US & Canada Versions: 62. Fair Annie
[There are very few US versions of Fair Annie and no known Canadian version. In my collection are the six extant US version, one is likely a ballad recreation (The Sister's Husband written by Woofter) and another (printed in the Boston Sunday Globe) is a one-stanza fragment. It would be safe to say that the four traditional versions that are significant to study are all old and date back into the 1800s and came to the US many years before that.
The first published version was collected by Sharp from Jane Hicks Gentry in 1916. The Hicks family moved to the NC mountains around 1770 and remained there, isolated in Valle Crucis, Watagua County for many generations. In the late 1800s Jane Hicks family moved to Madison County, another remote region with an ancient ballad tradition.
R. Matteson 2014]
CONTENTS: (to access the individual texts, click on highlighted title below)
1) Rosanna- Marsh/Hubbard (Utah) c.1865 JAFL -- From: Traditional Ballads from Utah by Lester A. Hubbard and LeRoy J. Robertson; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 251 (Jan. - Mar., 1951), pp. 37-53. Communicated by Mrs. Salley A. Hubbard, February 6, 1946, and sung for recording July 10, I947. Her father, George J. Marsh, who learned it while he was a Mormon missionary in Leeds, England, in 1865 and frequently sang it after he returned to Utah.
2) Fair Anna- Hopkinson (MA) c1890 Child/Barry A -- My title. From British Ballad From Maine- Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth; 1929. Child MSS, Harvard University Library, XXIII 247. Given to Professor Child by Mrs. J. P. Hopkinson, Cambridge, Mass., as sung by her mother.
3) Fair Annie- Jane Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp -- From English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians; 1916 Campbell and Sharp, I, 1917; SharpKarpeles 1932. This was the first published US version in 1917 by Sharp's best informant Jane Hicks Gentry.
4) Lady Eleanor- (MA) 1920 Barry B -- From British Ballads From Maine- Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth; 1929.A fragment of this ballad, also known as "Lady Eleanor," was printed in "Everybody's Column" of the Boston Sunday Globe, April 18, 1920.
5) Fair Annie- Lethcoe (VA) 1921 Davis -- From Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929; Davis. Collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mrs. Martha Elizabeth Lethcoe, of Damascus, Va.; Washington County, September 2, 1921, with music.
6) The Sister's Husband- Umstead (WV) 1924 Combs -- From Combs' Folk Songs of the Southern United States 1925, reprinted in 1967 edited by Wilgus. The possibility that this is a ballad recreation is great--since it undoubtedly came from Woofter, a ballad recreator. As sung by J. R. Umstead, WV.
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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
62. FAIR ANNIE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 446 / Boston Sunday Globe, 4 BBM / Child Mss. / Combs, F-S Etats-Unis, 129 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 177 / SharpC, F-S So Aplchns,# / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchian I, 95.
Local Titles: Fair Annie, Lady Eleanor, The Sister's Husband.
Story Types: A: Lord Thomas tells his poor and stolen love, Fair Annie, by whom lie has had six sons and is expecting another, that he is bringing a rich bride home. She is crushed, but waits for his return and even serves at the wedding. Later she and the bride learn that they are sisters. (Traditionally this discovery originates in a song sung by the heroine. In America the
song is just unexplained fluting.) The bride offers her riches to this sister and sends her back to the home from which Thomas had stolen her. In some songs a condition that Thomas be hung is made.
Examples: Davis.
B : The added information is presented at the start of the story that Annie was stolen by Indians and ransomed from them by the Lord.
Examples: Combs.
Discussion: A summary of the Child stories (See Davis, Trd Bid Va, 177 is as follows : Annie was stolen in her childhood by a knight from over the sea, to whom she has born seven sons out of wedlock. Her consort bids her prepare to welcome a bride, with whom he shall get gowd and gear; with her he got none. She must look like a maid, comb down her yellow locks, and
braid her hair. Annie meekly assents, as she loves the knight. Suppressing her tears, Annie serves at the wedding and makes the bride comfortable. When the married couple go to bed, Annie in a room by herself bewails her lot in a sad song to her harp or her virginals. The bride hears the song and goes to Annie's chamber to see what is wrong. There, she inquires of Annie's parentage and learns they are sisters. The bride, who had come with many well-loaded ships, gives most of her wealth to Annie and goes home a virgin.
The American versions are invariably compressed and take a lot for granted even if the story is already known a fact that reveals clearly how material becomes unexplainable in transmission. The Type A story follows Child A most closely and retains the names Annie and Thomas (probably borrowed in Britain from 73). The Child Mss. version printed by Barry in Brit Bids Me, 446 (See JAFL, XXVII, 57) is from Massachusetts and differs textually from the southern American versions. The SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplclns, North Carolina text has lost the fluting and is very hard to follow. Combs, F-S Etats-Unis, 129 attributes the presence of Indians in his version to the currency of the ballad on the frontier. See Type B.