Fause Foodrage (

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 '' ...

89,

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 ...

57) is a Scottish

murder ballad Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with a crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. The term refers to the content ...

of the 17th or 18th century. It was first printed by

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

in ''

Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border ''Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'' is an anthology of Border ballads, together with some from north-east Scotland and a few modern literary ballads, edited by Walter Scott. It was first published in 1802, but was expanded in several later ...

'' (1802). Scott cited

Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw Elizabeth, Lady Wardlaw (1677–1727) was a Scottish poet and the reputed author of the ballad ''Hardyknute''. Biography Elizabeth was born on 15 April 1677, the second daughter of Sir Charles Halket, baronet, of Pitfirran, Fife, and his wife Ja ...

as the ballad's probable author.

Synopsis

Three kings, King Easter (or King of Eastmure), King Wester (or King of Westmure) and King Honor (or ''King o Luve''), are courting a woman; she marries King Honor for love, but there is a rebellion of nobles, and the lot falls on "False Foodrage" (''Fause Foodrage'', ''Fa’se Footrage'') to kill the king, or, in other variants, the Eastmure king kills King Honor because his suit for King Honor's queen was rejected. The queen pleads for her life until her child is born. Fause Foodrage tells her that if the baby is a boy, he will die. He sets guards on her, but she gets them drunk and leaves out a window. She has a son in a pigsty. Wise William is sent to seek her; he sends his wife, and when she finds her, she persuades her to change her son for her daughter, saying that they will both raise the other's child fittingly. When the boy is grown, Wise William takes him by the royal castle and tells him the truth. The son kills Fause Foodrage, rewards Wise William, and marries the daughter that his mother raised.

commented that King Easter and King Wester represent "petty princes of Northumberland and Westmoreland" but later retracted this opinion.

Variants

Child ballad 90 '' Jellon Grame'' has affinities to this ballad. This ballad is closely related with a Scandinavian one, "Young William" (

TSB Banking A trustee savings bank is a type of financial institution. * In the United Kingdom: ** Trustee Savings Bank, a bank in the United Kingdom that merged with Lloyds Bank in 1995 to form Lloyds TSB until 2013 ** Lloyds TSB, the name used by ...

E 96), in which a rival in love kills the successful wooer, the woman bears a child and has the rival told it was a girl, and the son, grown, kills the rival. Another Scandinavian ballad (TSB D 352) opens with the bride being carried off, and her family coming to burn down the church that the bridegroom and his people are in; she hides her son from her family and in time he avenges his father.Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 298, Dover Publications, New York 1965

Modern interpretations

The tune recorded with ''Fause Foodrage'' was used for the ballad

Willie o Winsbury Willie O Winsbury is Child Ballad 100 (Roud 64). The song, of which there are many variants, is a traditional Scottish ballad that dates from at least 1775, and is known under several other names, including "Johnnie Barbour" and "Lord Thomas of Win ...

by mistake by Andy Irvine of

Sweeney's Men Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the mid-1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and "Galway J ...

(1968) and has since frequently been used for that song.Sleeve notes from ''Sweeney's Men'' LP, Transatlantic Records Ltd, TRA SAM 37, 1968. An arrangement of this tune is used in

The Wicker Man ''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 nov ...

(1973) for the "procession" scene. In contrast to ''Willie o Winsbury'', the ballad ''Fause Foodrage'' has only rarely been recorded by modern folk musicians. One recording is that by Hermes Nye (1957).

References

Child Ballads Murder ballads {{Folk-song-stub