Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet [Child 66]

DESCRIPTION: Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet are (brothers/uncle and nephew). Lady Maisry loves and is pregnant by Chiel Wyet but Ingram woos her family and she is made to wed him. On the wedding night Chiel Wyet and Lord Ingram kill each other; Maisry goes mad.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802/3 (ms)
KEYWORDS: family pregnancy marriage homicide fight madness
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (5 texts)
Bronson 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (2 versions, both regarded by Bronson as dubious; neither has a text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 188-191, "Lord Ingram an' Gil Fyat" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 213-222, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text, with a Danish text for comparison)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 51, "Lord Ingram and Childe Vyet" (1 text)
Buchan-ABookOfScottishBallads 30, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 70-73, "Lord Ingram ad Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
Whiting-TraditionalBritishBallads 66, "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet" (1 text)
DT 66, INGRWYLT*
Roud #46
NOTES [176 words]: Bronson quotes two tunes for this piece, but admits they "may have no genuine right to this association. The sole connecting link, in the absence of words [neither tune has a text], is the title of the first tune, 'Lord Ingram.' But the tune suits ill with the metre of any known text...."
In some versions of this, when Ingram and Maisry are wed and she is found to be pregnant, they sleep with a sword between them. Child has some notes on this folklore motif; for more, see Leach-TheBalladBook, p. xlv. It's not a common ballad motif, but it shows up a lot elsewhere, e.g. in the Tristan story (Thompson H.435.1, "Sword as Chastity Index").
Fowler, pp. 283-284, sees a connection to the May-January motif of Chaucer's "Merchant's Tale," mentioning in particular old January's enthusiasm at taking a beautiful young wife; Fowler seems to be arguing that the song is a fake as a result. Clearly a lot of people have questions about the authenticity of this ballad, but stories of May-December romances are much too common to posit dependence on Chaucer! - RBW
Bibliography

Fowler: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968
Leach: MacEdward Leach, editor, Amis and Amiloun, Early English Text Society/Oxford University Press, 1937

Last updated in version 6.8
File: C066

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