Origins: Lady Marcie went for a walk...

Subject: Origins: Weird ballad - Lady Marcia
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 31 Jan 06 - 11:33 AM

Does anybody know anything at all about this mysterious ballad, sung incompletely by Scots Traveller Stanley Robertson? The first and verses go:

Lady Marcie went for a walk
Doon by the hollow tree,
And there she saw a young man
As plain as plain can be.

...

The Earl went looking for his lady
The earl went looking for his iady
As the sun set in the East,
But she was never seen again
With her half man and half a beast.

A summary of the song given by Stanley can be found here:

http://www.pearl.arts.ed.ac.uk/Tocher/Vol-40/40-205/40-205fr.html

Any help (or any thoughts at all) about this ballad would be most warmly welcomed!

AR

Subject: RE: Origins: Weird ballad - Lady Marcia
From: MMario
Date: 31 Jan 06 - 11:40 AM

This is a fragment that has intrigued me for several years - never been able to find any other reference to it.

Subject: RE: Origins: Weird ballad - Lady Marcia
From: Kaleea
Date: 31 Jan 06 - 12:44 PM

She ran off with one of the Keebler elves. I would, too, if he'd keep me supplied with those yummy chocolate sandwich cookies.

Subject: RE: Origins: Weird ballad - Lady Marcia
From: Paul Burke
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 03:44 AM

The "tune" has a passing resemblance to the one used by the Watersons for "A soul, a soul, a soul- cake", and just a hint of Dave Burland's tune for Lizzy Wan.

As for the sun setting in the east, one would have thought a few more people might have noticed.

Subject: RE: Origins: Weird ballad - Lady Marcia
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:15 AM

"The "tune" has a passing resemblance to the one used by the Watersons for "A soul, a soul, a soul- cake", and just a hint of Dave Burland's tune for Lizzy Wan."

I agree - one of those ultra-simple hypnotic modal tunes which feel like they have roots into prehistory... but it seems to me like the words to the song are clearly a far more recent fabrication, perhaps written by "auld Maggie" herself, with nothing genuinely 'mythic' to them - perhaps designed by her to scare children at bedtime??

"As for the sun setting in the east, one would have thought a few more people might have noticed."

Well, if it happened in Scotland, cloud cover would have precluded people noticing.

Subject: RE: Origins: Weird ballad - Lady Marcia
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 04:18 AM

Every time I do an internet search for 'Lady Marcia', I get dominatrices.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lady Marcie, Lady Marcia
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 06:15 AM

I posted on this topic last week (Jan 2006) without realising that it had been brought up a few years ago... so, REFRESH... am still hoping that somebody out there knows something about this.

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