Possible ancient origins The
Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (London, 1959), edited by the folk singer
A. L. Lloyd and the composer
Ralph Vaughan Williams, ponders whether the ballad is "an unusually coherent folklore survival" or "the creation of an antiquarian revivalist, which has passed into popular currency and become 'folklorised. It has been theorised that the figure could have some relation to the semi-mythical
wicker man ritual, which involves burning a man in effigy.
Written versions The first song to personify Barley was called
Allan-a-Maut ('Alan of the malt'), a Scottish song written prior to 1568.
James Madison Carpenter recorded a fragment sung by a Harry Wiltshire of
Wheald,
Oxfordshire in the 1930s, which is available on the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website as well as another version probably performed by a Charles Phelps of
Avening,
Gloucestershire. The
Shropshire singer
Fred Jordan was recorded singing a traditional version in the 1960s. A version recorded in
Doolin,
Co. Clare,
Ireland from a Michael Flanagan in the 1970s is available courtesy of the County Clare Library. The
Scottish singer
Duncan Williamson also had a traditional version which was recorded.
Helen Hartness Flanders recorded a version sung by a man named Thomas Armstrong of
Mooers Forks,
New York,
USA in 1935. == Musical adaptations ==