Lord Thomas and Fair Elendar- Stone (Kansas) learned 1840 collected 1897
[From: Some Songs Traditional in the United States by Albert H. Tolman; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 29, No. 112 (Apr. - Jun., 1916), pp. 155-197. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
73. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET.
American texts: Child iii, 509; this Journal, xviii, 128 (Barry, 2 variants); xix, 235 (Belden, 4 v.); xx, 254; xxviii, 152; Decennial Publications University of Chicago, 1903, vol. vii, 140. Shearin lists 3 variants, p. 8. Pound, p. 11. [1] An English variant with various tunes is in the Journal of Folk-Song Society, ii, 105. [2]
I have two copies from Virginia, two from Indiana, and one incomplete copy derived from Pennsylvania. It seems best to print here only the last of these.
Lord Thomas and Fair Elendar
The only American version of this ballad in Child (reprinted from the Folk-Lore Journal, vii, 33, 1889) was taken "from the singing of a Virginian nurse-maid." Child speaks of "its amusing perversions." The most important perversion is the giving to "fair Ellinter" both the wealth and the beauty, so that "Lord Thomas" has no reason for choosing the brown girl, and his mother no reason for advising it. The following fragment shows that this form of the story had some currency. The fragment was obtained from Mrs. Deborah Stone, Winfield, Kan., in I897. She learned it about 1840 from a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania.
1. Lord Thomas he was a bold biler, sir,
A biler, sir, was he;
Fair Elendar being an accomplished young lady,
Lord Thomas he loved her dearly, dearly,
Lord Thomas he loved her dearly.
2. "Go read me a riddle, dear mother," said he,
"Go riddle it all in wool;
It's whether I'll make fair Elendar my bride,
Or bring me the brown girl home, home, home,
Or bring me the brown girl home."
3. "Fair Elendar she has houses and lands,
The brown girl she has none;
Before I'll be bothered with such a great peasant,
Go bring me the brown girl home, home, home,
Go bring me the brown girl home."
Footnotes:
1 [Other American texts are printed in Forget Me Not Songster (New York, Nafis & Cornish), p. 236; Outlook, Ixiii, 12o (Sept. 9, 1899); Berea Quarterly, vol. ix, no. 3, pp. 10-11 (April, 1905); Focus, iii, 204-206 (May, 1913); iv, 162 (April, 1914).
2 [See also Leather, Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, I912, pp. 200-202. The Harvard College Library has several broadside copies: 25242.5.5 (169); 25242.11.5, fol. 5; 25242.17, vol. viii, no. 127 (Catnach), vol. ix, no. 237 (Bebbington, Manchester), and probably others.]