Judy Collins - Cruel Mother

The song Cruel Mother is performed by Judy Collins.

Judy Collins - Cruel Mother Lyrics

There was a lady lived in York
Oh, the rose and the lindsay oh
She fell in love with her father's clerk
Away by the greenwood side-e-o

He courted her for a year and a day
Till her the young man did her betray

She leaned her back up against a thorn
Then she had two pretty babes born

She took her penknife keen and sharp
She has stabbed it to their hearts

As she was walking her father’s hall
She saw two babes a-playing ball

She said Oh babes it’s you can tell
What kind of death I have to die

Seven years a fish in the flood
Seven years a bird in the wood

Seven years a tongue in the warning bell
Seven years in the flames of hell

Oh welcome welcome fish in the flood
Welcome welcome bird in the wood

Welcome welcome tongue in the warning bell
God keep me from the flames in hell.

Cruel Mother Comments

Dane Dunkel said on January 31, 2011

Love this song. A lot of artists have done this with slight differences in each. I know Joan Baez also does a version...(and the lyrics here vary a bit from what Judy Collins sings on my old albums). I think this rendition is my favorite.