Recordings & Info 103. Rose the Red and White Lily
[There are no known traditional US or Canadian versions of Rose the Red and White Lily]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Wiki
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 3335: Rose the Red and White Lily (18 Listings)
Alternative Titles
The Wedding of Robin Hood and Little John
Traditional Ballad Index: Rose the Red and White Lily [Child 103]
DESCRIPTION: Rose and Lily are each loved by a son of their cruel stepmother, who attempts to part them. The girls disguise themselves as boys and go into service with their erstwhile loves. After much adventure they are revealed and reunited, each couple marrying.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1783/1799 (GordonBrown/Rieuwerts)
KEYWORDS: love stepmother separation disguise cross-dressing reunion marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Child 103, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (3 texts)
Bronson 103, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (2 versions)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 76-89, "Rose the Red & White Lily" (2 parallel texts plus a photo of the badly-transcribed tune; also a reconstructed tune on p. 262)
GreigDuncan1 162, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text)
OBB 55, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text)
DBuchan 21, "Rose the Red and White Lily" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
Roud #3335
Child Collection Index; Child Ballad 103: Rose the Red and White Lily
Child-- Artist-- Title-- Album-- Year-- Length-- Have
103 Estampie The Wedding of Robin Hood Under the Greenwood Tree 1997 5:09 Yes
Rose the Red and White Lily From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rose the Red and White Lily is Child ballad number 103.[1]
Synopsis
Rose the Red and White Lily had lost their mother, and their father had remarried an evil stepmother. They had two stepbrothers who fell in love with them, and their stepmother sent them away. When they asked her to treat their loves as well as she treated them, she vowed they would never see them again.
They ran away and dressed as men. Rose the Red went to court to find Bold Arthur. White Lily went to the greenwood in search of her love Brown Robin—or in some variants Robin Hood -- she found him, and became pregnant. When she went into labor, she asked him to blow the horn to summon her brother. Jealous, he refuses. She blows it, Rose the Red comes, and Brown Robin fights her until she is wounded and admits to being a woman.
The news that one of Brown Robin's men has given birth spread to the court, and the king and Bold Arthur, Rose the Red's love, came to see. They found White Lily, Rose the Red, and Brown Robin. The king insisted on a double wedding, and Rose the Red commented on what their stepmother's reaction would have been, if only she could see.
Commentary
The birth in the wood is a common ballad motif, being found in Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter, Willie o Douglas Dale, and Leesome Brand.[2]
In one variant, this ballad introduces Robin Hood; the sisters both go to the wood and end up marrying Robin Hood and Little John. This is not part of the Robin Hood cycle and appears to stem from the hero's name being Brown Robin, suggesting a connection.[2]
References
1.^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Rose the Red and White Lily"
2.^ a b Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 416, Dover Publications, New York 1965