ABSTRACT
After singing his version o f the ballad, Jo h n M acDonald com m ented: ‘ I never could make much sense o ’ that sang. I never did like it.’ The infrequency with which ‘Sir H u gh ’ has been collected in Britain during recent times might suggest that other singers may have also found the subject matter not to their taste. Child gives eighteen versions and in all but one o f them the little boy is enticed in by a Je w ’ s daughter. In the United States, where the ballad appears to have been m ore popular, the trans literation o f ‘Je w ’s daughter’ into ‘duke’s/jeweller’s/queen’s/king’s daughter’ is com m on and in some versions it is an aunt, a grandm other, a neighbour and sometimes even the child ’s own mother who commits the ritual killing. Since 1255 , the date o f the alleged m urder, a considerable body o f legends, songs and tales have circulated throughout western Europe and successive outbreaks o f anti-Semitism have all produced ‘docum entary evidence’ concerning the case.
