All Comments on 'Matty Groves and His Lady'

Didn't do it for me.

You do a credible job of retelling the story apart from the Lord slaying his wife through the heart, not the abdomen, but you let yourself down with small details which jar on a reader and make it difficult to read on. Church of England churches are Protestant, not Catholic, so the main Easter Sunday service would be communion, not mass. I've never heard of Northumberland hills being described as yellow - they're mostly covered with grass, so might be tinged with gold in the setting sun, but the soil is quite dark and the local stone is grey. If you're not sure about your setting, set it somewhere you do know well and can describe effectively. For example, I agree the two settings of Matty Grove and Little Musgrave give the Lord's name as MacDonald and Lord Barnard which would set the story either in Scotland or County Durham but since you are retelling it, you could have set it in 17th century US or Canada or wherever your native country is. Before you try to write erotic description, you might try to get inside the head of your characters to augment the actual story. It's interesting that the last verse of the Little Musgrave version actually has the anguished Lord Barnard stating that he has murdered the noblest knight in all Christendom and the fairest lady who ever lived. The lady would have known she would be murdered for betraying her Lord, so why did she do what she did? Good luck with your future writing.