Scarborough Fair- Underhill (VT) 1938 Flanders B
[The mysterious title, provided by Flanders, makes no sense and probably should be changed since "Scarborough Fair" is not part of the text. From Flanders' Ancient Ballads; 1966; notes by Coffin follow.
Listen: https://archive.org/details/HHFBC_tapes_C07B
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
The Elfin Knight [Notes by Coffin]
(Child 2)
On page 227 of Ben Botkin's Folksay 1930, L. W. Chappell points out that "Riddles, perhaps even more than most types of traditional lore, have a way of 'staying put.' " It is not surprising then to find "The Elfin Knight," widespread, but relatively unvarying, in both Britain and America. The major collections in the two countries usually include it, and it has been the object of a good bit of study. Its popularity is undoubtedly due to its presence in broadside tradition; Child B is a black-letter text from Restoration times, and the ballad appears in American songsters and on American broadsheets just before the Mexican war, Phillips Barry, with the help of George Lyman Kittredge, has reviewed the printed tradition of the song in JAF, XXX,
284, and a bibliography of song-sheet texts is given there. For a start on further references, see Coffin, 30-31 (American); Dean-Smith, 65, and Belden, (English); and Greig and Keith, 1-2 (Scottish).
The relationship of this song and others like it to British courtship customs and vestigial fertility rites has never been thoroughly discussed. However, there is enough evidence to warrant research along these lines. As most scholars have recognized, the elfin lover of the British texts and child's title is nor native to the ballad and the riddler is a mortal lad. The situation is that of courtship, not unlike the one in the widespread Aarne-Thompson, Mt. 875. The most common refrain, as in Versions A-B and D-G, a corruption of "rosemary and thyme," preserves the plant symbolism of fidelity and fertility. It is these herbs that the girl such as Madeline in Keats's "The Eve of St. Agnes" put on either side of her bed to dream of her lover. Also, the riddle, as Charles Francis potter indicates on page 940 of The standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and, Legend, may be solved as a sort of sympathetic magic to insure the success of critical ventures like those into love and marriage. certainly the relation of riddling ro puberty and fertility rites is to be found everywhere.
The song is in Phillips Barry's British Ballads from Maine, 3.
The eight tunes included here fail into three main groups: 1) the versions sung by Underhill, Luce, Delorme, and possibly Perkins; 2) the versions of Gray and Daniels; and 3) those of Morton and Richards, whose relationship, if any, is quite distant. There is also a possibility that the Perkins version is related to that of Richards rather than group 1. Group 1 corresponds to BCI, group B, and so does group 2, although the two groups represent distant relatives in BCI. Strangely enough, our group 3 also corresponds ro some tunes in the large group B in the BC classification, whose integrity is upheld only by a large number of intermediate versions, and which consists of rather diverse materials. our groups 1 and 2 seem to have variants which are widespread in the United States, in conjunction with Child 2 texts. The Perkins, Morton, and Richards tunes have fewer analogues and are not so typically representative of the Anglo-American ballad style as the other tunes in this collection of Child 2.
B. Scarborough Fair Mrs. Florence Underhill, with her two sisters, the Misses Young in Bellows Falls, Vermont, put together this song as remembered from the singing of their father, Edward O. Young (uncle of the late Dr. Ellis of Brookfield). In each
stanza follows the pattern of the first stanza. H. H. F., Collector November 2, 1938.
Srructure: A Ba C D (2,2,2,2); Rhythm A; Contour: gradual descent; Scale: major, with tones of the anhemitonic
pentatonic scale strongest. t.c. F. For mel. rel. see BES, 10(D); an Indiana version, L.C. record 1736A; I-C84, 3(B).
Scarborough Fair
"Where are you going?" "I'm going to Lynn."
Ev'ry grove grows merry with time.
"Give my respects (love) to the lady within
And tell her she is a true lover of mine.
And tell her she is a true lover of mine.
"Tell her to buy me a yard of white cloth
And make me a cambric shirt thereof.
"Tell her to make it with a gold ring;
Stitch it and sew it without any seam
"Tell her to sew it without any seam,
Stitch it all over with her gold ring.
'"Tell her to wash it in yonder well
. That, never was dry singe;Adam fell.
"Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn
That never sprang, up since Adam was born.
"Tell her to line it with elephant's fur,
Iron it smooth with a chestnut burr.
"Tell her when she has [done all this] [1]
And she shall be a true lover of mine."
(Answer)
"Oh, where are you going?" "I'm going to Cape Ann."
Every grove grows merry with time.
"Give my respects to this same young man
And tell him he is a true lover of mine.
And tell him he is a true lover of mine.
"Tell him to buy me one acre of land
Betwixt the salt sea and the sea sand.
"Tell him to plow it with one goat's horn,
Sow it all over with one peppercorn.
"Tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Bind it all up with a hummingbird's feather.
"Tell him when he has done all this
He has finished his harvest
And he shall be a true lover of mine."
(Added, later:)
"Tell him to thresh it in yonder barn
That never was built since Adam was born.
"Tell him to fan it on an egg shell
That never was laid since Adam fell."
1. Not sure what's going on here- it was left blank.