Sir Lionel
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John Renfro Davis


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Lyrics
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 Mauscript. 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 Applachians. Cecil Sharp collected this at Woodbridge, Virginia in 1916.

Variants and alternate titles include: Sir Lionell, Isaac-a-Bell and Hugh the Graeme, The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove, The Old Man and hisThree Sons, Bold Sir Rylas, Bangum and the Boar, The Wild Boar and Sir Eglamore.

For a complete list of Child Ballads at this site see Francis J. Child Ballads.

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.

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

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

Additional Versions
Related Links
From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads and
Popular Music of the Olden Time
See Bibliography for full information.