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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,Kevin W. Jellon Graeme (Child #90) (10) RE: Jellon Graeme (Child #90) 16 Jun 18


I apologize for posting three times in a row, but I have some more info to add.

Here are Francis James Child's notes and texts of Jellon Grame for those interested:
Child #90 - Jellon Grame

And here's the text as given in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border Vol. II (1802), which differs in some details from Child's A version:
Jellon Grame - Walter Scott

The line "He sharped his broad sword lang" in the first verse shows up in Scott's text and in Alexander Robb's text from oral tradition.
I wouldn't think it unlikely that Scott's book had some influence on the oral tradition of this ballad.

Here's some information on Alexander Robb:
Alexander Robb - Name Authority Record

I also copied Alex Robb's version as it was taken down by Gavin Greig in 1907 from Bertrand Bronson's "Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, Vol. II":

"Jellon Graeme." Greig MSS., II, p. 140; and Bk. 769, LIX, p.
18, King's College Library, Aberdeen. Also in Gavin Greig, Ry-
mour Club Miscellanea, I (1919), p. 199; and in Gavin Greig
and Alexander Keith, Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and
Ballad Airs, 1925, p. 71.

Sung by ALexander Robb, New Deer, Aberdeenshire.

O, Jellon Graeme sat in good greenwood,
   And he sharped his broadsword lang;*
He called on his young footpage,
   Who quickly to him ran.

Get up, get up, my young footpage,
   As far as e'er ye can,
For ye maun gang to Lily Flooer
   Ere the sun be on the rain;
And ye maun gang to Lily Flooer,
   And I fear ye'll never win hame.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

   Fell low down on her knee,-
Spare my life now, Jellon Graeme,
   For I'm nae prepared to dee,

* 1919: keen

And finally, here's the text from "The Glenbuchat Ballads", an important ballad collection from the Reverend Robert Scott, minister of the parish of Glenbuchat in Aberdeenshire, Scotland crica 1818 that was unknown to Francis James Child:

Gil Ingram (The Glenbuchat Ballads)
VOL. II : 15, PP. 48–51
(Child 90, Jellon Grame; Roud 58)

01 Sleep ye wake ye Lilly Flower
       Or are ye no within
    I sleepna aft I wake right aft
       Wha are ye kens my name

02 Ye’re bidden come to good green wood
       An haste thee there wi’ speed
    To mak to your love Gil Ingram
       A sark o’ summer weed

03 Ye lie ye lie ye bonny boy
       So loud’s I hear ye lie
    For its nae a month, nor yet a week
       Nor days but barely three
    Since I made to my love Gil Ingram
       Sarks for summers three

04 But ye’re pray’d to come wi me lady
       O dinna tarry lang
    But come wi me to good green wood
       An speak wi Gil Ingram

05 She’s ta’en her mantle her about
       To green wood fast shes gone
    An sair she called for Gil Ingram
       But answer she got nane

06 She lookit east, she lookit west
       If she her love could see
    An’ she saw but fause Gillom Graham
       Beneath a green wood tree

07 Cast aff, cast aff, fair Lilly Flower
       That gown that ye have on
    It is o’er good an’ o’er costly
       To ly amo’ the feam

08 Aff she has cast her robes o’ silk
       An’ laid them on a stone
    She was a woman fair enough
       Tho’ she stood coat alone

09 O mercy, mercy Gillom Graham
       Have mercy upon me
    Such as ye gave, such shall ye have
       No mercy lady for thee

10 O mindna ye fair Lilly Flower
       When your rich bridal stood
    For hunger we were gard eat men’s flesh
       For thirst to drink men’s blood

11 Cast aff, cast aff fair Lilly Flower
       That coats that ye have on
    They are oer good to be stained wi blood
       O’ that they shall get none

12 O mercy, mercy Gillom Graham
       When I’m your brother’s wife
    Hae mercy on your brother’s bairn
       Altho’ ye wish my life
    For I hae nae langer to go wi bairn
       But days barely five

13 Out has he ta’en a thristy bran
       An’ strippit o’er a straw
    An’ thro’ an’ thro’ her fair body
       He gart cauld iron ga

14 O bonny was that Lilly Flower
       Was slain in the green wood
    An’ bonny was the knight bairnie
       Lay weltering in her blood

15 Up has he ta’en that bonny boy
       An’ rowed him in his sleeve
    Altho’ I have slain your fair mother
       Your father to me was leave

16 Up has he taen the bonny boy
       An’ rowed him in his han’
    Your mother was ance far dearer to me
       Than houses or than land

17 He’s taen him to his mother’s bower
       As fast as he could gang
    Nurse well, nurse well this bairn mother
       Until he be a man
    His mother put foot in a Flander’s ship
       An’ to Flanders did she gang

18 Nurse well, nurse well, this bairn mother
       Gi’ him to nurses three
    An’ if I live an’ brook my life
       Well paid shall be their fee

19 Nurse well, nurse well this bairn mother
       Gi him to nurses nine
    Three to sleep, an three to wake
       An’ three to go between

20 O it fell ance upon a day
       That Gillom Graham thought lang
    An’ he has gane to good green wood
       An’ took the boy wi him

21 It wonders me said the bonny boy
       The Flander’s ships ne’er tak’ the sea
    The woman that ye ca’ my mither
       Thinks never lang for me

22 It wonders me says the bonny boy
       The Flanders ships taksna the faem
    The lady ye ca my mither
       Thinks never lang for hame

23 O see na ye yon tree my boy
       — — — — —
    Your father was ance …
       — — — — —

24 O see na ye yon rose my boy
       An’ the lilly by its side
    Your mother was a fairer flower
       When she was your father’s pride

Stanzas numbered, except 22 to 24; second and fourth lines indented.
05 Line 4: he made to she got.
07 Line 4: foam to feam.
12 Line 5–6: Initially numbered as a new stanza; number blotted out

Now we have all known versions of the ballad together in one thread.

By the way, here's another nice rendition of the ballad, sung by Raymond Crooke on Youtube:
Raymond Crooke - Jellon Grame (Child #90)

He took upon him the enormous task of recording a version of every single Child Ballad, hats off to him.


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