Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor) [Laws K18]

DESCRIPTION: A Scarborough girl learns that her sailor love has been lost at sea. She asks the waters to bring her love ashore. She finds the body, kisses it, and dies. The two are buried in "Robin Hood's Churchyard."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1853 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads 1956)
KEYWORDS: sea death burial drowning
FOUND IN: US(NE,SE) Britain(England(Lond,North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Laws K18, "Scarboro Sand (The Drowned Sailor)"
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 151, "Scarborough Sand" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 37, "The Drowned Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 31, "The Drowned Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 105, "Scarboro Sand (Robin Hood Side)" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 105, "Scarboro Sand (Robin Hood Side)" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 39, "In Robin Hood's Churchyard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p. 52, "Robin Hood's Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #83, p. 2, "Scarborough Banks" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan1 20, "Scarborough Banks" (9 texts, 8 tunes)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 332-333, "Scarborough's Banks" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 112-113, "The Drowned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #39, "The Drowned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 24, "The Drowned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 722-725, "Strawberry Tower" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Karpeles-FolkSongsFromNewfoundland 44, "Arbour Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 561, SCARSAND
Roud #185
RECORDINGS:
Charlotte Decker, "Strawberry Tower" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
Sam Larner, "In Scarboro' Town" (on SLarner01; on Voice02 as "In Scarborough Town"); "The Drowned Lover" (on SLarner02)
Frank Verrill, "Stowborough Town" (on Voice12)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1956, "Stow Brow," John Ross (Newcastle), 1847-1852; also Harding B 11(3208), "Stow Brow"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Strawbello Strand
Scarberry's Shores
NOTES [71 words]: The reference to "Robin Hood's Churchyard" is almost certainly a reference to the village of Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire; some versions of the song set the events in that town rather than in Scarborough.
I do not know that the two Larner recordings are in fact different -- these two compilations drew from the same collection of field tapes -- but as the titles are given as different I thought it prudent to separate them. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.4
File: LK18

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