Young Beichan ( Lord Bateman) Child Ballad, 53

The beautiful duet version that Sinead O Connor and Christy Moore do of this ballad often comes up on my car playlist, so I thought I would look for a variant and do a new musical setting. Here is a video of the recording of Sinead and Christy s version: This ballad has many variants, and the name of the lord is variable Beichan, Bekie, Baker, Bateman: I am not sure how common the trope of young women falling in love with prisoners and setting them free is, but the similarities of this ballad to Fair Flower of Northumberland are interesting. The Mainly Norfolk entry: Some pictures taken from this book: Others from this Dicken s version from 1839: O