List of folk songs by Roud number


This is a list of songs by their Roud Folk Song Index number; the full catalogue can also be found on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website. Some publishers have added Roud numbers to books and liner notes, as has also been done with Child Ballad numbers and Laws numbers. This list also serves as a link to articles about the songs, which may use a very different song title.
The songs are listed in the index by accession number, rather than by subject matter or in order of importance. Some well-known songs have low Roud numbers ; but others have high ones.
Some of the songs were also included in the collection Jacobite Reliques by Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg.

The Index

The index is a database of nearly 200,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud, a former librarian in the London Borough of Croydon. The English Folk Dance and Song Society listed 187,800 records in the growing Folksong database as at October 2012.
The purpose of the index is to give each song a unique identifying number. The numbers were assigned on a more or less arbitrary basis, and are not intended to carry any significance in themselves. However, because of the practicalities of compiling the index it is true as a general rule that older and better-known songs tend to occupy low numbers, while songs which are obscure have higher numbers. Closely related songs are grouped under the same Roud number. If a trusted authority gives the name of a song but not the words it is assigned Roud number 000.

List

1 to 100

  1. "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy"
  2. "The Unfortunate Rake"
  3. "Garners Gay"
  4. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet"
  5. "The Three Ravens"
  6. "Lamkin"
  7. "The Female Highwayman" or "Sovay"
  8. "The Twa Sisters"
  9. "The Cruel Mother"
  10. "Lord Randal"
  11. "The Baffled Knight"
  12. "The Elfin Knight"
  13. "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow"
  14. "The Daemon Lover"
  15. "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter"
  16. "Frog Went A-Courting"
  17. "The Three Butchers"
  18. "The Bramble Briar"
  19. "Honest Labourer"
  20. "The Fause Knight Upon the Road"
  21. "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"
  22. "Gil Brenton"
  23. "Earl Brand"
  24. "Erlinton"
  25. "The Fair Flower of Northumberland"
  26. "The Cruel Brother"
  27. "Babylon", "The Bonnie Banks o Fordie"
  28. "Hind Horn"
  29. "Sir Lionel"
  30. "Willie's Lyke-Wake"
  31. "A-Growing"
  32. "Kempy Kay"
  33. "Hind Etin"
  34. "The Broomfield Hill"
  35. "Tam Lin"
  36. "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship"
  37. "Proud Lady Margaret"
  38. "The Twa Brothers"
  39. "The King's Dochter Lady Jean"
  40. "Young Beichan"
  41. "Sir Patrick Spens"
  42. "Fair Annie"
  43. "Child Waters"
  44. "Fair Janet"
  45. "Lady Maisry", "Bonnie Susie Cleland"
  46. "Lord Ingram and Chiel Wyet"
  47. "Young Hunting"
  48. "Lord Lovel"
  49. "The Lass of Roch Royal"
  50. "Sweet William's Ghost"
  51. "The Unquiet Grave"
  52. "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard"
  53. "Child Maurice"
  54. "Bonny Barbara Allan"
  55. "Prince Robert"
  56. "Young Johnstone"
  57. "Fause Foodrage"
  58. "Jellon Grame"
  59. "Fair Mary of Wallington"
  60. "Brisk Young Sailor ", "The Alehouse", "Died For Love", etc.
  61. "The Gay Goshawk"
  62. "Brown Robyn"
  63. "Johnie Scot"
  64. "Willie o Winsbury"
  65. "Willie o Douglas Dale"
  66. "Tom Potts"
  67. "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter"
  68. "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
  69. "Johnie Cock"
  70. "A Gest of Robyn Hode"
  71. "Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires"
  72. "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine"
  73. "Sir Hugh"
  74. "Queen Eleanor's Confession"
  75. "Gude Wallace"
  76. "Johnie Armstrong"
  77. "The Death of Queen Jane"
  78. "Six Dukes Went a-Fishing"
  79. "Mary Hamilton"
  80. "Captain Car" or "Edom o Gordon"
  81. "The Laird o Logie"
  82. "Jock o the Side"
  83. "Archie o Cawfield"
  84. "Hughie Grame"
  85. "The Lochmaben Harper", "The Blind Harper"
  86. No record
  87. "Jamie Douglas"; "Waly Waly", "The Water Is Wide", or "When Cockleshells Turn Silver Bells"
  88. "Lord Delaware"
  89. "Lord Derwentwater"
  90. "Geordie"
  91. "The Mother's Malison" or "Clyde's Water"
  92. "Broom of the Cowdenknowes"
  93. "Katharine Jaffray"
  94. "Lizie Lindsay"
  95. "Glasgow Peggy"
  96. "The Earl of Errol"
  97. "Richie Story"
  98. "Andrew Lammie"
  99. "The Earl of Aboyne"
  100. "Bonny Baby Livingston"

    101 to 200