The White Fisher is
Child ballad 264, and
number 3888 in the
Roud Folk Song Index.
Synopsis
A man tells his wife that they have been married only one month and asks why the child is
quickening
In pregnancy terms, quickening is the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant woman starts to feel the fetus' movement in the uterus.
Medical facts
The first natural sensation of quickening may feel like a light tapping or fluttering. These sensat ...
. The woman blames her pregnancy on a priest, or on a kitchen boy. When she gives birth, she tells her husband to toss the baby in the sea to drown, or, in some variants to sink or swim but not return to her without a white fish. Instead, he takes the baby to his mother and claims that he had a sweetheart over the sea, and this is his child. The wife grieves and refuses a drink from him, because having drowned her baby, he would poison her. He tells her that his mother has the child. In some variants, he tells her that she may see him as long as she does not call the child hers.
Traditional Recordings
The song has been recorded twice from traditional singers; both were recorded in
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
by
James Madison Carpenter
James Madison Carpenter, born in 1888 in Blacklands, Mississippi, near Booneville, in Prentiss County, was a Methodist minister and scholar of American and British folklore. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the ...
in the early 1930s and can be heard on the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodic ...
website: one is sung by
Bell Duncan
Bell Duncan (8 August 1849 – 5 January 1934), also known as Isobel, Isabella and Elizabeth, was a traditional singer from Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
She was born in Forgue, Aberdeenshire in 1849, to George Duncan (1814-1903) a farmer, and Jane ...
of
Forgue
Forgue is a hamlet in Aberdeenshire. It lies northwest of Aberdeen and northeast of Huntly. The Glendronach distillery is located in Forgue.
Notable residents
* George Bartlet, Dean of Aberdeen and Orkney
* Sir George Stuart Forbes, Indian ...
and the other by Elizabeth Robb of
Strichen
Strichen is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It sits on the A981, connecting it to New Deer to the southwest and Fraserburgh to the north-northeast, and the B9093, connecting it to New Pitsligo about due west. The village got its name ...
.
See also
*
Gil Brenton
References
External links
''The White Fisher''
Child Ballads
Year of song unknown
Songwriter unknown
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