Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight

Traditional song

"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (Child #4; Roud #21) is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads. The most frequently collected variant, The Outlandish Knight or May Colvin tells the tale of a young woman who elopes with a knight who has promised to marry her (and who in some instances uses magic to charm her) but who then tries to murder her to get money, clothes and horses. By a quick witted ruse she manages to kill him instead, and in many versions she is helped to keep this experience from her parents by a resourceful parrot. The main variant has been collected frequently from traditional singers in England, Scotland, Ireland and North America.

The dialogue between the Lady and the parrot, which appears in some versions, was made into a comic song: "Tell Tale Polly", published in Charley Fox's Minstrel Companion (ca. 1860).

Another related ballad, "Hind Etin" (Child Ballad #41), also begins with abduction and rape by an elf, but ends with the pair falling in love and living happily together. Many of the same motifs are found in Child Ballad 48, "Young Andrew".

Arthur Rackham's "May Colvin and the Parrot" illustrates this ballad. Kentucky artist and ballad singer Daniel Dutton has a painting of this ballad, titled "False Sir John", on his Ballads of the Barefoot Mind website.

Variants of the song are commonly sung to several different tunes. The following tune was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1908 from Mr Hilton in South Walsham, Norfolk. It was published in the Folk Song Journal of English Folk Dance and Song Society (IV 123), and included in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

Album/Single Performer Year Variant Notes The Legendary J. E. Mainer Vol. 12 J. E. Mainer c. a. 1950 Six King's Daughters The lead here is sung by banjoist Morris Herbert The Outlandish Knight Cyril Tawney 1969 The Outlandish Knight Love, Death and The Lady Shirley and Dolly Collins 1970 The Outlandish Knight Ballads and Songs Nic Jones 1970 The Outlandish Knight Version from Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs Nic Jones Nic Jones 1971 The Outlandish Knight Different version from previous Shearwater Martin Carthy 1972 The Outlandish Knight Time Steeleye Span 1996 The Elf Knight The tune used here is by Bob Johnson The True Lover's Farewell: Appalachian Folk Ballads Custer LaRue 1998 The Outlandish Knight Play On Light Sileas 1999 May Colvin Think Before You Think Danú 2000 The Outlandish Knight Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight Lisa Theriot 2001 Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight Sae Will We Yet Tony Cuffe 2003 The Water o Wearie's Well Tune by Cuffe The Ballad Tree Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre 2003 May Colvin Bellow Spiers and Boden 2003 The Outlandish Knight The Curate's Egg Poor Old Horse 2004 Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight Burlesque Bellowhead 2006 The Outlandish Knight Too Long Away Emily Smith 2008 May Colvin Mountain Hearth & Home Jean Ritchie 2010 False Sir John Reformation House Galley Beggar 2010 The Outlandish Knight Shortened version with two verses The Voice of the People: Good People, Take Warning Fred Jordan 2012 Six Pretty Maids 1952 recording previously issued on LP The Same Way Down Annalivia 2012 False Sir John An upbeat, musically creative version of this ballad Battleplan Bella Hardy 2013 The Seventh Girl Sing a Full Song Miranda Sykes & Rex Preston 2013 Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight Ghost Kate Rusby 2014 The Outlandish Knight The Songs Of Angela Carter Polly Paulusma 2021 Lady Isabel & The Elf Knight