Like many old ballads, lyrics vary, but I'll be using the version found in Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians as Sung by Jean Ritchie as my primary source.
The tale begins with Lord Thomas posing a question to his mother:
Oh mother, oh mother, come riddle it down
Come riddle two hearts as one
Say must I marry fair Ellender
Or bring the brown girl home? 2
It should be noted that "brown" in this song more than likely suggests a olive or tanned complexion. Up until the 20th century, fair or light skin was associated with wealth, while darker skin was associated with those of a lower class, meaning, people who had to work outside in the sun. 3
The mother, when posed with the question of who Lord Thomas should take for a wife responds with cruel common sense. Marrying a woman of wealth will not only benefit Lord Thomas, but his family:
The brown girl
She has houses and land
Fair Ellender she has none
So the best advice I can give you my son
Is bring me the brown girl home 4
Before going off to find the wealthy brown girl. Lord Thomas decides to break the news to his pale, rosy cheeked, beloved:
I come to ask you to my wedding
Now what do you think of me? 5
Lady Ellender, distraught asks her mother:
Oh mother, oh mother, come riddle it down
Come riddle two hearts as one
Oh must I go to Lord Thomas' wedding
or stay at home and mourn? 6
Ellender's mother, wisely tells her:
Oh, the brown girl she's got buissness there
You know you have got none
So the best advice I can give you my daughter
Is to stay at home and mourn. 7
Of course, the fair skinned, beautiful maid doesn't listen. Instead she pulls a stunt that would probably fit right with in with a bad chick flick:
She dressed herself in a snow white gown
Her maids they dressed in green
And every town that they road through
They took her to be some queen. 8
While the wearing of a white dress to a wedding didn't hold the same meaning then as it does now 9, dressing like a "queen" is still an insult. Not only does Ellender arrive at the wedding, but Lord Thomas brings her in and sits her down in a place of honor. So Ellender, dressed in her finest clothes, sitting among the guests decides to humiliate the brown girl by proclaiming.
Is this your bride, Lord Thomas? She cried.
She looks so wonderful brown. 10
Keep in mind, brown, tanned skin was associated with poverty. Ellender is not simply calling the bride ugly; she saying that despite her wealth she looks poor, she looks "low class".
Lord Thomas doesn't try to defend his new wife. Instead he proclaims his love for Ellender, and proceeds to heap a few more insults upon the brown girl:
Dispraise her not, fair Ellender, he
cried
Dispraise her not to me
For I think more of your little finger,
Than of her whole body 11
Now, I hope I'm not the only one who feels some sympathy for the brown girl here. Her only crime was saying yes to a man who was only interested in her wealth. Not only does she have to deal with some wedding crashing bimbo calling her ugly, but she has to deal with her brand new husband agreeing with the girl.
I also hope I'm not the only one who takes some satisfaction at the brown girl's response.
The brown girl had a little pen
knife,
It being both keen and sharp
Betwixt the long ribs and the
short,
Pierced fair Ellender to the heart 12
Got to love a girl who always carries a knife with her. You know, just in case.
Naturally, Lord Thomas responds to the death of Ellender in a rational manner:
Lord Thomas he drew his sword from
his side
As he run through the hall;
He cut off the head of his bonny
brown bride
And kicked it against the wall 13
Ponder that image. Just take a moment and ponder that slightly hysterical image.
Another version, found in Olive Arnold Campbell's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians is even more graphic:
Lord Thomas had a sword by his side
With a blade both keen and sharp
He cut this brown girl's head smooth off
And cleaved the body apart 14
After dispatching the brown girl Lord Thomas impales himself with his own sword. His final words are this plea:
Oh mother, oh mother
And dig it both wide and deep
And bury fair Ellender in my arms
And the brown girl at my feet 15
Now that's what I call an entertaining wedding.
Most versions seem to side with Thomas and Ellender; this one which can be found here even invokes the "rose and briar" motif.16 But, if you do side with the brown girl, you can take comfort in this ending, found in Olive Campbell's book, in which the living decide to deliver an eternal insult to the dead lovers:
Go dig my grave both wide and deep
and paint my coffin black
And bury fair Ellendry in my arms,
The brown girl at my back
The dug his grave both wide and deep
And painted his coffin black,
And buried the brown girl in his arms
And fair Ellendry at his back 17
While not all the Child Ballads end like "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender", anyone who takes the time to read a collection of them will quickly notice that most ballads concerning young lovers don't end well. Why didn't Lord Thomas ignore his mother and bring Ellender home? Why couldn't have they rode off into the sunset? As romantic as the tale of Ellender and Thomas might have been to some, what they did violated the norms of the time. Passionate love, did not a marriage make:
. . . the social order rests entirely on marriage and because marriage is an institution, a legal system which unites, alienates and imposes obligations ensuring the continuity of of social structures, particularly the stability of power and wealth. It is not fitting that marriage should embrace frivolity, passion, fantasy and pleasure[.] 18
- Georges Duby, Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages
To allow them to live happily ever after, would also mean condoning such behavior. Killing them off allowed musicians to sing of romantic love, but keep the social order intact.
Or maybe people enjoyed a blood splattered tale then as much as the do now.
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1. Duby, Georges. Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages. trans Jane Dunett. The University of Chicago Press. 1994. pg 3
2. Ritchie, Jean. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender". Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians. University of Kentucky Press, 1997.
3. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/03/01/249992.htm?site=science/greatmomentsinscience
4. Ritchie, Jean. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender"
5. ibid
6. ibid
7. ibid
8. ibid
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_wedding
10. Ritchie, Jean. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender"
11. ibid
12. ibid
13. ibid
14. Campbell, Olive Arnold. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (version B). English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. New York, The Knickerbocker Press, 1917. Reprint, Forgotten Books, 2012.
15. Ritchie, Jean. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender"
16. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor". http://www.contemplator.com/child/thomas.html
17. Campbell, Olive Arnold. "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" (version A). English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. New York, The Knickerbocker Press, 1917. Reprint, Forgotten Books, 2012.
18. Duby, Georges. Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages. trans Jane Dunett. The University of Chicago Press. 1994. pg 32
