LORD RANDAL

Denotative analysis

Lord Randal is a traditional ballad written in the late Middle Ages and so this poem tells about important characteristics of the popular traditions and habits at the time.

The ballad tells the story of Lord Randal, a guy who went hunting in the greenwood with some hawks and hounds. In the woods he met his true love who gave him eels fried in a pan. Lord Randal ate the eels and gave the leavins to his hawks and hounds, but sice the fish was poisoned, they all died.

The climax of the story lies in the sixth stanza when Lord Randal realizes he’s been poisoned and this affects the tone of the dialogue between the main character and his mother in the last four stanzas.

Indeed, in the last four stanzas, Lord Randal, who is dying, makes his oral testament saying that he would leave twenty cows to his mother, his gold and silver to his sister, his houses and his lands to his brother and hell and fire to his true-love.