Date: 24 Mar 22 - 03:24 PM

>>>>>Having spread to Scandinavia, Form II was combined with motifs from "The Cruel Mother" (Child no. 20) to produce Form III: he asks for a drink and accuses her of sin; he then lists her adulteries and child murders (the new trait), and the ballad continues as in II and I."<<<<<

Oh dear!!!
My own conclusion was that Lillumwham had come from Scandinavia, but where does Harris get Scandinavian versions of CM? CM is solely an English ballad in origin with no known equivalents elsewhere. A few versions deriving from Grundtvig's 1842 translation in Engelske og Skotske Folkeviser were found in northern Denmark, but that's it. The fact is that Child, when he wrote his CM headnotes, wasn't aware of the English broadside so all of the headnotes to 20 actually pertain to 21.
It's a pity he didn't revise this once he got hold of the broadside.

See my Dungbeetle articles on Musical Traditions.