Sorry, Guest - Lighter. The thread is about the oldest Child ballad. Not the oldest ballad in any other collection. The oldest is 'Judas' why? Because Child says so! Thirteenth century is two hundred years older than Fifteenth century isn't it? I just posted the provenance from Child in the note above yours. There are several Child ballads that were never sung, what's your point?

Note to Joe, thanks very much for the formatting, spot on but it's a verse translation (with some bits missed out for brevity and to maintain the story. (People may want to dispute this but, in the interest of getting a sung version of what I find a quite moving story, I took some liberties.)