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This ancient ballad is probably of Scottish origin, but there are also Danish and Swedish versions. In different variations the hero's name is Lord Dingwall, Benwall, Brangwell, Bothwell or Cospatrick. It tells a long and complex story, but here is a brief synopsis: A young woman who has been married to Gil Brenton is on her way to his castle when she is warned that if she is not a virgin, she should arrange for a serving girl to take her place in the marriage bed; Brenton has a history of cutting of the breasts of non-virginal wives and sending them back home. The morning after the wedding night, he asks his blankets and sheets if the girl he bedded was a virgin, and they answer that she was, but the woman he wedded was not, and, worse still, she is pregnant. When he complains to his mother, she furiously confronts the bride, who explains that she was forcibly detained in the greenwood by a handsome young man, who afterwards gave her various tokens, which she has kept. The mother takes them to her son and asks him what happened to the tokens she, the mother, had given to him. He admits that he gave them to a lady, and he would give anything to have her as his wife. She assures him that he already has. When the baby is born, there is no doubt that he is Brenton's son, as it is written on his body. The ecstatic father has his wife dressed in silk and the baby bathed in milk.