Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane is
Child ballad
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
number 28.
Despite similarity in names, it appears to have no connection with ''
Tam Lin
Tam (or Tamas) Lin (also called Tamlane, Tamlin, Tambling, Tomlin, Tam Lien, Tam-a-Line, Tam Lyn, or Tam Lane) is a character in a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. It is also associated with a reel of the same name, also ...
'', nor with the tale of
Childe Rowland
Childe Rowland is a fairy tale, the most popular version written by Joseph Jacobs in his ''English Fairy Tales'', published in 1890, based on an earlier version published in 1814 by Robert Jamieson. Jamieson's was repeating a "Scottish ballad", w ...
, though they both have characters named Burd Ellen; indeed,
Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of r ...
was unable to connect this ballad with any other tradition or ballad.
[Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 1, p 256, Dover Publications, New York 1965]
The ballad is quite probably fragmentary in its current form.
Synopsis
Burd Ellen is weeping. Young Tamlane tells her to rock her son. She tells him to rock the child himself, she has done more than her share. Instead, he goes to sea, with her curse.
Lyrics
See also
*
List of the Child Ballads
The Child Ballads is the colloquial name given to a collection of 305 ballads collected in the 19th century by Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, ...
References
External links
''Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane''with commentary
Child Ballads
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
{{Folk-song-stub