The Love Knot | Dark Celtic Appalachian Fairy Ballad

In the old country, every girl knew the rule: never ask the fair folk for anything. They will always give you what you ask for. But they never tell you the price until it has already been paid. She grew up in a town with only one road, and only one boy on it. She loved him from her mother's window every morning of her growing. But he walked out with the miller's daughter and never once looked up at her. So she climbed to the hawthorn where the old wives said never to go. She tied a lock of her own hair in a red ribbon love knot and left it with a bowl of cream. And by the turning of the moon, he came courting. He brought her roses. He begged her on the church steps. And the very moment he loved her, something went out of her like a candle in the wind. The fair folk had taken her love as their payment for his. Now the wedding is set, and she is married to the bargain she made. LYRICS There's only one road through our little town and only one boy on it With his hair like the summer barley and a laugh like a linnet's song I watched him from my mother's window every morning of my growing And I thought there was no other boy in all the world but him But he walked out with the miller's girl, with her ribbons and her singing And he never once looked up at me, not once in all the spring So I cried until the candle drowned, and I cried into the morning And I went up to the hawthorn where the old wives say not to go Oh, be careful what you wish for at the fairy ring They'll give you every thing you ask and take the other thing They never tell the price until the price is paid Oh, be careful, be careful, of the bargains that you made I tied a lock of my own hair in a red love knot of ribbon And I left it with a bowl of cream beneath the hawthorn tree And a voice like water over stone said, child, your wish is given And by the turning of the moon he came a-courting me He brought me roses, brought me rings, he begged me on the church steps And every eye in town was on us, every bell began to ring But the moment that he loved me, oh, the moment that he loved me Something went out of me like a candle in the wind Oh, be careful what you wish for at the fairy ring They'll give you every thing you ask and take the other thing They never tell the price until the price is paid Oh, be careful, be careful, of the bargains that you made Now his hand on mine is cold as clay, his voice is like a stranger's The wedding's set for Michaelmas, the banns are on the door They took my love to pay for his, and left me just the hunger And I'll lie each night beside a man I cannot love no more Oh, be careful what you wish for at the fairy ring They'll give you every thing you ask and take the other thing They never tell the price until the price is paid And I'm married to the bargain, to the bargain that I made Lyrics and story written by hand. Music created with AI tools.