What Blood Is This?- Day (Aldershot) 1950
Edward
by F. K. and M. K.
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Dec., 1951), p. 99
EDWARD
Traces o f the 'Edward' ballad, still traditionally current in America, and made famous by Brahms in Europe, are very rarely found in England. Somewhere in the Journal of the Folk Song Society is a tune which may be a variant set to other words-but no version of the 'Edward' ballad as such has hitherto been contributed to our pages. In this number, dedicated to Miss Gilchrist, we welcome this fragment, found surviving at the present time by Mr. Peter Kennedy, who has recently been elected to the Editorial Board.
WHAT BLOOD IS THIS? (EDWARD)
Noted from the singing of Mrs. Day of Aldershot, Hants, by Peter Kennedy, August, 1950.
1. What blood is this, lies sprinkled on the ground,
My son come tell unto me?
Is it the blood of the old grey mare
Or the sins of the mother of three?
2. It's not the blood of the old grey mare,
For she's in the stable, I know.
It is the blood of the mother of three
Whose sins God and man did o'erthrow.
3. What will your father say when he comes to know?
My son come tell unto me.
I'll dress myself in a new suit of blue
And sail straight to New Germany.
It is always initeresting to get another version of the 'Edward' song. This tune seems familiar to me, to other words. In the versions that I know, outside those froin Virginia, there are only two that mention the blood of the horse-viz. Percy's Reliques quoted Child ('red roan steed') and Sharp's Appalachian version (old grey mare'). Who ' the mother of three' is I haven't the least idea.- F. K.
A version of ' Edward ' is always of interest because of its rarity in England. 'The sins of the mother of three' must be either a corruption or an interpolation from some other song.- M. K.