Lord Thomas & Fair Ellendry- House NC 1916 Sharp A
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell- Volume I; 1917 edition and 1932 edition edited by Maud Karpeles. The 1932 edition notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
No. 19. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 73. Broadside by Catnach. C. S. Burners Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 545. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 135. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 235; xx. 254; xxviii. 152; xxxix. 94. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 45 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes:—Kidson's Traditional Tunes, p. 40. English County Songs, p. 42. E. M. Leather's Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 200. Sandys's Christmas Carols, tune 18. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 105; v. 130. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, p. 94. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), ii. 27 (also published in One Hundred English Folk Songs, No.28). Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 28. Scots Musical Museum, vi, No. 535. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, No. 6. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Songs, p. 14. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 128. British Ballads from Maine, p. 128, Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 191 and 568. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 28. Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 156.
[Lord Thomas & Fair Ellendry] Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor- Sharp A
1. Lord Thomas he was a brave young man,
The keeping of bachelor's hall.
Come riddle to me, my mother dear,
Come riddle to me as one.
2 Or shall I marry fair Ellendry now,
Or bring you the brown girl home?
Or shall I marry fair Ellendry now,
Or bring the brown girl home?
3 The brown girl she has house and land,
Fair Ellendry she has none.
My request is to you, my son,
Go bring the brown girl home.
4 Fair Ellendry dressed herself in white,
And trimmed her merry maidens green,
And every town that she rode through
They took her to be some queen.
5 She rode up to Lord Thomas's hall,
And tingled on the ring;
No'one so ordel but Lord Thomas himself
For to rise and let her come in.
6 He took her by the lily-white hand,
He led her through the hall,
He sat her down at the head of the table
Amongst those ladies all.
7 Is this your bride?—fair Ellendry she says—
What makes her so wonderful brown?
When you could have married as fair a lady one
As ever the sun shined on.
8 Go hold your tongue, you pretty little miss,
And tell no tales on me,
For I love your little finger nail
Better than her whole body.
9 The brown girl had a little penknife
Which just had lately been ground,
She pierced it through fair Ellendry's side,
The blood come tumbling down.
10 He took her by her little hand,
He led her in the room;
He took his sword and cut her head off
And kicked it against the wall.
11 He put the handle against the wall,
The point against his breast.
Here is the ending of three dear lovers,
Pray take their souls to rest.
12 Go dig my grave both wide and deep
And paint my coffin black,
And bury fair Ellendry in my arms,
The brown girl at my back.
13 They dug his grave both wide and deep
And painted his coffin black,
And buried the brown girl in his arms
And fair Ellendry at his back.