Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead [Child 190]

DESCRIPTION: The Captain of Bewcastle raids the Fair Dodhead. Jamie Telfer, the victim, races about the countryside in search of assistance. Some refuse, but he gathers enough friends to fight the raiders. The avengers suffer casualties, but Bewcastle is defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: violence robbery revenge help
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 190, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 65, 151, "Jamie Telfer o the Fair Dodheid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 362-365, "James Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 141, "Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 67, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Roud #3364
NOTES [145 words]: Child lists several speculations about this song (derived mostly from Scott, who is the only source for this piece). These tie it, very tentatively, to an event of 1582, at which time Bewcastle was a well-known haunt of robbers and sundry criminals. All of this, however, must be treated as little more than speculation. Nor is there any real evidence that the piece is traditional. - RBW
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen is a 3-verse fragment corresponding to Scott's verses 23, 26, and 27 (T.F. Henderson, editor, Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1902 ("digitized by Google")) vol. II, pp. 1-13, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead"; Minstrelsy's is the only version for Child 190, but the Sargent and Kittredge one-volume edition uses another text which has no verse corresponding to Wille Scott's second. - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C190

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