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The Suffolk Miracle / The Holland Handkerchief / The Lover's Ghost

[ Roud 246 ; Master title: The Suffolk Miracle ; Child 272 ; Henry H217 ; Ballad Index C272 ; Old Songs HollandHand ; VWML AW/2/63 ; Bodleian Roud 246 ; GlosTrad Roud 246 ; Wiltshire 164 ; trad.]

John Goodluck sang The Suffolk Miracle as the title track of his 1975 Traditional Sound album, The Suffolk Miracle. The album's sleeve notes commented:

Another melodramatic tale, this time from a broadsheet first published in 1711. It tells the story of a young man who, having died of a broken heart at being separated from his true love, returns to ride through the night with her on her father's horse—and provides concrete proof of the unlikely phenomenon. As far as we know, no one has yet had the temerity to record the fill twenty-eight verse epic—and John foiled our attempt by slashing it to twenty-six!

Packie Manus Byrne sang The Holland Handkerchief on his 1975 Topic album Songs of a Donegal Man. This track was also included on the 1998 Topic anthology O'er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Volume 3). Mike Yates commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

Professor Child called this ballad The Suffolk Miracle and reluctantly admitted it to his collection with this comment, “l have printed this ballad because, in a blurred, enfeebled, and disfigured shape, it is representative in England of one of the most remarkable tales and one of the most impressive and beautiful ballads of the European continent.” The story seems to have originated in Southeast Europe—perhaps Greece—and to have drifted all over Europe, both as tale and ballad. A romantic 18^th century re-working of it, in G.A. Burger’s Lenore, gave extra impetus to its spread. The ballad, which has been collected in its entirety as a folk-tale in the west of England, was printed by several 17^th century broadside printers in London and today, usually under the title The Holland Handkerchief, is met with not infrequently in Ireland, particularly in those parts that were on the itinerary of a couple of influential wandering minstrels and casual labourers of the mid-nineteenth century, Andy and Tommy Hearn (according to the American folklorist Phillips). Packie’s brooding tune fits the ballad well—far better than the tune of McCafferty which many singers use—and he had it as a boy from his cousins, the Gallagher brothers, who lived in Meenacahan, County Donegal.

Tom Lenihan sang The Holland Handkerchief on his 1978 Topic album of songs traditional in West Clare, Paddy's Panacea.

Ken Hall sang The Holland Handkerchief, “a ghost story with a moral for over zealous parents”, in 2000 on his and Peta Webb's Fellside CD As Close As Can Be.

Norma Waterson sang The Holland Handkerchief in 2002 on Waterson:Carthy's fourth album, A Dark Light. Martin Carthy commented in the sleeve notes:

Packie Manus Byrne appeared on the English music scene in the early 1960s and quickly made his mark. He is a canny man. Because he never paraded his knowledge many people took him far too lightly far too easily, but a treasure house is what he was. And, indeed, is. The musical sweep of his knowledge is colossal, and he is also generous. It is from him that Norma learned The Holland Handkerchief, one of the truly spooky songs and one not found that often these days.

Jim Moray sang The Suffolk Miracle in 2003 on his CD Sweet England.

Kerfuffle learned Holland Handkerchief from the singing of Norma Waterson and recorded it in 2004 for their second album, K2.

Benji Kirkpatrick sang The Holland Handkerchief in 2004 on his Fellside album Half a Fruit Pie.

Rosie Hood sang this ballad as Lover's Ghost on her eponymous 2011 EP, Rosie Hood, and on her 2017 RootBeat CD The Beautiful & the Actual. She commented in her liner notes:

A variation of Holland Handkerchief, collected from Richard May, Fairford, by Alfred Williams [and to be found in the Alfred Williams manuscripts stored at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre]. “This curious piece I discovered at Fairford. I have nowhere else heard it. It is of great age, and I have no doubt that by reason of the nature of the narrative, it was welcomed by the rustics.”

The melody is based on Packie Manus Byrne's Holland Handkerchief from The Voice of the People 3.

This video shows Rosie Hood at the end of 2018, ccompanied by her new trio partners Nicola Beazley on fiddle and Lucy Huzzard on melodeon:

Chris Foster sang The Holland Handkerchief on his 2017 CD Hadelin. He noted:

I found this song after my friend Rósa Þorsteinsdóttir told me that the well-known Icelandic song Djákninn frá Myrká is a version of the story found in the English ballad The Suffolk Miracle. Packie Byrne (1917-2015) sings this version on Vol. 3 of the Topic Records The Voice of the People series. As I was learning the song, I imagined it accompanied by a consort of viols. Bára Grímsdóttir wrote this beautiful arrangement and imaginations became reality.

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