Randall

Randall developed as a medieval vernacular form of Randolf, a name brought to England by the Norman-French in the 11th century (although earlier forms of this name were introduced to the British Isles by Scandinavian settlers and Viking raiders). The French adopted the name from the Old Norse Randulfr from the Germanic elements “rand” meaning “rim, shield” and “úlfr” meaning “wolf”. Randall was a common personal name in England in the later Middle Ages when it also morphed into a surname. The name was also familiar to the Scots in reference to a late medieval ballad known as “Lord Randal” (considered one of the most well-known ballads in the world). The song follows a dialogue between Lord Randal and his mother wherein the listener discovers the “handsome young man” has been poisoned by his “true-love”. It’s contemporary popularity and subsequent endurance is owed to its unique style and timeless themes. Fast-paced, unnerving, climactic and tabloid-worthy, the story unfolds with a jarring, escalating tempo. Through the rapid-fire question and answer session between mother and son, the listener learns right along with the victim that he is about to die. In the last verses of the ballad, Lord Randal’s mother asks her dying son for his last will-and-testament. When asked “What d'ye leave to your true-love”, the betrayed Randal bequeaths eternal damnation to his mistress/murderess (“I leave her hell and fire”). The whole story is quite scandalous. Some believe that Lord Randal was modeled off of an early 13th century nobleman, Lord Randolf, the 6th Earl of Chester, who – some speculated – was poisoned by his wife. The timeless themes of young love and betrayal, of promise and defeat, and of death and damnation, all but guaranteed the endurance of this old Anglo-Scottish folk song. And Randal is smack-dab in the center of the drama.