The Seven Sleepers- Wrinkle (OK) 1964 Moore A
[From the Moores 1964 book, Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest; version A. Unfortunately the Moores did not give any information about the informant- therefore the date must be 1964 even though this version may be fifty years older.
R. Matteson 2014]
A. "The Seven Sleepers." sung by Mrs. Lou Wrinkle of Norman. This text is similar to Child's B.
"Rise up, rise up, ye seven sleepers,
Put on your armor bright;
For my father was the king of Rome,
And my mother was a virtuous queen."
So he mounted upon his milk-white steed,
And she on the dapple gray;
He hung his revolvers around his waist,
And they went riding away.
They scarcely had gone three miles from home,
Till she saw her father a-coming,
Till she saw her father and her seven brother ring,
Come trippling o'er the plain.
"So get right down, my pretty little miss,
And hold my horses by the reins,
While I play with your father and your seven brother ring,
As they come trippling o'er the plain."
She got right down without saying a word,
And held his horses by the reins,
Till she saw her father and her seven brother ring,
Lay wallowing in their blood.
"What have you to say, my pretty little miss,
At the deed that I have done?"
"Go wind you east, go wind you west,
I'll wind along with you."
So he mounted upon his milk-white steed,
And she on the dapple gray;
He hung his revolvers around his waist,
And they went bleeding away.
They rode till they came to his mother's gate,
And tingled on the lock of the ring.
"Oh, Mother, oh, Mother, asleep or awake,
Arise and let me in."
"Oh, Mother, oh, Mother, go make my bed,
For my wounds they are full sore;
Oh, Mother, oh, Mother, come bind my head,
For it is me you can bind no more."
Sweet William died of the wounds he received,
Fair Ellender from sorrow;
On Ellender's grave grew a wild rose bush,
On Sweet William's a brier.
They linked and tied in a true love's knot,
The rose around the brier;
They grew and they grew to the steeple top,
For all young people to admire.