Allen-a-Dale (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Allen-a-Dale has no fagot for burning, Allen-a-Dale has no furrow for turning... Yet Allen-a-Dale has red gold for the winning." Baron Ravensworth will not let Alllen court the baron's daughter, but his skill is such that the girl flees with him
AUTHOR: Sir Walter Scott
EARLIEST DATE: 1813 (Scott, "Rokeby")
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection nobility
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Driven-From-Home-Songster, p. 21, "Allen-a-Dale" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Sir Walter Scott, _Rokeby: A Poem in Six Cantos_ (sundry editions on Google Books), Canto III, Section XXX, "Song. Allen-a-Dale" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eamon An Chnuic (Ned of the Hill)" (plot)
cf. "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale [Child 138]" (character of Allen-a-Dale)
NOTES [152 words]: I have no reason to think this was a song, and little reason to think it traditional (there is one possibly collection from Virginia, though we have only a reference to it). The curiosity is the use of the name "Allen-a-Dale," who of course was the subject of the ballad "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale" [Child 138]. Sir Walter Scott also made him a character in Ivanhoe.
What is interesting is that he appears here in a tale which has some slight resemblance to the Robin Hood tale, in that a girl escapes her parents to marry as she will, but Robin Hood is not involved. In terms of plot, Instead it reminds me of the version of "Eamon An Chnuic (Ned of the Hill)" in which a minstrel courts a girl above his station.
Was Scott taking the Irish tale and converting it to an English main character in order to make it more saleable? I have no idea. I include this only to point up the curious possibilities. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: DFHS021

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