Silver Dagger (I), The [Laws G21]

DESCRIPTION: Two young people wish to marry; the boy's parents are against it because the girl is poor. The heartbroken girl stabs herself to death. The boy, finding her dying, takes the dagger and stabs himself as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin)
KEYWORDS: love poverty suicide family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws G21, "The Silver Dagger"
Creighton-FolksongsFromSouthernNewBrunswick 57, "Come All Good People" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 123-126, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt and references to 5 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 139, "The Silver Dagger" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 161-163, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 139A)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 75, "Katie Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Musick-JAF-TheOldAlbumOf-William-A-Larkin 13, "Come Youth and Age" (1 text)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 102, "The Green Fields and Meadows" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 23, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 308-310, "The Golden Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, pp. 161-161, "The Silver Dagger/To All True Lovers Whom Parents Will Part" (1 text)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 72, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 72, "The Silver Dagger" (2 excerpts, 2 tunes)
Jones-MinstrelOfTheAppalachians-Bascom-Lamar-Lunsford, pp. 205-206, "Young Man and Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #36, "SIlver Dagger" (1 text)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 64, pp. 188-189, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
Shellans-FolkSongsOfTheBlueRidgeMountains, pp. 34-35, "Parents, Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 38, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 730-731, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #30, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 52, pp. 121-122, "Silver Dagger"; pp. 123-124, "Silver Dagger" (2 texts)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 109, "The Silver Dagger" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol1, pp. 60-61, "Who's That Knocking at my Window?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol4, pp. 60-62, "Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-DevilsDitties, pp. 110-111, "Young Men and Maids" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson-BalladsOfTheKentuckyHighlands, pp. 71-72, "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" (1 text, with the "Fair and Tender Ladies" first line but otherwise clearly this song)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 165, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes, but the "B" fragment is probably "Charming Beauty Bright" [Laws M3])
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #42, "The Bloody Warning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #62, "Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 42, "(The Bloody Dagger)" (1 short text, omitting the suicides)
Wolfe/Boswell-FolkSongsOfMiddleTennessee 40, pp. 71-73, "The Two Lovers (The Silver Dagger)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bronner/Eskin-FolksongAlivePart1 31, "The Silver Dagger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 10, "Don't Sing Love Songs" (1 text, 1 tune, containing only the middle verses; it's almost a mix of this and "Fair and Tender Ladies")
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 221-222, "Young Men and Maids" (1 text)
DT 639, SILVDAG2*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), pp. 202-203, "(The Young Lovers)" (1 text)
Roud #711
RECORDINGS:
Blue Sky Boys, "Katie Dear" (Bluebird B-7661/Montgomery Ward M-7468, 1938)
Homer and Walter Callahan, "Katie Dear (Silver Dagger)" (Banner 33103/Melotone M-13071/Oriole 8353/Perfect 13017/Romeo 5353, c. 1934; Conqueror 9145, 1938; on GoingDown)
Sheila Clark, "Silver Dagger" (on LegendTomDula)
Betty Garland, "Never Make True Lovers Part" (on BGarland01)
Paul Joines, "Young Men and Maids" (on Persis1)
Tommy Moore, Clint Howard et al, "True Lovers" (on Ashley02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drowsy Sleeper" [Laws M4]
cf. "Greenback Dollar" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
An Awful Warning
O Parents, Parents, All Take Warning
NOTES [31 words]: For the relationship between this and "The Drowsy Sleeper," see the notes on that song. Several songs are filed there which contain nearly as much material from that song as from this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LG21

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