US & Canada Versions: 63. Child Waters
[There were only three extant traditional versions of this ballad collected in the US (none in Canada) and one of them might be a manuscript, still sitting in a box somewhere, waiting to be discovered. The fragment collected by Randolph has music and the excellent version collected by Sutton was published by Brown in 1952. However it's the other version collected by Sutton that remains a mystery. According to the Brown Collection:
"The other version, evidently rather salacious, Mrs. Sutton collected from an old woman who lived once near the falls of Gregg's Prong of Wilson's Crest, but felt it was unsuitable for publication."
At this point, it's unlike any undiscovered traditional versions will appear.
R. Matteson 2014]
CONTENTS: (to access the individual texts, click on highlighted title below)
1) The Little Page Boy- Calisle (Ark.) 1912 Randolph -- From Ozark Folksongs by Vance Randolph; 1946 Vol. 1. This three verse fragment was collected by Randolph in 1928 along with the tune.As sung by Irene Calisle, Arkansas, c.1912.
2) Fair Ellen- Gordon (NC) c.1920s Brown Collection -- From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Vol. 2 Ballads; 1952. The collector of this fine version was Maude Minish Sutton of Caldwell County, N.C., a teacher, writer, and folklorist. Reported by Mrs. Sutton from the singing of Mrs. Rebecca Gordon of Cat's Head on Saluda Mountain, Henderson county.
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Child Waters [Brown Collection Notes; 1952]
(Child 63)
This ballad must have been popular — as it deserved to be — in Scotland a hundred and fifty years ago. Of Child's ten versions all but one (A, from the Percy Folio MS) are Scotch and come from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. But it has seldom been recorded in later times. Greig reports it from Aberdeenshire (LL 51-2) ; there is no mention of it in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society. Randolph (OFS I 69-70) reports a fragmentary text of three stanzas from Arkansas. Otherwise it had not been found in America until Mrs. Sutton found the North Carolina text here presented. This text belongs in the same tradition as Child's B, which is from Mrs. Brown of Falkland; indeed, the correspondence is fairly close, though the North Carolina version omits some details and modifies others.
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
63. CHILD WATERS
Texts: Brown Coll / Randolph, Oz F-S I, 89.
Local Titles: Fair Ellen, The Little Page Boy.
Story Types: A: (As given to Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 89 from Fayetteville, Ark.) A young man deserts a poor girl to court a rich lady. The girl disguises herself as a page and accompanies him to the castle. She cares for his horse and even rides behind him unrecognized. Eventually her sex becomes known through pregnancy. She gives birth to a son in a stable, and the lover, hearing this, comes to her and decides to marry her.
Examples: Randolph.
Discussion: The American version gives a more practical reason for the lover's cruelty than those implied in Child, and the disguised identity of the girl makes the story slightly different. This latter change may well be due to American chivalry.