Jellon Grame [Child 90]

DESCRIPTION: (Jellon Grame) murders the woman he claims to love (because she carries his child and he fears discovery/because she loves another whose child she carries). (He/her sister) raises the boy. He later reveals the murder to the boy, who kills him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy homicide revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 90, "Jellon Grame" (4 texts)
Bronson 90, "Jellon Grame" (1 version)
Riewerts-BalladRepertoireOfAnnaGordon-MrsBrownOfFalkland, pp. 224-226, "Jellon Grame and Little Flower" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 121-124, "Gil Ingram" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan2 198, "Jellon Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Davis-MoreTraditionalBalladsOfVirginia 27, pp. 207-213, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 284-286, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 196-197, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 49, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Grigson-PenguinBookOfBallads 55, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
DT 90, JELGRAEM
Roud #58
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fause Foodrage" [Child 89] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jellon Graeme
NOTES [104 words]: Davis seems to have no doubts about the authenticity of his text, the lone representative outside Scotland of a ballad with only the weakest roots in tradition even there -- this even though, as he himself admits, it has a surprising similarity to Child A. Well, if he won't question it, I will. I'm not saying it's a fake -- but I wouldn't be surprised if it were influenced by print.
David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 323, questions the authenticity of the whole ballad; he thinks it was made up by Anna Gordon Brown, influenced by Lady Wardlow's "Hardyknute." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: C090

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