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The song is derived from Homer's Odyssey, interpreted through the 17th century English folk ballad tradition, and tells the story of a prospective suitor who asks a woman if she will marry him. [1] She replies that she cannot because she is betrothed to John Riley, who has gone away over the seas.
Related English ballads which share stanza composition as well as narratives of heartbreak-induced death include Fair Margaret and Sweet William and Lord Lovel. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Several Norse variants of this ballad exist, although the man does not reject the woman on advice of his friends in them.
Another ballad, "I Wish I Wish But It's All in Vain" (Roud 495) has a similar theme. It has been collected in Scotland and Ireland. [13] There are "floating verses" across the songs, but the American lyrics (as Roud 451) are close to each other, and sufficiently different from the British versions (Roud 495) to make them different songs.
Several Scandinavian variants exist: the Swedish "Skön Anna" and the Danish "Skjön Anna" (DgF 258).In them, the hero is a man who has newly become king, after the death of his father; his long-term mistress, Anna or Anneck, tries to get him to make her his wife, and the queen mother supports her.
"The Ballad of Aidan McAnespie" – song about a young Catholic man, shot by a British soldier while walking to a Gaelic football match, at Aughnacloy border checkpoint in County Tyrone. [47] "The Ballad of Billy Reid" – song recorded by the Wolfe Tones, Shebeen, and others, about Provisional IRA member Billy Reid (killed in May 1971). [48]
Fair Margaret & Sweet William from The Book of British ballads (1842) "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child 74, Roud 253) is a traditional English ballad which tells of two lovers, one or both of whom die from heartbreak. [1] Thomas Percy included it in his 1765 Reliques and said that it was quoted as early as 1611 in the Knight of the ...
There are a number of different versions of the ballad. In addition to the eight collected by Francis James Child in volume IV of his anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (versions A to H), others can be found in Britain and in the United States, where it remained especially widespread, [4] with hundreds of versions being collected throughout the years, [5] around 250 of them in ...
A young woman saves her lover from being used for the teind on Hallows Eve. 40: The Queen of Elfan's Nourice: A mortal woman laments being taken from her four-day-old son. The Queen of Elfland promises that if she nurses the queen's child, she will be returned. The Queen then points out their path: the road to Elfland, rather than to Heaven or ...