Original Version

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English folk song of unknown authorship.

The musical form as we know it dates from the twelfth century. The name Scarborough Fair, refers to the Scarborough Fair, which in medieval times was one of the largest commercial landmarks in all of England, with a huge market that lasted for 45 days from 15 August.

The famous melody was picked up in 1947 by Ewan MacColl  (English folk singer-songwriter) by Mark Anderson (1874–1953), a retired miner from Durham County, England.

It is often sung in duet form with male and female voices in unison.

It is composed on the Doric mode, typical of medieval English music.

The song is about a boy who was abandoned by his girlfriend.
The text invites the listener, given the case he had been to the Scarborough Fair, to ask his ex-girlfriend that if she wants him to believe in her love again, do impossible things like: make him a seamless linen shirt, reach a ground between the beach and the water, plow with a horn or plant an entire field with a single grain of pepper.

In the second verse of each stanza the words are repeated: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, constituting a key motif in the song that probably symbolically represent the qualities that the singer wants both him and his beloved to have to make his return possible.

Another possible explanation for the fact that these plants are repeated throughout the song is the belief that a very popular love potion could be made from these herbs during the Middle Ages.

It is a song widely covered by many artists and groups in the twentieth century, the best known being the version of the folk rock duo of the 60s Simon & Garfunkel. The Galician folk group Luar na Lubre also performed their version entitled "Romeiro ao lonxe".

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