Lord Thomas & Fair Eleanor- Nelson VA 1924 Davis B
[From: Traditional Ballads of Virginia; Davis, 1929. His notes follow. Virginia ballad no. 19 is "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" and ballad 20 is "Lord Lovel."
This version has the "rose and briar" ending.
R. Matteson 2014]
18. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET
(Child, No. 73)
THE three lovely ballads that follow (Nos. 18, 19, and 20) are so closely akin and so frequently blended with one another it will be well to mention their distinguishing marks in advance. All are concerned with the tragedy that follows in the wake of the betrayal or too long deferring of true love. In I8 and 19 the man loves one woman but marries another for her money or following the advice of friends or family. In 18 the the lover comes to the wedding and outshines the bride, who kills her through jealousy and is herself killed by the lover, who then kills himself. In 19 the bridegroom in his marriage bed dreams that his true love appears to him. He dresses and rides to her home, to find her dead of a broken heart. He dies of grief and remorse. Both deaths are natural, as also in 20. But in 20 the triangle disappears; the lover is not unfaithful, only laggard, and he returns to find his lady dead of love too long deferred, then himself dies of grief. All three, then, are lovers' tragedies. In 18 there is a triangle with three violent deaths; in 19, there is a triangle, with the two lovers' deaths, neither violent; in 20 the triangle disappears, and the two lovers die without violence, of love-longing and of sorrow. But this analysis the pure forms may be distinguished from there blended texts.
With these three ballads, also, the familiar "rose-and-brier," ending is most frequently associated. Child speaks of this in his introduction to the Douglas Tragedy. As he says, "The beautiful fancy of plants springing from the graves of star-crossed lovers, and signifying by the intertwining of stems or leaves, or, in other analogous ways, that an earthly passion has not been extinguished by death, presents itself as is well known, very frequently in popular poetry. Though the graves be made far apart, even on opposite sides of the church, or one to the north and one south, outside the church, or one without kirk wall and one in the choir, however separated. the vines or trees seek one another out, and mingle their branches or their foliage:
"Even from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Even in our ashes live their wonted fires!"
In the Virginia texts, this fanciful idea is seldom found in 18 (see B). but regularly in 19 and 20. And the appendage appears again a little later in the Virginia texts of " Barbara Allen "'(No. 24, which as another love tragedy is also akin to this group.
No. 18 is known in Virginia as "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor," "Lord Thomas," "The Brown Girl," "Lord Thomas and the Brown Girl," "The Three Lovers," "Fair Ellen," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellen," and by other like titles. The simple name Eleanor goes through many changes of spelling and pronunciation, from Ellinor to Ellender. The thirty-seven texts and seven tunes of this ballad collected in Virginia indicate its great, and deserved popularity. Most of the texts are complete or nearly so, and in an excellent state of preservation. But they all seem to be more closely related to the Child D group than to any other version. They follow the English rather than the Scottish form of the ballad.
Several of the Virginia variants begin with a description of Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor. But in most of the variants, as Cox says of the West Virginia texts, " the story begins by the hero's asking his mother to solve the riddle as to whether he shall marry Fair Eleanor or bring the brown girl home. Since the brown girl has house and lot (land) and Fair Eleanor has none, she advises him to marry the brown girl. Thereupon he dresses himself up in state, takes his merry men with him, rides to Fair Eleanor's hall, and invites her to his wedding on the morrow. She says that it is very bad news to her for she expected to be his bride. Later she asks her mother to solve the riddle as to whether she shall go to Lord Thomas's wedding or stay at home. Her mother advises her to stay at home since she will have few friends at the wedding and many enemies, but she is determined to go. Thereupon she arrays herself in her finery, takes her merry maids with her, and rides to Lord Thomas's hall. In answer to her knocking, Lord Thomas himself lets her in, leads her into the hall, and chooses for her the highest seat. Fair Eleanor twits him with having married such a brown wife, whereupon the brown girl stabs her with a pen-knife between the short ribs and the long. Lord Thomas asks her why she looks so pale and she suggests that he must be blind not to observe her heart's blood trickling down to her knee. With a little hand-sword Lord Thomas cuts off the head of the brown girl, kicks it against the wall, and then slays himself with the same sword. Before he dies, he requests that Fair Eleanor be buried in his arms and the brown girl at his feet." This summary by Cox may stand for the typical Virginia text as well.
American texts of this ballad are very numerous, showing its great popularity in the New World. See Barry,No. 2; Belden, No. 1 (fragment); Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2,-3, 5-10; Campbell and Sharp, No. 16 (North Carolina, Georgia,-Tennessee, Massachusetts, Virginia); Child, III, 509 (Virginia from The Folk Lore Journal, vol,33, 1889); Cox, No. 10; Hudson, No 10 (and Journal, XXXIX, 94; Mississippi); Journal, XVIII, 128 (Barry, Vermont, text and melody: Massachusetts, fragment), 295 (Barry, Vermont, melody only); XIX, 235, (Belden, Missouri, Arkansas); XX, 254 (Kittredge, Kentucky); XXVIII, 71 (Barry, melody only; XXVIII, 152 (Perrow, North Carolina); XXIX, 159 (Tolman, Pennsylvania, fragment); McGill, p.28; Mackenzie, p. 97 Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 6 and p. 392 (text and melody); Pound, Syllabus, p. 11 (fragment); Pound, Ballads, No. 12; Sandburg, p. 157 (North Carolina); Shearin, p.3; Shearin and Combs, p. 9; Shoemaker, p. 155; Reed Smith, No. 5 (texts and melodies); Reed Smith, Ballads, No. 5; Wyman and Brockway, Songs, p. 14 (Kentucky). For additional references, see Cox, p. 45; Journal, XXIX, 159.
B. "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor." Reported by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy. Contributed by Miss Mary Finch. Sung by Miss Jennie Nelson, of Rustburg, Va., Campbell County. May 24, 1924. With music.
1. Lord Thomas he was a bold forester,
A keeper of the King's deer;
Lady Eleanor was a fair ladye,
She loved Lord Thomas dear.
2. " 'T is time you were wed," his mother she said,
" 'T is time you were wed," said she,
"So, son, I charge you upon my blessing
To bring home a bride to me."
3 "Then riddle this riddle, my mother," he said,
"And riddle it well," said he;
"Full long have I loved the fair Eleanor,
And the brown girl she loves me'"
4 "The brown girl she has houses and lands,
Fair Eleanor she has none;
So, now, I charge You upon my blessing
To bring the brown girl home."
5 Lord Thomas he rode to fair Eleanor's door,
With his merrie men all in green;
And who so ready as fair Eleanor
To let Lord Thomas in?
6 "What news, what news, Lord Thomas?" she cried,
"What news do you bring to me?"
I've come to bid you to my wedding,
And that is sad news for thee."
7 "Sad news, sad news, Lord Thomas," she cried,
They fill my heart with gloom;
For I thought myself to have been the bride,
And you have been the bridegroom."
8 Lady Eleanor mounted her milk-white steed,
With her merrie men all in green;
And every borough that she rode through
They took her to be some queen.
9 "Is this your bride, Lord Thomas?" she cried,
"Methinks she looks wondrous brown;
You might have married the fairest woman
That ever trod English ground."
10 "Nay blame her not, fair Ellen," he cried,
"Nay, blame her not to me;
For better I love thy little finger
Than the brown girl's whole body."
11 The brown girl took her little pen-knife,
Which was both long and sharp,
And 'twixt the short ribs and the long
She pierced fair Eleanor's heart.
12 "Now how is this, fair Ellen?" he cried,
"Methinks you look wondrous wan;
You used to be the fairest woman
That ever the sun shone on."
13 "Oh, what is this, Lord Thomas?" she cried,
"And can you not very well see,
That this is now my own heart's blood
Comes trickling down to my knee?"
14 Lord Thomas he wore a sword by his side,
It leaped from his side with a bound.
It touched the brown girl on the throat;
Her head rolled on the ground.
15. "The hill[1]against a tree he placed;
The point against his heart,
Did ever true lovers so sadly meet,
So sadly soon to part?
16 They laid them both in the old churchyard,
They buried them in the church choir;
And out of her bosom there grew a white rose,
And out of his a brier.
17 They grew to the top of the old church tower,
And when they could grow no higher;
They twined themselves in a true lovers' knot
For (all) true lovers to admire.
1. hilt (handle of the sword)