Lord Arnold's Daughter- Devlin (NY-PA) pre1938
[My date, although it probably is much older. From: Never without a Song: The Years and Songs of Jennie Devlin, 1865-1952 by Katharine D. Newman, and Alan Lomax. Certainly this is titled incorrectly, comments from Devlin and Lomax follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
Grandma Deb: "See how that was. Now her mother told her not to go to the wedding, but she would go anyhow. So her mother said,
'There never was three lovers sure
That sooner did depart.'
"An' when fair Eleanor come there and said, 'You might have had as fair a woman as ever the sun shone on,' that meant she was light, see, and that made the Brown Girl jealous.
"Now, I can't think why it was called 'Lord Arnold's Daughter.' Mavbe it could have been 'Lord Arnold's Mother' since she was the one . ."
Alan Lomax: "But her mother told her not to go to the wedding . ."
The chief puzzle here, obviously, is in Grandma Deb's strange title for the song, especially since there is no father mentioned in the story. Gran was puzzled by this herself. The only parallel I ever found was in one text Tristram Coffin reported as found in Iowa; in this version "Lord Thomas" is not the hero; he is the father of Eleanor.[1]
Kenneth S. Goldstein, however, suggested another hypothesis: "'Lord Arnold' is the name of the cuckolded husband in American versions of Child 81 with the ballad denouement involving the Lord cutting off his wife's head."[2]Since the two ballads share this gory ending, the names of the noble axe-wielders might have become confused in the memories of American folksingers. However, neither of these putative parallels can account for the word "Daughter" in Grandma Deb's song title. Other than this peculiarity, the ballad seems like other versions reported by collectors all over America.[3] My personal amusement on finding this gory item in Warner's Series: Forty-four Readings and Recitations was great, since these selections were intended for school performances and the publishers boasted that they formed "a class of readings that can be approved by a refined taste and a cultivated judgement."[4]
1. Coffin, British Traditional Ballad, 68-70.
2. This information was transmitted to me verbally by Goldstein. This is also the case in all other instances of quotations or information from Goldstein, unless noted otherwise.
3. Leach, Ballad Book,242-44.
4. Rice, Warner's Series, 3:1890.
Child 73: "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet."
Lord Arnold's Daughter
Lord Arnold he rode to fair Eleanor's castle
And he knocked upon the ring,
There wasn't one so ready as fair Eleanor
To let Lord Arnold in.
"What news, what news?" fair Eleanor said,
"What news hast thou brought unto me?"
"I've come to bid thee to my wedding,
And that is sad news for thee'"
"O, God forbid," Fair Eleanor said,
"That such a thing should be done,
For I thought to hive been the bride myself,
And thou-would have been the bridegroom."
[Lord Arnold's mother forced the match because the Brown Girl was rich, but she sent Lord Arnold to tell fair Eleanor for fairness's sake. Then her mother tried to prevent her from attending the wedding, saying:]
"There never was three lovers sure
That sooner did depart."
[But Eleanor goes.]
And as she rode through every Place
They took her to be some queen.
They rode till they come to Lord Arnold's castle,
And she knocked upon the ring.
There wasn't one so ready as Lord Arnold
To let fair Eleanor in.
He took her by her lily white hand,
He led her across the hall.
He sat her in the noblest chair,
Amongst the ladies all.
"Is this your bride?" fair Eleanor said.
"Methinks she looks wonderful brown.
When you might have had as fair a woman
As ever the sun shone on."
The Brown Girl had a little penknife
Which was both keen and sharp.
Betwixt the short rib and the long,
She pierced fair Eleanor's heart.
"O, God forbid," fair Eleanor said,
"Tlhat such a thing should be . . .
[She tells Lord Arnold]
For the blood is trickling to my knee."
Lord Arnold takes the Brown Girl.
He leads her across the hall.
He cut her head clear from her shoulder
And flung it against the wall.
"Go dig my grave both deep and wide
And lay fair Eleanor at my side,
And the Brown Girl at my feet."
"There never was three lovers sure
That sooner did depart."