"The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. In the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century, it is indexed as Child Ballad number 95; eleven variants, some fragmentary, are indexed as 95A to 95K. The Roud number is 144. The ballad existed in a number of folkloric variants from many different countries, and has been remade in a variety of formats. It was recorded in 1939 as "The Gallis Pole" by folk singer Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, but the most famous version was the 1970 arrangement of the Fred Gerlach version by English rock band Led Zeppelin, which was titled "Gallows Pole" on the album Led Zeppelin III.
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Famous quotes containing the words maid, freed and/or gallows:
“And oh! if my young babe were born,
And set upon the nurse’s knee,
And I my self were dead and gone
For a maid again I’ll never be.”
—Unknown. Waly, Waly (l. 37–40)
“We are the only class in history that has been left to fight its battles alone, unaided by the ruling powers. White labor and the freed black men had their champions, but where are ours?”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“For when the gallows is high
Your journey is shorter to heaven.”
—Unknown. The Night before Larry Was Stretched (l. 57–58)