The Standing Stones
Wassail track 19
A murder ballad from John and Ethel Findlater of Orkney. Learned from Peter Kennedy's Folk Songs of Britain and Ireland.
You can hear recordings of Ethel Findlater singing this song on the fantastic Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches archive. According to the notes on that site:
This song first appears in John Mooney's 'Songs of the Norse' (1883) under the title 'The Lovers - A West Mainland Legend'. It involves the Odin Stone, a monolith in Stenness, Orkney that was used by couples in a betrothal ritual during which they would join hands through a hole in the stone; the stone was destroyed by an immigrant farmer in 1814.
For more on the Odin Stone, see www.orkneyjar.com/history/odinstone/