It's about whatever you choose to see it as being about . . why seek to tie it down??

And as for where it ends up; I particularly relish the version:

"The drunkard served him worst of all

and pissed him against the wall"

If anyone wants to investigate this further, there was a thread about this recently on uk.music.folk which I'm sure folks could find on DejaNews . . That also pointed at the wide variety of versions of the song.

Regards

George