Sir Lionel

1. There is a wild boar in these woods,
Dellum down, dellum down,
There is a wild boar in these woods,
He’ll eat your meat and suck your blood.
Dellum down, dellum down.

2. Bangrum drew his wooden knife
Dellum down, dellum down,
And swore he’d take the wild boar’s life,
And swore he’d take the wild boar’s life.
Dellum down, dellum down.

3. The wild boar came in such a flash,
Dellum down, dellum down,
He broke his way through oak and ash,
He broke his way through oak and ash.
Dellum down, dellum down.


Sir Lionel is Child Ballad #18.

This ballad appears in Thomas D’Urfey Wit and Mirth: Pills to Purge the Melancholy, Volume III (1719-1720). Child notes that the oldest and fullest copy of the ballad is in the Percy Manuscript. He also notes that fragments are similar to a song from the time of Henry VIII, Blow Thy Horn, Hunter! which is in Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time.

The words and tune of this version of Sir Lionel are from English Folk-Songs of the Southern Appalachians. Cecil Sharp collected this at Woodbridge, Virginia in 1916.

(From contemplator.com)