Fair Annie is Child ballad number 62, existing in several variants.

Synopsis

A lord tells Fair Annie to prepare a welcome for his bride, and to look like a maiden. Annie laments that she has borne him seven sons and is pregnant with the eighth; she cannot look like a maiden. She welcomes the bride but laments her fate, even wishing her sons evil, that they might be rats and she a cat. The bride comes to ask her why she grieves, and then asks her what her family was before the lord stole her. Then she reveals that she is Annie's full sister and will give her her dowry, so that Annie can marry the lord instead of her; she is a maiden still and so can return home.

Variants

Several Scandinavian variants exist: the Swedish "Skön Anna" and the Danish "Skjön Anna" (

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 ...

258). In them, the hero is a man who has newly become king, after the death of his father; his long-term mistress, Anna or Anneck, tries to get him to make her his wife, and the queen mother supports her. When the son refuses and chooses a bride, Anneck wishes to speak with her; the queen mother brings her to the other woman, and her account makes the bride make the realization. An earlier echo of this motif is

Marie de France Marie de France (fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court o ...

's lai, '' Le Fresne.'' In this twelfth-century tale, the heroine is not kidnapped but abandoned with birth tokens. Le Fresne has a twin, which was regarded as proof of adultery, and a servant abandons her to save her life. Le Fresne eventually becomes the childless concubine of a lord, whose vassals force him to take a legitimate wife to produce heirs. The bride in ''Le Fresne'' is, in fact, the other twin.

Motifs

In some variants of ''

Hind Etin "Hind Etin" (Roudbr>33 Child 41) is a folk ballad existing in several variants. Synopsis Lady Margaret goes to the woods, and her breaking a branch is questioned by Hind Etin, who takes her with him into the forest. She bears him seven sons, but ...

'', the captive mother expresses her grief in hostility to her children in the same language as this ballad.Francis James Child, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 1, p 361, Dover Publications, New York 1965

Recent recordings

The English guitarist and singer

Martin Simpson Martin Stewart Simpson (born 5 May 1953) is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in Britain, Ireland, America and beyond. He builds a purposeful, often upbeat voi ...

recorded a version of Fair Annie on his 2001 album '' The Bramble Briar'' in his distinctive finger-picking style. The American guitarist and singer

Meg Baird Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunb ...

and the American harpist Mary Lattimore recorded a version of Fair Annie on their 2018 album '' Ghost Forests''.

References

External links