The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)

Two clues should lead us to think the setting for this suite is what is now the United Kingdom. The first reference is to Offa's Wall (also called Offa's Dyke) which is an earthen mound 176 miles long and up to 65 feet wide and 8 feet high constructed by King Offa of Mercia (later Wales) in the 8th century AD to mark the boundry between his kingdom and England to the east. Apparently it was customary for the English to cut off the ears of Mercians who strayed east of the wall and for the Mercians to hang every Englishman who crossed it going west. So, when the lyrics tell us that Margaret went riding out "Past the pale (boundary) of Offa's Wall..." I'm inclined to think that she is leaving her native Wales, and at some risk. The second clue to the setting would be the reference to the crossing of the Annan River ("Annan Water")which lies in the south of Scotland. William seeks to cross the Annan on his own and out of Scotland in order to rescue his love after The Queen has flown Margaret and her captor, The Rake, to the other side back toward Wales (see below). But William makes a bargain with the river in order to get across that later turns fatal to both him and his love when they try to return north across it. ("The Drowned") Although Great Britain would no longer be considered part of the Taiga due to its extensive deforestation, during the time period in which this tale is ostensibly set (probably mid-12th to late 15th century from Meloy's Middle-English references) relatively large expanses of boreal forest still existed, particularly in northern Scotland. From all this I am inclined to think that our heroine, Margaret, hails from Wales and William from the Highlands of Scotland. The Rake, is most probably also from Wales given the name of his ill-fated last daughter, Myfanwy, which is Welsh for "my woman." A further hint that this story does not take place in Scandinavia is the reference to the mistle thrush which, although common in Great Britain and most of the rest of Europe, is not native to the Scandinavian countries. On the other hand, the corncrake, once common in the UK and much of northern and central Europe to Siberia including southern Scandinavia, is now restricted in range in Great Britain to the northern and western islands of Scotland. (note Meloy's earlier reference to corncrakes in "The Bachelor and The Bride" from "Her Majesty") One question that remains in my mind, though, is whether the lyric is meant to be "fawn" as in young deer or "faun" as in the half-man, half-goat mythical creature? The latter would seem more likely in light of the line "Bereft of the weight of our summer clothes" and the fact that the faun was sometimes depicted wearing a loin cloth or little vest.