Well Met, Well Met- (TN) pre1932 Henry D
[No title given-- since the house carpenter is not mentioned I've used the opening as the title. From: Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands- Melinger Henry, 1938
R. Matteson 2013]
JAMES HARRIS (THE DAEMON LOVER) (Child, No. 243)
Campbell and Sharp, No. 29, give eleven variants and tunes. Cox, No. 25, states that twenty-one variants have been found in West Virginia. Davis, No. 40, says that fifty-two texts and seven melodies have been found in Virginia. See also Barry, No. 11; Barry-Eckstorm-Smyth, p. 304; Belden, No. 11; Hudson, No. 19; Pound, No. 17; Pound, Syllabus, p. 10; Sandburg, p. 66; Shearin, Sewanee Review, July, 1911; Shearin and Combs, p. 8; C. Alphonso Smith, Musical Quarterly, January, 1916; Reed Smith, The Traditional Ballad and Its South Carolina Survivals, No. 11; Reed Smith, South Carolina Ballads, No. 12. Note also the following in the Journal: Belden, XIX, 295; Kittredge, XX, 257; Barry, XXV, 274; Kittredge, XXX, 325; Tolman and Eddy, XXXV, 346; Pound, XXVI, 360; Henry, XLII, 274. Add Thomas, pp. 63,172; Brown, p. y;PTFLS, No. 10, pp. 159—162.
D. [Well Met, Well Met] The song was recorded in the Cumberland Mountains by Ruth Bagwell, a student in Lincoln Memorial University.
1. "Well met, well met," says an old true love,
"Well met, well met," says he;
"I've come from far across the sea
And it's all for the sake of thee."
2. "Oh, hold your tongue of your former vows,
For they will bring bitter strife;
Oh, hold your tongue of your former vows,
For I have become a wife."
3. "Oh, I could have married a king's daughter
And she would have married me;
But I've forsaken those crowns of gold
And it's all for the sake of thee."