Synopsis

A lord tells the lady he loves that he is going in a journey that will take several years. After a time, he longs to see her. He returns whereupon he hears of her death, and dies of grief.

The journey that Lord Lovel undertakes is a pilgrimage, a quest to a holy shrine.

Variants

Forms of this ballad are very common in Scandinavia and Germany.

The ballads, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet

Lord Thomas and Fair Annet

Lord Thomas and Fair Annet is an English folk ballad.-Synopsis:Lord Thomas is in love with Fair Annet, or Annie, or Elinor, but she has little property. He asks for advice. His father, mother, and brother advise that he should marry the nut-brown maid with a rich dowry...

and Fair Margaret and Sweet William

Fair Margaret and Sweet William

"Fair Margaret and Sweet William" or Lady Margaret or Lady Margaret and Sweet William is a folk song, collected by Francis James Child as Child ballad number 74...

contain some similar themes, but in those ballads, the hero is actively fickle, seeking another bride.

A closer equivalent to this ballad is Lady Alice

Lady Alice

Lady Alice is Child ballad 85. It may be a fragment of a longer ballad that has not been preserved.-Commentary:The entwined flowers appear also in Barbara Allen, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, and Fair Margaret and Sweet William.-External links:...

, Child ballad 85.

External links

• Lord Lovel with history
• Lord Lovel in several variants from Brewster's Ballads and Songs of Indiana
• Lord Lovel (Oxford Book of Ballads, 1910)