The Devil's Questions

Background information: The ballad comes from the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child. It is also known as Riddles Wisely Expounded and dates back to the mid 15th Century. The story is about a woman who outsmarts the devil by answering his riddles. There are many other versions of this ballad, some of which have taken out the supernatural elements and replaced the devil with a handsome knight (Zierke 2022).

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Video recording

Lesson Plans

NOTE - Due to the subject matter of this ballad, a teacher should be mindful of their community and students when choosing to share this ballad.

Idea #1:

-This could be a good song to use around Halloween time.

-Explain the basic premise of the story and then explain what a riddle is. Give examples of riddles and highlight that the answer to riddles is often not a literal answer and that one often needs to think more abstractly. Use the second and third verse as an example.

-After sing a verse that contains a riddle in it, pause and have students think of an answer to it. After students have given their guesses, sing the next verse that contains the answer and help students see how it fits with the riddle. You may need to define a few of the words such as "flattery" or "weaver's bonny".

-Continue this pattern until the end of the song. If this is done with older students, you may want to keep track of the number of riddle they answer correctly. If you want to make things competitive, you can post their score and compare it with other classes that you use this song with.

-This could all be done during the first singing of the ballad.

-Ask students what lines or phrases were repeated. The answer should be: "Sing 99 and 90", and "You are/I am the weaver's bonny"

-Teach those phrases by rote and have students sing them during the next singing of the ballad.

Idea #2

-If you are using solfege, the tone set of this ballad is s,l, drm sl

-If you are focusing on drm s, the phrase "Sing 99 and 90" uses only those syllables. Depending on the students skill level, you could have students try to figure out the solfege of that phrase through decoding (have students listen to the phrase, give them time to think about it, and then have them sing back the answer).

-If you are working with s, and l, you can use the "weaver's bonny" phrase in the same manner as the "99 and 90".

-You can have them alternate using solfege and the words with each verse of the ballad.