Johnie Cock

Johnie Cock (also Johnny O'Breadisley or Jock o' Braidislee) is the 114th Child Ballad, existing in several variants. The Child Ballads were a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century.

Synopsis

Johnie Cock is warned by his mother that he is in danger but nevertheless goes poaching and kills a deer. He feeds his dogs and sleeps in the woods. A man (sometimes a palmer, a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land) betrays him to foresters, who attack him while he sleeps. Johnie wakes. Either he or his nephew rebukes them for the attack, in most variants saying that even a wolf would not have attacked him like that. In most variants, he fights and kills all of his assailants but one, whom he wounds.

In several versions, he dies of his wounds while still in the wood. In one variant, he is laid low, and the king sends him a pardon.