The Pretty Colin- Delorme (NY-VT) c1869 Flanders H
[From Flanders, Ancient Ballads; 1966; notes by Coffin follow. Colin is not in caps except for the title. The informant, “Grandma” Lily Delorme, of Hardscrabble on the Saranac, NY, learned songs from parents and her grandfather, Gideon Baker, who fought in the War of 1812.
Delorme was one of the best informants of Flanders and Olney (also Porter who recorded 100 of her songs). Most of her ballads date back into the 1800s since she was born in 1869 and learned them from her family. Mrs. Lily Delorme's offficial residence was Cadyville, New York. She was born in Schuyler Falls, New York, in 1859. Her father was born in Starksboro, Vermont; her mother, in Schuyler Falls, New York. This ballad was learned in her home as a child.
The name Colin is possibly related to the Irish name for girl or lover- cailin. The opening starts with "gay colin" which could be the original of "May Collin." This old version is an important link to what perhaps was the original title in Britain.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight
(Child 4)
This song is known to practically all the ballad-singing people of Europe from Scandinavia to the Latin countries and into Poland to the Netherlands. Its theme, the story of the ogre who decoys maidens to their deaths but who is at last thwarted by an opportunistic girl, is widespread in tales (see Bluebeard and related matter) as well. Longer versions of the song may involve a conversation in which the girl asks her brother's permission to go with the lover who has sung irresistible melodies; a choice given the maid between hanging and being stabbed; remarks by the head of the decapitated lover; a meeting between the girl, who is carrying the ogre's head, and the ogre's mother; and the conquering maiden's blowing her horn like a warrior as she approaches her father's castle. It is easy to see that the Anglo-American texts, where even the supernatural nature of the lover has pretty well vanished and where the naive chivalry of the villain gives the girl her chance, are abbreviated and somewhat pale. However, the true core of the story, the vigorous nature of the heroine, is preserved faithfully--almost as well as in French Canada where Jeanneton kicks the man in the stream as he pulls off her stocking and then holds him under with a branch.
Versions similar to A and B below (see Child E), in which the girl is told to remove a series of garments, are more common to New England than to the rest of the United States. Texts C and D, in which nettles or other brambles are removed from the river's edge, are not until except in the opening stanza which is borrowed from Child 105, nor are texts like L where the parrot (note he is a pirate in A) has been omitted. The parrot in "Lady Isabel" and the parrot in "Young Hunting" (Child 68) often get confused anyhow. It is somewhat unusual, however, to find as one does in Versions L and M that the girl recites what has happened to her. Obviously, from what goes on between her and the parrot, in Anglo-American tradition she would prefer to drop the subject.
The European backgrounds of this have been intensively studied. Grundtvig (Danmark's gamle Folkeviser (Copenhagen, 1853-90], IV) made an elaborate investigation of its dissemination; Child, 22 f., spent a long introduction on it; and more recently it has come under the thorough attention of Iivar Kemppinen (The Ballad of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, Heisinki, 1954) and Holger Nygard. Nygard's two articles, in JAF, LXV, 1-12, and LXVIII, 141-52, give one a start on a bibliography and a nice introduction to the problems involved; his book, The Ballad of Heer Halewijn (Knoxville, 1958), is a complete study. Anglo-American bibliographies and discussion, are found through Coffin, 32-35, Belden, 5-6; and Dean Smith, 97. The song is included in Barry's British Ballad's from Maine, 14.
The large group of tunes for this ballad falls (indistinctly) into two groups: 1) the versions of Burling, Harrington, Moses, Amey, Russel, Fish (which is especially close to Moses) and perhaps Pease (close to Russell?); and 2) Lougee, with Daniels and George (distantly close to Lougee, but close to each other). The Hayes version seems outside these groups, as does that of Lane which may be related to group I. Comparison with BCI groups reveals that our group I is part of BCl's group A, and our group 2, part of his group B.
H. The Pretty Colin. As sung by Mrs. Lily Delorme of Cadyville, New York. Learned as a child from her uncle, a native of Starksboro, Vermont. Mrs. Delorme seys: "This is as much as I know of it." M. Olney, Collector; August 16, 1943.
The Pretty Colin
It's a gay colin and a false young knight
The truth to you I'll sing.
It's "bring me down some of your father's gold
And some of your mother's fee
And two of the best horses in yonder stable
Wherein there's thirty and three, three, three,
Wherein there's thirty and three."
He mounted her on the milk-white steed
And himself on the dapple gray
And they rode away o'er hills and dale
'Till they came to the banks of the sea, sea, sea,
Till they came to the banks of the sea.
"It's now take off that holland gown
And hang it on yonder tree
For it seems a pity such a costly robe as that
Should lie rotting in the sea, sea, sea,
Should lie rotting in the sea."
"Then turn yourself around about
With your face toward the sea
For it seems a pity such a false young knight
A naked woman should see, see' see,
A naked woman should see."
Then he turned 'round about with his face toward the sea
And so manfully oh she jerked him up
And plunged him into the sea, sea, sea,
And plunged him into the sea.
"Lie there, lie there, you villain!" she cried,
"Lie there instead of me,
For it's six king's daughters you've drown-ed here
And yourself the seventh to be, be, be,
And yourself the seventh to be."
Then she mounted herself on the milk-white steed
And she led the dapple gray
And she rode home to her father's cot
Two long hours before it was day, day, day,
Two long hours before it was day.
And then upspoke her pretty Pollee
And unto her did say:
"It's where have you been, my pretty colin,
These long hours before it is day, day, day,
These long hours before it is day?
"There is a cat in at my cage door
Trying to worry me
And all I want is my pretty colin
To drive the cat away, 'way, 'way,
To drive the cat away." (Last word spoken)