Recordings & Info 17. Hind Horn
CONTENTS
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
6) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud Number 28: Hind Horn (112 Listings)
2) Hind Horn- Joseph J. MacSweeney; 1919
3) The Ballad of Hind Horn- Walter R. Nelles 1909
4) The Texts of King Horn- James R. Hurt 1970
5) The Story of Horn and Rimenhild- Schofield 1903
Alternative Titles
Hynd Horn
The Pale Ring
The Beggarman
The Old Beggar Man
The Jeweled Ring
The Beggar at the Wedding
I Gave My Love a Gay Gold Ring
The Cowboy's Wedding Ring
Traditional Ballad Index: Hind Horn [Child 17]
DESCRIPTION: Jean gives Hind Horn a ring that will tell him if her love remains true. When the ring fades, he sets out for court disguised as a beggar. He shows her the ring, and her love returns. "The bridegroom has wedded the bride but... Hind Horn took her to bed"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: magic love wedding
FOUND IN: US(NE) Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (24 citations):
Child 17, "Hind Horn" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Bronson 17, "Hind Horn" (23 versions plus 2 in addenda)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 59-63, "Hyn Horn" (1 text)
Greig #80, pp. 1-2, "Hynd Horn"; Greig #172, p. 1, "Hynd Horn" (3 texts)
GreigDuncan5 1022, "Hynd Horn" (17 texts plus 2 fragments on pp. 621-622, 13 tunes)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 73-80, "Hind Horn" (1 text (with two variant forms) plus a fragment, 2 tunes); pp. 479-481 (additional notes and fragments) {Bronson's #4, #5}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 47-48, "Hind Horn" (1 short text, properly titled "The Jolly Beggar," which might be "Hind Horn" [Shild #17] or "The Jolly Beggar" [Child #279] or a mix; 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 223-225, "Hind Horn" (1 short text, properly titled "The Jolly Beggar," which might be "Hind Horn" [Shild #17] or "The Jolly Beggar" [Child #279] or a mix; 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 11-17, "Hind Horn" (3 texts plus 2 fragment, 3 tunes) {C=Bronson's #17, E=#22}
Creighton-Maritime, p. 5, "Hind Horn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 5, "The Beggarman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Karpeles-Newfoundland 4, "Hind Horn" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2}
Ives-DullCare, pp. 72-73,246,252, "The Old Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 55, "The Old Beggar Man (Hind Horn)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Ontario 32, "The Old Beggar Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 96-100, "Hind Horn" (2 texts)
OBB 35, "Hynd Horn" (1 text)
Niles 12, "Hind Horn" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a single stanza which might be this ballad -- but could be something else)
Gummere, pp. 260-262+357, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
DBuchan 44, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 59-61, "Hind Horn" (1 text)
DT 17, HINDHORN HNDHORN2* HNDHORN3*
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, "American Cowboy and Western Pioneer Songs in Canada" in The Western Folklore, Vol. XXI, No. 4 (Oct 1962 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 249-250, ["The Cowboy's Wedding Ring"] ("A cowboy with his sweetheart stood beneath a starlit sky") (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 407, "Hind Horn" (a prose summary)
Roud #28
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Doucette, "The Old Beggar Man" (on MREIves01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kitchie-Boy" [Child 252] (lyrics)
cf. "The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Bird's Courting Song (The Hawk and the Crow; Leatherwing Bat) (File: K295)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pale Ring
The Jeweled Ring
The Beggar at the Wedding
NOTES: Fowke-Ontario: "A North American adaptation of the "Hind Horn" story has turned up in Ontario as "The Cowboy's Wedding Ring": the text appears in Western Folklore."
In that text the parting sweethearts promise to be true. Jack gives Nell half of a broken ring: each keeps the half of the ring engraved with the other's name. Jack shows up at Nell's wedding three years later and joins with her father to "drink a toast to this fair young man and his lovely bride." Jack drops his half of the ring into Nell's glass. When she sees Jack's half of the ring she says "It's you, my cowboy sweetheart back, and my Jack I'll wed tonight." - BS
For Bronson's proposed relationship between this song and "The Whummil Bore" [Child 27], see the entry on that piece.
Briggs describes the tale of "Two Irish Lads in Canada"(found in volume A.2., pp. 499-501) as a "modern version" of "Hind Horn."
Literary historians have connected this ballad with the thirteenth century romance "King Horn" (who lost his kingdom to Saracens, then won it and his sweetheart back after heroic adventures) -- but if so, there has been a lot of folk processing along the way.
Child mentions the romance, but notes that the ballad contains only the "catastrophe" of the written epic.
The Horn legend found in "King Horn" appears in various forms. CHEL1, p. 304, declares it "a viking story plainly adapted to romantic ends." "King Horn" itself is listed as "the earliest of the extant romances in [Middle English]" (Dickins/Wilson p. 29). Similarly Sands, p. 15, "With the tale of Horn and the fair Rymenhild we have the earliest extant English romance. This distinction it can claim; other distinctions, especially technical and esthetic, are hard to come by. Yet Horn possesses consderably more interest than a good number of competent pieces: it can be regarded as the prototypic Middle English romances." Bennett/Gray, p. 135, say "The oldest extant romance is probably King Horn: oldest both in its manuscript form and in date of composition." This probably explains why it is so often cited (e.g. Sands, pp. 17-54 gives the whole romance. with modernized orthography; Dickens/Wilson on pp. 30-33 give lines 1107-1212 from the Harley MS.).
There even seems to be a reference to it in another romance; according to Bennett/Gray, p. 125, an item called the "'Laud' Troy Book" mentions near the end
Of Havelok, Horne and of Wade,
In romaunces that of hem ben made.
(The references are presumably to "Havelock the Dane," "King Horn," and an unknown epic of "Wade." Wade seems to have been an important character in Old English and Germanic folklore, according to Wilson, pp. 16-19, but all that survives is scattered references.)
The complaints about the form of "King Horn" may arise from its antiquity. CHEL1, pp. 287-288, delares, "King Horn is singular in its verse, an example of one stage in the development of modern English metres. It is closely related in prosod to Layamon's Brut, and might be described as carrying through consistently the rhyming couplet, which Layamon interchanges with blank lines. The verse is not governed by the octosyllabic law; it is not of Latin origin; it has a strange resemblance to the verse of Otfried in Old High German and to the accidental riming passages in Old English.... There is no other romance in this antique sort of verse."
Wilson, p. 27, suggests that the story of Horn is based on an actual historical event, but if so, it has been lost from actual history. CHEL1, p 287 elaborates: "it has been suggested that the original Horn was Horm, a Danish viking of the ninth century who fought for the Irish king Cearbhall, as Horn helped King Thurston in Ireland against the Payns, i.e. the heathen invaders with their giant champion. Also, it is believed that Thurston, in the romance, may be derived from the Norwegian leader Thorstein the Red, who married a grand-daughter of Cearbhall. But, whatever the obscure turh may be, the general fact that Horn's wanderings and adventures are placed in scenery and conditions resembling those of the ninth and tenth centuries in the relations between Britain and Ireland." Maybe -- but none of that has gone into the ballad.
The romance of "King Horn" exists in three manuscripts (Dickens/Wilson, p. 30; Sands, p15): Cambridge University Library Gg.4.27.II (late XIII century, according to Dickens/Wilson; c. 1250 according to Sands), Bodleian Laud Misc. 108 (early XIV century, according to Dickens/Wilson), and B.M. Harley 2253 (early XIV century, again according to Dickens/Wilson), the latter the famous source of the "Harley Lyrics." The Cambridge manuscript is, however, considered by Sands to be the best as well as the oldest copy (Dickens/Wilson prefer Harley). The original composition is dated c. 1225 based on the language; the dialect seems to place it in the south or the midlands (Sands p. 15).
The legend also appears in a French epic, "Horn et Rimel," and there is a second English version, probably of the fourteenth century, called "Horne Childe" (Dickins/Wilson, p. 29). Benet, p. 516, says that "Horne Childe" is "generally called The Geste of King Horn. The nominal author is a certain Mestre Thomas." (However, Bennett/Gray, p. 135, argue that "the later and longer Anglo-Norman romance of Horn by one Thomas is clearly related to [i.e. derived from] some version of this poem."
Sands, p. 15, makes the interesting note that "King Horn" "lacks chivalrous ideas" -- a hint, perhaps, of folk rather than courtly origin. Keen, p. 131, observes that it shows some aspects typical of tales of the period: "Medieval authors had a passion for disguises; the irony of the situation in which enemies or livers met incognito seems to have endlessly delighted them. So one will find Hind Horn coming to the presence of his beloved Rimenheld in the guise of an old woman... and Ippomedon tourneying before his lady in a series of disguises."
According to Garnett/Gosse, volume i, p. 115, "King Horn is another romance with a Scnadinavian groundwork going back to thetime of the expeditions of the Danish Vikings before their conversion to Christianity." CHEL1, p. 218, also lists the legend as being of Danish origin, naturalized in the period around 1200. Dickens/Wilson, pp. 29-30, amplify this: "the story is usually supposed to be based on events which took place during the Anglo-Saxon conquest or the Viking raids. This is plausible enough, but any basis in fact that there might originally have been can now distinguished from the mass of folk-tale with which it has been overlaid, nor is it possible to localize the events." We might conjecture, however, that the "Suddene" of the poem (although often interpreted as some such place as the Isle of Wight, according to Sands, p. 16) is in fact Sweden. (Which in turn hints that Horn might be the Scyld Scefing of Beowulf, but that has little to do with the matter of this ballad.
Garnett and Gosse, p. 115, add that the piece has "no great poetical merit." In support of this we might note that the meter is so irregular that scholars have not even managed to agree on whether it's supposed to be trochaic or iambic! Bennett/Gray, p. 135, have a possible explanation for this, describing the piece as consisting of "just over 1,500 short and rather jerky lines in a metre probably deriving -- like Layamon's Brut -- from the old English alliterative measure."
Sands, p. 16, explains this on the grounds that it is "a transitional piece. It contains the rhymed couplet introduced from the French, but does not lengthen the two- and three-stress lines taken over from the Old English half-line into the usual tetrameter line of later romances. It hovers between the older trochaic rhythm and the coming iambic and never really favors one over the other, a feature perhaps which prompts Kane to remark that the prosody 'sometimes looks and possibly is incompetent.'" - RBW
The magic stones of the ring in "King Horn" make the wearer invulnerable; Horn is to look at the ring just to remind him of her (French/Hale, "King Horn," ll. 541-576) He happens to return to Westernesse after seven years when "word bigan to springe Of Rymenhilde weddinge" (French/Hale, ll. 1007-1018). The rest of the story, including the return of the ring in the wine horn (French/Hale, ll. 1159-1170) agrees well enough with the plot, for example, of Child 17B.
The magic stones of the ring in "Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild" have the property of changing color, as in the ballad, when Rimnild changes her mind or loses her maidenhead (Mills, ll. 565-576)) It happens that when seven years have passed that Horn notices that the stones have changed color (Mills, ll. 836-840). Here too, the ring is returned in a wine cup (Mills, ll. 994-996).
Child notes the similarities in plot between the ballad and "Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild." However, he denies that "the special approximations of the ballads to the romance of Horn Child oblige us to conclude that these, or any of them, are derived from that poem." He goes on further to say "It is often assumed, without a misgiving, that oral tradition must needs be younger than anything that was committed to writing some centuries ago; but this requires in each case to be made out; there is certainly no antecedent probability of that kind." - BS
Several other ballads also derive loosely or from Middle English romance, or from the legends that underlie it, examples being:
* "King Orfeo" [Child 19], from "Sir Orfeo" (3 MSS., including the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Floris and Blancheflour")
* "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" [Child 31], from "The Weddynge of Sir Gawe and Dame Ragnell" (1 defective MS, Bodleian MS Rawlinson C 86)
* "Blancheflour and Jellyflorice" [Child 300], from "Floris and Blancheflour" (4 MSS, including Cambridge Gg.4.27.2, which also contains "King Horn," and the Auchinlek MS, which also contains "Sir Orfeo")
Of these ballads from romances, this is the only one that really seems to have gone solidly into tradition ("Sir Orfeo" came from tradition, but in circumstances that make a minstrel origin a strong possibility).
Child has a very extensive discussion of the relationship between this ballad and the literary romances.
Incidentally, it appears that some of the language of "King Horn" influenced J. R. R. Tolkien. - RBW
Greig: "The tune to which 'Hynd Horn' is sung seems to be the original form of 'Logan Braes,' and is associated with many other songs and ballads. As far as my records show, it is the most common folk-tune we have." - BS
Bibliography
Benet: William Rose Benet, editor, The Reader's Encyclopdedia, first edition, 1948 (I use the four-volume Crowell edition but usually check it against the single volume fourth edition edited by Bruce Murphy and published 1996 by Harper-Collins)
Bennett/Gray: J. A. W. Bennett, Middle Englich Literature, edited and completed by Douglas Gray and being a volume of the Oxford History of English Literature, 1986 (I use the 1990 Clarendon paperback)
Briggs: Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2)
CHEL1: Sir A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller, Editors, The Cambridge History of English Literature, Volume I: From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance, 1907 (I use the 1967 Cambridge edition)
Dickins/Wilson: Bruce Dickins & R. M. Wilson, editors, Early Middle English Texts, 1951; revised edition 1952
French/Hale: Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, editors, Middle English Metrical Romance, Prentice Hall, 1930
Garnett/Gosse: Richard Garnett and Edmund Gosse, English Literature: An Illustrated Record four volumes, MacMillan, 1903-1904 (I used the 1935 edition published in two volumes)
Keen: Maurice Keen, The Outlaws of Medieval Legend, Dorset, 1961, 1977, 1987
Mills: Maldwyn Mills, Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild, Middle English Texts Series, 1988
Sands: Donald B. Sands, editor, Middle English Verse Romances, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1966
Wilson: R. M. Wilson: The Lost Literature of Medieval England, Philosophical Library, 1952
Keefer's Folk Index: Hind Horn [Ch 17]
Rt - Old Begger Man
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p112 [1827ca]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p 97
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p 98
Duff, James. Niles, John Jacob / Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, Bramhall House, Bk (1961), p 73/N 12A [1932/05] (Pale Ring)
Seeger, Peggy. Blood and Roses, Vol. 3, Blackthorne ESB 81, LP (1979ca), trk# B.04
Wilkerson, Irene Delight. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 26/# 9 [1940s] (I Gave My Love a Gay Gold Ring)
The Old Begger Man [Ch 17]
Rt - Hind Horn
At - Old/Auld Beggarman
Doucette, Edmund. Ives, Edward D. (ed.) / Drive Dull Care Away, IIS, Bk/ (1999), p 72 [1958/08/16]
Child Collection Index
017 Alex Campbell Lass of Kelvinhaugh Alex Campbell 1964 No
017 Alex Robb Hind Horn (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Alex Robb Hind Horn (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Alex Stephens Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Annie Patterson The Pale Ring Meet Me By the Moonlight 2005 3:14 Yes
017 Bandoggs Hind Horn Bandoggs 1978 3:55 Yes
017 Bell Duncan Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Bell Duncan The Bleacher Lass O Kelvinhaugh (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Bell Duncan The Bleacher Lassie O Kelvinhaugh (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Ben Henneberry Hind Horn (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
017 Ben Henneberry Hind Horn (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
017 Bill Craig The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh Full of Moon 1999 No
017 Bob Coltman Don't You Know Your Old Sweetheart the Best Son of Child 1976 3:54 Yes
017 Bobby Clancy The Bleacher Lass Make Me a Cup 1999 No
017 Brian Peters Hind Horn Lines 2001 4:54 Yes
017 Brian Peters Hind Horn Sheffield Folk Festival 2007 2007 5:02 Yes
017 Brolum The Bleacher Lass of Kelvinhaugh The Fair Face I Never Saw 2004 4:11 Yes
017 Ca Canny Bleacher Lass O' Kelvinhaugh 9 Hours in Auld Reekie 2001 4:10 Yes
017 Chris Coe Hind Horn A Wiser Fool 2001 4:20 Yes
017 Chris Coe Hind Horn fRoots 18 2002 4:18 Yes
017 Colm Ó Méalóid An Draighneán Donn Céad Slán le Camus 1985 No
017 Daisy Chapman The Bleacher Lassie (of Kelvinhaugh) Ythanside 2001 No
017 Dave Burland The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh A Dalesman's Litany 1971 4:17 Yes
017 Dave Burland The Bleacher Lassie O'Kelvinhaugh Never the Same - Leave-Taking from the British Folk Revival 1970-1977 2006 4:19 Yes
017 Dick Gaughan Bleacher Lassie O'Kelvinhaugh Lucky for Some 2006 6:33 Yes
017 Duncan Williamson Hind Horn Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie Collection No
017 Duncan Williamson Hind Horn Travellers' Tales Vol 1 - Songs, Stories & Ballads from Scottish Travellers 2005 No
017 Edmund Doucette The Old Beggar Man Drive Dull Care Away - Folksongs from Prince Edward Island - Accompanying CD to the Book by Edward D. Ives 1999 8:04 Yes
017 Ellen Rettie Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Emily Smith Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh Premiere in Bremen - Live at Sendesaal Radio Bremen, 17. August 2005 2005 5:23 Yes
017 Emily Smith The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh Too Long Away 2008 3:17 Yes
017 Emily Smith The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh Live at Biddulph Armes 2009 2009 4:13 Yes
017 Enoch Kent The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh For the Women 2005 No
017 Ewan D. Rodgers The Bleacher Lassie O’ Kelvinhaugh From Hull, Halifax and Hell 2010 No
017 Ewan MacColl Bleacher Lassie of Kelvin Haugh English and Scottish Love Songs 1958 No
017 Ewan MacColl Hind Horn The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 [Reissue] 196? No
017 Ewan MacColl Hind Horn The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1956 No
017 Ewan MacColl Hind Horn Ballads - Murder Intrigue Love Discord 2009 10:57 Yes
017 Ewan MacColl The Bleacher Lass of Kelvinhaugh Still I Love Him - Traditional Love Songs 1958 4:07 Yes
017 Ewan MacColl The Bleacher Lass of Kelvinhaugh The Anthology 2010 No
017 Fine Friday The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh Mowing the Machair 2005 4:29 Yes
017 Giordano Dall'Armellina Hind Horn Ballate Britanniche Del Tempo Che Fu - Medieval Ballads from the British Isles 2001 4:55 Yes
017 Gjallarhorn Dejelill Och Lagerman (Dejelill and Lagerman) Sjofn 2000 3:22 Yes
017 Gordeanna McCulloch The Bleacher Lassie O'Kelvinhaugh Sheath & Knife - Traditional Songs & Ballads from Scotland 2000 4:33 Yes
017 Gordon Easton The Bleacher Lassie O Kelvinhaugh The Last of the Clydesdales 2007 No
017 Gunnfjauns Kapell Det Stod En Jungfru Vid En Brunn Naudljaus 1995 No
017 Hamish MacGregor & Alan Reid The Bleacher Lassie Scottish Love Songs 1998 3:43 Yes
017 Harriet Gott Murphy Jolly Beggar (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
017 Harriet Gott Murphy Jolly Beggar (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
017 Houl Yer Whisht Folk Group The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvin Hall Historical Folk Songs of Ulster 1997 No
017 Hughie Jones The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh Luv Stuff 1999 No
017 Iain MacGillivray The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh Rolling Home 1986 4:50 Yes
017 Iain MacGillivray The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh Landmarks - 30 Years of a Leading Folk Music Label 2006 4:50 Yes
017 Ian Bruce The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh Hodden Grey 1998 4:44 Yes
017 Isabel Sutherland Bleacher Lassie Isabel Sutherland 1970 No
017 Isabel Sutherland The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh A Pinch of Salt - British Sea Songs Old and New 1960 No
017 Isabel Sutherland The Bleacher Lassie O Kelvinhaugh The Licht Bob's Lassie 1975 No
017 Jack Beck The Bleacher Lass O' Kelvinha' O Lassie, Lassie 1989 5:09 Yes
017 Jack Beck The Bleacher Lass O' Kelvinhaugh Celtic Collections Vol.1 - Songs of Scotland 2000 No
017 James Christie Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 James Troup Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Joe Estey Hind Horn Ballads and Songs of Tradition 2000 6:43 Yes
017 Joe Heaney [Seosamh Ó hÉanaí] An Draighneán Donn (The Brown Blackthorn) The Road from Connemara: Songs and Stories Told and Sung to Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger 2000 8:51 Yes
017 John Christian Edward The Bleacher Lassie From Glen to Glen 2005 3:46 Yes
017 John Sutherland Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Johnny Mháirtín Learaí An Draighneán Donn Contae Mhuigheo 1988 No
017 Jon Scaife & Bob Bray Hind Horn Pedigree Uncertain 1990 No
017 June Tabor The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh Stagfolk Live Folk 1972 No
017 June Tabor The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh Ashore 2011 4:07 Yes
017 June Tabor The Bleacher Lassie O'Kelvinhaugh Martin Carthy & June Tabor Live at McCabes Guitar Shop,Santa Monica, CA 03-14-87 1987 4:00 Yes
017 Leander MacCumber Hind Horn (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
017 Leander MacCumber Hind Horn (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
017 Leander MacCumber Hind Horn (3) The Helen Creighton Collection No
017 Lena Willemark Det Stod En Jungfru När Som Gräset Det Vajar 1989 3:49 Yes
017 Lena Willemark, Per Gudmundson & Ale Möller Det Stod En Jungfru Suede - Norvège - Musique Des Vallées Scandinaves 1993 3:38 Yes
017 Lissa Schneckenburger The Old Beggar Man Song 2008 No
017 Louis Killen The Bleacher Lass of Kelvin Hall Sea Songs 1979 No
017 Maddy Prior Hind Horn Ballads and Candles 2000 6:00 Yes
017 Maddy Prior Hind Horn Flesh and Blood 1997 5:51 Yes
017 Maddy Prior Hind Horn Collections - a Very Best of 1995 to 2005 2005 5:51 Yes
017 Maddy Prior Hind Horn The Best of British Folk 2000 No
017 Maddy Prior Hind Horn The Quest 2008 5:58 Yes
017 Maggie Hammons Parker In Scotland Town The Library of Congress - The Hammons Family - The Traditions of a West Virginia Family and Their Friends 1998 5:33 Yes
017 Mrs. Arlington Fraser The Old Beggar Man (1) The Edith Fowke Collection No
017 Mrs. Arlington Fraser The Old Beggar Man (2) The Edith Fowke Collection No
017 Mrs. Arlington Fraser The Old Beggar Man (3) The Edith Fowke Collection No
017 Nigel Denver The Bleacher Lass O' Kelvinhaugh Moving On 1965 No
017 P. Cruickshank Hind Horn The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
017 Peggy Seeger Hind Horn Blood and Roses - Vol. 3 1982 5:23 Yes
017 Ralph Huskins Hind Horn The Helen Creighton Collection No
017 Ranarim Det Stod En Jungfru (The maiden Stood) Till Ljusan Dag (Till the Light of Day) 2000 3:03 Yes
017 Ranarim Stolt Ingrid (Proud Ingrid) Till Ljusan Dag (Till the Light of Day) 2000 4:06 Yes
017 Robin Hall The Bleacher Lassie O'Kelvinhaugh Glasgow Street Songs 1970 No
017 Robin Hall The Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh Robin Hall Sings Glasgow Street Songs Vol. 1 1958 5:00 Yes
017 Rod Paterson Bleacher Lass O' Kelvinhaugh Music and Song of Scotland 1993 3:58 Yes
017 Rod Paterson The Bleacher Lass of Kelvinhaugh Ecosse - Scotland 1998 3:58 Yes
017 Rod Paterson Two Hats: The Bleacher Lass O'Kelvinhaugh Up to Date 2000 3:59 Yes
017 Roddy McMillan Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh <website> 1958 3:10 Yes
017 Sandy Ives The Old Beggar Man Folk Songs of Maine 1959 No
017 Shepheard, Spiers & Watson The Bleacher Lassie O Kelvinhaugh They Smiled as We Cam In 2005 No
017 The Clutha Bleacher Lassie O' Kelvinhaugh The Streets of Glasgow 1973 4:24 Yes
017 The Peelers Bleacher Lassie Banished Misfortune 1972 4:45 Yes
017 The Spinners Bleacher Lass O' Kelvinhaugh All Day Singing [In Concert] 1977 6:06 Yes
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
17. HIND HORN
Tezts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 73 / Greenleaf and Mansfeild, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 12.
Local Titles: The Beggarman, The Old Beggar Man.
Story Types: A: Horn gives his love a watch and in return is given a ring that will shine when she is true and turn pale when she is in love with another. He sets sail for foreign shores. On arriving abroad, he notices the ring to be pale, and so he returns home at once. He meets a beggar who tells him his sweetheart is to be married on the morrow. Then he borrows the beggar's clothes and listens to instructions on how to act in his disguise. (He can beg from Peter or Paul, but need not take anything from anybody except his bride.) After gaining admittance to the wedding feast, he gets a glass of wine from the bride and slips the ring into it. She, of course, wants to know where he got it. He tells her the truth, and she swears to be his fore-
vermore, even though he is a beggar. They flee, and he reveals his disguise.
Examples: Barry (A), Greenleaf and Mansfield.
B : (from recollection, but no text) The story follows the narrative outline of Type A, but Horn takes the beggar with him and sends him on errands Horn does not wish to handle himself. Horn finds his lady married and kills her husband in a duel. She goes abroad to forget her sorrows and dies there*
Examples: Barry, p. 79 (no text).
Discussion: The Type A texts represent an unusual form of Child G, a ballad of Scottish origin that is well-known in Ireland. Type B is noted without text in Barry, Brit Bids Me, 79 as an extended version recalled by a sea-captain as having been sung by his men. If his memory is reliable, there seems to be both corruption from an outside source and degeneration present.
This man also claims to have heard another, and now lost, ballad based on a different portion of the Horn legend and called The Beggar Man. See Barry, op. *., 479.
Note Walter R. Nelles (JAFL, XXII, 42 ff.) for a critical study of the Hind Horn story in balladry. This article also deals with Kitcbie-Boy (252) on p. 59ff. Child and Nelles both consider the latter to be an offshoot of the Horn legend. Check the chart on p. 59.
Mainly Norfolk: Hind Horn
[Roud 28; Child 17; Ballad Index C017 ; trad.]
Ewan MacColl sang the Child ballad Hind Horn in 1956 on his and A.L. Lloyd's Riverside anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume I. This and all his other songs from this album were reissued in 2009 on his Topic CD Ballads.
Bandoggs recorded Hind Horn with Tony Rose singing lead in 1978 for their eponymous album Bandoggs.
Maddy Prior sang Hind Horn on their CD Flesh and Blood. This song was later included in the Maddy Prior anthology Collections: A Very Best of 1995 to 2005. A live recording from the Maddy Prior, Family & Friends Christmas tour of 1999 was released on the CD Ballads and Candles. Maddy Prior commented in her original album's sleeve notes:
This is not a ballad I've heard sung before, but the motifs are familiar; the exchange of rings, the seven year absence, the return on the wedding day disguised as a beggar. According to Francis James Child in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the antecedents of the story go back to beyond the 14th Century to much longer romances of which the ballad is a mere extract. One version is set in the Crusades, and has more magical qualities to it, Saladin whisking him back to his homeland. The beginnings of our social structure date from this time and the long partings that continually occur in traditional songs may hold a memory of these expeditions, where men would return overdue, battle scarred, and unrecognisable, and in the absence of modern bureaucracy, some token was needed to establish identity. Little is made of how the women's hearts may have changed and they are invariably, if sometimes unconvincingly, overjoyed.
Brian Peters sang Hind Horn in 2001 on his CD Lines.
Lyrics
Bandoggs sing Hind Horn
Young Hind Horn to the King is gone,
Hey lililo and a ho lo la,
And he's fell in love with his daughter Jean,
Hey down and a hey diddle downy.
She gave to him a golden ring
With three bright diamonds set therein.
“When this ring grows pale and wan
It's then that you'll know my love is gone.”
Now the king has sent him o'er the sea
For seven long years in a far country.
One day his ring grew pale and wan
And he knew that she'd loved another man.
So he's left the sea for his own land
And it's there that he's met with a beggar man.
“What news, what news old man doth befall?”
“It's none save the wedding in the king's own hall.”
“Cast off, cast off your beggar's weeds
And I'll give you my good grey steed.”
Oh it's when he came to the king's own gate
He's sought there a drink for the bridegroom's sake.
And the bride gave him a glass of wine
And when he's drunk he's dropped in the ring.
“Oh got ye this by the sea or the land
Or took ye this from a dead man's hand?”
“I got it neither by sea nor land
For you gave it to me with your own hand.”
“Oh, I'll cast off my gown of red
And along with thee I'll beg my bread.”
“Oh, you need not leave your bridal gown
For I'll make you the lady of many's the town.”
Her own bridegroom had her first wed
But young Hind Horn had her first to bed.