The Cruel Mother
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
"The Cruel Mother" (Child 20, Roud 9) is a murder ballad.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
A woman gives birth to one or two illegitimate children (usually sons) in the woods, kills them, and buries them. On her return trip home, she sees a child, or children, playing, and says that if they were hers, she would dress them in various fine garments and otherwise take care of them. The children tell her that when they were hers, she did not dress them so but murdered them. Frequently they say she will be damned for it.
Some variants open with the account that she has fallen in love with her father's clerk.
[edit] Variants
This ballad exists in a number of variants; one contains a number of verses that appear to stem from "The Maid and the Palmer".[2] A closely related German ballad exists in many variants: a child comes to a woman's wedding to announce himself her child and that she had murdered three children, the woman says the Devil can carry her off if it is true, and the Devil appears to do so.[3]
This ballad was one of 25 traditional works included in Ballads Weird and Wonderful (1912) and illustrated by Vernon Hill (sculptor).
[edit] Recordings
| Album/Single | Performer | Year | Variant | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Long Harvest Vol. 1 | Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger | 1967 | see note | Album contains three versions of The Cruel Mother, one variant called "Down By the Greenwood Sidey-O", and another called "The Lady From Lee". |
| Joan | Joan Baez | 1967 | The Greenwood Side | . |
| The Sweet Primroses | Shirley Collins | 1970 | The Cruel Mother | . |
| Landfall | Martin Carthy | 1972 | The Cruel Mother | . |
| Flesh and Blood | Maddy Prior | 1997 | The Cruel Mother | . |
| Songs Of Experience | Cindy Mangsen | 1998 | The Cruel Mother | . |
| Wolverley Summer of Love 2007 | Stuart Estell | 2007 | The Cruel Mother | . |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "The Cruel Mother"
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 218, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 219, Dover Publications, New York 1965
[edit] External links
- The Cruel Mother
- The Cruel Mother with historical commentary
- Fine Flowers in the Valley variant
- An MP3 recording of The Cruel Mother by Kentucky ballad singer Daniel Dutton
 |
This folk song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
