Lord Thomas- Ashford (VT) 1937 Flanders L
[From Flanders' Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin/Flanders follow. This version closely follows the English broadside, Child D.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet
(Child 73)
Child prints nine versions of "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor" or "The Brown Girl" as the ballad is so frequently called; all but one are Scottish. However, this one, Child D, a seventeenth-century English broadside, seems to be the progenitor of the entire American and modern British stock of the song. Child D variants have been found frequently on both sides of the Atlantic, and this circulation no doubt accounts not only for the fact most informants know or can recognize the ballad, but also for the fact there is little difference in the ballad from one area to another.
Belden, 38, points out some of the major differences between the Scottish tradition and the American versions of the song. The Scottish opening, borrowed from "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child 74), and the remarks exchanged between the women on the brown girl's complexion are both missing in this country, as may be the "rose-briar" cliche, common to Child 74 and Child 75 in "Lord Lovel"). Furthermore, the American hero himself and, not his messenger goes to see Eleanor, and he seeks advice from his mother, never other members of the family. As many texts in this country open with a description of Lord Thomas as a "bold forester," the phrase used in the Nafis and Cornish Forget-Me-Not Songster, there is little doubt this popular volume had much to do with the spread and consistency of the ballad throughout the States.
L. Lord Thomas. In Groton, Vermont, Henry Ashford, a call-fiddler of dances which canxe out of England, remernbered this fragment as sung by his father. Mr. Ashford, formerly lived in Derby, New B;runswich, near the Miramichi. H. H. F., Collector
June 22, 1937 Structure: A B C D (4,4,4,4); Rhythm A; Contour: approaching an arc; Scale: Mixolydian t.c. D.
For mel. rel. see Sharp 1, 115, 118, 119(D); DV, 570 No. 18(s).
Lord Thomas
Lord Thomas, he was a bold forester,
A chaser of all the king's deer;
Fair Elinor was a fine woman.
Lord Thomas, he loved her dear.
"Come riddle my riddle, dear mother," he said,
"And come riddle us both into one,
Whether I should marry Fair Elinor
Or bring the Brown Girl home."
"The Brown Girl, she has money and lands,
And Fair Elinor, she has none,
And before I charge you with my blessing,
Bring the Brown Girl home."
* * *
"Dig my grave," Lord Thomas, he said,
"And dig it both wide and deep;
Lay Fair Elinor at my side
And the Brown Girl at my feet."