The Brown Girl- Urice (WV) 1866 Cox A
[From Folk-Songs of the South- Cox, 1925; His extensive notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
10. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET (Child, No. 73)
Eleven variants have been recovered under the following titles: "The Brown Girl," "Fair Ellender and the Brown Girl" "Fair Ellender," "Fair Ellenger," "Lord Thomas," "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor," and "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender" (cf. Cox, XIV, 120). All of these variants belong to the same version, and nine of them tell a complete story. D and H begin with a description of Lord Thomas. In the other variants the story begins by the hero's asking his mother to solve the riddle as to whether he shall marry Fair Eleanor or bring the brown girl home. Since the brown girl has house and lot (land) and Fair Eleanor has none, she advises him to marry the brown girl. Thereupon he dresses himself up in state, takes his merry men with him, rides to Fair Eleanor's hall, and invites her to his wedding on the morrow. She says that is very bad news to her for she expected to be his bride. Later she asks her mother to solve the riddle as to whether she shall go to Lord Thomas's wedding or stay at home. Her mother advises her to stay at home since she will have few friends at the wedding and many enemies, but she is determined to go. Thereupon she arrays herself in her finery, takes her merry maids with her, and rides to Lord Thomas's hall. In answer to her knocking, Lord Thomas himself lets her in, leads her into the hall, and chooses for her the highest seat. Fair Eleanor twits him with having married such a brown wife, whereupon the brown girl stabs her with a penknife between the short ribs and the long. Lord Thomas asks why she looks so pale and she suggests that he must be blind not to observe her heart's blood trickling down to her knee. With a little hand-sword Lord Thomas cuts off the head of the brown girl, kicks it against the wall, and then slays himself with the same sword. Before he dies, he requests that Fair Eleanor be buried in his arms and the brown girl at his feet.
The West Virginia variants are closely related to group D of Child, as is shown by many striking incidents in common, such as the meeting and quick parting of the lovers; Lord Henry loves the little finger of Fair Eleanor better than he does the whole body of the brown girl; Lord Thomas dressed in green and taken for a king; Lord Thomas dressed in black (the rhyme requires the word white) and taken for a knight ; Fair Eleanor taken for a queen; Fair Eleanor seated in the noblest chair, or chair of gold, or given the highest seat; the well in the yard of Fair Ellen's father.
For American texts see Child, in, 509 (Virginia; from Babcock, Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 33) Journal, XVIII 128 Barry: Vermont, Massachusetts by way of New Jersey) XIX 235, Belden; Missouri, Arkansas); xx, 254 (Pettit; Kentucky); XXVII, 71 (Barry; tune only); XXVIII 152 (Perrow; North Carolina); XXIX, 159 (Tolman; Pennsylvania by way of Kansas; texts reported from Virginia and Indiana); McGill, p. 26 (Kentucky); Focus, 111, 204, and IV, 162 (Virginia); Shoemaker, p. 138 (Pennsylvania); Campbell and Sharp, No. 16 (North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Massachusetts); Pound, No. 12 (Maryland by way of Nebraska); Mackenzie, p. 97 (Nova Scotia); Means, Outlook, September 9, 1899, LXIII, 120; Berea Quarterly, April, 1905, IX, No. 3, p. 10; October, 1910, XIV, No. 3, p. 27; October, 1915, XVIII, No. 4, p. 14; Child MSS., XXIII, article 73; Wyman MS., No. 9 (Kentucky); Minish MS. (North Carolina); The Forget-Me-Not Songster (New York, Nails & Cornish), p. 236. See also Belden, No. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; Pound, p. n; F. C. Brown, p. 9; Bulletin, Nos. 2, 3, 5-10; Campbell, The Survey, New York, January 2, 1915, XXXIII, 374; Reed Smith, Journal, XXVII, 62; XXIII, 200.
A. "The Brown Girl." Communicated by Mrs. W. M. Parker, Keyser, Mineral County, July 17, 1916; obtained from Mrs. Bertha Urice, who got it from her father, Joseph Rogers, who learned it from Zimri Rush more than fifty years ago. Printed by Cox, XIV, 186.
1 "Come riddle, come riddle to me, dear mother,
Come riddle to me this one:
Whether I shall marry Fair Eleanor,
Or bring the brown girl home."
2 "The brown girl she has house and lot,
Fair Eleanor she has none;
Therefore I bid you, 'out ado,
To bring me the brown girl home."
3 He dressed himself in his silk so fine,
And his married men in green;
And every town that he passed through,
He was taken to be some king.
4 He rode up to Fair Eleanor's hall,
And he knuckled at the ring;
There was none so ready as Fair Eleanor herself
To arise and let him in.
5 "O what's the matter, Lord Thomas?" she said,
"O what's the news for me?"
"I came to bid you to my wedding to-morrow."
"That's very bad news to me."
6 "Come riddle, come riddle to me, dear mother,
Come riddle to me this one:
Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas's wedding,
Or shall I stay at home? "
7 "There are hundreds there that will be your friends,
And thousands that are your foes."
"Therefore to Lord Thomas's wedding
At the risk of my life I'll go."
8 She dressed herself in her silk so fine,
And her married maids in green;
And every town that she passed through,
She was taken to be some queen.
9 She rode up to Lord Thomas's hall
And knuckled at the ring;
There was none so ready as Lord Thomas
To arise and let her in.
10 He took her by her lily-white hand,
And he led her through the hall;
And out of four and twenty gay ladies
She was the fairest of them all.
11 "Is this your wife, Lord Thomas?" she said,
"I think she's tremendous brown;
When you could have had as fair a lady
As ever the sun shone on."
12 The brown girl had a little penknife,
The blades were keen and sharp;
Between the long ribs and the short
She pierced Fair Eleanor's heart.
13 "O what's the matter, Fair Eleanor?" he said,
"What makes you look so pale?
You used to have such red rose cheeks,
But now you have turned quite pale."
14 "O are you blind, Lord Thomas?" she said,
"Or cannot you well see?
Don't you see my very heart's blood
A- trickling down my knee? "
15 Lord Thomas had a little hand-sword,
As he passed through the hall,
And as he cut off the brown girl's head,
He cast it against the wall.
16 "Go dig my grave in yonder churchyard,
Go dig it wide and deep,
And bury Fair Eleanor in my arms,
And the brown girl at my feet."
17 He placed the sword hilt in the ground,
And the point ran at his heart,
Crying, " There were never three lovers met,
As quick as we did part."