"Lord Randall", or "Lord Randal", () is an

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British d ...

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

border ballad Border ballads are a group of songs in the long tradition of balladry collected from the Anglo-Scottish border. Like all traditional ballads, they were traditionally sung unaccompanied. There may be a repeating motif, but there is no "chorus" as ...

consisting of dialogue between a young Lord and his mother. Similar ballads can be found across

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

in many languages, including Danish,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, Magyar, Irish,

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, and Wendish.

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

variants are usually titled "" ("The Poisoned Man") or "Il testamento dell'avvelenato" ("The Poisoned Man's Will"), the earliest known version being a 1629 setting by Camillo il Bianchino, in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. Under the title "Croodlin Doo" Robert Chambers published a version in his "Scottish Ballads" (1829) page 324.

Summary

Lord Randall returns home to his mother after visiting his lover. Randall explains that his lover gave him a dinner of eels boiled in broo and that his hunting dogs died after eating the scraps of the meal, leading his mother to realize that he has been poisoned. In some variants, Randall dictates his

last will and testament A will and testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate (law), estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its fi ...

in readiness for his impending death, dividing his possessions among family members and wishing damnation on his lover. Her motive for poisoning him is never discussed.

Traditional recordings

Many traditional versions of the ballad survived long enough to be recorded by

folklorists Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

and

ethnomusicologists Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

. Most traditional English versions are called "Henry, My Son". Dorset traveller Caroline Hughes sang a version to Peter Kennedy in 1968 and another to

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a British folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as o ...

and

Peggy Seeger Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935) is an American Folk music, folk singer and songwriter. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years and was married to the singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989. She is a member ...

in the early 1960s which can be heard online 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. Fred Jordan of

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

also sang "Henry, My Son" to Mike Yates in 1964 and Gwilym Davies in 1994. Louisa Hooper of

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

(sister of the traditional singer

Lucy White Lucy Anna White (4 September 1848 – 17 February 1923) was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British Traditional singer, folk-singer from Somerset. She was an early source of songs for the Roots revival, folk song collector Cecil Sh ...

) was recorded singing a version entitled "Lord Rendal" by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

Douglas Cleverdon Thomas Douglas James Cleverdon (17 January 1903 – 1 October 1987) was an English radio producer and bookseller. In both fields he was associated with numerous leading cultural figures. Personal life He was educated at Bristol Grammar School an ...

in 1942. James Madison Carpenter recorded many Scottish versions between 1929 and 1935, which can also be heard on the

website. Russian tenor

Vladimir Rosing Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing () (November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his formative years he ex ...

recorded "Lord Rendal", the Somerset version arranged by

Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England dur ...

, on Vocalion A-0167 in the early 1920s.

singer Betsy Miller sang her traditional version with her famous son

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 ...

in 1953 and on the 1960 album ''A Garland Of Scots Folksong''. Scottish traveller

Jeannie Robertson Regina Christina Robertson (21 October 1908 – 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer. She is known for her version of the traditional song " I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart", which was covered by ...

had her version entitled "Lord Donald" recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1953 and again by the

in 1963, and her nephew Stanley Robertson was later recorded singing the same version, the audio of which is available on the Tobar an Dualchais website. The Irish traditional singer

Elizabeth Cronin Elizabeth "Bess" Cronin (; 29 May 18792 June 1956) was an influential singer of Irish traditional music in the sean-nós style. She sang hundreds of songs which she learnt as a youth, half of which were in the Irish language, which was her firs ...

was recorded several times singing a version called Lord Rendal. The Irish sean nós singer

Joe Heaney Joe Heaney (AKA Joe Éinniú; Irish: Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) (1 October 1919 – 1 May 1984) was an Irish traditional ( sean nós) singer from Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. He spent most of his adult life abroad, living in England, Scotland an ...

sang an Irish language version titled ''Amhrán na hEascainne'' (''Song of the Eel''). Several Appalachian musicians recorded the ballad;

Jean Ritchie Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally, ...

sang the Ritchie family version on the album ''Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition,'' whilst

Frank Proffitt Frank Noah Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist who preserved the song " Tom Dooley" in the form we know it today and was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the trad ...

was recorded singing another traditional version in 1961. The ballad was also collected extensively throughout the rest of America. Modern traditional artists continue to tell the Lord Randall story. Examples include

Martin Carthy Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later ar ...

Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, ...

and

June Tabor June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband. Early life June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England. ...

, and

Faun The faun (, ; , ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology. Originally fauns of Roman mythology were ghosts ( genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their chief, the god Faunus. Before t ...

included a traditional version on their 2022 album ''Pagan''.

Cultural uses

Dorothy L. Sayers' 1930 novel ''

Strong Poison ''Strong Poison'' is a 1930 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fifth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and the first in which Harriet Vane appears. Plot The novel opens with mystery author Harriet Vane on trial for the murder of her former lo ...

'' uses part of the ballad for a title, and has it as epigraph. In 1962,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

modeled his song "

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by American musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second studio album, '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is based ...

" on "Lord Randall", introducing each verse with variants of the introductory lines to each verse of "Lord Randall". Dylan's ballad is often interpreted as a reaction to the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

. Dylan himself disclaimed this as an

oversimplification The fallacy of the single cause, also known as complex cause, causal oversimplification, causal reductionism, root cause fallacy, and reduction fallacy, is an informal fallacy of questionable cause that occurs when it is assumed that there is a si ...

, and in reality, Dylan first publicly performed the song a month before the crisis. The song features prominently in ''The Proof of My Innocence'', a novel by

Jonathan Coe Jonathan Coe (; born 19 August 1961) is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, '' What a ...

published in 2024.

References

External links

* *Digitised copy o
Lord Randal
in James Johnson's

Scots Musical Museum The ''Scots Musical Museum'' was an influential collection of traditional folk music of Scotland published from 1787 to 1803. While it was not the first collection of Scottish folk songs and music, the six volumes with 100 songs in each collected ...

, printed between 1787 and 1803, from

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

. JPEG, PDF, XML versions.
Traditional English Lute Songs - Lord Randall
* A painting of the poisoning of Jimmy Randall appears on Kentucky artist and ballad singer Daniel Dutton's web site

* Italian versio
"L'avvelenato"

Appalachian mountains version
by

John Jacob Niles John Jacob Niles (April 28, 1892 – March 1, 1980) was an American composer, singer and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers," Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 195 ...

(1892-1980) {{Authority control English poems Scottish poems Child Ballads Murder ballads Burl Ives songs Northumbrian folklore Characters in poems Middle Scots poems Songs with unknown songwriters 17th-century songs Border ballads

Summary

Traditional recordings

Cultural uses

See also

References

External links