Hobie Noble [Child 189]

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how Hobie, an Englishman exiled to Scotland, was convinced by the traitor Sim of the Mains to raid England. Warned of Noble's coming, the land-sergeant (whose brother Noble had killed) takes him. Noble is hanged at Carlisle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: borderballad fight punishment execution revenge
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 189, "Hobie Noble" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 49-53, "Hobbie Noble" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 516-519, "Hobie Noble" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 252, "Hobie Noble" 1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 381-384, "Hobbie Noble" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 139, "Hobbie Noble" (1 text)
DT 189, HOBINOBL
Roud #4014
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock o the Side" [Child 187] (characters)
NOTES [110 words]: According to James Reed, The Border Ballads, University of London/The Athlone Press, 1975, p. 70, "Beyond what we learn of him from this ballad and from Jock o' the Side [which also mentions him in some versions], little is known of Hobbie Noble. A 'Hobbe Noble' is mentioned as dwelling 'within the Nyxsons' in a letter to Burghley of 1583, and Edmund Bogg (without offering evidence) says that he was born at Crew Tower, a pele [small fortified dwelling] about two miles north of Bewcastle. It is just possible that he is the 'Hobbe of Cumcrooke, an English outlaw "resett" some time in both countries -- for whose apprehension I shall do my diligence.'" - BW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C189

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