Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight (Child #4)
D C D
Lady Isabel sat at her window a-sewing
C D
Aye as the gowans grow gay
D G D F
When she heard an elf-knight on his bright horn a-blowing
D C D
On the first morning in May.
"Oh, I wish I'd that horn that I hear blow so clearly
(Aye as the gowans grow gay)
And yonder elf-knight for to love me so dearly."
(On the first morning in May)
This maiden had scarcely the fatal words spoken
When in at her window the elf-knight has broken.
"It is a strange matter, fair maiden," said he
"I canna blaw horn but ye call out to me."
"But will ye gang down unto yon greenwood side?
Come take a fair horse, and together we'll ride."
And he's leapt on a horse, and she on another
And they have gone down to the greenwood together.
"Light down ye, light down ye, fair maiden," said he
"We are come to the place where ye are to die."
"Hae mercy, hae mercy, Sir elf-knight, on me
Till aince more my father and mother I see."
"Well, seven king's daughters here have I slain
And ye’ll be the eighth will forever remain."
"Oh, sit down awhile, lay your head on my knee
That we may take rest here before that I die."
She’s stroked his dark head and she’s whispered sae sweet
That the elf-knight was soon lulled fast, fast asleep.
And she's ta’en his ain sword belt and bound him around
And wi’ his ain dirk struck the fiend his death wound.
"If seven king's daughters were slain here by ye
Then lie here and keep them all good company."
Lyrics adapted from Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight (Child #4) as printed inAncient Ballads and Songs from the North of Scotlandby Peter Buchan (Edinburgh, 1828)
Music by Lisa Theriot
© 1996 Raven Boy Music
Documentation:
The lyrics were adapted from Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight (Child #4) as printed inAncient Ballads and Songs from the North of Scotlandby Peter Buchan (Edinburgh, 1828). The changes made served to perfect the rhyme and scansion of certain lines and did not change any particulars of the story.
Story
This story is popular throughout Europe and beyond. The oldest evidence of the story as a ballad comes from broadside sheets, including a Spanish broadside dated circa 1550 and a German broadside dated circa 1560. No English copy has been found dated prior to 1600, but the story was certainly known, and several distinct versions were extant by the 1700s. The story has been compared to the biblical tale of “Judith and Holofernes” as well as the various “Bluebeard” stories, including the life of French Marshal Gilles de Rais (d. 1440).
Structure
The structure of the ballad is that of pairs of rhymed couplets with a repeated refrain. The earliest ballads were written in rhyming couplets, usually of eight syllables or so. (Over the course of the centuries from which these songs arose, modern English was developing from Middle English, and many pronunciations were changing radically, often affecting the number of syllables in a word.)
What is sharper than is the thorn?
What is louder than is the horn?
--“Inter Diabolus et Virgo” (Child #1)
from Rawlinson MS D.328, Bodleian Library, Oxford (dated to 15th c., spelling modernized for clarity)
In order to update old ballads, a “burden” (also called a “chorus”) was often added in later. Burdens were lines that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the song (and in fact were used interchangeably between songs) but filled out the stanza:
Or what is louder than a horn?
Lay the bent to the bonny broom
Or what is sharper than a thorn?
Fa-la-la-la, fa-la-la-la-ra-re
--“Riddles Wisely Expounded” (Child #1) from a 17th c. broadside sheet
Melody
The melody is original, in the style of common pre-1600 traditional melodies. It is written in the Mixolydianmode. The Greek mode names came into common application for medieval music around the 10th century. The principal music theorist of the day, Guido d’Arezzo, described the practical application of four modes: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian. Mixolydian mode was a common and popular mode for medieval church compositions, and is sometimes referred to as “Church Mode VII”.
By 1600, British popular music was dominated by the four modes nearest to our modern ideas of “major” and “minor”: Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian. Though accidentals, or variations from the pure mode, had started to creep in to composed music, traditional music remained almost purely modal.