Earl of Mar's Daughter, The [Child 270]

DESCRIPTION: The earl's daughter brings home a dove, who at night turns into a man and begets seven sons by her. When a man woos the earl's daughter, the earl decides to kill the bird and have her marry. The bird returns with an avian army and reclaims his love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: love courting bird childbirth father marriage rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 270, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Bronson 270, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 version)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 641-645, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 186-188, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 25, "Earl Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
DT, MARDAUGH
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #324, "The Earl of Mar's Daughter" (1 text)
Roud #3879
NOTES [94 words]: Joseph Jacobs, collector, English Fairy Tales, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint), comments that this is "clearly a fairy tale and not a ballad proper. The name Florentine is sufficient to prove that the tale does not belong to the Celtic area." He points out the analogy of a lover coming in the disguise of a bird is very old -- Leda and the Swan being an obvious example, but Jacobs says that the earliest "post-classic form" is the Irish "Tugall Brudne da Derga," "The Destruction of Derga's Fort." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.2
File: C270

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