The Beggarman (Hind Horn)- Daniel Endacott Sally's Cove, Newfoundland; 1921
[This is from "Ballads and Seas Songs of Newfoundland" by Elizabeth Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield, 1933 edition. The quotes below are from the book's Introduction.
Greenleaf traveled to Newfoundland briefly in 1921. She said, "That fall I mentioned my discovery to President MacCracken of Vassar College, and sang him "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight." He sent me to Dr. Martha Beckwith of the Vassar Folklore Foundation, and they both urged me to go on collecting during the next summer. I did so, and gathered about thirty songs, one of them "Hind Horn," rarely recorded from this side of the Atlantic." The version of Hind Horn was collected from Dan Endacott in 1921.
The college eventually sponsored the Vassar College Folk-Lore Expedition to Newfoundland in 1929. Upon arrival in the summer of 1929 Greeleaf and Mansfield stayed at Sally's Cove with the Endacott family. Greenleaf reports, "Of these singers for the dance Uncle Dan Endacott was the best. His voice was powerful enough to be heard without shouting. He kept a steady rhythm and had a stock of tunes large enough to furnish variety even for a long figure. Uncle Dan had once known upwards of three hundred songs. His father - "old Mr. Anty," as they called him - had also been a great singer in his youth."
Karpeles who also began collecting in Newfoundland in 1929 collected two version the next summer.
R. Matteson 2014]
Notes by Kittredge: The Hind Horn story is an old favorite. The earliest text is a twelfth-century romance. For particulars, see the critical study by Walter R. Nelles in Journal, XXII, 4J fr. The ballad has been printed only once before from North America in two texts (one a fragment) from New Brunswick, by Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 13-80, d. pp. 471)-481 (with discussion of the air, p. xxv). These correspond very closely to the Newfoundland ballad, and it is a source of satisfaction to be able to compare the airs as well as the words. The two are undoubtedly related, as they are similar in mood, general rhythm, and certain intervals. Mr. Endacott said be had forgotten the beginning of the ballad. Cf. Keith, No. 10.
5. THE BEGGARMAN
(HIND HORN, Child, No. 17)
Sung by Daniel Endacott, Sally's Cove, 1921. Recorded by E. B. G.
AEOLIAN MODE [Music upcoming]
1 O, 'twas of a young couple they lived in this place,
They was courting by each other, you may plainly see,
Until strange news was come to him,
That he would sail in afar counteree.[1]
2 When they was a-parting, she gived to him
A gay gold ring . . .
"When you looks at the ring and it's bright and clear,
You know I am constant to my dear.
3. . . .
. . . .
"And when you looks at your ring and 'tis pale and wan,
You may know I'm engaged with some other young man."
4 Then he took a ship and away sailed he,
He sailed till he came to afar counteree;
He looked at his ring and 'twas bright and clear,
He knowed she was constant to her dear.
5 And then he took a ship and away sailed he,
Re sailed till he came to the Turkish shore;
He looked at his ring and 'twas pale and wan,
He knowed she was engaged with some other young man.
6 Then he took a ship and back sailed he,
He sailed till be came to his own counteree,
As he was riding along one day,
And who should he meet but an old beggarman?
7 "What news, beggarman, have you for me?"
"Bad news, bad news, I have for thee;
Bad news, bad news, I have for thee,
For tomorrow is your true-love's wedding day."
8 "O, you'll give to me your bag and rig,
And I'll give to you my riding steed."
"My bag and rig is no good for thee,
Nor your riding steed is no good for me."
9 O let it be so, or let it be not,
The beggar's rig he then put on.
"Beggarman, beggarman, come tell me with speed,
What must I do with your bag and rig?"
10 "You'll walk as fast as is your will
Until you come to yonder hill,
And you'll walk as fast as is your rate,
And you'll lean on your staff in wayward state."
11 "And you'll beg from Peter and you'll beg from Paul,
You'll beg from the highest to the lowest of them all,
And from none of them you'll receive nothing
Until you receives it from the bride's own hand."
12 He walked as fast as was his will
Until he came to yonder hill,
And he walked as fast as was his rate,
And he leaned on his staff in wayward state.
13 He begged from Peter and he begged from Paul,
He begged from the highest to the lowest of them all,
And from none of them he received nothing
Until he received it from the bride's own hand.
14 As she came trippling down the stairs
With rings on her fingers, gold bobs on her hairs,
And a glass of wine in her hand so small,
And she gave it to the old beggarman.
15 Then out of the glass he drinks the wine,
And into the glass he slipped a ring.
"Did you get it by sea, or yet by land,
Or did you get it from a drownded man's hand?"
16 "I neither got it by sea, nor yet by land,
or yet did I get it from a drowned man's hand;
But I got it in a courting way,
And I give it to my true-love on her wedding day."
17 The rings from her fingers they fell on the floor,
Gold bobs from her hair she throwed against the wall:
" I will go with you forevermore,
Supposing I beg my bread from door to door!"
18 Between the kitchen and the hall
The beggar's rig he then let fall;
For he shines the blackest among them all,
He's the richest man that's in the hall.
1 Var.: That he was sailing in a far counteree.