SOURCE: "Allison Gross" (The English and Scottish popular Ballads, 1882-1898) by Francis James Child

DESCRIPTION: "But as it fell out on last Hallow-even/When the seely court was ridin by/The queen lighted down on a gowany bank/Nae far frae the tree where I wont to lye/She took me up in her milk-white han/An she’s stroakd me three times oer her knee/She chang’d me again to my ain proper shape/An I nae mair maun toddle about the tree." ("Allison Gross" by Francis James Child)

NOTES: The young man who is transformed into a worm (or dragon) by the witch Allison Gross, is changed back by the queen of the faeries. The good faeries were known as the Seelie Court and the evil as the Unseelie Court. The Seelie Court comes riding on faery horses on Halloween when Christian charms can not banish them.

HISTORY: Vess is well-versed in Fantasy so he does not make his faeries look like tiny Victorian morons. He uses the Tolkienesque elves-type which is more appropriate. Vess has the Seelie Court arrest the witch and the young man gets his revenge. This is not in the original song.