Married to a Mermaid

DESCRIPTION: Farmer loves a knight's daughter, the knight has him pressed. At sea the farmer falls overboard. As his comrades look for him he pops up and tells them how he found and then married a mermaid. The sailors wish him well. Choruses of "Rule Britannia."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (Broadside, Bodleian library)
KEYWORDS: sailor mermaid/man pressgang farming marriage
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 174-176, "Married to a Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 184, "Married to a Mermaid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rule Britannia" (tune and chorus)
cf. "The Merman (Pretty Fair Maid with a Tail)" [Laws K24] (theme of marrying a mermaid)
cf. "Down in the Diving Bell (The Mermaid (II))" (theme of marrying a mermaid)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
O 'Twas in the Broad Atlantic
NOTES [196 words]: This was obviously based on "Rule Britannia," keeping the tune and popular chorus and replacing all the other text. According to contemplator.com it was credited in the "Scottish Student's Handbook" to "A.J.C." and also appeared in Toser's "Sailor's Songs of Chanties." It seems to have been made popular by [music hall performer] Arthur Lloyd (1839-1904) but I could find no indication that he was responsible for the words. One of the Bodleian broadsides state that it was sung to the tune of "The Revelers." - SL
In a strange semi-folkloric note, J. R. R. Tolkien is said to have translated a traditional song called "The Mermaid" into Old English (Christina Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Reader's Guide, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, p. 769). It is not the Child Ballad of that name; rather, it is this song (in his own notes, Tolkien declared it "An OE version of 'Twas in the brad Atlantic in the equinoctial gales...'" (Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth, revised edition, Houghton-Mifflin, 2003, p. 353). Shipped gives the Old English text, and a translation, on pp. 358-359. For more background, see under "Tolkien Songs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Harl174

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