The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91417   Message #2226211
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
01-Jan-08 - 12:44 PM
Thread Name: Origins: King Orfeo versions
Subject: RE: Origins: King Orfeo versions
All known traditional versions are listed (though not all are quoted in full) in this discussion. I still haven't seen the Virginia text, but the text in Lyle is substantial at 21 couplets with interleaved refrain. It was originally printed in The Shetland News, 25 August 1894, where it was described as having been noted from oral recitation by Bruce Sutherland at Gloup fishing station, North Yell, in 1865. Lyle quotes it from Patrick Shuldham-Shaw, 'The Ballad "King Orfeo"', in Scottish Studies 20, 1976, 124-6.