163. The Battle of Harlaw
[There are no known US or Canadian versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Found at the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Texts A and B (Changes for A b given in Endnotes)
5. Endnotes
6. "Additions and Corrections"
ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):
1. Recordings & Info: 163. The Battle of Harlaw
A. Roud No. 2861: The Battle of Harlaw (72 Listings)
2. Sheet Music: 163. The Battle of Harlaw (Bronson's music examples and texts)
3. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A-B with additional notes)]
Child's Narrative: 163.The Battle of Harlaw
A. a. Communicated by Charles Elphinstone Dalrymple, Esq., of Kinaldie, Aberdeenshire.
b. Notes and Queries, Third Series, VII, 393, communicated by A. Ferguson.
B. The Thistle of Scotland, 1823, p. 92.
The copy of this ballad which was printed by Aytoun, 1858, I, 75, was derived by Lady John Scott from a friend of Mr. Dalrymple's, and when it left Mr. Dalrymple's hands was in the precise form of A a. Some changes were made in the text published by Aytoun, and four stanzas, 14-16, 18, were dropped, the first three to the advantage of the ballad, and quite in accordance with the editor's plan. Mr. Dalrymple informs me that in his younger days he had essayed to improve the last two lines of stanza 7 by the change,
We 'd best cry in our merry men
And turn our horses' head,
and had rearranged stanzas 18, 19, "which were absolutely chaotic," adhering, however, closely to the sense. A b, given in Notes and Queries, from a manuscript, as "the original version of this ballad," exhibits the changes made by Mr. Dalrymple, and was therefore, one would suppose, founded upon his copy. Half a century ago the ballad was familiar to the people, and the variations of b, which are not few, may be traditional, and not arbitrary; for this reason it has been thought best not to pass them over. The Great North of Scotland Railway, A Guide, by W. Ferguson, Edinburgh, 1881, contains, p. 8 f, a copy which is evidently compounded from A b and Aytoun. It adds this variation of the last stanza:
Gin ony body spier at ye
For the men ye took awa,
They 're sleepin soun and in their sheen
I the howe aneath Harlaw.
The editor of The Thistle of Scotland treats the ballad as a burlesque, and "not worth the attention of the public," on which ground he refrains from printing more than three stanzas, one of these being 15; and certainly both this and that which follows it have a dash of the unheroic and even of the absurd. Possibly there were others in the same strain in the version known to Laing, but all such may fairly be regarded as wanton depravations, of a sort which other and highly esteemed ballads have not escaped.
The battle of Harlaw was fought on the 24th July, 1411. Donald of the Isles, to maintain his claim to the Earldom of Ross,[1] invaded the country south of the mountains with ten thousand islanders and men of Ross (ravaging everywhere as he advanced) in the hope of sacking Aberdeen, and reducing to his power the country as far as the Tay. There was universal alarm in those parts. He was met at Harlaw, eighteen miles northwest of Aberdeen, by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, and Alexander Ogilby, sheriff of Angus, with the forces of Mar, Garioch, Angus, and The Mearns, and his further progress was stayed. The Celts lost more than nine hundred, the Lowlanders five hundred, including nearly all the gentry of Buchan. (Scotichronicon, II, 444 f.) This defeat was in the interest of civilization against savagery, and was felt, says Burton, "as a more memorable deliverance even than that of Bannockburn." (History of Scotland, 1883, II, 394.)
As might be expected, the Lowlanders made a ballad about this hard fight. 'The battel of the Hayrlau' is noted among other popular songs, in immediate connection with 'The Hunttis of Chevet,' by the author of The Complaint of Scotland, 1549 (Murray's edition, p. 65), but most unfortunately this ancient song, unlike Chevy Chase, has been lost. There is a well-known poem upon the battle, in thirty-one eight-line stanzas, printed by Ramsay, in his Ever Green, 1724, I, 78.[2] David Laing believed that it had been printed long before. "An edition," he says, "printed in the year 1668, was in the curious library of old Robert Myln" (Early Metrical Tales, p. xlv.) In the catalogue of Myln's books there is entered, apparently as one of a bundle of pamphlets, "Harlaw, The Battle yrof, An. 1411 ... 1668,"[3] and the entry may reasonably be taken to refer to the poem printed by Ramsay. This piece is not in the least of a popular character. It has the same artificial rhyme as The Raid of the Reid Swyre and The Battle of Balrinnes, but in every other respect is prose. Mr. Norval Clyne, Ballads from Scottish Histoiy, p. 244 ff, has satisfactorily shown that the author used Boece's History, and even, in a way, translated some of Boece's phrases.
The story of the traditional ballad is, at the start, put into the mouth of a Highlander, who meets Sir James the Rose and Sir John the Gryme, and is asked for information about Macdonell; but after stanza 8, these gentlemen having gone to the field, the narrator describes what he saw as he went on and further on. It is somewhat surprising that John Highlandman should be strolling about in this idle way when he should have been with Macdonell. The narrator[4] in the Ever Green poem reports at second hand: as he is walking, he meets a man who, upon request, tells him the beginning and the end.[5] Both pieces have nearly the same first line. The borrowing was more probably on the part of the ballad, for a popular ballad would be likely to % tell its tale without preliminaries.
A ballad taken down some four hundred years after the event will be apt to retain very little of sober history. It is almost a matter of course that Macdonell should fall, though in fact he was not even routed, but only forced to retire. It was vulgarly said in Major's time that the Highlanders were beaten: they turned and ran awa, says the ballad. Donaldum non fugarunt, says Major, and even the ballad, inconsistently, 'Ye'd scarce known who had won.' We are not disconcerted at the Highland force being quintupled, or the battle's lasting from Monday morning till Saturday gloaming: diuturna erat pugna, says Major. But the ignoring of so marked a personage as Mar, and of other men of high local distinction that fell in the battle,[6] in favor of the Forbeses, who, though already of consequence in Aberdeenshire, are not recorded to have taken any part in the fight, is perhaps more than might have been looked for, and must dispose us to believe that this particular ballad had its rise in comparatively recent times.
Dunidier is a conspicuous hill on the old road to Aberdeen, and Netherha is within two miles of it. (Overha and Netherha are only a mile apart, and the one reading is as good as the other.) Harlaw is a mile north from Balquhain (pronounced Bawhyne), and precisely at a right angle to John Highlandman's route from the West. Drumminor (to which Brave Forbes sends for his mail-coat in stanza 15) was above twenty miles away, and the messenger would have to pass right through the Highland army. The fact that Drumminor ceased to be the head-castle of that powerful name in the middle of the last century tells in some degree in favor of the age of the ballad. (Notes of Mr. Dalrymple.)
"The tune to which the ballad is sung, a particularly wild and simple one, I venture to believe," says Mr. Dairymple, "is of the highest antiquity." A tune of The Battle of Harlaw, as Motherwell pointed out, Minstrelsy lxii, is referred to in Polemo Middiana; [7] and a "march, or rather pibroch," held to be this same air, is given in the Lute Book of Sir William Mure of Rowallan, p. 30, and is reproduced in Dauney's Ancient Scotish Melodies, p. 349 (see the same work, p. 138 f, note b.) Sir William Mure is said to have died in 1657. The Ever Green Harlaw is adapted to an air in Johnson's Museum, No 512, and "The Battle of Hardlaw, a pibroch," is given in Stenhouse's Illustrations, IV, 447, 1853, "from a folio Manuscript of Scots tunes, of considerable antiquity." This last air occurs, says Maidment, in the rare Collection of Ancient Scots Music (c. 1776) by Daniel Dow, "The Battle of Hara Law," p. 28: Scotish Ballads, etc., I, 200.
Footnotes:
1. Legally just: Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, Historical and Traditionary, I, 349 ff.
2. And afterwards, 1748, by Robert Foulis, Glasgow: "Two old Historical Scots Poems, giving an account of the Battles of Harlaw and the Reid-Squair."
3. Ane Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts and Pamphlets Belonging to Robert Mylne, Wryter in Edr, 1709: Advocates Library. Mr. Macmath, who has come to my aid here, writes: "So far as I can make out, this catalogue contains no Manuscripts. It is in two divisions: 1st, Printed Books; 2d, Pamphlets. The following is in the second division, and I understand the reference to be, year of publication, volume, or bundle of pamphlets, number of piece in bundle or volume:
"Harlaw The Battle yrof An: 1411 1668, 79, 5."
Mylne died in 1747, at the age, it is said, of 103 or 105: [Maidment], A Book of Scotish Pasquils, p. 423.
4. He talks like a canny packman:
I wist nocht quha was fae or freind;
Yet quietly I did me carrie,
...
And thair I had nae tyme to tairie,
For bissiness in Aberdene.
5. So with The Battle of Balrinnes and The Haughs of Cromdale. The first line of The Battle of Balrinnes is, 'Betuixt Dunother and Aberdein.'
6. Not only were these long and affectionately remembered, but their heirs were exempted from certain feudal taxes, because the defeat of the Celts was regarded as a national deliverance: Burton's History, II, 394.
7. A macaronic ascribed to Drummond of Hawthornden.
Interea ante alios dux piperlarius heros
Praecedens, magnamque gestans cum burdine pipara,
Incipit Harlai cunctis sonare Batellum.
(Poems, Maitland Club, p. 413, after the first dated edition of 1684.)
Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge
The Battle of Harlaw was fought on the 24th July, 1411. Donald of the Isles, to maintain his claim to the Earldom of Ross, invaded the country south of the mountains with ten thousand islanders and men of Ross in the hope of sacking Aberdeen, and reducing to his power the country as far as the Tay. He was met at Harlaw, eighteen miles northwest of Aberdeen, by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, and Alexander Ogilby, sheriff of Angus, with the forces of Mar. Garioch, Angus, and The Mearns, and his further progress was stayed. The Celts lost more than nine hundred, the Lowlanders five hundred, including nearly all the gentry of Buchan. This defeat was in the interest of civilization against savagery, and was felt, says Burton, "as a more memorable deliverance even than that of Bannockburn."
As might be expected, the Lowlanders made a ballad about this hard fight. 'The battel of the Hayrlau' is noted among other popular songs, in immediate connection with 'The fiunttis of Chevet,' by the author of The Complaynt of Scotland, 1549, but most unfortunately this ancient song, unlike Chevy Chase, has been lost. There is a well-known poem upon the battle, printed by Ramsay, in his Ever Green. 1724, but it is not in the least of a popular character.
Child's Ballad Texts
['The Battle of Harlaw'] Version A a; Child 163 The Battle of Harlaw
a. Communicated by Charles Elphinstone Dalrymple, Esq., of Kinaldie, Aberdeenshire, in 1888, as obtained from the country people by himself and his brother fifty years before.
b. Notes and Queries, Third Series, VII, 393, communicated by A. Ferguson.
1 As I cam in by Dunidier,
An doun by netherha,
There was fifty thousand Hielanmen
A-marching to Harlaw.
Wi a dree dree dradie drumtie dree.
2 As I cam on, an farther on,
An doun an by Balquhain,
Oh there I met Sir James the Rose,
Wi him Sir John the Gryme.
3 'O cam ye frae the Hielans, man?
An cam ye a' the wey?
Saw ye Macdonell an his men,
As they cam frae the Skee?'
4 'Yes, me cam frae ta Hielans, man,
An me cam a' ta wey,
An she saw Macdonell and his men,
As they cam frae ta Skee.'
5 'Oh was ye near Macdonell's men?
Did ye their numbers see?
Come, tell to me, John Hielanman,
What micht their numbers be?'
6 'Yes, me was near, an near eneuch,
An me their numbers saw;
There was fifty thousan Hielanmen
A-marchin to Harlaw.'
7 'Gin that be true,' says James the Rose,
'We'll no come meikle speed;
We'll cry upo our merry men,
And lichtly mount our steed.'
8 'Oh no, oh no,' says John the Gryme,
'That thing maun never be;
The gallant Grymes were never bate,
We'll try phat we can dee.'
9 As I cam on, an farther on,
An doun an by Harlaw,
They fell fu close on ilka side;
Sic fun ye never saw.
10 They fell fu close on ilka side,
Sic fun ye never saw;
For Hielan swords gied clash for clash,
At the battle o Harlaw.
11 The Hielanmen, wi their lang swords,
They laid on us fu sair,
An they drave back our merry men
Three acres breadth and mair.
12 Brave Forbes to his brither did say,
Noo brither, dinna ye see?
They beat us back on ilka side,
An we'se be forced to flee.
13 'Oh no, oh no, my brither dear,
That thing maun never be;
Tak ye your good sword in your hand,
An come your wa's wi me.'
14 'Oh no, oh no, my brither dear,
The clans they are ower strang,
An they drive back our merry men,
Wi swords baith sharp an lang.'
15 Brave Forbes drew his men aside,
Said, Tak your rest a while,
Until I to Drumminnor send,
To fess my coat o mail.
16 The servan he did ride,
An his horse it did na fail,
For in twa hours an a quarter
He brocht the coat o mail.
17 Then back to back the brithers twa
Gaed in amo the thrang,
An they hewed doun the Hielanmen,
Wi swords baith sharp and lang.
18 Macdonell, he was young an stout,
Had on his coat o mail,
An he has gane oot throw them a',
To try his han himsell.
19 The first ae straik that Forbes strack,
He garrt Macdonell reel,
An the neist ae straik that Forbes strack,
The great Macdonell fell.
20 An siccan a lierachie
I'm sure ye never saw
As wis amo the Hielanmen,
When they saw Macdonell fa.
21 An whan they saw that he was deid,
They turnd an ran awa,
An they buried him in Leggett's Den,
A large mile frae Harlaw.
22 They rade, they ran, an some did gang,
They were o sma record;
But Forbes an his merry men,
They slew them a' the road.
23 On Monanday, at mornin,
The battle it began,
On Saturday, at gloamin,
Ye'd scarce kent wha had wan.
24 An sic a weary buryin
I'm sure ye never saw
As wis the Sunday after that,
On the muirs aneath Harlaw.
25 Gin ony body speer at you
For them ye took awa,
Ye may tell their wives and bairnies
They're sleepin at Harlaw.
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['The Battle of Harlaw'] Version B; Child 163 The Battle of Harlaw
The Thistle of Scotland, 1823, p. 92. [The three verses (numbered I. II. III.) given by Alexander Laing with the following commentary: "There is a burlesque song sung in the country on this memorable occasion—I shall insert but a few stanzas, as I think it not worth the attention of the public."]
1 As I cam thro the Garrioch land,
And in by Over Ha,
There was sixty thousan Highland men
Marching to Harlaw.
11 The Highland men, with their broad sword,
Pushd on wi might and power,
Till they bore back the red-coat lads
Three furlongs long, and more.
15 Lord Forbes calld his men aside,
Says, Take your breath awhile,
Until I send my servant now
To bring my coat o mail.
End-Notes
A. a. 11. Var. Garioch land.
43. she: so delivered, notwithstanding the inconsistency with me in lines 1, 2.
113. Var. back the red-coats.
201. Sometimes pitleurachie.
25. "There are different versions of this stanza:" C. E. D.
A. b. Printed in two long lines.
Burden: In a dree, etc.
12. Wetherha.
14. a' marchin.
34, 44. Come marchin frae.
41,2. she cam.
51. Oh were ye near an near eneuch.
61. she was.
62. An she.
64. a' marchin for Harlaw.
71. quo James.
73,4. So we 'd best cry in our merry men,
And turn our horses' heeds.
81. quo John.
103. gaed for gied.
114. or mair.
121. did to his brither say.
124. And we'll be.
151. Forbes to his men did say.
152. Noo, tak.
161. Brave Forbes' hinchman, var. servant, then did.
192. Made the great M'Donell.
193. The second stroke that.
201. a 'pilleurichie.'
202. The like ye.
203. As there was amang.
213. in 'Leggatt's Ian:' "the manuscript is indistinct, and it would read equally well, Leggalt's lan."
214. Some twa three miles awa.
222. But they were.
223. For Forbes.
224. Slew maist a' by the.
234. Ye 'd scarce tell wha.
242. The like ye never.
243. As there was.
244. muirs down by.
251. An gin Hielan lasses speer.
252. them that gaed awa.
253. tell them plain an plain eneuch.
B. 151. man.
Additions and Corrections
P. 317 a, 2d paragraph. Of course Sir James the Rose and Sir John the Gryme came in from the ballad of 'Sir James the Rose.'