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Earl Brand

No: 7; variant: 7[G]

  1. Faldee faldee fal deediddle a dee All your grey hounds running over the lea.' And the brave knights in the valley
  2. 'Gude lady fair, I have not a steed but one, But you shall ride and I shall run.'
  3. They're ower moss and they're ower mure, And they saw neither rich nor pure.
  4. Until that they came to auld Karl Hude; He's aye for ill and never for gude.
  5. 'Gude Earl Brand, if ye love me, Kill auld Karl Hude, and gar him die.'
  6. 'O fair ladie, we'll do better than sae: Gie him a penny and let him gae.'
  7. 'Gude Earl Brand, whare hae ye been, Or whare hae ye stown this lady sheen?'
  8. 'She's not my lady, but my sick sister, And she's been at the wells of Meen.'
  9. 'If she was sick, and very sair, She wadna wear the red gold on her hair.
  10. 'Or if she were sick, and like to be dead, She wadna wear the ribbons red.'
  11. He cam till he cam to her father's gate, And he has rappit furious thereat.
  12. 'Where is the lady o this hall?' 'She's out wi her maidens, playing at the ball.'
  13. 'If you'll get me fyfteen wale wight men, Sae fast as I'll fetch her back again.'
  14. She's lookit ower her left collar-bane: 'O gude Earl Brand, we baith are taen.'
  15. 'Light down, light down, and hold my steed; Change never your cheer till ye see me dead.
  16. 'If they come on me man by man, I'll be very laith for to be taen.
  17. 'But if they come on me one and all, The sooner you will see me fall.'
  18. O he has killd them all but one, And wha was that but auld Karl Hude.
  19. And he has come on him behind, And put in him the deadly wound.
  20. O he has set his lady on, And he's come whistling all along.
  21. hGude Earl Brand, I see blood:' 'It's but the shade o my scarlet robe.'
  22. They cam till they cam to the water aflood; He's lighted down and he's wushen aff the blood.
  23. His mother walks the floor alone: 'O yonder does come my poor son.
  24. 'He is both murderd and undone, And all for the sake o an English loon.'
  25. 'Say not sae, my dearest mother, Marry her on my eldest brother.'
  26. She set her fit up to the wa, Faldee faldee fal deediddle adee She's fallen down dead amang them a'. And the brave knights o the valley