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Hind Horn

[ Roud 28 ; Child 17 ; Ballad Index C017 ; trad.]

Bandoggs recorded Hind Horn with Tony Rose singing lead in 1978 for their eponymous album Bandoggs.

Maddy Prior sang Hind Horn on their CD Flesh and Blood. This song was later included in the Maddy Prior anthology Collections: A Very Best of 1995 to 2005. A live recording from the Maddy Prior, Family & Friends Christmas tour of 1999 was released on the CD Ballads and Candles. Maddy Prior commented in her original album's sleeve notes:

This is not a ballad I've heard sung before, but the motifs are familiar; the exchange of rings, the 7 year absence, the return on the wedding day disguised as a beggar. According to Francis James Child in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the antecedents of the story go back to beyond the 14th Century to much longer romances of which the ballad is a mere extract. One version is set in the Crusades, and has more magical qualities to it, Saladin whisking him back to his homeland. The beginnings of our social structure date from this time and the long partings that continually occur in traditional songs may hold a memory of these expeditions, where men would return overdue, battle scarred, and unrecognisable, and in the absence of modern bureaucracy, some token was needed to establish identity. Little is made of how the women's hearts may have changed and they are invariably, if sometimes unconvincingly, overjoyed.

Lyrics

Bandoggs sing Hind Horn	Maddy Prior sings Hind Horn
Young Hind Horn to the King is gone, Hey lililo and a ho lo la, And he's fell in love with his daughter Jean, Hey down and a hey diddle downy.	Young Hind Horn to the King's is gone, Hey lililu and ho ho lan, He fell in love with the King's daughter Jean, With a hey down, hey diddle downy.
She gave to him a golden ring With three bright diamonds set therein.	She gave him a gay gold ring With three bright diamonds glittering.
“When this ring grows pale and wan It's then that you'll know my love is gone.”	“When this ring grows pale and blue Then my love is lost to you.”
Now the king has sent him o'er the sea For seven long years in a far country.	He hoisted his sails and went to sea, Spent seven years in a far country.
One day his ring grew pale and wan And he knew that she'd loved another man.	One day he's looked his ring upon, It grew pale and it grew wan.
So he's left the sea for his own land And it's there that he's met with a beggar man.	Young Hind Horn is come to land There he met an old beggar man.
“What news, what news old man doth befall?” “It's none save the wedding in the king's own hall.”	“What news, what news? Come tell to me.” “No news but our queen's wedding day.” “Will you give me your old brown cap? And I'll give you my gold laced hat.”
“Cast off, cast off your beggar's weeds And I'll give you my good grey steed.”	“Will you give me your begging weeds? And I'll give you my good grey steed.” The old beggar man goes dressed so fine And young Hind Horn like an old beggar man.
Oh it's when he came to the king's own gate He's sought there a drink for the bridegroom's sake.	When he came to the king's gate He asked for drink and he asked for meat. He asked for the sake of St Peter and Paul, He asked for the sake of young Hind Horn. The bride came tripping down the stair With combs of red gold shining in her hair, With a glass of red wine in her hand To give to the poor old beggar man.
And the bride gave him a glass of wine And when he's drunk he's dropped in the ring.	And he has drunk up all the wine And into the cup he's dropped the ring.
“Oh got ye this by the sea or the land Or took ye this from a dead man's hand?”	“Came ye this by sea or land Or got ye't off a dead man's hand?”
“I got it neither by sea nor land For you gave it to me with your own hand.”	“I got it not by sea or land But I got it off your very own hand.”
“Oh, I'll cast off my gown of red And along with thee I'll beg my bread.” “Oh, you need not leave your bridal gown For I'll make you the lady of many's the town.”
	The bridegroom he comes down the stair But neither bride nor beggar was there.
Her own bridegroom had her first wed But young Hind Horn had her first to bed.	The bridegroom had her first to wed But young Hind Horn had her first to bed.