There are so many variants of this theme that it must have stirred something in people's imaginations. Either, as suggested above, young men away at sea or at war hoped that their sweethearts would wait indefinitely for them, or the girls themselves liked to imagine that their young man would come back, no matter how long he'd been away.

I don't think there's ususally a disguise, just maybe a beard and a bit more muscle (not, of course, on the girl, who would remain recognisably fresh and nubile - and this, too, would be everyone's fantasy scenario).

I never did get the point, though, of the man testing the relationship to the point of announcing his own death, just as a tease. Serve him right if the girl threw herself (or possibly him) into the conveniently close Bann/Claudy/Dee in despair before he'd had a chance to put her right.

Having said that, I just love those songs, especially the line where he says "Betsy, I'm that man!" or whatever. Gets me every time, and I've never even had a sweetheart who went to sea.

Marje