The False Knight On The Road- Mr Faulkner completed by Ben Henneberry; Devil's Island, Nova Scotia;
[From Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia by Helen Creighton, 1932, additional stanza 1950. Attached to this page is the article: The Case of Ben Henneberry. The chorus is based on Flowers of Edinburgh tune. My notes and other notes follow.
R. Matteson 2011]
Ben Henneberry was one of the singer Helen Creighton began collecting in the late 1920s until Ben's death in 1951. Faulkner and Henneberry's children; Edmund Henneberry with Kenneth Faulkner on fiddle, also recorded the family version in 1956 on the compilation 3 CD "Canada -- A Folksong Portrait with a fiddle instrumental instead of "Hi diddle diddle dum" chorus.
Charles Jordan and Joyce Sullivan version is nearly identical with the "Hi diddle diddle dum" chorus- listen here: http://members.shaw.ca/slower/cfs/CFS-1.html Charles Jordan and Joyce Sullivan [Track 2, side A] on Canadian Folk Songs: 9-LP set from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and RCA Victor was released in 1967.
The chorus is based on Flowers of Edinburgh tune. The internal rhyme isn't used in some of the verses: Milk/silk and then "grass/coarse". "Primer" is sometimes pronounced "prim" and dinner can be pronounced "din." Therese Doyle also recorded a version.
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/window/media/page/0,,4537166-13895879,00.html False Knight sound clip of Ben Henneberry's son Edmund in 1956. Curiously, I believe it's Faulkner's son on the fiddle. The second generation- it seems! Their version has a fiddle solo for the chorus instead of singing, "Hi diddle diddle dum."
Excerpt from: "The Fause Knight upon the Road: A Reappraisal" by John Minton; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 98, No. 390 (Oct. - Dec., 1985), pp. 435-455
When Traditional Songs From Nova Scotia (Creighton and Senior 1950) appeared 17 years later, Creighton prefaced a second moralistic and lyrical text of Child 3 (see under Type III above) by referring back to Mr. Faulkner and Ben Henneberry's earlier rendition, writing that:
After it was published the following letter came to me from Mr. Phillips Barry, archivist, the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast, Cambridge, Mass.: "Your variant of the False Knight is one of the most interesting and important versions that has ever been recorded anywhere. ... It is not one ballad but two; perfectly blended. Stanzas 2 to 5 are from 'Riddles Wisely Expounded,' the ballad under No. 1 in Child's collection. Only once has a version of 'Riddles Wisely Expounded' been taken down in America. As the blending of the ballads is so perfect there is no doubt it was done a long time ago. Your version may be one of the oldest versions of any traditional English or Scottish ballad." [Creighton and Senior 1950:1]
I concur with Barry's observations on the importance of this text for understanding the tradition of "The Fause Knight," particularly its relation to riddle ballads, though not with his hyperbolic estimate of the text's age, (indeed, as shown below, one of the singers apparently felt that the blending of the two texts was not quite perfect, at least not in the form exhibited in Songs and Ballads From Nova Scotia). Below Barry's comments, Creighton publishes an "additional stanza recalled by Mr. Ben Henneberry. It should be the second verse" (Creighton and Senior 1950:1), that is, preceding the riddle sequence. It is an obvious, if unique, variant of the food challenge from Type II:
"Would you sit down and share, or would you sit down and dine?"
Cried the false knight to the child on the road.
"I would divide my dinner if I thought you were in need."
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old. [Creighton and Senior 1950:1]
The False Knight On The Road Mr Faulkner completed by Ben Henneberry; Devil's Island, Nova Scotia; published in 1932
Oh what have you in your bag, what have you in your pack?
Cried the false knight to the child on the road
I have a little primer[1] and a piece of bread for dinner
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old.
CHORUS: Hi diddle deedle dum, deedle diddle deedle dum
Deedle deedle deedle diddle deedle deedle dum.
Diddle diddle dee, deedle deedle deedle dum
Diddle diddle diddle deedle diddle dee de dum.
["Would you sit down and share, or would you sit down and dine?"
Cried the false knight to the child on the road.
"I would divide my dinner if I thought you were in need."
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old.] [2]
What is rounder than a ring, what is higher than a king
Cried the false knight to the child on the road?
The sun is rounder than a ring, God is higher than a king
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old.
What is whiter than the milk, what is softer than the silk?
Cried the false knight to the child on the road.
Snow is whiter than the milk, down is softer than the silk
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old.
What is greener than the grass, what is worse than women coarse?
Cried the false knight to the child on the road
Poison's greener than the grass, the devil's worse than women coarse
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old.
What is longer than the wave, what is deeper than the sea?
Cried the false knight to the child on the road
Hell is longer than the wave, love is deeper than the sea
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old.
Oh a curse upon your father, and a curse upon your mother
Cried the false knight to the child on the road
Oh, a blessing on my father, and a blessing on my mother
Cried the pretty little child only seven years old
1. Children's book
2. An additional verse remembered by Henneberry from Creighton and Senior 1950