Synopsis

A lord tells Fair Annie to prepare a welcome for his bride, and to look like a maiden. Annie laments that she has borne him seven sons and is pregnant with the eighth; she can not look like a maiden. She welcomes the bride but laments her fate, even wishing her sons evil, that they might be rats and she a cat. The bride comes to ask her why she grieves, and then asks her what her family was before the lord stole her. Then she reveals that she is Annie's full sister and will give her her dowry, so that Annie can marry the lord instead of her; she is a maiden still and so can return home.

Variants

Several Scandavian variants exist: the Swedish Skön Anna and the Danish Skjön Anna. In them, the hero is a man who has newly become king, after the death of his father; his long-term leman, Anneck, tries to get him to make her his wife, and the queen mother supports her. When the son refuses and choses a bride, Anneck wishes to speak with her; the queen mother brings her to the other woman, and her account makes the bride make the realization.

Marie de France

Marie de France

Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...

 retold this story in her lai

Lai

A lai is a lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance.Lais were mainly composed in France and Germany, during the 13th and 14th centuries. A Provençal term for a similar kind of poem is descort.The English term lay is a...

, Le Fresne

Le Fresne (lai)

"Le Fresne" is one of the Lais of Marie de France. It was likely written in the late 12th century. As a Breton lai, it is an example of Anglo-Norman literature.-Plot summary:Le Fresne begins with two wedded knights...

, where the heroine is not kidnapped but abandoned with birth tokens; she was one of a pair of twins, which was regarded as proof of adultery, and a servant abandoned her to save her life. The bride in Le Fresne is, in fact, the other twin.

Motifs

In some variants of Hind Etin

Hind Etin

"Hind Etin" is a folk ballad existing in several variants.-Synopsis:Lady Margaret goes to the woods, and her breaking a branch is questioned by Hind Etin, who takes her with him into the forest. She bears him seven sons, but laments that they are never christened, nor she herself churched...

, the captive mother expresses her grief in hostility to her children in the same language as this ballad.

Recent Recordings

Guitarist and singer Martin Simpson

Martin Simpson

Martin Simpson is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in the British Isles, America and beyond.-Biography:...

 recorded a version of Fair Annie on his 2001 album The Bramble Briar in his distinctive finger-picking style.