The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173921 Message #4218359
Posted By: Robert B. Waltz
03-Mar-25 - 11:57 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Child Ballad 160 The Knight of Liddesdal
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Child Ballad 160 The Knight of Liddesdal
Just to make it explicit: Other than single stanza, there is no authentic text of this ballad. (Some modern may have recreated it, but there is nothing from tradition.)
Hardly surprising, for a fourteenth century event. Few songs last that long, and if it had still been around in the nineteenth century (which I doubt), the nineteenth century text would have had to be very different from the original.
I'm personally not convinced that it was ever an actual song, but it hardly matters. :-/