"Earl Brand" (
Child 7,
Roud
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
br>
23 is a pseudo-historical English
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
.
Synopsis
The hero, who may be Earl Brand, Lord Douglas, or Lord William, flees with the heroine, who may be Lady Margaret. A Carl Hood may betray them to her father, but they are always pursued. The hero kills the pursuers and is mortally wounded. He gets the heroine to his mother's house, but when he dies, she dies of sorrow.
Commentary
This ballad has many similarities with Child ballad 8, ''
Erlinton
''Erlinton'' (Roud 24) is #8 of the Child Ballads, the collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century. The collection was published as ''The Engli ...
'', where the lovers succeed in their escape, and the fight scenes often have details in common across variants.
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 ...
only reluctantly separated them, but concluded that because the lovers' assailants are her kin in ''Earl Brand'' and strangers in ''Erlinton'', they were separate types.
Scandavian variants often have a detail that Child believed was originally contained but lost from the English ballad: the hero warns the heroine not to speak his
name, and when he is about to kill her last brother, she begs him by name to let the brother live to bear the news, and this causes his death. These variants include the Danish ''Ribold and Guldborg'' and ''Hildebrand and Hilde'' and the German
Waltharius
''Waltharius'' is a Latin epic poem founded on German popular tradition relating the exploits of the Visigothic hero Walter of Aquitaine. While its subject matter is taken from early medieval Germanic legend, the epic stands firmly in the Latin ...
and
Þiðrekssaga.
Auld Carl Hood is also an old man in the Scandavian variants; he appears to be a malicious figure of
Odin or
Woden
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory ...
.
Many variants of this ballad end with flowers growing from the lovers' grave. This is a common motif for all manner of ballads having no other connection, such as ''
Fair Margaret and Sweet William'', ''
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet'', ''
Fair Janet'', and ''
Lord Lovel'', and in tales and ballads found throughout Europe and parts of Asia. This is found in the legend of
Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...
, which is sometimes supposed to be the source, but there is no evidence for its being older in the
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
s than in the ballad.
Cultural uses
Frederick William Burton
Sir Frederic William Burton (8 April 1816 in Wicklow – 16 March 1900 in London) was an Irish painter who was born in County Wicklow and taken by his parents to live in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland at the age of six. He was t ...
drew upon a Danish ballad of this type for his "Meeting on the Turret Stairs", depicting the parting of the lovers before the fight.
Clare People: Sir Frederic William Burton, R.H.A.: The Meeting on the Turret Stairs
/ref>
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, ...
*Erlinton
''Erlinton'' (Roud 24) is #8 of the Child Ballads, the collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century. The collection was published as ''The Engli ...
*Hildebrand
Hildebrand is a character from Germanic heroic legend. ''Hildebrand'' is the modern German form of the name: in Old High German it is ''Hiltibrant'' and in Old Norse ''Hildibrandr''. The word ''hild'' means "battle" and ''brand'' means "sword". ...
* Walter
References
External links
*"Scottish Ballads Online
Child Ballad #7: 'Earl Brand'
Nine variants from Francis J Child's collection and a further two from the appendix and a link to versions from the living tradition.
{{authority control
Child Ballads
Brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
English folklore
Northumbrian folklore
Scottish folklore
Year of song unknown