5. Geordie

Child ballad #209, this song is another with countless versions though mine was from the penguin book of English folk songs, a seminal collection by Lloyd and Vaughan Williams. This song has been found all over England and Scotland and so if it relates to actual events, it is unclear who is 'Geordie' though most versions have him as one of 'royal blood' a close relation to the monarchy is invariably implied: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie_(ballad)#Geography.

The words that I use mention London bridge but, more cryptically 'he sold them in Boheny'. At first I took this for a corruption of the word 'Bohemia' inferring that Geordie sold the royal deer to travellers however this definition of the term bohemian did not occur until the 19th century and so is not applicable to the lyrics. There is, on the other hand, a town in Scotland called Bohenie so possibly the setting got partly changed as the song was passed around...

As far as the imagery of the song, the judge looking over his left shoulder is not literal, though one could imagine that the lady has arrived just as he was leaving the court, but relates to the belief that the right and left hands were good and evil (think about the superstition of throwing spilled salt over your left shoulder to blind the devil).

There are many brilliant threads on mudcat that relate to this song, have a look through the related threads here :http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=29130.