This is a classic example of a broken token ballad. It was collected from Miss Sykes, of Deddington, Oxfordshire and sent in 1913 by a Miss Turner to the Adderbury song collector Janet Heatley Blunt. We learned it from Forty Long Miles, edited by Tony Foxworthy.

The phrase “bright golden stars” in the last verse almost certainly started life as “bright gold in store” - in other words, he has not returned from the sea empty-handed. We think that the stars are a far more romantic proposition however.

Six For Gold