"Young Waters" | |
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Song | |
Genre | Ballad |
"Young Waters" (Roud 2860, Child 94) is an English-language folk song. [1]
The queen sees Young Waters ride to court. A clever lord asks her to name the comeliest man in the whole company (at court), and her answer is 'Young Waters' is the fairest face that ever my eyes did see'. The king is angry that she did not accept him. She tries to appease him, but the king throws Young Waters in prison and executes him.
The ballad is often supposed to be based on a historical occurrence, but no such event has been located that matches it. [2]
A very similar Scandinavian ballad names King Magnus Ladulås and his wife Helvig as the king and queen. Folke Lovmandson finds favor with many ladies of court, especially the queen; a page stirs the king's suspicion; the innocent knight is rolled down the hill in a barrel set with knives. [3]
Sir Aldingar is an English-language folk song. Francis James Child collected three variants, two fragmentary, in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. All three recount the tale where a rebuffed Sir Aldingar slanders his mistress, Queen Eleanor, and a miraculous champion saves her.
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Child Waters is an English-language folk song, existing in several variants.
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"The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is an English Arthurian ballad, collected as Child Ballad 31. Found in the Percy Folio, it is a fragmented account of the story of Sir Gawain and the loathly lady, which has been preserved in fuller form in the medieval poem The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. The loathly lady episode itself dates at least back to Geoffrey Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. Unlike most of the Child Ballads, but like the Arthurian "King Arthur and King Cornwall" and "The Boy and the Mantle", "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is not a folk ballad but a song for professional minstrels.
"Erlinton" is an English-language folk ballad. One variant features Robin Hood, but this variant forces the folk hero into a ballad structure where he does not fit naturally.
"Earl Brand" is a pseudo-historical English ballad.
"Young Andrew" is a folk song catalogued as Child ballad 48.
Clerk Saunders is an English-language folk song, likely originating somewhere in England or Scotland. It exists in several variants.
"Brown Robyn's Confession" is an English-language folk song.
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