Young Waters [Child 94]

DESCRIPTION: Because the queen has admitted that Young Waters has the fairest face of all the lords and lairds and knights she's seen, the king has him beheaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: beauty death execution
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 94, "Young Waters" (2 texts)
Bronson 94, "Young Waters" (1 version)
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry II, pp. 228-231, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 26-30, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 95-96, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 82, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Gummere-OldEnglishBallads, pp. 156-158+334, "Young Waters" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 17-18, "Young Waters" (1 text)
ST C094 (Full)
Roud #2860
NOTES [181 words]: Various suggestions have been offered for the identity of Young Waters. Percy suggested none other than the Bonny Earl of Murray, while Buchan offered one David Graham of Fintray (executed 1592). These and all other suggestions must be labelled simply, "Possible, but not really likely."
Although Bronson reports a tune, he notes, "It cannot be proved that this ballad was ever traditionally sung in Scots or English." The source of the tune is dubious, and Bronson has some cutting remarks about the stanzas of the English-language texts (though there is little doubt that the story exists in traditional forms in other languages -- indeed, the idea is not far from the traditional notion that Eleanor of Aquitaine had Rosamund Clifford poisoned).
Child was also suspicious of the Buchan version, printing it "for much the same reason that thieves are photographed." David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, pp. 242-243, also considers it a modern fix-up, suggesting "The Bonny Earl of Murray" [Child 181] as a possible inspiration. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: C094

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