Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane [Child 28]

DESCRIPTION: Burd Ellen is at her knitting, crying over her baby. Young Tamlane, apparently the father, bids her rock the child. Rock the child she will not, and he departs with her curse.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1824 (Maidment)
KEYWORDS: bastard curse children mother abandonment curse
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 28, "Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane" (1 text)
Roud #3962
NOTES [364 words]: Child expresses no doubts about this ballad, but I wonder a little. "Burd" is a genuine English word, meaning primarily "maiden," but also just "young woman" (Warrack, p.76). RobinsonEtAl file it under the spelling "bird" and says "orig. only in verse, latterly (la18-) ch[iefly] familiar or disparaging a lady, woman; a girl la15- [ME bird, burd, perh f OE byrde, well-born]."
But it is in fact older than that "late fifteenth century" date. The Harley Lyrics are from c. 1340, and use the word several times -- e.g. Brook's #3 (p. 31), "Annot and John," opens
Ichot a burde in a bour ase beryl so bryht
i.e.
I wot [know] a burd in a bower, as beryl so bright [as bright as beryl].
J. R. R. Tolkien, in "Some Contributions fo Middle-English Lexicography," traced it back even earlier, to Layamon's Brut, which is a few decades older than the Harley Lyrics. He cited instances where he thought a "burde" was a weaver or embroideress, and believed that went back to an Old English word "*brydan," specifically of embroidresses and embrodery (Ruud, p. 421). This song is much more recent than that, but it's interesting that Burd Ellen was spending her time in knitting rather than any other activity.
By the time this song was collected, the word was archaic. It lasted a little longer in Scots, but given the dubious collection practices of some of those old collectors, I wouldn't be surprised if this were retouched.
The other "Burd" ballad in the Child collection, "Burd Isabel and Earl Patrick" [Child 257], seems better attested, since there are multiple, clearly distinct versions. "Child Waters" [Child 63] also often refers to a "Burd" in its title, e.g. "Burd Ellen" or "Burd Helen." I find it interesting that, in all three of these cases, the young woman has or will have a child. I've seen no hint in any of my sources that it refers to a woman who is pregnant out of wedlock, but I wonder.... In addition, "Lady Isabel" [Child 261] has a "Burd Isabel" version. That song doesn't seem to reefer directly to pregnancy, but the few versions we have, there is a hint of incest with her father. Might the accusation have arisen because she was pregnant? It would fit.... - RBW
Bibliography

Brook: G. L. Brook, The Harley Lyrics: The Middle English Lyrics of MS Harley 2253, Manchester University Press, 1948, 1956 (I use the 1964 third edition with updated bibliography)
RobinsonEtAl: Mairi Robinson, editor-in-chief, The Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen University Press, 1985
Ruud: Jay Ruud, Critical Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien, Facts on File, 2011
Warrack: Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialect Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000

Last updated in version 6.7
File: C028

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