Johnie Cock
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Johnie Cock (also Johnny O'Breadisley or Jock o' Braidislee) is a traditional Scottish folk ballad, listed as the 114th
Child Ballad The Child Ballads are List of the Child Ballads, 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies ...
and number 69 in the
Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...
.


Synopsis

Johnie Cock is warned by his mother that he is in danger but nevertheless goes
poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
and kills a deer. He feeds his dogs and sleeps in the woods. A man (sometimes a palmer, a medieval European pilgrim to the
Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...
) betrays him to foresters, who attack him while he sleeps. Johnie wakes. Either he or his nephew rebukes them for the attack, in most variants saying that even a wolf would not have attacked him like that. In most variants, he fights and kills all of his assailants but one, whom he wounds. In several versions, he dies of his wounds while still in the wood. In one variant, he is laid low, and the king sends him a pardon.


Recordings

Many recordings made by in the 1930s by James Madison Carpenter of traditional
Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...
singers can be heard on the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodi ...
website, including versions by Bell Duncan of
Ythan Wells Ythan Wells, also known as Glenmailen, is the site of a Castra, Roman military camp, near the farm of Glenmellan, east of the village of Ythanwells in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The site is a designated scheduled monument. Traces of two marchi ...
and John Strachan of Fyvie (who was later recorded singing the song by
Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...
). Duncan Williamson also sang a traditional version, as did Gordeanna McCulloch. The Corries also recorded and performed the song a number of times, using the title "Jock O’ Braidislee".


References

Child Ballads Year of song unknown {{folk-song-stub