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The most famous line associated with it - "Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower came" - may not even belong to the same story, as it's from King Lear, where it's given no context (although presumably refers to an existing legend in Shakespeare's day).

The most famous version of the story was published by Joseph Jacobs in "English Fairy Tales" (1890). However the earliest written version (and Jacobs's source) comes from Scotland in 1814, written down by antiquarian Robert Jamieson, who heard it as a child. Jamieson tied it to #Arthurian myth by making the siblings children of Arthur and Guinevere. He also mentioned the city of Carlisle as a setting, making this firmly a story of the borderlands, at least in Jamieson's version. There are also versions in Northumberland that link it to Bamburgh (Lancelot's Joyous Gard in local legend), and Merlin is said to haunt the Tweed valley.

The story bears resemblance to several Danish tales in existence by the 16th Century; however, some version of the story clearly already existed in England by 1606, when King Lear was published.

(Just to confuse things more, Robert Browning wrote a poem based on the Shakespeare line, which has no relation to the folktale, but which Jacobs drew on when he made the Elf King's home a 'Dark Tower'.)

I love the story more for its mystery and for its patched-together sources. That's what folklore's all about!

#MythologyMonday #folklore #northumberland #Scotland #ScottishLegend #Ballads #FolkTale