"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (Child #4; Roud #21) is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads.
The most frequently collected variant, The Outlandish Knight or May Colvin tells the tale of a young woman who elopes with a knight who has promised to marry her (and who in some instances uses magic to charm her) but who then tries to murder her to get money, clothes and horses. By a quick-witted ruse she manages to kill him instead, and in many versions she is helped to keep this experience from her parents by a resourceful parrot. The main variant has been collected frequently from traditional singers in England, Scotland, Ireland and North America.Roud Fold Song Indexes, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library https://www.vwml.org/search?ts=1489607963291&collectionfilter=RoudFS;RoudBS&advqtext=0|rn|21# Retrieved 2017/03/14
Synopses
Three main English language variants of this group of ballads, with rather different plots, have been published:
The Gowans Sae Gae Lady Isabel hears the horn of an elf-knight and wishes she had the horn and the knight "to sleep in my bosom". He immediately appears and asks her to go to the greenwood. They ride there, and he tells her that he has killed seven kings' daughters there and she is to be the eighth. She suggests that he put his head on her knee "that we may hae some rest before that I die". She puts him to sleep with a "small charm" and after tying him up with his own belt she kills him with his own dagger.
This version is written in couplets, with a refrain as second and fourth line: Fair lady Isabel sits in her bower sewing, Aye as the gowans grow gay There she heard an elf-knight blawing his horn. The first morning in May "Gowan" is a name used for a number of plants with yellow flowers, but unless modified by another word, it usually means the common daisy, Bellis perennis, also called the "may gowan".Oxford English Dictionary, OED online, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/80330?redirectedFrom=Gowan#eid Retrieved 2017/03/13
May Day, the morning of May 1, and May Eve, the evening of April 30, were important holidays with pagan connotations.
This variant is Child's A.
The Water o Wearie's Well A king's daughter is full of woe. A harpist plays and everyone else falls asleep. He takes her on the back of his horse to Wearie's Well. He tells her to wade in, and when she expresses her doubts - when she is up to her knee and then her waist - says that no harm will befall her and that he has often watered his horse there. When she is up to her chin he tells her:
Seven king's-daughters I've drownd there, In the water o Wearie's Well, And I'll make you the eight o them, And ring the common bell
She asks him for a kiss to "comfort me" and when he leans down to kiss her she pulls him from the saddle and drowns him. She swims to the shore and thanks God that "The dangers she o'ercame".
This version was Child's B.
The Outlandish Knight The Roud Folk Song Index lists about 60 names for this group of songs, most of which refer to this variant, including Fause (or False) Sir John, May Colvin (or variants), Go Bring Me Some of Your Mother's Gold, and Pretty Polly. This variant includes Child's C to F, and the vast majority of versions listed by Roud, including many named Lady Isabel and the Elf-knight or variants thereon.
A knight offers to take a young woman to his home in the north and marry her, and suggests she takes "some of your father's gold and some of your mother's fee"(Child F),Child, F J; The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol, 1; 1882, No 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-knight" version F as well as two horses (often white for her, dapple-grey for him) from her father's stables (where there are almost always "thirty and three"). They ride, sometimes to the side of a river, or more often to the banks of the sea, where he tells her to dismount: 'Mount off, mount off, thy lily-white steed, And deliver it unto me For six pretty maidens I have drowned here And the seventh thou shalt be.'Roud, S, and Bishop, J; The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs; London, 2012 He tells her to take off her clothing, sometimes item by item (Child E), as it is too costly to be allowed to rot in the sea. She asks him either to turn his back: For it is not fitting that such a ruffian A naked woman should see. (Child E)
or to cut down the local vegetation: 'Go fetch the sickle to cut the nettle That grows so near the brim, For fear it should tangle my golden locks Or freckle my lily white skin' (Child F) and then either she pushes him into the sea or "seizes him by the middle so sma" and throws him in.
He asks her to help him out, but she refuses: 'Lie there, lie there, you false-hearted man, Lie there instead of me, For if six pretty maidens thou hast drowned here, The seventh has drowned thee.'
She rides home, leading the spare horse. Sometimes the story ends here, but often when she arrives home a parrot comments on how late she has returned, saying he is afraid "Some ruffian hath led you astray". She promises him a luxurious cage if he keeps her secret, and when her father asks the parrot what makes him "speak before it is day" he replies that a cat was going to eat him. His mistress promises him that: "Thy cage shall be made of the glittering gold, And the door of the best ivory"
In performance the last syllable of the fourth line is sometimes repeated twice, and then the line is repeated: The seventh has drowned thee. thee, thee, The seventh has drowned thee.
In Scotland this variant is sometimes called May Colvin (various alternative spellings occur). Child gives two versions of this. Child's D version is very similar to other texts except that the young woman is named as May Colven and the knight as False Sir John. In the second the knight uses a charm to make an initially reluctant May Collin go with him, and the story ends when, after the parrot episode, she goes to her parents, tells them what has happened, and they go to the scene of the crime to find and bury the body "for fear it should be seen".
Publication history The earliest known version of any of these variants is either a broadside entitled The False Knight Outwitted sometime in the second half of the eighteenth century (also the earliest "Outlandish Knight" text and Child's version F), or May Colvin, published in Herd's "Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs" in 1776 (Child's version C). The earliest printed version of "The Gowans sae Gae" was in "Ancient Ballads and Songs Volume 1" by Peter Buchan while "The Water o Wearie's Well" was first published in Volume 2 of the same book. Both volumes were published in 1828.
The Outlandish Knight variant was repeatedly printed by broadside publishers both in London and the provinces.Roud Folk Song Index, https://www.vwml.org/search?ts=1489446614244&collectionfilter=RoudFS;RoudBS&advqtext=0|rn|21;0|fm|Broadsides&orderby=title#record=17 Retrieved 2017/03/13 Most broadside texts are fairly similar to one another, and often start: An outlandish knight came from the north lands And He came a'wooing of me He told me he'd take me to the north lands And there he would marry me.Broadside Ballads Online; Bodleian Library; http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/view/edition/1599 Retrieved 2017/03/23 The song seems to have been in circulation earlier than the printed version. In her semi-autobiographical novel Lark Rise, Flora Thompson born in 1876 and growing up in Juniper Hill, Oxfordshire, stated that in the early 1880s she heard an 83-year-old man sing the Outlandish Knight. He would have been born about 1800 and said he had learned it from his grandfather (who was probably born about 1740), who in turn learned it from his own grandfather (who was probably born about 1680).
Versions in 18th and 19th century ballad collections May Colvin was published in "Ancient and modern Scottish songs, heroic ballads, etc.; Vol. 1" (1776) by David Herd.Ancient and modern Scottish songs, heroic ballads, etc.; Herd, D; 1776; https://archive.org/details/ancientmodernsco01herdiala Retrieved 2017/03/14 May Colvin was published in "The Scottish Minstrel", (1821), by Robert Archibald Smith.The Scottish Minstrel, Smith RA; 1821; http://imslp.org/wiki/The_Scotish_Minstrel_(Smith,_Robert_Archibald) Retrieved 2017/03/14 May Collin was published in "A Ballad Book" (First published in 1823 for private distribution, re-published in 1880) by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe.A Ballad Book; Sharpe, CF; ed. Laing; 1880 https://archive.org/details/balladbook00shar Retrieved 2017/03/14 May Collean was published in "The Scottish Ballads" (1828) by Robert Chambers.The Scottish Ballads; Chambers R, 1828; https://archive.org/details/scottishballads01cham Retrieved 2017/03/14 The Gowans sae Gae and The Water o'Wearies Well were published in "Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland" (1828) by Peter Buchan.Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland; Buchan, P; vol 1 https://archive.org/details/ancientballadsso01buchrich vol 2 https://archive.org/details/ancientballadsso02buchrich Retrieved 2017/03/14 The Outlandish Knight was published in "Ancient poems, ballads, and songs" (1846) by James Henry Dixon.Ancient poems, ballads, and songs; Dixon J H; 1846; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858030563872;view=1up;seq=16 Retrieved 2017/03/14 May Colvin was published in "Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern" (1846) by William Motherwell.Minstrelsy, ancient and modern; Motherwell, W; 1846; https://archive.org/details/minstrelsyancie01mothgoog 2017/03/14 May Colvin was published in "The Ballads and songs of Ayrshire" (1847) by James Paterson.The Ballads and songs of Ayrshire, Paterson J, 1847; Retrieved 2017/03/14 Two texts of May Colvin were published in "The Book of Scottish Ballads" (1857) by Alexander Whitelaw. These are Herd's and Motherwell's versions.The Book of Scottish Ballads; Whitelaw, A; 1857; https://archive.org/details/bookofscottishba00whit Retrieved 2017/03/14 The Water o Wearie's Well was included in "Early ballads illustrative of history, traditions and customs" by Robert Bell, published in 1861.Early ballads illustrative of history, traditions and customs; Bell R; 1861; https://archive.org/details/earlyballadsillu00bellrich Retrieved 2017/03/14 The Outlandish Knight was published in "Northumbrian minstrelsy : a collection of the ballads, melodies and small pipe-tunes of Northumbria", (1881) by J Collingwood Bruce and John Stokoe.'Northumbrian minstrelsy; Collingwood Bruce, J and Stokoe, J; 1881; https://archive.org/details/ACollectionOfTheBalladsMelodiesAndSmall-pipeTunesOfNorthumbria Retrieved 2017/03/14 Child published The Gowans Sae Gae (one text), The Water o'Wearies Well (one text), May Collen/Collin (two texts), and two texts of the Outlandish Knight type in "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Part 1" (1882). The Outlandish Knight was published in "Shropshire Folk-Lore" (1883) by Charlotte S Burne. The Outlandish Knight was published in "Traditional Tunes" (1891) by Frank Kidson.Traditional Tunes; Kidson F; 1891; https://archive.org/details/imslp-tunes-kidson-frank Retrieved 2017/03/14 May Collean was published in "The Ballads and Songs of Carrick" (c.1892) by Rev. Roderick Lawson. The Outlandish Knight was published in "Songs & Ballads of Northern England" (1899) by Stokoe & Reay.
Other song books Arthur Quiller-Couch, (ed.) The Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910. Carl Sandburg; "American Songbag", Pretty Polly; 1927. Cecil Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Oxford University Press, London, 1952. vol. 1, p. 7. R. Vaughan Williams & A. L. Lloyd, The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, Penguin Books, 1959, pp. 80–81 (as "The Outlandish Knight") The Outlandish Knight, "Songs of the Midlands", Roy Palmer, 1972. Geoffrey Grigson (ed.), The Penguin Book of Ballads, Penguin Books, 1975. . pp. 40–41