Oh Diane, I fear to disagree - but you compare

"T'was all alone I dug his grave
and all alone in it him laid
While Christ was priest and I was clerk I
laid my love in the cold grey (or clay) earth"

(which I think is the strongest verse at the front end)

with

"The fire took first all on her cheek
And then it took all in her hair
It spat and it rang in her yellow hair
And soon there was no life left there".

I have it down to I think 19 verses with a fair bit of pruning and without blowing my own horn, with my trace version of the Carthy riff it is I think my strongest and nastiest bit of work.

I must disagree with you: the fire is at the end!