There's a YouTube recording of MacColl's rendition here (click)
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for this song:
Child Waters [Child 63]
DESCRIPTION: Ellen tells Child Waters she bears his child. Offered two shires of land, she would prefer one kiss. He rides; she runs, swims; as his page, she brings a lady for his bed, gives birth in the stable. He hears her wish him well and herself dead; he relents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy love disguise childbirth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 63, "Child Waters" (11 texts, 1 tune)
Bronson 63, "Child Waters" (3 versions)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 58-65, "Child Waters" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1229, "Fair Ellen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 76-81, "Child Waters" (1 text, titled "Earl Walter," from the 1818 "Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Randolph 13, "The Little Page Boy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, which Randolph places here though it also has lines from the "Cospatrick" version of "Gil Brenton" and which is so short it might go with something else) {Bronson's #3}
BrownII 17, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 201-205, "Child Waters" (1 text)
OBB 46, "Childe Waters" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 122, "Child Waters" (1 text)
PBB 47, "Child Waters" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 241-246+354-355, "Child Waters" (1 text)
DBuchan 10, "Child Waters" (1 text)
TBB 4, "Child Waters" (1 text)
DT 63, CHDWATER
Roud #43
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fair Margaret
Lord William and Lady Margaret
Burd Ellen
File: C063Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Bibliography
Go to the DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright $TrueYear by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.