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Geordie (ballad)

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"Geordie" is Child ballad 209 (Roud 90), existing in many variants. Versions of the ballad have been sung by traditional folk singers in Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada and the USA, and performed and recorded by folk artistes and groups. The ballad concerns the trial of the eponymous hero, during which his wife pleads for his life.

Contents

Synopsis

There are two distinct and for the most part separate variants of this song, one deriving from seventeenth century English broadsides and sung by traditional singers in England, Ireland and North America, the other printed in one eighteenth and some nineteenth century ballad collections and collected from Scottish singers and some North American singers.

Steve Roud and Julia Bishop (New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs) comment that in Scottish versions Geordie tends to be released, while in English ones his lady "has "come too late" and he is executed.

Scottish Variant

A man is killed in battle and Geordie is to be executed. When his lady hears of this she calls for horses to ride with her household to the court in Edinburgh, sometimes by way of Queensferry, where sometimes she has her horse swim the Firth of Forth. Sometimes she distributes gold to poor people as she goes. Arriving in the town, she sees her husband being brought to the headsman's block. She begs the king for Geordie's life, offering estates and her children in return, but the king orders the hangman to make haste. Sometimes there is discussion about Geordie's fate between lords. Sometimes men of the Gordon clan show readiness to fight. An old man suggests the king accept money for Geordie's release, and a large and sufficient sum is gathered from the crowd. He is released and the couple say complimentary things.

English Variant

A narrator coming (usually) over London Bridge (but sometimes elsewhere) hears a young woman lamenting for Geordie. She says he will be hung in style because he was of royal blood and loved a good woman. She calls for horses to ride to London (or somewhere else). She pleads that Geordie's crimes weren't serious, in that he only stole some of the king's deer and sold them (in Bohenny, Davy, Kilkenny and so on), and says she would give up a variable number of children to save his life. In some versions there is discussion between lawyers. The judge sometimes says that she's too late and always that he cannot pardon Geordie. Sometimes Geordie has time to say goodbye to his friends and his wife. Sometimes one or the other wishes he or she were on "yonder Hill" with weapons to "Fight for the life of Geordie". Often we hear again about of how high-class his execution will be.

Text

Geordie - An old Ballad (as put down by Robert Burns)

Early Printed Versions

The earliest known publication of a variant of this song is a London black-letter broadside "The Life and Death of George of Oxford" dating from between 1672 and 1696, though an earlier broadside from between 1601 and 1640, 'A lamentable new ditty, made vpon the death of a worthy gentleman, named George Stoole : dwelling sometime on Gate-side Moore, and sometime at Newcastle in Northumberland: with his penitent end. To a delicate Scottish tune' has "a rhythm and rhyming scheme that connects it to "Geordie", and includes some key verbal similarities, such as the lines

I never stole no oxe nor cow
Nor never murdered any"

Robert Burns contributed a version of the Scottish variant to Scots Musical Museum, published in Volume 4 in 1792. This is Child's version A.

The English variant was published by many broadside publishers in the nineteenth century CE.

Field Recordings

  • Alan Lomax recorded Kentucky singer Jean Ritchie singing a version of this song in 1949 in New York.
  • A version recorded by Keith Summers of the Nottinghamshire singer Alec Bloomfield singing "Young George Oxbury" in the British Library Sound Archive.' There are three verses by an unidentified male singer there too.
  • A version in the Carroll Mackenzie Collection, Clare County Library recorded from Mrs Casey contains this verse:
  • My Georgie never killed a man,
    No, nor neither robbed a lady.
    He stole a pair of the King’s pretty maids,
    And he gave them to Lord Taily.

  • There are three versions, all called "Georgie" , in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection at Missouri State University: from Rhonnda Hayes of Irving, Texas; Joan O'Bryant of Wichita, Kansas; and Charles Strayer Jr. of Sarcoxie, Missouri, in all these versions, either "the oldest lawyer at the bar" or "Georgie's own lawyer" says that he is condemned by his own confession, an interesting local variant.
  • Folk Song Collections

    The Roud Folk Song Index lists about 129 distinct versions - 40 from England, 27 from Scotland, 2 from Ireland, 52 from the USA and 8 from Canada.

    Adaptations

    One of the earliest recorded versions is by Joan Baez, who included a live performance of the song on her first live album in 1962. The Baez version makes it clear that Geordie's crime was poaching the King's deer, for which the penalty was hanging with a silken rope. It has also been recorded by Ewan MacColl, John Jacob Niles, Doc Watson, Sandy Denny, A. L. Lloyd, Julie Felix, and the British folk rock band Trees, Silly Sisters and Shirley Collins. More recently, Emilie Autumn performed it live.

    The ballad became very popular in Italy thanks to Fabrizio de André who translated the ballad into Italian, and this version was later reinterpreted by the folk band Mercanti di Liquore, Angelo Branduardi and the DJ Gabry Ponte.

    In September 1965, the ballad was adapted in French by Claude François on his EP "Dona Dona".

    Danish band Gasolin recorded an adaptation in 1971 heavily inspired by Baez' rendition. "London Bridge" was translated into "Langebro" - the title of the track. The setting shifts from London to 20th century Copenhagen, though the overall sombre mood of the song remains intact.

    Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer perform this song on Child Ballads, released in 2013.

    It was also performed by the Russian folk band Sherwood.

    In 2015 Galley Beggar recorded a version of Geordie for their album Silence & Tears, with the traditional lyrics being set to original music.

    Geography

    In terms of geography, there are four versions. The Scottish variants mention Geordie being rescued from the scaffold in Edinburgh. This may refer to George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly. One English version mentions Newcastle. This may refer to George Stools, executed in 1610. There are some versions that mention the town "Boheny", but this has never been satisfactorily located. There is a hamlet called Bohenie near Roybridge. Another English version has the execution taking place in London, and the culprit is the Earl of Oxford. The story of the Earl of Oxford was printed in the seventeenth century. The last version is the Danish version taking place in Copenhagen, performed by Gasolin. The Danish title is Langebro.

    References

    Geordie (ballad) Wikipedia