"What's on Your Sword?" Purcell (Virginia) c. 1891- also listed as 1913 Davis B
[From Davis- Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. His notes follow. The Purcell version of Lord Randal was "collected by Miss Margaret Purcell, of Greenwood, Va. Sung by her mother, Elizabeth Ashton Garrett Purcell (Mrs. S. H. Purcell), of Greenwood, Va., in the early nineties" (Davis; More Traditional Ballads, 1960). I assume then that for this ballad a date of the early 1890s may also apply here.
Davis includes this version with music (version CC) in his More Traditional Ballads (see below) and he does date it circa "early nineties."
R. Matteson 2014]
EDWARD
(Child, No. 13)
This ballad, like the preceding, is a colloquy between mother and son. The son has killed some one, usually a father or brother, and the mother by persistent questioning extracts the truth from him. The final stanza in Child usually implicates the mother. All the Virginia texts, however, are strikingly filial: the mother is never cursed or implicated in the murder, nor is the father ever
the victim. The tragedy is always fratricidal, with the "little brother" as victim. They are more closely related to Child A than to B, in form, in language, and in the identity of the victim, but the absence of the mother-cursing stanza and her implication in the guilt distinguishes them sharply from all the Child versions. Whether this change is the result of American filial sentimentality or of an unconscious rationalization of a somewhat unnatural conversation, there is some loss of dramatic force at the close. For a man to say that he will be back
When the sun and moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be
is an inadequate substitute for the compressed meaning when he tells his "ain mither deir" what he will leave her:
The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,
Sic counceils ye gave to me O.
In Virginia the ballad is usually known by its repeated first line, as " What Is That on the End of Your Sword?" "What Is That on Your Sword So Red?" and "How Come That Red Blood on Your Coat?" American texts are few. See Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6, 9; In Campbell and Sharp, No. 7 (North Carolina); Hudson, No. 5 (and Journal, xxxlx, 93; Mississippi); Pound, Ballads, No. 9; Sharp, Songs, I, No. 1 (Tennessee); Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Perrow reported the ballad from Kentucky in a letter to Kittredge (1914).
B. "What Is That On the End Of Your Sword?" sent in by Professor James M. Grainger. Collected by Miss Evelyn Purcell, of the Farmville Ballad Club. From the singing of her mother. Albemarle County. November 10, 1913. Printed in The Focus for December, 1913, p. 399. The version by Mrs. Susan Isham Blain has been excluded because it is practically identical with this except that it lacks (5 or 6) and its last stanza begins: When the red sun sets on yonder hill."
1. "What is that on the end of your sword,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"What is that on the end of your sword,
My dear son, tell to me?"
" 'T is the very blood of an English crane,
My father sent to me.
" 'T is the very blood of an English crane,
My father sent to me."
2. "Crane's blood is not so red,
My dear son, tell to me.
Crane's blood is not so red,
My dear son, tell to me?"
" 'T is the very blood of my dear little brother,
And I wish it had never been.
'T is the very blood of my dear little brother,
And I with it had never been."
3. "What will your father say to you,
My dear son, tell to me?
What will your father say to you,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"I will put my foot in the bottom of the boat
And sail away to sea.
I will put my foot in the bottom of the boat
And sail away to sea."
4. "What will you do with your pretty little wife,
My dear son, tell to me?
What will you do with your pretty little wife,
My dear son, tell to me?" -
"She shall put her foot in the bottom of the boat
And sail away with me.
She shall put her foot in the bottom of the boat
And sail away with me."
5. "What will you do with your dear little boy,
My dear son, tell to me?
What will you do with your dear little boy,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"I will leave him with his grandparents
To make him think of me.
I will leave him with his grandparents
To make him think of me."
6 "What will you do with your sweet little girl,
My dear son, tell to me?
What will you do with your sweet little girl,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"I will leave her to her grandmother
To make her think of me.
I will leave her to her grandmother
To make her think of me."
7. "When do you expect to return again,
My dear son, tell to me?
When do you expect to return again,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"When the sun and the moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be.
When the sun and the moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be."
------------------------
CC "What's on Your Sword?" Collected by Miss Margaret Purcell, of Greenwood, Va. Sung by her mother, Elizabeth Ashton Garrett Purcell (Mrs. S. H. Purcell), of Greenwood, Va., in the early nineties. Albemarle County. May, 1934. Tune noted by Winston Wilkinson.
This text is very close to TBVa, B (pp. 121-23), collected by Miss Evelyn Purcell, the sister of Miss Margaret Purcell, in 1913. The previously collected text was, however, without tune. The order of stanzas 4, 5, 6 is reversed in the TBVa text, and there are minor verbal changes.
1 "What is that on the end of your sword
My dear son, tell to me,
What is that on the end of Your sword,
My dear son, tell to me ?"
" 'Tis the very blood of an English crane
My father sent to me,
'Tis the very blood of an English crane
My father sent to me."
2. "Crane's blood is not so red,
My dear son, tell to me,
Crane's blood is not so red,
My dear son, tell to me'"
"'Ti; the very blood of my dear little brother,
And I wish it had never been,
'Tis the very blood of my dear little brother,
And I wish it had never been'"
3 "What will Your father say to you,
My dear son, tell to me,
What will Your father say to you,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"I will put my foot in the bottom of the boat,
And sail away to sea,
I will put my foot in the bottom of the boat,
And sail away to sea."
4 "What will you do with your pretty little girl,
My dear son, tell to me,
What will you do with your pretty little girl,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"I will leave her with her grandmother
To make her think of me,
I will leave her with her grandmother
To make her think of me."
5 "What will you do with your dear little boy,
My dear son, tell to me,
What will you do with your dear little boy,
My dear son, tell to me ?"
"I will leave him with his grandfather
To make him think of me.
I will leave him with his grandfather
To make him think of me."
6 "What will you do with your sweet little wife,
My dear son, tell to me,
What will you do with your sweet little wife,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"She shall put her foot in the bottom of the boat,
And sail away with me,
She shall put her foot in the bottom o the boat,
And sail away with me."
7 "When do you expect to return again,
My dear son, tell to me,
When do you expect to return again,
My dear son, tell to me?"
"When the sun and the moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be,
When the sun and the moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be."