"The Battle of Otterburn" (or "Otterbourne") is a Scottish ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 161,[1] Roud 3293.[2] It is an account of the Scottish victory at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. This battle also inspired "The Ballad of Chevy Chase", an English version, but the Scottish version is more historically accurate.
The lead verse of the ballad is:
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty Earl of Douglas rode
Into England, to catch a prey.
James, 2nd Earl of Douglas, who led the raid, was mortally wounded in this battle, and the ballad represents "My wound is deep, I fain would sleep" as his dying words.[3][4]
- ^ Child, Francis James (1889). The Battle of Otterburn. Vol. 3, Part 2 (=Part VI). Houghton Mifflin. pp. 289–303.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ See here.
- ^ Prebble, John (1981). The lion in the North: a personal view of Scotland's history (snippet). Penguin books. ISBN 0140056459. ISBN 9780140056457
- ^ Scott 1803, 2, 28
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