Young Beichan

[1] The earliest versions date from the late 18th century, but it is probably older, with clear parallels in ballads and folktales across Europe.

[2] In a Scandinavian variant, "Harra Pætur og Elinborg" (CCF 158, TSB D 72), the hero set out on a pilgrimage, after asking the heroine, his betrothed, how long she would wait for him; she says, eight years.

[4] This motif is known as The Forgotten Fiancée and appears as a final episode of tales classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 313, "The Magic Flight: Girl helps the hero flee".

[5] Other folktales with this motif include "Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the Devil's Daughter" (France); "The Two Kings' Children", "The True Bride" and "Sweetheart Roland" (Germany); "The Master Maid" (Norway), "Anthousa, Xanthousa, Chrisomalousa" (Greece) and "Snow-White-Fire-Red" (Sicily).

Another British-derived folk song, "The Turkish Lady" (Roud 8124), appears to be somewhat related; it didn't diverge recently, being noted as early as 1768.

[7] Francis James Child said "That our ballad has been affected by the legend of Gilbert Beket is altogether likely”,[8] suggesting that the two similar stories may have influenced each other.

[13] Several of these, some of which are fragments, can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, including a version the Dorset traveller Caroline Hughes sang to Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger in the 1960s,[14] a 1967 performance by a Frank Smith of Edenbridge, Kent,[15] and a 1960 version sung by Tom Willet of Ashford, Surrey.

[21][22] Her fellow Appalachian Nimrod Workman sang his own traditional version on different occasions,[23] including on a YouTube video uploaded by the official Alan Lomax archive channel.

[24] Other noted Appalachian musicians, such as Aunt Molly Jackson (1935),[25] Eliza Pace (1937),[26] Virgil Sturgill (1958)[27] and Buna Hicks (1961)[28] had traditional versions recorded.