Hi,

I've organized the early ballads of Child 7 and roughed in some of the headnotes. Clearly there are two ballad types Earl Brand and Lord Douglas, whether they should be separated further is a matter of opinion. If there are any early British versions missing let me know.

* * * *

A. "The Child(Knight) of Ell" ("Sayes 'Christ thee saue, good Child of Ell!") fragment from Percy folio MS acquired c. 1753 (Northumberland) but older.
    a. "The Child of Ell" from "Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript: Ballads and Romances," Volume 1 by Hales and Furnivall, I, p. 133, 1867. Original MS with notes.
    b. "The Child of Elle" recreation by Percy, "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," 1765.

B. Earl Brand ("Did ye ever hear o guid Earl o Bran") dated late 1700s (Heber/Leyden c. 1802, Edinburgh)
    a. "Earl o Bran" William Leyden about 1802 probably Edinburgh (MS 22b. in the Abbotsford Collection) Written down by Richard Heber, chorus is missing, Kittredge's A* version, 1.
    b. "Earl Bran," collected by William Laidlaw (b. 1780) of Selkirkshire (farm of Blackhouse) about 1802 for W. Scott from "Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy," No 22d.
    c1. 'Earl Bran,' Mr. Robert White's papers, c.1818.
    c2. 'Earl Bran,' Mr. Robert White's papers.
    c3. 'The Brave Earl Brand and the King of England's Daughter,' Bell, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 122, 1846.
    c4. Fragmentary verses remembered by Mr. R. White's sister, Mrs. Andrews, of Claremont Place, Newcastle. Published with melody in The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend, Volume 5, see also Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy, 1882.
    d. "Gude Earl Brand and Auld Carle Hude," the Paisley Magazine, 1828, p. 321, communicated by W. Motherwell.
    e. "Auld Carle Hood, or, Earl Brand." From Hume-Campbell MSS titled “Old Scottish Songs, Collected in the Counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles." Collected by Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell's father and placed in his library about 1830.

C. The Douglas Tragedy (Lord William and Lady Margaret) ("'Rise up, rise up, now, Lord Douglas,' she says,") late 1700s (chapbook print 1792) titled from Sharpe's 1802 version by Sir Walter Scott- said to have originated in Selkirkshire at the farm of Blackhouse.
    a1. "Lord Douglas' Tragedy, To which are added, the shepherd's courtship the blythsome bridal; or the lass wi' the gouden hair. The farewell." Publisher: [Newcastle upon Tyne?]: Licensed and entered, 1792. Child I
    a2. "Three songs." Innocent mirth. Lord Douglas' [sic] tragedy The banks of Doon; [Edinburgh]: J. Morren, printer, Edinburgh, [1800]
    b. "The Douglas Tragedy," collected from nursery maid by C.K. Sharpe in 1802. Published in Scott's Minstrelsy, III, 246, ed. 1803. Child B
    c. "Earl Douglas," from the recitation of Mrs Notman of Renfrewshire(?) about 1826. From Motherwell's MS., p. 502; Child C.
    d. "Lady Margaret." unknown informant probably from Edinburgh area, from Kinloch MSS, I, 327, c. 1827.
    e. "The Douglas Tragedy," six stanzas from tradition in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 180, 1827.
    f. "Lord Thomas and Ladie Margaret." Sung by Rachel Rodgers of Wallace Street, Ayr, c.1827. Collected by Thomas MacQueen. From "Andrew Crawfurd's collection of ballads and songs" by Andrew Crawfurd, E.B. Lyle - 1975.
    g. "Rise Ye Up," sung by Mrs. Lee Stephens (White Rock, Missouri) Oct. 5, 1928 dating back through her family to circa 1828. From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph- Volume I Ballads, from the section British Ballads and Songs.
    h. "Lady Margaret," Written By William A Larkins on April the 25th, 1868. From: The Old Album of William A. Larkin by Ruth Ann Musick; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 60, No. 237 (Jul. - Sep., 1947), pp. 201-251.

* * * *

[The ballads of Child 7 are about the an "earl" or a "lord or knight" and a "maid" whose family tries to prevent their elopement with tragic consequences. As the two lovers ride away on horses, they are pursued by the maid's father and seven brothers (Lord Douglas) or by her father and fifteen men (Earl Brand). After they stop and she dismounts holding his horse, a heroic battle ensues as her vastly outnumbered lover slays the pursuers. However, her lover is mortally wounded (in Child A he's stabbed in the back by Carl Hood; in B, he's received an unidentified blow during battle). The lovers ride off to a stream where she discovers his fatal wound when she sees blood in the clear water. They ride to his mother's house where he dies and she dies shortly thereafter of sorrow. Child B has the "rose-briar" ending.

The earliest fragment is my A (Child's F), "The Child of Ell" which is part of the Percy Folio, a group of Northumbrian manuscripts acquired by Bishop Percy about 1753. The MS, published by Hales and Furnivall in 1867, was missing the next page so all that remains are the first 11 stanzas (some partial stanzas) of this early related version. Here's the text from Percy's MS., p. 57; ed. Hales and Furnivall, I, p. 133, 1867:

The Child of Ell (c.1753 but older)

1 . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
Sayes 'Christ thee saue, good Child of Ell!
Christ saue thee and thy steede!

2 'My father sayes he will [eat] noe meate,
Nor his drinke shall doe him noe good.
Till he haue slaine the Child of Ell,
And haue seene his harts blood.'

3 'I wold I were in my sadle sett,
And a mile out of the towne;
I did not care for your father
And all his merry men!

4 'I wold I were in my sadle sett,
And a little space him froe;
I did not care for your father
And all that long him to!

5 He leaned ore his saddle bow
To kisse this lady good;
The teares that went them two betweene
Were blend water and blood.

6 He sett himselfe on one good steed,
This lady on a palfray,
And sett his litle horne to his month,
And roundlie he rode away.

7 He had not ridden past a mile,
A mile out of the towne,
. . . . .
. . . . .

8 Her father was readye with her seuen brether,
He said, 'Sett thou my daughter downe!
For ill beseemes thee, thou false churles sonne,
To carry her forth of this towne!'

9 'But lowd thou lyest, Sir Iohn the knight,
Thou now doest lye of me;
A knight me gott, and a lady me bore;
Soe neuer did none by thee.

10 'But light now done, my lady gay,
Light downe and hold my horsse,
Whilest I and your father and your brether
Doe play vs at this crosse.

11 'But light now downe, my owne trew loue,
And meeklye hold my steede,
Whilest your father [and your seuen brether] bold
. . . . .

In 1765 Percy published his recreation of the ballad "The Child of Elle" in his Reliques where he commented[]: "The Child of Elle is given from a fragment in the Editor's folio MS: which tho- extremely defective and mutilated, appeared to show so much merit, that it excited a strong desire to attempt a completion of the story. The Reader will easily discover the supplemental stanzas by their inferiority, and at the same time be inclined to pardon it, when he considers how difficult it must be to imitate the affecting simplicity and artless beauties of the original."

Percy's 50-stanza recreation is given in full on a page attached to this page, British Versions (see "Child of Ell" right-hand column). Foreign analogues of a similar archaic age and theme were listed by Child who included the two important parallel Scandinavian ballads, "Ribold and Guldborg," (mid 1600s) and "Hildebrand and Hilde." Child's excellent, detailed notes on the foreign analogues were aided by previous studies by Child's mentor, Sven Grundvig[3].

Child gives us two main ballad types A, "Earl Brand" and B, "Lord Douglas" (also "Douglas Tragedy," or, "Lord William and Lady Margaret") which are the two modern[1] ballads that are grouped under his No. 7 titled "Earl Brand." The problem is: they are different tragic ballads with similar themes and one stanza held in common. In Sir Walter Scott's excellent notes on the Douglas tragedy in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3(1803), He calls the "Earl Brand" an "analogous recitation[4]" and gives the stanza held in common:

"Gude Earl Brand I see blood"
"It's but the shade o' my scarlet robe."

Scott was aware of both Earl Brand ballad versions[5] that his friends William Laidlaw and John Leyden (via Richard Hebner) had acquired independently in preparation for Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" series (three volumes 1802-1803, one volume 1807). For some reason Child failed to acknowledge Scott's notes in volume 3 of his Minstrelsy in Child's Volume I (1882) of his English and Scottish Popular Ballads, so Child attributed the first extant version of Earl Brand to Robert Bell (1857) when clearly Scott knew the ballad by 1803. Child began his headnotes with, " 'Earl Brand,' first given to the world by Mr. Robert Bell in 1857, has preserved most of the incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness unequalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English oral tradition." In fairness to Child, Scott did not quote the whole text of Earl Brand, he only gave the stanza held in common. Later in volume 2 of ESPB's "Additions and Corrections," Child retracts the attribution to Bell and says: "This ballad was, therefore, not first given to the world by Mr. Robert Bell, in 1857, but nearly thirty years earlier by Motherwell, in the single volume of the Paisley Magazine, a now somewhat scarce book."

Neither Bell nor Motherwell were the earliest sources, both Laidlaw's and Leyden's versions predated Bell's and Motherwell's. The Laidlaw and Leyden ballads became part of the Abbotsford Collection which were the ballads collected for Sir Walter's Minstrelsy.

In Kittredge's 1904 edition of ESPB which he edited with Sergeant, he lists Leyden's MS as A* which gives it priority as the earliest and perhaps best example of Earl Brand. After John Leyden (September 8, 1775 – August 28, 1811) moved to Edinburgh in 1790 he became an acquaintance of Dr. Robert Anderson (1794), editor of The British Poets, and of The Literary Magazine and then to Dr. Alexander Murray, who helped Leyden with his study of Eastern languages. Anderson also introduced Leyden to Richard Heber, who was helping Scott collected ballads for his Minstrelsy. A bio on Leyden from an 1890 edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica reports:

Leyden was admirably fitted for helping in this kind of work, for he was a borderer himself, and an enthusiastic lover of old ballads and folklore. Scott tells how, on one occasion, Leyden walked 40 miles to get the last two verses of a ballad, and returned at midnight, singing it all the way with his loud, harsh voice, to the wonder and consternation of the poet and his household.

Leyden's version titled "Earl o' Bran," which I've dated 1802 (MS 22b. in the Abbotsford Collection) was down written by Richard Heber who commented[], "I have not written the Chorus, but Mr Leyden, having it by him, knows how to insert it." The chorus was never inserted and remains unknown. Here's Leyden's version, from an unknown source, Edinburgh:

Earl o' Bran

1   Did ye ever hear o guid Earl o Bran
An the queen's daughter o the southlan?

2   She was na fifteen years o age
Till she came to the Earl's bed-side.

3   'O guid Earl o Bran, I fain wad see
My grey hounds run over the lea.'

4   'O kind lady, I have no steeds but one,
But ye shall ride, an I shall run.'

5   'O guid Earl o Bran, but I have twa,
An ye shall hae yere wael o those.'

6   The're ovr moss an the're over muir,
An they saw neither rich nor poor.

7   Till they came to ald Carl Hood,
He's ay for ill, but he's never for good.

8   'O guid Earl o Bran, if ye loe me,
Kill Carl Hood an gar him die.'

9   'O kind lady, we had better spare;
I never killd ane that wore grey hair.

10   'We'll gie him a penny-fie an let him gae,
An then he'll carry nae tiddings away.'

11   'Where hae been riding this lang simmer-day?
Or where hae stolen this lady away?'

12   'O I hae not riden this lang simmer-day,
Nor hae I stolen this lady away.

13   'For she is my sick sister
I got at the Wamshester.'

14   If she were sick an like to die,
She wad na be wearing the gold sae high.'

15   Ald Carl Hood is over the know,
Where they rode one mile, he ran four.

16   Till he came to her mother's yetts,
An I wat he rapped rudely at.

17   'Where is the lady o this ha?'
'She's out wie her maidens, playing at the ba.'

18   'O na! fy na!
For I met her fifteen miles awa.

19   'She's over moss, an she's over muir,
An a' to be the Earl o Bran's whore.'

20   Some rode wie sticks, an some wie rungs,
An a' to get the Earl o Bran slain.

21   That lady lookd over her left shoudder-bane:
'O guid Earl o Bran, we'll a' be taen!
For yond'r a' my father's men.

22   'But if ye'll take my claiths, I'll take thine,
An I'll fight a' my father's men.'

23   'It's no the custom in our land
For ladies to fight an knights to stand.

24   'If they come on me ane by ane,
I'll smash them a' doun bane by bane.

25   'If they come on me ane and a',
Ye soon will see my body fa.'

26   He has luppen from his steed,
An he has gein her that to had.

27   An bad her never change her cheer
Untill she saw his body bleed.

28   They came on him ane by ane,
An he smashed them doun a' bane by bane.

29   He sat him doun on the green grass,
For I wat a wearit man he was.

30   But ald Carl Hood came him behind,
An I wat he gae him a deadly wound.

31   He's awa to his lady then,
He kissed her, and set her on her steed again.

32   He rode whistlin out the way.
An a' to hearten his lady gay.

33   'Till he came to the water-flood:
'O guid Earl o Bran, I see blood!'

34   'O it is but my scarlet hood,
That shines upon the water-flood.'

35   They came on 'till his mother's yett,
An I wat he rappit poorly at.

36   His mother she 's come to the door:
'O son, ye 've gotten yere dead wie an English whore!'

37   'She was never a whore to me;
Sae let my brother her husband be.'

38   Sae ald Carl Hood was not the dead o ane,
But he was the dead o hale seeventeen.

At the end of William Laidlaw's fragmented 21-stanza version Scott had written at the head, "Earl Bran, another copy." Interesting is the second editor's footnote of Scott's Minstrelsy, volume 3: "At the time when Sir Walter Scott was collecting the materials for this work, the farm of Blackhouse was tenanted by the father of his attached friend, and in latter days factor (or land-steward), Mr. William Laidlaw. James Hogg was shepherd on the same farm, and in the course of one of his exploring rides up the glen of Yarrow, Sir Walter made acquaintance with young Laidlaw and the 'Mountain Bard,' who both thenceforth laboured with congenial zeal in behalf of his undertaking."

This was Scott's comment about "Lord Douglas": "Many copies of this ballad are current among the vulgar, but chiefly in a state of great corruption; especially such as have been committed to the press in the shape of penny pamphlets. One of these is now before me, which, among many others, has the ridiculous error of 'blue gilded horn,' for 'bugelet horn.' The copy, principally used in this edition of the ballad, was supplied by Mr. Sharpe."

In a letter to Scott, dated 5th August 1802, Charles Kirkpatric Sharpe wrote: 'The Douglas Tragedy was taught me by a nurserymaid, and was so great a favourite, that I committed it to paper as soon as I was able to write' (Correspondence, I. 135). Despite Scott's comments about the cheap print version, except for the last stanza Sharpe's version is not much different than the print version (see also Child I). The end of stanza 1 is a corruption of "a lord or a knight." Here's Sharpe's text:

Douglas Tragedy

1    'Rise up, rise up, now, Lord Douglas,' she says,
'And put on your armour so bright;
Let it never be said that a daughter of thine
Was married to a lord under night.

2    'Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons,
And put on your armour so bright,
And take better care of your youngest sister,
For your eldest's awa the last night.'

3    He's mounted her on a milk-white steed,
And himself on a dapple grey,
With a bugelet horn hung down by his side,
And lightly they rode away.

4    Lord William lookit oer his left shoulder,
To see what he could see,
And there he spy'd her seven brethren bold,
Come riding over the lee.

5    'Light down, light down, Lady Margret,' he said,
'And hold my steed in your hand,
Until that against your seven brethren bold,
And your father, I mak a stand.'

6    She held his steed in her milk-white hand,
And never shed one tear,
Until that she saw her seven brethren fa,
And her father hard fighting, who lovd her so dear.

7    'O hold your hand, Lord William!' she said,
'For your strokes they are wondrous sair;
True lovers I can get many a ane,
But a father I can never get mair.'

8    O she's taen out her handkerchief,
It was o the holland sae fine,
And aye she dighted her father's bloody wounds,
That were redder than the wine.

9    'O chuse, O chuse, Lady Margret,' he said,
'O whether will ye gang or bide?'
'I'll gang, I'll gang, Lord William,' she said,
'For ye have left me no other guide.'

10    He's lifted her on a milk-white steed,
And himself on a dapple grey,
With a bugelet horn hung down by his side,
And slowly they baith rade away.

11    O they rade on, and on they rade,
And a' by the light of the moon,
Until they came to yon wan water,
And there they lighted down.

12    They lighted down to tak a drink
Of the spring that ran sae clear,
And down the stream ran his gude heart's blood,
And sair she gan to fear.

13    'Hold up, hold up, Lord William,' she says,
'For I fear that you are slain;'
'Tis naething but the shadow of my scarlet cloak,
That shines in the water sae plain.'

14    O they rade on, and on they rade,
And a' by the light of the moon,
Until they cam to his mother's ha door,
And there they lighted down.

15    'Get up, get up, lady mother,' he says,
'Get up, and let me in!
Get up, get up, lady mother,' he says,
'For this night my fair lady I've win.

16    'O mak my bed, lady mother,' he says,
'O mak it braid and deep,
And lay Lady Margret close at my back,
And the sounder I will sleep.'

17    Lord William was dead lang ere midnight,
Lady Margret lang ere day,
And all true lovers that go thegither,
May they have mair luck than they!

18    Lord William was buried in St. Mary's kirk,
Lady Margret in Mary's quire;
Out o the lady's grave grew a bonny red rose,
And out o the knight's a briar.

19    And they twa met, and they twa plat,
And fain they wad be near;
And a' the warld might ken right weel
They were twa lovers dear.

20    But bye and rade the Black Douglas,
And wow but he was rough!
For he pulld up the bonny brier,
And flang't in St. Mary's Loch.

A comparison of Scott's "Lord Douglas" to "Earl Brand" shows that although they are ballads with the "Maid's family tries to prevent elopement" theme, the ballads are different. Perhaps the most telling difference is that Earl Brand has a chorus while Lord Douglas, also known as "Lord William and Lady Margaret," does not. Lord Douglas does not have the character Carl Hood who stabs Earl Brand in the back (see also: Braes of Yarrow, where it's one of the brothers) and has the rose briar ending, perhaps acquired from the similar tragic ballads "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" or "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet."

Along with the ballads classified under Child 7, Earl Brand are other similar "Maid's family tries to prevent elopement" ballads. The ballads of Child 7 have two different groups of people trying to prevent the elopement: 1) Earl Brand, is pursue by her father and 15 men while 2) Lord William (Douglas), also Child of Ell, is pursued by the maid's father and seven brothers. Similar themes are found in other ballads including The Bold Soldier (Bold Keeper/Lady and the Dragoon); the Braes o Yarrow (including "Rare Willie") ballads; and "Fair Margaret and Sweet William."

Early texts of the "Maid's family tries to prevent elopement" ballads include The Child of Ell- Child F, from Percy in 1753- but older- and dating back to 1673 is the broadside of the related Bold Soldier (See: 7A The Lady and the Dragoon) ballad, titled, "The Bold Keeper."

Child assigns "Earl Brand" as his A version with his version 7Aa taken from Mr. Robert White's papers. Both 7Aa and 7Ab are from Mr. Robert White's papers. Child gives the changes from Aa for Ab in his end notes. Ac is given in full by Robert Bell with some changes. Ad is a fragment from Mrs. Andrews, Mr. White's sister and only one change and the refrain are given-- so Ad will be impossible to reconstruct without the MS. The rational for making Earl Brand his A version appears to be his comparison with the older Danish ballads represented by "Ribold and Guldborg." The problem with making Earl Brand Child's A version is that there are only 5 traditional versions and the ballad did not continue past the mid-1800s, whereas the "Lord Douglas" ballad was popular and remained popular (as evidence see both Greig/Duncan Collection and Carpenter Collection) and was brought to America where it was collected in Maritime Canada, New England and the Appalachians.

* * * *

Richie