Johnie Cock
Encyclopedia
Johnie Cock is Child ballad 114, existing in many variants. The Child Ballads were a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child
in the late 19th century.
, a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land) betrays him to foresters, who attack him while he sleeps. Johnie wakes. Either he or his nephew rebukes them for the attack, in most variants saying that even a wolf would not have attacked him like that. In most variants, he fights and kills all of his assailants but one, whom he wounds.
Usually, he dies of his wounds while still in the wood. In one variant, he is laid low, and the king sends him a pardon.
Francis James Child
Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of folk songs known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry...
in the late 19th century.
Synopsis
Johnie Cock is warned by his mother that he is in danger but nevertheless goes poaching and kills a deer. He feeds his dogs and sleeps in the woods. A man (sometimes a palmerPalmer
-People:*Palmer , a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land*Palmer , a surname -Places:Antarctica*Palmer Archipelago, group of islands off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula...
, a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land) betrays him to foresters, who attack him while he sleeps. Johnie wakes. Either he or his nephew rebukes them for the attack, in most variants saying that even a wolf would not have attacked him like that. In most variants, he fights and kills all of his assailants but one, whom he wounds.
Usually, he dies of his wounds while still in the wood. In one variant, he is laid low, and the king sends him a pardon.
External links
- Johnie Cock several variants