Willie's Fatal Visit
Willie's Fatal Visit (Roud 244, Child 255) is an English-language folk song, most likely originating in Scotland.[1][2]
Synopsis
[edit]A woman asks after her mother, her father, her brother John, and her true love Willie. Only Willie was nearby. He came to her at night, and she took him to bed, telling the cock not to crow until daylight. It crows earlier, and she takes the moonlight for dawn. Willie goes. He meets a ghost along the way. By a church, she tells him that he traveled in sin and said no prayers; then she kills him, tearing his body asunder.
Origins
[edit]A version of this ballad was published in Peter Buchan's Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland.[3][4] Francis James Child believed that the first part of the ballad was a medley of Sweet William's Ghost (Child ballad 77), Clerk Saunders (Child ballad 69) and The Grey Cock (Child ballad 248).[3]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Francis James Child (1898). English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- ^ "Willie's Fatal Visit (Roud 244; Child 255)". mainlynorfolk.info. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
- ^ a b James Porter (1995). Jeannie Robertson - Emergent Singer Transformative Voice. Knoxville, Tennessee, USA: University of Tennessee Press. p. 252. ISBN 9780870499043. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- ^ Buchan, Peter (1875). Ancient ballads and songs of the north of Scotland hitherto unpublished. Vol. 2 (reprint ed.). W Paterson. p. 247. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
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