ABSTRACT
The theme o f this ballad occurs frequently in European folktales and dates, in balladry, from the m id-1600s. Versions found in Britain are usually fuller than our two texts. It is in the opening line o f the first stanza that most o f the textual variations occur, the name o f the town or place changing with the locality in which the song is collected. We have printed the verses o f our A-text in the singer’s sequence, although stanza 2 would seem to make m ore sense if placed at the end.
