Seven King's Daughters- (VA) 1922 Davis E
[Title supplied by Peel; from Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(CHILD, NO.4)
THIS ballad is one of the few most frequently found in Virginia, where variously known as "Pretty Polly," "The Seven King's Daughters," "King's Daughter," "The Pretty Gold Leaf," "The Salt Water Sea," "Miss Mary's Parrot," and under several other titles. Its polyonymity is almost equal to its ubiquity - twenty-eight variants under sixteen different titles. In Virginia it does not, however, when compared with" Barbara Allen," "The House Carpenter" and several others quite live up to its reputation of having obtained the widest circulation of all ballads. Child's remarkable introduction to this ballad discusses at some length its extraordinary currency in the southern as well as the northern nations of Europe. Space is also given to a consideration of the hypothesis that the ballad is a wild shoot from the story of Judith and Holofernes, with Holofernes the original of the Elf-Knight. Child concludes; "It is a supposition attended with less difficulty that an independent European tradition existed of a half-human, half-demonic being, who possessed an irresistible power of decoying away young maids, and was wont to kill them after he got them into his hands, but who at last found one who was more than his match, and lost his own life through her craft and courage. A modification of this story is afforded by the large class of Bluebeard tales."
All the Virginia texts correspond much more closely with the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. Warning might perhaps be given of the confusion of Pollies in most of the Virginia texts. The girl and the parrot have the same name and are not always immediately distinguishable.
For American findings of this ballad see Barry, No. 4; Belden, No. 1 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6-12; Campbell and Sharp, No. 2 (Massachusetts, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia); Child, III, 496 (Virginia, from The Folk-Lore Journal, VII, p. 28); Cox, No. I and p. 521 (fragment and melody); Hudson, No. I (Mississippi); Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XVIII, 132 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody); XIX, 232 (Belden, Missouri); XXII, 65 (Beatty, Wisconsin), 76 (Barry, New Jersey, melody only), 374 (Barry, Massachusetts, text and melody, Missouri), 344 (Barry, Massachusetts); XXVII, 90 (Gardner, Michigan); XXVIII, 148 (Perrow, North Carolina); XXXV, 338 (Tolman and Eddy, Ohio); Mackenzie, Ballads, No. I, and p. 391 (melody); Sandburg, P: 60 (R. W. Gordon Collection); Scarborough, p. 43 (Texas, text and melody); Shearin, p. 3; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Reed Smith, No. I; Reed Smith, Ballads, No. I; Wyman and Brockway, p. 82. For additional references, see Cox, p. 3; Journal, XXIX.
E. "Seven King's Daughters." Collected by Miss Alfreda M. Peel, of Salem, Va. Roanoke County. September 11, 1922.
I He followed her up, he followed her down,
He followed her into her room,
Saying, "Gather up your own father's gold
And go along with me, me, me,
And go along with me."
2 She gathered up her own father's gold
And two of his finest horses,
And rode till they came to the salt water sea,
All on a long summer day, day, day,
All on a long summer day.
3 It's "Get you down a while," said he,
"And talk a while with me;
For six king's daughters have I drowned,
And the seventh one you shall be, be, be,
And the seventh one you shall be."
4 She looked around the blooming trees
And took him in her arms,
And tossed him in the sea, sea, sea.
And tossed him in the sea.
5 It's "Reach me here your hand," said he,
"And up to my promise I shall be;
I promised that I would marry you
And a fair lady you should be, be, be.
And a fair lady you should be."
6 "Swim on, swim on, my false true love,
Swim on, swim on," said she.
"Your clothing is not a bit too fine
To rot in the salt, salt sea, sea, sea,
To rot in the salt, salt sea."
7 She mounted on her milk-white horse,
And led her iron grey,
And rode till she came to her father's door
Two hours before the day, day, day,
Two hours before the day.
8 She put her horses where they stood,
And money in the same place,
And into her bed-chamber she did go,
With the rest all fast asleep, sleep, sleep,
With the rest all fast asleep.
9 It's "Where have you been, my pretty princess,
That you have come before day?
I'm sure you have drownded your own true love,
And the same you would do to me, me, me,
And the same you would do to me."
10 It's "Hold your tongue, my pretty parrot,
Don't tell those tales on me,
And your cage shall made of the purest gold
And hang on a willow tree, tree, tree,
And hang on a willow tree.