Willie's Lady is Child ballad number 6.

A variant of this ballad was one of 25 traditional works included in Ballads Weird and Wonderful (1912) and illustrated by Vernon Hill

Vernon Hill (sculptor)

Vernon Hill was a sculptor, lithographer and Illustrator.-Biography:Vernon Hill was born in Halifax and undertook formal training in print-making from an early age, being apprenticed as a lithographer in his early teen....

.

Synopsis

Willie has married against his mother's will. She, being a rank witch, has bewitched his wife so that she can not be delivered of her child. He attempts to bribe her with gold, and she tells him his wife will die and he will marry elsewhere. The household sprite Billy Blind

Billy Blind

Billy Blind, Billy Blin, Billy Blynde, Billie Blin, or Belly Blin is an English and Lowland Scottish household spirit, much like a brownie. It appears, however, only in ballads, where it frequently advises the characters...

 tells him to make up a wax dummy of a baby and invite his mother to the christening. The mother came to see and, on seeing the wax figure, burst into a rage, demanding to know who had undone each charm she had put. Willie hurried and undoes them himself, and his wife gives birth.

Commentary

This ballad is found in several Scandinavian variants, with various charms laid by the witch; sometimes she could not enchant one location in the house, and when the woman in labor is moved there, the baby is born. The woman may be kept in labor for years by the magic; frequently, she dies, and her sons are born eight years old and swearing to avenge her.

In Greek mythology, the birth of Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

 was similarly delayed, by the goddess of childbirth keeping her hands folded. Galanthis

Galanthis

In Greek mythology, Galanthis , daughter of Proetus, was the red-gold haired servant and playmate of Alcmene, who assisted her during the birth of Heracles. When Alcmene was in labor, she was having difficulty giving birth to a child so large. After seven days she called for assistance from Lucina,...

, Alcmene

Alcmene

In Greek mythology, Alcmene or Alcmena was the mother of Heracles.-Background:Alcmene was born to Electryon, the son of Perseus and Andromeda, and king of Tiryns and Mycenae or Medea in Argolis. Her mother was Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus and Astydamia, daughter of Pelops and Hippodameia...

's servant, told the goddess that Alcmene had given birth, and surprised her into unfolding her hands. This form of startling the mother-in-law into allowing the baby's birth is found in Italian fairy tales; usually it is done by announcing the birth, but in The King of Love

The King of Love

The King of Love is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A. Others of this type include The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway, The Daughter of the Skies, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Enchanted...

, the baby's father feigns death, and his sisters mourn him, to the same effect.

Italian musician Angelo Branduardi

Angelo Branduardi

Angelo Branduardi , is an Italian folk singer and composer who scored relevant success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.- Biography :...

 played this tune to talk about Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...

 in his album Gulliver, La luna e Altri Disegni.