"The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter" is an 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 ...

, collected by

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 r ...

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 '' ...

110 and listed as number 67 in the

Roud Folk Song Index 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 ...

Synopsis

A knight persuades a shepherd's daughter to give him her virginity. Afterward she chases after him to the royal court, on foot while he is on horseback, and demands marriage. He attempts to bribe her, but she insists he must marry her or be executed. After the marriage it is revealed, either by the woman herself or by Billy Blin, that she is in fact the daughter of royalty or high nobility; it may also be revealed that the man is a noble instead of a mere knight.

Motifs

Her pursuit of the knight on foot while he is on horseback also appears in Child Ballad 63, " Child Waters", where it fits a very different plot. The motif is very similar to that of the

loathly lady The loathly lady ( cy, dynes gas, Motif D732 in Stith Thompson's motif index), is a tale type commonly used in medieval literature, most famously in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Wife of Bath's Tale''. The motif is that of a woman who appears unattr ...

, particularly the variant found in

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

's "

The Wife of Bath's Tale "The Wife of Bath's Tale" ( enm, The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe) is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and was probably of interest to Chaucer himsel ...

". ''Lise et Mainfroi'', a 1740 French imitation of this ballad, has an actual shepherdess as the heroine; she announces at the altar that she is satisfied without the wedding, and the king and his court must persuade her to agree.

Collected Versions

A version of the tune and lyrics were included by William Chappell in his 1859 book ''Popular Music of the Olden Time''.

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...

collected a version written in 1785, and notated another version she personally found in

Lewdown Lewtrenchard is a village and civil parish in the West Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. Most of the larger village of Lewdown is in the parish. In the Domesday Book of 1086, a manor of Lew is recorded in this area and two rivers h ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

in 1887, whilst

Frank Kidson Frank Kidson (15 November 1855 – 7 November 1926) was an English folksong collector and music scholar. Career He was born in Leeds, where he lived for most of his life.Palmer (2004). He worked briefly with his brother in an antique busine ...

collected a version sung by a Benjamin Holgate of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

in 1891. The famous composer and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

collected and notated a version in 1906 performed by William Roberts of

Burringham Burringham is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 737. The village is situated on thB1450on the east bank of the River Trent approximately south from Gunness. Bu ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, and another by Joseph Leaning of

Brigg Brigg ( /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east–west tra ...

in 1908. The song reached

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, where a handful of traditional versions were found to exist. The folklorist

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

recorded John Strachan of

Fyvie Fyvie is a village in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Geography Fyvie lies alongside the River Ythan and is on the A947 road. Architecture What in 1990, at least, was a Clydesdale Bank was built in 1866 by James Matthews. The ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

singing a version in 1957, which is publicly available online. Many Scottish versions had previously been recorded 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 U ...

in the 1930s. A later version was performed by

Lizzie Higgins Lizzie Higgins (20 September 1929 – 20 February 1993) was an Aberdeenshire ballad singer. Early life Born Elizabeth Ann Higgins in Guest Row, Aberdeen, she was the daughter of settled Travellers the piper Donald "Donty" Higgins and the sin ...

in the 1970s, and is now available 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, periodical ...

website. Desmond and Shelagh Herring recorded Emily Sparkes of

Rattlesden Rattlesden is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is approximately north-west from the county town of Ipswich, with the nearest town Stowmarket to the east. The parish includes the hamlets o ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

singing a version of the song in 1958, and another sung by Charlie Carver of nearby

Tostock Tostock is a small village around eight miles east of Bury St. Edmunds in the county of Suffolk. It is a very traditional Suffolk village, with a good example of a fourteenth-century church. As of 2011, the village is host to 198 houses with ...

, both of which can be heard online via the

British Library Sound Archive The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word a ...

Commercial Recordings

Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, and we ...

recorded a version as "Royal Forester" on their 1972 album ''

Below the Salt ''Below the Salt'' is the fourth studio album by Steeleye Span and their first after they joined the Chrysalis label. The album takes medieval influence and combines it with the band's British folk rock style. The lineup on the album includes ...

'', based on the aforementioned recording of John Strachan by Alan Lomax. There are various versions in the

Argo Records Argo Records was a record label in Chicago that was established in 1955 as a division of Chess Records. Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Ar ...

series of ballads by

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the ...

and

Peggy Seeger Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935) is an American Folk music, folk singer. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years, and was married to the singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989. First American period Seeg ...

, ''The Long Harvest'' record 4. Other recorded versions are by

The Young Tradition The Young Tradition were an English folk group of the 1960s, formed by Peter Bellamy, Royston Wood and Heather Wood. They recorded three albums of mainly traditional British folk music, sung in arrangements for their three unaccompanied voices. ...

on the album ''So Cheerfully Round'' (entitled "Knight William") and by

Dave Burland Dave Burland (born 12 July 1941, Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England) is an English folk singer and guitarist. A former policeman, he has been performing in English folk clubs since 1968 and has been described by ''The Guardian'' as havin ...

on the album ''Dave Burland'' (entitled "Earl Richard").

References

Child Ballads Northumbrian folklore Year of song unknown {{Folk-song-stub

Synopsis

Motifs

See also

Collected Versions

Commercial Recordings

References