Synopsis

The hero sends tokens to his lady and asks her to see him in the woods. Her lord learns of it and comes to where he will meet her, and kills him uder the impression that he is her paramour. He brings back the head, and the lady confesses that he was her illegitimate son. Her lord is deeply grieved and declares he would never have killed him if he had known.

Adaptations

John Home

John Home

John Home was a Scottish poet and dramatist.-Biography:He was born at Leith, near Edinburgh, where his father, Alexander Home, a distant relation of the earls of Home, was town clerk. John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA, in 1742...

 based his tragedy Douglas

Douglas (play)

Douglas is a blank verse tragedy by John Home. It was first performed in 1756 in EdinburghThe play was a big success in both Scotland and England for decades, attacting many notable actors of the period, such as Edmund Kean who made his debut in it. Peg Woffington played Lady Randolph, a part which...

on it. In 1776, Hannah More

Hannah More

Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...

 wrote a poem "Sir Elfred of the Bower" inspired by the song.

Recordings

Album/Single	Performer	Year	Variant	Notes
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads vol 3	Ewan MacColl Ewan MacColl Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...	1956	Gil Morice	The earliest known professional recording (8'37").
Blood and Roses Vol 2	Ewan MacColl Ewan MacColl Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...	1981	Child Maurice	This is a different version from MacColl's 1956 recording.
Right of Passage	Martin Carthy Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...	1988	Bill Norrie
Kornog	Kornog	2000	Child Noryce	The only known version by a French band.
The Furrowed Field	Damien Barber	2000	Bill Norrie
Songs	Spiers and Boden Spiers and Boden Spiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon and concertina, while Jon Boden sings and plays fiddle and guitar while stamping the rhythm on a stomp box.-Biography:...	2005	Child Morris
At Ruskin Mill	Martin Carthy Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...	2005	Bill Norrie	The longest recorded version (9'06").

The James Madison Carpenter Collection has a recording by Peter Christie, from before 1955.
Most of the recorded versions live up to the comment by Robert Burns in a letter dated
September 1793: "It is a plaguy length". Martin Carthy's 2005 version is nine minutes long. the version by Spiers and Boden is over seven minutes, slightly longer than MacColl's 1981 version.