Recordings & Info 90. Jellon Grame
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) 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
5) Wiki
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 58: Jellon Grame (20 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Jellon Graeme
Jellon Grame [Child 90]
DESCRIPTION: (Jellon Grame) murders the woman he claims to love (because she carries his child and he fears discovery/because she loves another whose child she carries). (He/her sister) raises the boy. He later reveals the murder to the boy, who kills him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy murder revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 90, "Jellon Grame" (4 texts)
Bronson 90, "Jellon Grame" (1 version)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 224-226, "Jellon Grame and Little Flower" (1 text)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 121-124, "Gil Ingram" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 198, "Jellon Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Davis-More 27, pp. 207-213, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 284-286, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
OBB 49, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
PBB 55, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
DT 90, JELGRAEM
Roud #58
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fause Foodrage" [Child 89] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jellon Graeme
NOTES: Davis seems to have no doubts about the authenticity of his text, the lone representative outside Scotland of a ballad with only the weakest roots in tradition even there -- this even though, as he himself admits, it has a surprising similarity to Child A. Well, if he won't question it, I will. I'm not saying it's a fake -- but I wouldn't be surprised if it were influenced by print. - RBW
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
90. JELLON GRAME
Reed Smith prints this song in his list of American survivals of the Child ballads in America. See SFLQ, I, #2, 9 ii; Davis, FS Fa.
Jellon Grame: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jellon Grame is Child ballad number 90 and a murder ballad.[1]
Synopsis
A woman goes to the greenwood to plead with her lover. When he threatens to kill her, she pleads for her baby's life. He cuts her open and takes out the baby, raising it as his sister's son. But one day, when his son wants to know why his mother never sees him, he tells the truth, pointing out the specific tree as her grave. His son kills him on the spot.
Variants
Child ballad 89 Fause Foodrage has affinities to this ballad.[2]
Versions
Broadside Electric included it in the 1999 album With Teeth.
References
1.^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Jellon Grame"
2.^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 298, Dover Publications, New York 1965