School: Maio (roll number 13119)
- Location:
- Trohanny, Co. Meath
- Teacher: Máire Ní Chreaig
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0706, Page 504
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An Old Song (continued)
“Lord Thomas he was a bold peasant”
(continued from previous page)Or cannot you well see,
Don't you see all my heart's blood,
Is trickling down my knee,
Lord Thomas he had an Ivory sword,
The blade was keen and small,
He swept the head off the bonny brown girl,
And fling it against the wall,11.
He turned the hilt into the ground,
The paint into his heart,
Saying were there ever three lovers together,
As quickly as we to part,
Bury me mother at the head,
The brown girl at my feet,
Fair Eleanor in my arms,
For 'tis with her I will sleep,12
Out of Fair Elen there grew a rose,
And out of Lord Thomas a briar,
They grew, they grew to the steeple top,
Till they could grow no higher,
They grew, they green to the steeple top,
The red rose covered the briar.This was written about 200 years agho where there was a briar and a rose knotted together called a true-lovers knot, and the song is the story of the knot.
- Collector
- Peggy O' Connor
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- Miss Mc Cabe
- Gender
- Female