Hi,

Jim: My point being -not that publishers in the US were worried about it at this time (c1845)-- that you wouldn't want to publish the exact same text from another print version if you have additional material you could add. It would give the printer a unique version that is an improvement over already printed versions.

Since Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe indicated that the "ships" stanza was traditional in Annandale as well as the "gifts" or "bequeaths" stanzas- the ships stanza being included in the FMN Songster would have come from tradition. It is found in other traditional versions in the US that clearly are not based on the FMN Songster.

Added to (or part of) the ballad we have:

1) ships gift stanza (also Child C from Motherwell, where it appears):
'Or will ye go to the river-side,
To see my boats a rowing?'
2) blood letting stanza (bowl of blood) found traditionally in many Irish versions -as well as Greig/Keith "Last Leaves- A" (and other English/Scottish versions) - and some US/Canada versions.
3) other gifts stanzas (gold watch etc. which culminate in Buchan's excessive 41 stanza version- which I assume he pieced together from traditional versions which usually only have one stanza of gifts.

Steve: I realize that balance is a normal part of a ballad and makes the ballad easier to remember. It's just rarely found in tradition without missing stanzas. Both women that sang the ballad come from an oral tradition method and many members of that family could not read or write. This version (posted above) came from her father, a Baptist preacher.

Richie