Gil Brenton
Encyclopedia
Gil Brenton is Child ballad 5, Roud
22, existing in several variants.
In several variants, the bride is warned that if she is not a maiden (i.e., virgin), she had best send someone else to take her place in the marriage bed, in order to prevent her husband from discovering this fact. She sends her maid in her place. The morning after the wedding, the groom asks the blankets and sheets of the bed, or in some versions the household spirit Billie Blin, if he married a maiden, and they answer that the woman he married was not, and furthermore, she is pregnant.
In other variants, the bride informs the bridegroom of her pregnancy without any tests.
The groom laments this state of affairs to his mother, who goes to tax his bride with it. The mother-in-law asks who the father of the baby is, and the bride tells how she had gone to the greenwood to gather flowers and been detained there until evening by a man. When he allowed her to return home, this man gave her several tokens (e.g., a lock of hair, some black beads, a golden ring, and a pen-knife). The mother demands the tokens, takes them to her son, and asks him what he had done with the tokens that she (the mother) had given to him. He tells her that he gave them to a lady, and he would give anything to have that lady as his wife. She assures him that his wish has been granted.
When the baby is born, there is writing on his body declaring that he is the son of the hero. The hero may show his pleasure by the number of kisses given to wife and son, or by having the lady dressed in silk and the baby bathed in milk.
and Home
, and the ballad may have become attached to one of them as a legend.
, where the raped woman tries to obtain some token from the rapist, and is refused.
The difficulty riding because of a pregnancy also features in the ballad Leesome Brand
.
The fairy tale
Little Annie the Goose-Girl
makes use of many of these elements, but the heroine of the story, Annie or Aase, is not the bride but the maiden who substitutes for her; the revelation of three successive princesses not being maidens results in the hero's marrying the goose-girl who had substituted for them.
The substitution of a maiden for the non-virgin bride is found earlier in many forms of the legend of Tristan and Iseult
; Iseult, having lost her virginity to Tristan on the journey, substitutes her maid Brangwin.
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...
22, existing in several variants.
Synopsis
A man (often described as a king or lord) has brought home a foreign woman to be his wife.In several variants, the bride is warned that if she is not a maiden (i.e., virgin), she had best send someone else to take her place in the marriage bed, in order to prevent her husband from discovering this fact. She sends her maid in her place. The morning after the wedding, the groom asks the blankets and sheets of the bed, or in some versions the household spirit Billie Blin, if he married a maiden, and they answer that the woman he married was not, and furthermore, she is pregnant.
In other variants, the bride informs the bridegroom of her pregnancy without any tests.
The groom laments this state of affairs to his mother, who goes to tax his bride with it. The mother-in-law asks who the father of the baby is, and the bride tells how she had gone to the greenwood to gather flowers and been detained there until evening by a man. When he allowed her to return home, this man gave her several tokens (e.g., a lock of hair, some black beads, a golden ring, and a pen-knife). The mother demands the tokens, takes them to her son, and asks him what he had done with the tokens that she (the mother) had given to him. He tells her that he gave them to a lady, and he would give anything to have that lady as his wife. She assures him that his wish has been granted.
When the baby is born, there is writing on his body declaring that he is the son of the hero. The hero may show his pleasure by the number of kisses given to wife and son, or by having the lady dressed in silk and the baby bathed in milk.
Commentary
One of the ballad variants is titled "Cospatrick" and features a hero of that name. The name was used at different times by several earls of DunbarEarl of Dunbar
The title Earl of Dunbar, also called Earl of Lothian or Earl of March, was the head of a comital lordship in south-eastern Scotland between the early 12th century and the early 15th century. The first man to use the title of Earl in this earldom was Gospatric II, Earl of Lothian, son of Gospatric,...
and Home
Earl of Home
The title Earl of Home was created in 1605 in the Peerage of Scotland for Alexander Home of that Ilk, who was already the 6th Lord Home.The Earl of Home holds the subsidiary titles of Lord Home , and Lord Dunglass , in the Peerage of Scotland; and Baron Douglas, of Douglas in the County of Lanark ...
, and the ballad may have become attached to one of them as a legend.
Variants
Besides the variants in English, there are several Scandavian variants; Swedish and Danish ones are particularly close. Some variations occur: in some ballads, the hero had broken into the heroine's bower rather than found her in the woods; the hero may recognize her on the strength of her story, without any tokens; or her condition may be revealed by difficulty riding a horse. It contrasts with the Child Ballad Crow and PieCrow and Pie
Crow and Pie is Child ballad 111. It is one of the oldest preserved ballads, dating to circa 1500. Pie is the now-obsolete original name for the magpie, a bird often connected with sorrow and misfortune...
, where the raped woman tries to obtain some token from the rapist, and is refused.
The difficulty riding because of a pregnancy also features in the ballad Leesome Brand
Leesome Brand
-Synopsis:Leesome Brand went to court when ten years old. An eleven-year-old girl fell in love with him, but nine months later, called on him to saddle horses, take her dowry, and flee with her. They headed to his mother's house, but she went into labour on the way...
.
The fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
Little Annie the Goose-Girl
Little Annie the Goose-Girl
Little Annie the Goose-Girl is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.When George Webbe Dasent made his translation of these tales, in his preface he forbade children to read the last two stories, of which this was one. J. R. R...
makes use of many of these elements, but the heroine of the story, Annie or Aase, is not the bride but the maiden who substitutes for her; the revelation of three successive princesses not being maidens results in the hero's marrying the goose-girl who had substituted for them.
The substitution of a maiden for the non-virgin bride is found earlier in many forms of the legend of Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
; Iseult, having lost her virginity to Tristan on the journey, substitutes her maid Brangwin.
External links
- "Scottish Ballads Online" Child Ballad #5: 'Gil Brenton' Eight variants from Francis J Child's collection