The Bonny Hind- Joe Rae (Aryshire) 2001 Yeats
From the Musical Traditions CD- Joe Rae: The Broom Blooms Bonny; Ballads, songs and stories from Ayrshire by Mike Yeats.
9 The Bonny Hind (Child 50, Roud 205)
Oh may she comes, and may she goes,
Doon by yon gairdens green.
And it’s there she spied a brisk young squire,
As squire had ever been.
And may she comes and may she goes,
Doon by yon hollin tree.
And it’s there she spied a brisk young squire,
And a brisk young squire was he.
“Gie me your green manteel, fair maid.
Gie me your maidenheid.
If you’ll ne’er gie me your green manteel,
Gie me your maidenheid.”
He’s taen her by the milk-white hand
And by the grass-green sleeve.
And he has taen his will o’ her,
He’s asked nae her leave.
“Perhaps there may be bairns, kind sir.
Perhaps there may be nane.
But if you be a gentleman
You’ll tell tae me your name.”
“Some call me John when I’m abroad,
Sometimes they call me Jack.
But when I’m in my faither’s toor
Jock Randal is my name.”
“Ye lee, ye lee, ye lee your loud.
Full loud I hear ye lee.
For I’m Lord Randal’s yae dochter.
He has nae mair nor me.”
“Ye lee, ye lee, ye bonny may.
Full loud’s I hear ye lee.
For I’m Lord Randal’s yae son,
New come frae the sea.”
She’s putten her hand doon by her gair,
And she’s taen oot a knife.
She’s putten it in her heart’s bluid,
And taen awa her life.
Oh he’s taen up his bonny sister,
Wi the big tear in his ee.
And he has buried his bonny sister,
Beneath the hollin tree.
And syne he’s hied him o’er the lea,
His faither dear tae see.
“Sayin O and O for my bonny hind,
Beneath the hollin tree.”
“What needs ye care for your bonny hind?
For it ye needna care.
Tak ye the best, gi me the warst,
Since plenty is tae spare.”
“I care na for your hinds, my Lord.
I care na for your fee.
But O and O for my bonny hind,
Beneath the hollin tree.”
“O were ye at your sister’s bower?
Your sister fair tae see.
Ye’d think nae mair o’ your bonny hind,
Beneath yon hollin tree.”
O he has heid him tae the toor,
His faither’s toor sae hie.
Saying, “Fare ye weel, my faither dear,
Ye’s get nae mair frae me.”
Spoken: And he threw himself aff the castle wall.
gair = a triangular opening in a garment. hollin = holly. manteel = mantle. lee = lie.
Notes by Yeats: Professor Child prints only one version of this ballad, 'Copied from the mouth of a milkmaid ... in 1771', although he does compare it to other Scandinavian ballads. 'In the first half of the story The Bonny Hind comes very near to the fine Scandinavian ballad of Margaret, as yet known to be preserved only in Faroe and Icelandic. The conclusions differ altogether. Margaret in the Faroe ballad ... is the only daughter of the Norwegian king Magnus, and has been put in a convent. After two or three months she longs to see her father's house again. On her way thither she is assaulted by a young noble with extreme violence, to whom she says:
Now you have torn off all my clothes, and done me sin and shame,
I beg you, before God most high, tell me what is your name.
Magnus, he answers, is his father, and Gertrude his mother, and he himself is Olaf, and was brought up in the woods. By this she recognizes that he is her own brother. Olaf begs her to go back to the convent, and say nothing, bearing her sorrow as she may. This she does. But every autumn the king makes a feast, and invites to it all the nuns in the cloister. Margaret is missed, and asked for. "Is she sick or dead? Why does she not come to the feast, like other merry dames?" The wicked abbess answers, "Your daughter is neither sick nor dead; she goes with child, like other merry dames." The king rides off to the cloisters, encounters his daughter, and demands who is the father of her child. She replies that she will sooner die than tell. The king leaves her in wrath, but returns presently, resolved to burn the convent, and Margaret in it. Olaf comes from the wood, tired and weary, sees the cloister burning, and quenches the flames with his heart's blood.' According to Child, the Icelandic version is identical, except for the fact that it is the brother who brings on the discovery by asking the woman's parentage.
Child also cites a similarity between Joe's ballad and the Finnish story of Kullervo, which forms part of the national epic of the Finns, the Kalevala - an epic which also shows connections to other ballads, such as Edward (Child 13), The Twa Brothers (Child 49) and, possibly, Lizzy Wan (Child 51).
Verses 5 and 6 of Joe's version, in common with the version that Child printed from the Herd mss, seem to have been added from another ballad, possibly Tam Lin (Child 39) or The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter (Child 110). This was another ballad that Joe learnt from Ned Robertson.