The Fair Flower of Northumberland

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"The Fair Flower of Northumberland" (Roud 25, Child 9) is a folk ballad.[1]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

A Scottish knight is taken by the Earl of Northumberland. The knight persuades the Earl's daughter, the fair flower, to free him and come with him to Scotland, by promising to marry her. As soon as they reach his home, he tells her to return to Northumberland as he already has a wife and children. She pleads with him to take her as a servant, or to kill her, both of which he refuses. Terrified, she returns. In some variants, her father or stepmother complains of how easily her love was won, but in all, her mother or father blames the seduction on Scottish treachery, and says that she will have gold and lands to get her a husband.

[edit] Commentary

There are no variants of this ballad in other languages, though many of the elements have parallels.[2] Parts of it parallel "The Nut-Brown Maid", where the hero tells the heroine that he has nothing to give her, and is plighted to another women, but in that ballad, that is only a test, and he reveals himself as her true and wealthy lover.[3]

Many of the same motifs are found in Child Ballad 48, "Young Andrew".[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "The Fair Flower of Northumberland"
  2. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 112, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  3. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 112, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  4. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 432, Dover Publications, New York 1965

[edit] External links

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