External links
 | Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
Prince Heathen is Child ballad 104, existing in several variants. The ballad tells the story of a woman held captive by a prince, forcing her to have his child. [1]
The heroine—Margery May or Margaret—is raped by Prince Heathen, sometimes after he has tried to woo her. Sometimes he tells her he has massacred her family; in all variants, he imprisons her until she bears a child.
She has a son and weeps. She tells Prince Heathen she is not weeping for him but because she has nothing to wrap the baby in. His heart softening, the prince gives her silk to wrap the baby in and milk to bath him in, and declares his love for her.
A similar ballad, Gil Brenton , features the hero who finally desires to treat the baby well. His motive is the final evidence that the baby is his, and not the softening of heart that Prince Heathen manifests.
"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad. The song, which is a variant of The Elfin Knight, lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The "Scarborough Fair" variant was most common in the Yorkshire and Northumbria, where it was sung to various melodies, with refrains resembling "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" and "Then she'll be a true love of mine."
"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads.
"The Twa Sisters" is a traditional murder ballad, dating at least as far back as the mid seventeenth century. The song recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her jealous sister. At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Dreadful Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", "The Bonny Swans" and the "Bonnie Bows of London". The ballad was collected by renowned folklorist Francis J. Child as Child Ballad 10 and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index. Whilst the song is thought to originate somewhere around England or Scotland, extremely similar songs have been found throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia.
The Famous Flower of Serving-Men or The Lady turned Serving-Man is a traditional English language folk song and murder ballad. Child considered it as closely related to the ballad "The Lament of the Border Widow" or "The Border Widow's Lament".
"Unusually, it is possible to give a precise date and authorship to this ballad. It was written by the prolific balladeer, Laurence Price, and published in July 1656, under the title of The famous Flower of Serving-Men. Or, The Lady turn'd Serving-Man. It lasted in the mouths of ordinary people for three hundred years: what a tribute to the work of any writer, leave alone the obscure Laurence Price. Oral tradition, however, has made changes. The original has twenty-eight verses and a fairy-tale ending: “And then for fear of further strife, / he took Sweet William to be his Wife: / The like before was never seen, / A Serving-man to be a Queen”. - Roy Palmer, A Book of British Ballads
Willie's Lady is Child ballad number 6 and Roud #220. The earliest known copy of the ballad is from a recitation transcribed in 1783.
Bonny Baby Livingston or Bonny Baby Livingstone is Child ballad number 222, existing in many variants. The ballad tells the story of a girl abducted and taken to the Scottish Highlands. She is able to get a message to her love, who, depending on the variation, is able to save her.
"Young Hunting" is a traditional folk song, Roud 47, catalogued by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 68, and has its origin in Scotland. Like most traditional songs, numerous variants of the song exist worldwide, notably under the title of "Henry Lee" and "Love Henry" in the United States and "Earl Richard" and sometimes "The Proud Girl" in the United Kingdom.
"The Twa Magicians", "The Two Magicians", "The Lady and the Blacksmith", or "The Coal Black Smith" is a British folk song. It first appears in print in 1828 in two sources, Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland and John Wilson's Noctes Ambrosianae #40. It was later published as number 44 of Francis James Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. During the 20th century, versions of it have been recorded by a number of folk and popular musicians.
The Laird O Logie or The Laird Of Logie is Child ballad number 182.
"The Lass of Roch Royal" is Child ballad number 76, existing in several variants.
"The Fair Flower of Northumberland" is a folk ballad.
Fause Foodrage is a Scottish murder ballad of the 17th or 18th century. It was first printed by Walter Scott in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802). Scott cited Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw as the ballad's probable author.
"Gil Brenton" is Child ballad 5, Roud 22, existing in several variants.
The White Fisher is Child ballad 264, and number 3888 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
Clerk Saunders is Child ballad 69. It exists in several variants.
Fair Mary of Wallington or Fair Lady of Wallington is Child ballad 91 and number 59 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Child lists at least seven variants of the ballad. The first variant is titled "Fair Mary of Wallington", while another variant is titled "The Bonny Early of Livingston".
Lady Diamond is Child ballad 269, existing in several variants. The story is derived from that of Ghismonda and Guiscardo from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio.
"Bonnie Annie" is a folk ballad recorded from the Scottish and English traditions. Scottish texts are often called Bonnie Annie or The Green Banks of Yarrow, English texts are most often called The Banks of Green Willow. Other titles include The Undutiful Daughter, The High Banks O Yarrow, The Watery Grave, Green Willow, There Was a Rich Merchant that Lived in Strathdinah and The Merchant's Daughter.
"A Brisk Young Sailor " is a traditional folk ballad, which has been collected from all over Britain, Ireland and North America. The song originates in England in the early 1600s.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than the baby's wealthy biological parents.
| Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
 | This folk song–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
