Lyr Req: Lady Marcie, Lady Marcia

Subject: Lyr Req: Lady Marcie, Lady Marcia
From: friskett
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 07:34 PM

Hello,

I'm trying to track down a ballad that I know only from a fragment given by Stanley Robertson in the School of Scottish Studies publication Tocher, #40. As far as I know it's not in Child or Bronson, though I could of course be wrong about that. I haven't found it in Greig-Duncan either.

The story is of Lady Marcie (Lady Marcia?) who, while out wandering by a "hallow" tree (which Stanley specifically mentions does not mean "hollow") sees an enticing stranger riding a horse.

Intrigued, she returns, and sees him again, but has trouble actually seeing the horse.

On the third visit she realizes that the stranger is not in fact a man, but "half man and half beast," a centaur. But she's in love with him, and when he invites her, absconds with him in a cloud of metaphors, never to be seen again by mortals.

Does anyone have any leads on this ballad? Stanley says in the article that he heard it from a traveller, Maggie Stewart.

thanks in advance,
Kim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lady Marcie, Lady Marcia
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 07:47 PM

For interested readers, the Tocher piece can be seen (and heard) online at  http://www.pearl.arts.ed.ac.uk/Tocher/Vol-40/40-205/40-205fr.html

The Roud Folk Song Index doesn't list this one as yet. On the face of it, it seems pretty unlikely that any more of it is known than in this sole example; but you never know what might come up, of course.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lady Marcie, Lady Marcia
From: MMario
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 01:58 PM

refresh