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"Three Young Ladies", also known as "The Bonny Banks of the Vergie-o" is a
Newfoundland version of a ballad known from Scandinavia through Scotland to America.
The story of a double murder followed by a suicide is similar to the story of
"Lord Thomas"
except that all the deaths in this ballad are in the same family. It is
accompanied by a simple Dorian mode tune with two refrain lines.
It appears as Child #14 "Babylon or The Bonnie Banks o' Fordie". It also appears in the Roud Index of Folksongs as #27 and in Lomax's Folk Songs of North America. It was recorded by Nic Jones, Pete Coe and several others but I have not heard any of the recordings. |