“Lamkin” (from English - “Lamkin”; Child 93 , Roud 6 [1] ) is a folk ballad of Anglo-Scottish origin. Francis James Child, in his collection, lists about 25 of its versions, the earliest of which, apparently, was taken from the manuscripts of Thomas Percy and approximately dates from 1775 [2] [3] .
Story
Mason Lamkin ( Lamkin , also Lammikin, Lankin, Lonkin, Lantin, Long Lankyn / Longkin, Rankin, Lambert Linkin, Balankin, Balcanqual ) builds a castle for the Lord ( Lord Wearie, Weire, Earie, Erley, Earley, Murray, Arran, Montgomery, Cassilis ), however, does not receive its pay. When he has to leave for a while, fearing Lamkin, he asks his wife to take the necessary precautions. However, the attacker still manages to get into the castle in the absence of the majority of servants, either through an unprotected hole, or as a result of collusion with the nanny. She advises him how to entice a lady, and he hurts the baby in the cradle, to the cry of which the mother descends (in the earliest version, the second, then the third, etc. comes to the cry of the descending sister). She offers Lamkin gold in exchange for a life (in two versions - his daughter is his wife, in three more her daughter offers to exchange her life for the life of his mother, and in two it is done by a servant), but now only revenge is needed. The returning lord discovers that his chambers are red with the blood of his wife and child. In different versions, the villain is hanged, burned alive or immersed in a boiler with molten lead, and a nanny is executed in similar ways [2] .
distinguishes from the corpus of stories two basic basic versions: the Scottish, which retained the mention of the bricklayer, and the Anglo-Northumbrian, where it disappeared early, due to, as she believes, the loss of the first stanza. Gilchrist believes the Scottish to be earlier, and that the other has come out of it by losing the first stanza, where the dishonest act of the lord is described [4] [3] .
Notes
- ↑ Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
- 2 1 2 Scottish Popular Ballads , volume 2
- ↑ 1 2 Lamkin [Child 93] (English) . The Traditional Ballad Index. An annotated source of folk song from the English-speaking world . Robert B. Waltz. The appeal date is January 7, 2017.
- ↑ Anne G. Gilchrist, “Lambkin: A Study in Evolution”. Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (1). 1932: 1–7.