Maid of Craigienorn, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the Maid of Craigienorn, whom he sees as he rambles. He begs her to come away. She refuses; she has another love and will not leave her parents. He says her love has abandoned her. The ending is confused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection abandonment beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H500, pp. 359-360, "The Maid of Craigienorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6880
NOTES [112 words]: The first several stanzas of this are your standard guy-sees-girl/guy-hits-on-girl/girl-says-leave-me-alone ballad. Then we get a John Riley-like scene in which he says her love has abandoned her. (And how, given that the singer has never seen her before, does he know?) Then there seems to be a section from the woman's viewpoint, and another in which she is revealed as a Protestant, and another in which the singer complains about England's laws and wishes the couple happiness.
There seems little doubt that the ending of this song is confused. I would guess at least three other songs have contributed. But it's hard to identify them from the small fragments extant. - RBW
File: HHH359

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