The Broomfield Hill

Last updated

"The Broomfield Hill", "The Broomfield Wager" "The Merry Broomfield", "The Green Broomfield", "A Wager, a Wager", or "The West Country Wager" (Child 43, Roud 34) is a traditional English folk ballad. [1] (The Roud Index lists a number of other titles.)

Contents

Synopsis

In most versions a gentleman, in some versions called Lord John, challenges a maiden to a wager, usually at very high odds:

"A wager, a wager with you, pretty maid,
My one hundred pound to your ten"
That a maid you shall go into yonder green broom
But a maid you shall never return" [2]

or she makes a tryst and realizes she can either stay and be foresworn, or go and lose her virginity. After, in some versions advice from a witch-wife, or after persuading him to drink "a glass of something so strong" in one version, [3] she goes to the broom field and finds him in a deep sleep. She leaves tokens to show she has been there, and in many versions carries out what seems to be a ritual:

"Then three times she went from the crown of his head
And three times from the soles of his feet,
And three times she kissed his red ruby lips
As he lay fast in a sleep." [4]

then, after leaving tokens to show she had been there, either leaves quickly or hides in the bushes to watch what happens.

He wakes and in some variants taxes those with him — his goshawk, his servingmen, his horse, or his hound — that they did not wake him, but they answer it was impossible. He is angry that he did not manage to take her virginity and, in many variants, murder her afterwards, though in others he says he would have murdered her if she had resisted his intentions:

"Had I been awake when my true love was here
Of her I would have had my will
If not, the pretty birds in this merry green broom
Of her blood they should all had her fill." [4]

In some variants, she hears this and leaves glad:

"Be cheerful, be cheerful, and do not repine.
For now 'tis as clear as the sun.
The money, the money, the money is mine,
And the wager I fairly have won". [5]

Versions

Early published versions

The Broomfield Hill was printed by a number of publishers of broadside ballads. There are seven in the Bodleian Broadside collection, all fairly similar, with an earliest possible date of 1711. [5] Child included six versions, five of them Scottish and one from an English broadside from the collection compiled by Francis Douce. [6]

Versions collected from traditional singers

47 of the 61 examples listed in the Roud Folk Song Index were collected from singers in England, mostly in the south, with 13 from Somerset and 7 from Sussex. Cecil Sharp collected 14 versions from English singers. 7 versions were collected from Scotland and just one from County Antrim, Ireland. Only six were collected from the United States. [7]

Recordings

Recordings by traditional singers

Field recordings by a number of traditional singers have been published. These include Suffolk singer Cyril Poacher (under the title "Green Broom"); [8] [9] Gordon Hall from Sussex; [10] Pop Maynard of Sussex, (A Wager, a Wager); [11] Dorset gypsy singer Carolyne Hughes (A Wager, a Wager); [12] and Norfolk singer Walter Pardon. [13]

Motifs

The woman who enchants a man to sleep and so preserves her virginity is a common folktale and ballad motif throughout Europe. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

Barbara Allen (song) Traditional ballad

"Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song once popular throughout the English speaking world. It tells how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.

"Foggy Dew" or "Foggy, Foggy Dew" is an English folk song with a strong presence in the South of England and the Southern United States in the nineteenth century. The song describes the outcome of an affair between a weaver and a girl he courted. It is cataloged as Laws No. O03 and Roud Folk Song Index No. 558. It has been recorded by many traditional singers including Harry Cox, and a diverse range of musicians including Benjamin Britten, Burl Ives, A.L. Lloyd and Ye Vagabonds have arranged and recorded popular versions of the song.

"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.

Matty Groves Traditional song

"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 in the Roud Folk Song Index This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is one of the Child ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child.

"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 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 Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. In the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late 19th century, it is indexed as Child Ballad number 95; 11 variants, some fragmentary, are indexed as 95A to 95K. The Roud Folk Song Index identifies it as number 144.

"The Cruel Mother" is a murder ballad originating in England that has since become popular throughout the wider English-speaking world.

"Geordie" is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child ballad 209 and Number 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, particularly in England, Scotland and North America, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. In recent times, popular versions have been performed and recorded by numerous artists and groups in different languages, mostly inspired by Joan Baez's 1962 recording based on a traditional version from Somerset, England.

Young Beichan Traditional song

"Young Beichan" is a ballad, which with a number of variants and names such as "Lord Baker", "Lord Bateman", and "Young Bekie", was collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century, and is included in the Child ballads as number 53.

"Riddles Wisely Expounded" is a traditional English song, dating at least to 1450. It is Child Ballad 1 and Roud 161, and exists in several variants. The first known tune was attached to it in 1719. The title "Riddles Wisely Expounded" was given by Francis James Child and seems derived from the seventeenth century broadside version "A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded".

"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.

The Suffolk Miracle is Child ballad 272 and is listed as #246 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Versions of the ballad have been collected from traditional singers in England, Ireland and North America. The song is also known as "The Holland Handkerchief" and sometimes as "The Lover's Ghost".

"The Banks of Sweet Primroses", "The Banks of the Sweet Primroses", "Sweet Primroses", "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning", "As I Rode Out" or "Stand off, Stand Off" is an English folk song. It was very popular with traditional singers in the south of England, and has been recorded by many singers and groups influenced by the folk revival that began in the 1950s.

"Hares on the Mountain" is an English folk song. Versions of this song have been collected from traditional singers in England, Canada and the USA, and have been recorded by modern folk artists.

Van Diemen's Land or Henry the Poacher, Young Henry's Downfall, Beware Young Men. is an English transportation ballad. It was widely published in broadsides during the 19th century, and was collected from traditional singers in England during the twentieth century. It has been recorded by many singers influenced by the British folk revival.

Transportation ballads are a genre of broadside ballad some of which became an important part of the folk song traditions of Britain and Ireland. They concern the transportation of convicted criminals firstly to the American colonies and then to penal colonies in Australia. Transportation ballads were published as broadsides,. Many have passed into the folk tradition and have been collected subsequently from traditional singers.

The Bold Fisherman is an English folk song popular with traditional singers and widely collected in the early and mid 20th century CE. It has been frequently performed and recorded by contemporary folk singers and groups.

"No, Sir, No" is an English folk song describing a courtship. It has been collected from traditional singers in England and the USA, and in a bowdlerised version was taught to English schoolchildren in music lessons in the 1950s. Alternative titles include "No, Sir", "No, John, No", "O No John", "Yes Or No", "Cruel Father", "Ripest Apples", "Twenty Eighteen", "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter", "The Spanish Captain", "Spanish Lady", "Yonder Sits a Spanish Lady", "Yonder Sits a Pretty Creature", and "In Yonder Grove".

The Lark in the Morning is an English folk song. It was moderately popular with traditional singers in England, less so in Scotland, Ireland and the United States. It starts as a hymn to the ploughboy's life, and often goes on to recount a sexual encounter between a ploughboy and a maiden resulting in pregnancy.

References

  1. ↑ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "The Broomfield Hill"
  2. ↑ Palmer, R, English Country Songbook, London, 1979
  3. ↑ Roud, Steve; The New Penguin Book of British Folk Songs, London 2012
  4. 1 2 Vaughan Williams, R, and Lloyd, A. L.; The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs; Harmondsworth, 1959
  5. 1 2 "Ballads Online".
  6. ↑ "Ballads Online".
  7. ↑ "Vaughan Williams Memorial Library - Search".
  8. ↑ Cyril Poacher, Plenty of Thyme, MTCD303
  9. ↑ The Barley Mow (Voice of the People) TSCD676D
  10. ↑ When the May is all in Bloom, VT131CD
  11. ↑ Ye Subjects of England, Traditional Songs from Sussex Topic 12T286
  12. ↑ I'm a Romany Rai, (Voice of the People) TSCD672D Dorset
  13. ↑ A Country Life Topic 12TS392
  14. ↑ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 391-4, Dover Publications, New York 1965


Musical notes.svg

This folk song–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.