ballad someday, said "Wait a minute. Do you happen to know a song about a knight meeting a boy on the road?" Without hesitation, Alan replied, "That wasn't a knight! That was the devil!" He then proceeded to sing his "Fol, fol, folly" version, which he later tried to change.
Thought I might as well add this from Wimberley's Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads (p.307):
The Fause Knight upon the Road (3), an old ballad with a striking parallel in a curious Swedish piece, furnishes still another example of riddlecraft. Matched by a witchlike old crone in the Swedish song, the false knight here, none other than the devil himself, tries to nonplus a wee boy by asking him questions and making evil wishes. Needless to say, the youthful replicant is capable of clever rejoinders and has the last word, a matter of paramount importance in these verbal conflicts with Otherworld folk. Child observes that our ballad is known only through Motherwell, but it is interesting that copies have been recovered in America by Phillips Barry, H. M. Belden, and Cecil Sharp. The false knight is called the "fol fol Fly" in Barry's Maine text, a probable corruption, as Barry points out, of "foul, foul Fiend." This text, Barry further observes, retains "a form of the theme more primitive than that of Motherwell's version."
False Knight - The Jumpleads
False Knight
Peter & Chris Coe, Open The Door And Let Us In, Trailer LER 2077, 1972. A Cheshire version.
Oh, where are you going ?
Said the False Knight to the Child On The Road
Oh, I'm going to my school
Said the bonny little girl of seven years
What go ye the forest (?????) ?
Said the False Knight to the Child On The Road
For to learn ... (???)
Said the bonny little girl of seven years
I wish you on the sea
Said the False Knight to the Child On The Road
And a good boat under me
Said the bonny little girl of seven years
I wish you on the land
Said the False Knight to the Child On The Road
And a good staff in my hand
Said the bonny little girl of seven years
I wish you were ...(?) on yonder tree
Said the False Knight to the Child On The Road
And a ladder under me
Said the bonny little girl of seven years
I think I hear the bell
Said the False Knight to the Child On The Road
Aye, and it's ringing you to Hell
Said the bonny little girl of seven years old
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Ulster Folklife - Volumes 1-8 - Page 50
https://books.google.com/books?id=0joSDIbCP_gC
1955
In fact, the traditions so overlap and intertwine that it's impossible to dogmatize about the origins of some songs either in words or in music. But here is a Scots Ballad which, although it must be over two hundred years in these parts, is still sung to the air of The Uist Tramping Song :
“What brings you here so late?” said the Knight on the road:
“I go to meet my God,” said the Child as he stood,
And he stood and he stood and 'twere well he stood;
“I go to meet my God,” said the Child as he stood.
“How will you go by land? said the knight on the road. "With a strong staff in my hand," said the child as he stood.
And he stood, and he stood, and 'twere well he stood.
"With a strong staff in my hand," said the child as he stood.
"How will you go by sea?" said the knight on the road. 'With a good ship under me,' said the child as he stood. And he stood, and he stood, and 'twere well he stood. "With a good ship under me," said the child as he stood.
“Methinks I hear a bell,” said the knight on the road.
“It's ringing you to hell,” said the child as he stood.
And he stood and he stood,
And it's well that he stood.
“It's ringing you to hell,” said the child as he stood.
from the singing of Frank Quinn, County Tyrone
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His tune is strongly reminiscent of also known as "also known as the "Old Lea Rigg" Gow's second book of Strathspeys Reels (Dunkheld 1788) scottish studies
It is the obvious original of the tune of Sir Harry Lauder's song "Stop yer ticklin', Jock". — Commenting on
The tune was first published in Scotland in Thompson's Country Dances, 1774, there called “The Irish Lilt.” It was reprinted again in Scotland in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, 1760, titled “The Gimlet,” and again in Gow's Second Collection, 1788, there titled “The Old Lea Rigg” or “The Rose Tree.”
OÙ VAS-TU, MON PETIT GARÇON? Dr. Marius Barbeau, one of Canada's notable folklorists.
Où vas-tu, mon p'tit garçon?
Où vas-tu, mon p'tit garçon?
Je m'en viens, tu t'en vas, nous passons.
Je m'en vais droit à l'écol'
Apprendr' la parol' de Dieu
Disait ça un enfant de sept ans.
Qu'est-ce qu'est plus haut que les arbr's?
Qu'est-ce qu'est plus haut que les arbr's?
Je m'en viens, tu t'en vas, nous passons.
Le ciel est plus haut que l'arbr',
Le soleil au firmament,
Disait ça un enfant de sept ans.
Qu'est-ce qu'est plus creux que la mer?
Qu'est-ce qu'est plus cruex que la mer?
Je m'en viens, tu t'en vas, nous passons.
L'enfer est cent fois plus creux,
L'enfer aux feux éternels,
Disait ça un enfant de sept ans.
Qu'est-c' qui pousse sur nos terr's?
Qu'est-c' qui pousse sur nos terr's?
Je m'en viens, tu t'en vas, nous passons.
Les avoines et les blés d'or,
Les châtaignes et les poiriers,
Disait ça un enfant de sept ans.
Que f'ras-tu quand tu s'ras grand?
Que f'ras-tu quand tu s'ras grand?
Je m'en viens, tu t'en vas, nous passons.
Je cultiverai les champs
Nourrirai femme et enfant,
Disait ça un enfant de sept ans.
WHERE ARE YOU GOING MY LITTLE BOY?
"Where are you going, my little boy?"
I'm going, you're going, we're passing.
"I'm going to school
To learn the word of God."
Thus said the child seven years old.
"What is higher than the trees?"
I'm going, you're going, we're passing.
"The sky is higher than the tree,
The sun in the firmament."
Thus said the child seven years old.
"What is deeper than the sea?"
"Hell is a hundred times deeper,
Hell with its eternal fires."
"What grows on our lands?
"Oats and golden wheat,
Chestnuts and pears.
"What will you do when you grow up?"
"I will till the fields
To feed my wife and child."