Gallows Pole - Variants

Variants

In some versions, the protagonist is male. This appears to be more prevalent in the United States, where hanging of women was uncommon. The crime for which the protagonist faces hanging is occasionally mentioned. The woman may be being held for ransom by pirates; or, she has stolen something from her employer. Other instances tell of her having lost a treasured golden ball, or indicate that she is being hanged for fornication.

The most extensive version is not a song at all, but a fairy story titled "The Golden Ball", collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales. It encompasses the theme of the song. The story focuses more on the exploits of the fiancé who must recover a golden ball in order to save his love from the noose; the incident resembles The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. Other fairy tales in the English language, telling the story more fully, always retell some variant on the heroine being hanged for losing an object of gold.

In the Bob Dylan song "Seven Curses", the maiden is not the one to be hanged but her father, for stealing a stallion. The woman offers to buy her father's freedom from the judge, who responds: "gold will never free your father/ the price my dear is you instead". The maiden pays the judge's terrible price but wakes the next morning to find that her father has been hanged regardless.