The Red Clay Ramblers liner notes says that their version is an amalgam of Dan Tate's and Kilby Snow's. In McNeil's book "Southern Folk Ballads Vol. 2" He cites Brewster (Ballads & Songs of Indiana) as having done a more extensive study of the ballad. It was Brewster's opinion that the song began in Norway before 1600, spread to the rest of Scandanavia, then Britain and North America. McNeil also describes the "wind and rain" refrain as a leter develpoment, but he gives no dates.

rich r