I'm familiar with this song via Peter, Paul & Mary. There were many details I didn't understand, and reading their lyrics I imagine they didn't either. This thread has clarified many of them. PP&M's "earthen lack" made no sense, lack of what?? It was the old Latin word lacus. A lake would have water, but an earthen lake would hold dirt - a grave. Prime would mean dawn, or morning; but they sang "She buried him before *his* prime". What the fallow doe started out as - there have been some beautiful ideas put forth here, but we may never know for sure.

The thing that stands out for me is that the knight had hounds & hawks to guard his dead body, and someone to bury him - not everyone is that lucky.

A folksinger's job is to entertain, teach, comfort, (and promote the sale of beer) at whatever venue has hired him. If you don't understand what you're singing you feel like a fool, and that will come out in your performance. So one has to revise, excise, and improvise.

It reminds me of a song recorded by some Hawaiian group, they learned it from a cassette tape they got from somewhere, and a word was obscure so they took a guess at it. But see, with Hawaiians it's not such a problem, there are many incomprehensible things the haoles say.