Recordings & Info: 6. Willie's Lady
[Tristram Coffin comments in the 1963 edition of The British traditional ballad in North America - Page 28:
WILLIE'S LADY Willie's Lady, which is common in Denmark, has not been collected from oral tradition in the New World, although it has been found in Great Britain. The text that appears in Flanders, Ancient Bids, I, 124 is from The Charms of Melody, printed by J. & J. Carrick, Dublin. This book had wide circulation in New England.
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Mainly Norfolk
6) Wiki
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 220: Willie's Lady (14 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Simon's Lady
The Witch-Lady
Willy's Lady
Willie's Ladye
Traditional Ballad Index: Willie's Lady [Child 6]
DESCRIPTION: Willie travels to woo and wed a wife. His mother, not approving of the bride, casts spells to ensure that she will never bear a child. Willie tricks his mother into believing the baby has been born, and the mother blurts out the way to lift the spell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783
KEYWORDS: magic mother wife pregnancy childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 6, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
Bronson 6, "Willie's Lady" (1 version)
GreigDuncan2 346, "Simon's Lady" (1 text)
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 124-127, "Willie's Lady" (1 text, from print rather than tradition)
Leach, pp. 64-66, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
OBB 6, "Willy's Lady" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 18, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 252-255+356, "Willie's Lady" (1 text)
DBuchan 2, "Willie's Lady" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's [#1]}
DT 6, WILILADY
Roud #220
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Gil Brenton" [Child 5] (lyrics)
NOTES: At least one of the magic tricks described in this song is widespread in folklore: Pregnant women were supposed to remove all knots from their clothing to ease childbirth. - RBW
The Swedish ballad "Den Föaut;rtrollade Barnaföaut;derskan (The Bewitched Mother-to-Be)" is essentially the same story, with variations in detail. - PJS
The Child Collection (Recordings & Info)
ARTIST- TITLE- LABEL- HAVE REC
Bedlam Willy's Lady Bedlam 1999
Bedlam Willie's Lady Goltraighe 2000
Cloudstreet King Willy Clouds on the Road - Live Performances in Australia and New Zealand 2007
Cloudstreet King Willy The Fiddleship 2004
Cloudstreet King Willy Swallow the Concertina 2000 5:51 No
Dan Keding Willy's Lady Promises Kept, Promises Broken 2001
Folk & Rackare Silibrand Anno 1979 1979 5:50 Yes
Folk & Rackare Silibrand Folk & Rackare 1976 - 1985 1996 5:50 Yes
Frifot Balladen Om Den Förtrollade (Ballad of the Bewitched) Sluring 2003 7:34 Yes
Garmarna Nio År (Nine Years) Vedergällningen (Vengeance) 1999 4:28 Yes
Graham & Eileen Pratt Willie's Lady Borders of the Ocean 1997 5:02 Yes
Jon Boden Willies' Lady A Folk Song a Day - March 2011 5:46 Yes
Martin Carthy Willie's Lady The Collection 1993 7:20 Yes
Martin Carthy Willie's Lady Crown of Horn 1976 7:22 Yes
Martin Carthy Willie's Lady Song of the Green Linnet 2000 7:19 Yes
Martin Carthy Willie's Lady Martin Carthy at Ruskin Mill - Richard Valentine Benefit Concert 2005 8:40 Yes
Martin Carthy Willie's Lady Songs of Witchcraft & Magic - Songs & Ballads Compiled By the Museum of Witchcraft 2007
Martin Carthy Willie's Lady The January Man - Live in Belfast 1978 2011
Melissa Kacalanos Willie's Lady Tunes from a Strange Land 2006 5:34 Yes
Ranarim Den Förtrollade Barnaföderskan (The Bewitched Mother-To-Be) Till Ljusan Dag (Till the Light of Day) 2000 4:45 Yes
Ray Fisher Willie's Lady Willie's Lady 1982 8:54 Yes
Rosenberg 7 Silibrand R7 1999 5:48 Yes
Rubus Willie's Lady Nine Witch Knots 2008 4:19 Yes
Simon Jackson Willie's Lady Sailing the Ice 2008
Sundog:Sedayne The Witch Mother Genio Terrae 2007
Svea Jansson Den Förtrollade Barnaföderskan Den Medeltida Balladen (The Medieval Ballad) - Folk Songs in Sweden 1995 2:47 Svea Jansson Silibrand (Den Fortrollade Barnafoderskan) Lena, Ulrika and Svea - Three Traditional Folk Singers - Folk Music in Sweden, Vol. 9 & 10 1996
The Spectral Light and Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree The Witch Mother Burning Mills 2004 6:06 Yes
Wicky Sears Willie's Lady Playing with Tradition 1983 5:48 Yes
Willie's Lady (Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music)
[Roud 220; Child 6; Ballad Index C006; trad.]
This is the title track of Ray Fisher's 1982 album, Willie's Lady.
Martin Carthy sang Willie's Lady on his 1976 album Crown of Horn; this recording was also included in 1993 on his anthology The Collection. A live recording from the Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast, on October 20, 1978 was published in 2011 on his CD The January Man; and he sang it live at Ruskin Mill in December 2004. Martin Carthy commented in the first album's sleeve notes:
It was a particularly happy stroke of genius on Ray Fisher's part to marry the song Willie's Lady to the tune of the Breton song Son Ar Chistr (The Song of Cider), and it is with her permission that I have recorded it. I was informed by a young Breton that the tune was written in 1930 by a piper who became a tramp on the streets of Paris. The story of the song is very close to that of the birth of Hercules, although there the timing of the trickery is, if anything, even more critical.
King Willie's choice of bride apparently does not meet with his mother's approval, and she puts a curse on her: although come to full term with her pregnancy, she cannot give birth. The king tries to bribe his mother with various gifts: a fine horse and a jewelled belt. However, the queen has an idea as to how to outwit the witch. Willie is to make a fake baby out of wax, with glass eyes, so that she can pretend she has successfully born a child. He then overhears his mother, in her surprise, give away the details of the curse: there were witches' knots in the queen's hair, her left shoe was tightly laced, and there was a toad, the witch's familiar, under the queen's bed. Hearing this, Willie undoes all the spells, and she is now successful in her delivery.
Rubus sang Willie's Lady in 2008 on their CD Nine Witch Knots; the CD title is a phrase from this song. Emily Portman commented in their liner notes:
A ballad about the age-old problem of jealous mother-in-laws. To make matters worse, and much more interesting in this case, this mother is also a witch (a doubly branded woman) who puts a spell on her blonde bombshell of a daughter-in-law, rendering per perpetually pregnant. Luckily Billie Blind, a magical helper who saves the day in various ballads, helps to trick the witch into revealing her spells which include nine witch knots tied in the lady's hair. Superstition once had it that all knots should be untied and animals freed to ease a difficult birth. Although the “master kid” is probably a phrase that has distorted over time, I like the image of a baby goat running around under her bed!
Willie's Lady was the first ballad I learnt and it has remained with me as a mongrel hybrid, mis-remembered from the singing of Ray Fisher who adapted the Breton melody Son Ar Chistr to fit the text, and Martin Carthy who anglicised the Scots dialect.
Jon Boden sang Willie's Lady as the March 3, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
Lady Maisery sang Willie's Lady in 2011 on their CD Weave & Spin. They commented in their liner notes:
Our version of this ballad is based on the Scottish version from the Fraser-Tytler MS, which Hazel [Askew] edited and wrote the tune for. Billy the Blind appears in lots of ballads and is a handy household sprite who often gives good advice.