Broomfield Hill, The [Child 43]

DESCRIPTION: A girl wagers with a boy that "a maid I will go to the Broomfield Hill and a maid I shall return." At home she regrets her error, but a witch tells her how to make her love sleep on the hill. She arrives on the hill, leaves a token, and wins her wager
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: magic wager sex trick witch
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,NE,Ro) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Child 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (6 texts)
Bronson 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (30 versions -- but the last six are "The Maid on the Shore" -- plus 1 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 43, "The Broomfield Hill" (8 versions: #3, #4, #10.1, #13, #17, #20, #23, plus #27 which is "The Maid on the Shore")
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "BROOMFIELD HILL, THE"
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #14, pp. 116-119, "The Merry Broomfield, or the West Country Wager" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 297-300, "The Merry Broomfield" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #65, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, pp. 30-31, "Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #24, "Merry Green Broom Fields" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan2 322, "The Bonnie Broom-Fields" (2 texts)
Lyle-Andrew-CrawfurdsCollectionVolume2 109, "The Bonny Brumefeils" (1 text)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 29, "Merry Bloomfield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 75, "The Maid's Wager" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 210)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 21, "The Broomfield Wager" (3 texts)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 19, "The Broomfield Wager" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
OShaughnessy-MoreFolkSongsFromLincolnshire 3, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #63, "Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine pp. 438-442, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 songster version plus extensive notes)
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland1, pp. 275-279, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #4, "The Broomfield Hill" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 150-152, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 24, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Friedman-Viking/PenguinBookOfFolkBallads, p. 148, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 16, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, p. 26, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #23}
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 11, pp. 113-114, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H135, p. 414, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 7, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sedley/Carthy-WhoKilledCockRobin, pp. 192-194, "The Broomfield Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan-MedievalBallads-ChivalryRomanceAndEverydayLife, pp. 33-33-34, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
DT 43, BROOMFLD* BROMFLD2* BROMFLD3
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #325, "The Broomfield Hill" (1 text)
Roud #34
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "A Wager, A Wager" (on Maynard1)
Walter Pardon, "Broomfield Hill" (on WPardon01, HiddenE)
Cyril Poacher, "Broomfield Hill (The Broomfield Wager)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on Poacher1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid on the Shore (The Maid on the Sea Shore; The Sea Captain)" [Laws K27]
cf. "Martinmas Time"
cf. "Lovely Joan"
cf. "The Maid and the Horse"
cf. "The Sleepy Merchant" (plot)
cf. "Geaftai Bhaile Atha Bui (The Gates of Ballaghbuoy)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Broomfield Wager
Green Broom
The Merry Green Fields
NOTES [184 words]: For some inexplicable reason, the notes in Sam Henry claim that H133, "Bess of Ballymoney" (p. 461) is this song. I believe this is an accidental repetition of the notes on H135.
Fowler, p. 281, says that the first known text of this song omits the magical element; the girl goes to the hill, finds the man asleep, leaves a token, and leaves. On this basis, he suggests that the magic sleep is an intrusion. Textually, this makes sense, but it costs the song some of its motivation; if the girl wanted an assignation, why didn't she wake him up, and if she didn't, why did she go at all?
- RBW
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople is a composite of six texts including three fragments. - BS
Some texts, instead of having the girl go to the Broomfield Hill and return a maid, have her go to the Merry Green Wood. This is a fascinating statement in context, because there was an analogy that was very well known in medieval times, in which the Virgin Mary was a green wood which could make a dry tree spring to life (Jeffrey, p. 779). But I suspect that analogy was forgotten by the time this song was made. - RBW
Bibliography

Fowler: David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968
Jeffrey: David Lyle Jeffrey, General Editor, A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature, William B. Eerdmans, 1992

Last updated in version 6.8
File: C043

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