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Sir Hugh

Date August 1954
Track ID 41240
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1954.88.B4

Original Tape ID

SA1954.088

Summary

In this ballad, Sir Hugh is out playing and loses his ball over a wall. He is lured in by the woman who lives there, who says she will only return it if he goes to talk to her. She tempts him further with an apple from her father's garden. She takes him through various rooms in the house, before bidding him to take a sleep, and she stabs him, wrapping him in a cake of blood. She casts him into the draw well.

Maggie Stewart says that she got the song, a very old-fashioned ballad, from her good-father [father-in-law] when she was nineteen years old. He did not have any more songs, but Maggie says she also knows 'Milton's Bonny Annie' and 'Lord Ronald My Son'.

Item Notes

Approximately 6 and a half verses, although the lengths, rhythm and melody are irregular. In more complete versions of this ballad, we learn that the woman who lures the boy to his death is a "Jew's daughter". When the boy does not return home, his mother goes seeking him, and finds his corpse in the well. In the supernatural dialogue that follows, the boy's ghost instructs his mother to make preparations for his burial.

This ballad is said to reflect the circumstances surrounding the death of a young boy, Hugh of Lincoln (1247-1255), whose murdered body was found in a well. The accusation, threatening and execution of a Jewish man for this crime, coupled with the rampant anti-semitism of the time, began a pogrom in which many Jews were murdered. Hugh became a martyr for Christians, and sites he had been associated with became places of pilgrimage. In some versions, the murderer is not a Jew, but a Gypsy.

This version lacks any reference to the woman being a Jew's daughter, and differs in some details from most other versions. Usually the body is wrapped in lead.

See:
'A Scottish Ballad Book' (D. Buchan, 1973) pp. 80-81
'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads & Songs' vol. 1 (E. Lyle,
1975) pp. 31-33
'Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs' vol. 1 (D. Herd, 1869, 1973) pp. 96-98
'A Scots Musical Museum' vol. 6 (J. Johnson & R. Burns, 1853 edition) no. 582

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Village/Place - Aberdeen

Language

Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R73 C155

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair