![]() "Yesterday holds memories in time" (written by Joseph Vargo for the 2012 album Winter's Majesty by Nox Arcana)."There's never a rose grows fairer with time".The oldest versions of " The Elfin Knight" (circa 1650) contain the refrain "my plaid away, my plaid away, the wind shall not blow my plaid away." Slightly more recent versions often contain one of a group of related refrains: The lyrics, as published by Frank Kidson, begin: The references to the traditional English fair " Scarborough Fair", and the refrain " parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme", date to 19th-century versions, and may have been borrowed from the ballad Riddles Wisely Expounded ( Child Ballad #1), which has a similar plot. Many versions do not mention a place name and are often generically titled ("The Lovers' Tasks", "My Father Gave Me an Acre of Land", etc.). A number of older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, "twixt Berwik and Lyne", etc. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he") she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand").ĭozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century. The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with a Scottish ballad titled " The Elfin Knight", collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad #2, which has been traced as far back as 1670. This version was recorded by a number of musicians in the 20th century, including the most iconic version by the 1960s folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, who learned it from Martin Carthy. The famous melody was collected from Mark Anderson (1874–1953), a retired lead miner from Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, England, by Ewan MacColl in 1947. The "Scarborough/Whittingham Fair" variant was most common in Yorkshire and Northumbria, where it was sung to various melodies, often using Dorian mode, with refrains resembling "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" and "Then she'll be a true love of mine." It appears in Traditional Tunes by Frank Kidson published in 1891, who claims to have collected it from Whitby. ![]() The song lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. " Scarborough Fair" ( Roud 12, Child 2) is a traditional English ballad.
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