A was taken down from Mrs. Brown's recitation by Jamieson in 1800, and published in his collection in 1806, "without the alteration of a single word." C wrongly forms the conclusion of 'Willie o Douglas Dale,' the preceding ballad. The copy in Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 128, is an abridgment of B, with a very few trivial changes.
The first half of the story in A, 1-9, is that of 'Willie of Douglas Dale,' A, 1-24, and there is a partial verbal correspondence.[foot-note] In the latter a shepherd's daughter is engaged as nurse to the boy born in the wood, and Dame Oliphant is taken home by her lover and made lady of Douglas Dale. In the present ballad the lady's father tracks his daughter to the wood, finds the new-born child, adopts him as his grandson, and gives him the name Robin Hood, Willie [Archibald] disappearing from the scene.
The first part of B 4-18 is a variety of the wide-spread tragic ballad of 'Leesome Brand,' No 15. So, also, is the larger part of 'Willie o Douglas Dale,' with the tragic features dropped.
This ballad certainly does not belong to the cycle of Robin Hood, and for this reason the title hitherto borne by it could not be retained. The connection with Robin Hood was in all probability mediated by the name Brown Robin. Brown Robin plays the part of Willie [Archibald] in 'Rose the Red and White Lily,' A 25-29. Brown Robin's son, in 'Jellon Grame,' is called Robin after Robin Hood, B 14, C 7, 17. Brown Robin carries off his love to the wood in the ballad of the same name. The Earl of Huntingdon, B 3, 21, has no place in the ancient traditional ballads of Robin Hood, but is of later literary invention. A 17, B 1, C 1, may, however, very well have belonged to some Robin Hood ballad.
A is translated by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, p. 22, No 3.
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