(15th century)
The earliest extant English version of the popular ballad Lord Randal, as it appears in Francis Child’s edition, is as recent as the 18th century. However, there are earlier German versions, and Italian analogues existed in the early 17th century. Because the ballad was originally English (and perhaps based on the fate of the 13th-century Ranulf, earl of Chester), it may date as far back as the 15th century.
The poem tells the story of a young man who has been poisoned by his lover. (A variant is a young boy who has been poisoned by his stepmother.) His mother discovers the treachery after a series of questions. She then proceeds to ask how he wants to divide his estate. The last person she asks about is the lover to whom he leaves “hell and fire” (Morgan 1996, 22). Alternately he leaves her “the rope and the halter that/do hang on yonder tree/And there let her hang for the/poisoning of me” (Carthy 2003, 72).
The repetition of lines like the opening (“Oh where ha’ you been, Lord Randal my son?/And where ha’ you been, my handsome young man?”) functions to drive the ballad forward while simultaneously giving the background story. The melancholy mood of the ballad and pragmatic questioning of the mother about her son’s bequests make Lord Randal a haunting piece. The ballad is very popular and versions of it can be found throughout Britain, America, Canada, and Europe. Scored versions, dating back to the 18th century, can even be found for those who wish to sing the tragic ballad. A British version changes the murderer into “gypsies” and the eels into “snakes.” This version functions not only as a ballad, but also as a tale of warning to 20th-century children about the dangers of wandering from home.
Bibliography
■ Bird, S. Elizabeth,“ ‘Lord Randal’ in Kent: The Meaning and Context of a Ballad Variant,” Folklore 96 (1985): 248–252.
■ Carthy,Martin. “Lord Randal (Child \#12),” Sing Out! (Winter 2003): 72.
■ Child, Francis James, ed. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 1882–98. Reprint, New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1965.
■ McCarthy, Terence. “Robert Graves and ‘Lord Rendal,’ ” Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin 45, no. 2 (1982): 48–52.
■ Morgan, Gwendolyn A., ed. and trans. Medieval Ballads: Chivalry, Romance, and Everyday Life: A Critical Anthology. New York: Peter Lang, 1996.
Malene A. Little
Encyclopedia of medieval literature. 2013.