The end of this song is great, because it seems at first so anticlimactic -- after everything that's happened, what difference does it make that that the dead wife was of nobler kin than the dead lover? But of course it's at the heart of the story.
The noble wife would have been forgiven if she had reafirmed her love to her lord.. but the peasant boy could not have 'known' her and lived. See the Childe Ballads for other versions of the song.
The noble wife would have been forgiven if she had reafirmed her love to her lord.. but the peasant boy could not have 'known' her and lived. See the Childe Ballads for other versions of the song.
The end of this song is great, because it seems at first so anticlimactic -- after everything that's happened, what difference does it make that that the dead wife was of nobler kin than the dead lover? But of course it's at the heart of the story.
The noble wife would have been forgiven if she had reafirmed her love to her lord.. but the peasant boy could not have 'known' her and lived. See the Childe Ballads for other versions of the song.
The noble wife would have been forgiven if she had reafirmed her love to her lord.. but the peasant boy could not have 'known' her and lived. See the Childe Ballads for other versions of the song.