| Description |
Hind Horn, or The Old Beggarman, is a Border Ballad (Child No. 17) much condensed from a very much longer medieval, 12th century romance. Each of the available versions that I found told a story with gaps. I combined and edited verses from the various versions to smooth the narrative. At several points I found that the dramatic tension could be increased through repetition by including from several versions verses that describe the same scene with slightly different words (see stanzas 38 - 43, for example.)
The melody is one of several that have been collected*, very simple, almost a drone or pedal. The performance is almost a chant. The narrative provides the momentum that moves the performance along. The guitar accompaniment is a complete anachronism, but it helps the singer keep in tune.
A performer is free, of course, to leave out stanzas if the audience is impatient and has a short attention span. Yet I found that the drama of the narrative propels the performance forward sufficiently that the song does not seem over long, in spite of its 53 verses (in this version).
* Bronson: “The Singing Tradition of Child’s Popular Ballads”, 1976, Princeton. |