Child puts them next to each other in his canon, but he treats them as separate songs
John Reilly referred to the religious aspect of 'The Maid and the Palmer' - apart from the 'curse' bit at the end, that doesn't appear in 'The Cruel Mother'
I see the similarities - never really been convinced they are the same song
Bronon was convinced it was unique - he told Tom Munnelly that he had "carved his name in ballad history" for discovering a version
Jim