Lady Diamond is Child ballad 269 (

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 ...

112), existing in several variants. The story is derived from that of Ghismonda and Guiscardo from ''

The Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label= Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Da ...

'' of Giovanni Boccaccio.

Synopsis

A great king has a daughter (Lady Diamond, Daisy, Dysmal, or Dysie), who falls in love with his kitchen boy. She becomes pregnant. Her father demands to know the boy, and she tells him. He has the kitchen boy secretly murdered, but then, in most variants, brings his heart to his daughter. She dies. In most variants, the king laments the deaths.

Recordings

Steeleye Span recorded a version on their 1986 album ''

Back in Line ''Back in Line'' is the twelfth studio album by British folk rock band Steeleye Span. The album was released in 1986, after a hiatus of almost 6 years. It is their first album without founding member Tim Hart, who quit the music business ent ...

''. The 2011 debut album by

Bryony Griffith Bryony Griffith (born 1977 Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England) is an English fiddle player and singer, specialising in English traditional songs and tunes. She is best known for her work with the Demon Barbers and a cappella quartet Witches ...

& Will Hampson of

The Demon Barbers The Demon Barbers are an English folk band who predominantly draw on traditional material for their repertoire while fusing traditional folk instruments with drums and electric bass guitar. The band is particularly well known for its energetic l ...

is entitled ''Lady Diamond'' and features a recording of the ballad. In 1939, Alan Lomax recorded Aunt Molly Jackson singing “Lady Nancy,” a song she claimed to have written after reading the story in a book of English and Scottish Kings. Such outlandish claims were common with Jackson, although this is quite possibly the only known American version of Lady Diamond to be collected. Where and how she learned it remains a mystery. A corresponding Scandinavian ballad (

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 ...

D 390) exists in Danish ("Hertug Frydenborg",

DgF ''Danmarks gamle Folkeviser'' is a collection of (in principle) all known texts and recordings of the old Danish popular ballads. It drew both on early modern manuscripts, such as Karen Brahes Folio, and much more recent folk-song collecting activi ...

305), Swedish ("Hertig Fröjdenborg och fröken Adelin", SMB 172), and (fragmentary) Norwegian ("Frydenborg og Adelin") variants.

References

Child Ballads {{Folk-song-stub