Bluegrass Messengers

57. Brown Robyn's Confession

No. 57: Brown Robyn's Confession

[There are no traditional US or Canadian versions of this ballad. There are US versions of the related ballad, "The Downfall of William Grisman" (1650 broadside) titled, "William Ismael" (Atwood), "Captain Glen" and "The New York Trader." See 57A, William Guiseman, for versions of this related ballad.

Child seems focused on the international variants and mentions in passing "William Guiseman" and "Captain Glen." These variants are not offered as an Appendix or is there any careful analysis or texts provided.

R. Matteson 2012]

CONTENTS:

1. Child's Narrative
2. Footnotes (Moved to the end of Child's Narrative)
3. Brief (Kittredge)
4. Child's Ballad Text A.
5. Additions and Corrections

ATTACHED PAGES (see left hand column):

1. Recordings & Info: Brown Robyn's Confession
A. Roud Number 3822 (6 listings)

2. English and Other Versions (Including Child versions A with additional notes)]

3. Sheet Music: Brown Robyn's Confession (Bronson's texts and some music examples)

Child's Narrative

A. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 110. Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 580.

The only known version of 'Brown Robyn's Confession' is the one printed in Ballads of the North of Scotland, the copy in Motherwell's Manuscript having been derived from Buchan.

The ballad, as we have it in English, celebrates a miracle of the Virgin, and is our only example of that extensive class of legends, unless we choose to include 'The Jew's Daughter,' and to take Robin Hood's view of the restoration of his loan, in the fourth Fit of the Little Gest. Of rescues on the sea, by which Mary "vere maris stella indiciis evidentissimis comprobatur," we have two in most of the collections of the Virgin's miracles, e.g., Vincent of Beauvais, 1. VII, cc 88, 89, Gautier de Coincy, ed. Poquet, pp 515, 605. The deliverance, however, is for honor done to Mary, and not for a fair confession.

A fine ballad, very common in Sweden, and preserved by tradition also in Denmark and Norway, has the same story with a tragical termination for the hero, saving a single instance, in which there is also a supernatural interference in his behalf.

Swedish.
'Herr Peders Sjöresa.' A, Afzelius, II, 31, No 36, new ed. No 30, from oral traditions, compared with a printed copy of the date 1787. B, Atterbom's Poetisk Kalender, 1816, p. 52, apparently from Gyllenmärs' Visbok, after which it is given by Bergström, Afzelius, II, 158. C, Arwidsson, II, 5, No 67, one of three closely resembling copies. D, 'Herr Peder,' Wigström, Folkdiktning, I, 43, No 21. E, Fagerlund, p. 194, No 4. F, G, Aminson, IV, 20, 22.

Norwegian.
'Unge herr Peder pá sjöen,' Landstad, p. 617, No 82.

Danish.
A, manuscript of the fifteenth century, in a copy communicated by Professor Grundtvig. B, 'Jon Rimaardssøns Skriftemaal,' Vedel, 1591, It Hundrede udvaalde Danske Viser, p. 3, No 2 (Bergström); Danske Viser, II, 220, No 92. C, 'Lodkastningen,' Kristensen, I, 16, No 6. D, 'Sejladsen,' the same, p. 322, No 119.

Swedish C-E, the Norwegian version, Danish C, D, are all from recent oral tradition.

With a partial exception of Danish A, B,^[1] the story of these ballads is this. Sir Peter asks his foster-mother what death he shall die. You are not to die in your bed, she says, and not in fight, but beware of the waves. Peter cares not for the waves, and builds a splendid ship, the bulk and masts of whalebone (elm, Swedish D; walnut, Norwegian, Danish D), the flags of gold (oars, Danish A). Let us drink to-day, while we have ale, says Peter; to-morrow we will sail where gain shall guide. The skipper and helmsman push off, forgetful of God the Father, God's Son, and the Holy Ghost. They sail a year or two on the boiling sea, and when they come where water is deepest the masts begin to go, Swedish A; the ship stops, Swedish C, D, F, Norwegian, Danish A, C, D;^[2] will not mind her helm, Danish B. They cast lots to see who is the sinner; the skipper and captain do this while Peter is in his cabin sleeping,^[3] in Swedish D, Norwegian, Danish C, D. The lot falls on Peter. He makes his shrift, since there is no priest, before the mast (which, with the yard, forms a cross), Swedish A, B, Norwegian, Danish B, C; before an oar, on which Our Lord stands written, Danish A. "Churches have I plundered, and convents have I burned, and stained the honor of many a noble maid. I have roamed the woods and done both robbery and murder, and many an honest peasant's son buried alive in the earth:" Swedish A. He then says his last words, Danish C, D, and nearly all.

'If any of you should get back to land,
And my foster-mother ask for me,
Tell her I'm serving in the king's court,
And living right merrily.

'If any of you should get back to land,
And my true-love ask for me,
Bid her to marry another man,
For I am under the sea.'^[4]

In Swedish C, D, Danish C, they throw Peter over, on the larboard in the first, and the ship resumes her course; in Swedish D, F, he wraps a cloak round him and jumps in himself; in Swedish A the ship goes down. In Danish B Jon Rimaardssøn binds three bags about him, saying, He shall never die poor that will bury my body.^[5] It was a sad sight to see when he made a cross on the blue wave, and so took the wild path that lay to the sea's deep bottom. Sir Peter, in Danish A, made this cross and was ready to take this path; but when he reached the water the wild sea turned to green earth.

Sir Peter took horse, the ship held her course,
So glad they coasted the strand;
And very glad was his true-love too
That he had come to land.^[6]

No explanation is offered of this marvel. In the light of the Scottish ballad, we should suppose that Sir Peter's deliverance in Danish A was all for the fair confession he made upon the sea.^[7]

Saxo relates that, in the earlier part of Thorkill's marvellous voyage, the crews of his three ships, when reduced almost to starving, coming upon an island well stocked with herds, would not heed the warning of their commander, that if they took more than sufficed to mitigate their immediate sufferings they might be estopped from proceeding by the local divinities, but loaded the vessels with carcasses. During the night which followed, the ships were beset by a crowd of monsters, the biggest of whom advanced into the water, armed with a huge club, and called out to the seafarers that they would not be allowed to sail off till they had expiated the offence they had committed by delivering up one man for each ship. Thorkill, for the general safety, surrendered three men, selected by lot, after which they had a good wind and sailed on. Book VIII; p. 161, ed. 1644.

King Half on his way home from a warlike expedition encountered so violent a storm that his ship was nigh to foundering. A resolution was taken that lots should be cast to determine who should jump overboard. But no lots were needed, says the saga (implying, by the way, that a vicarious atonement was sufficient), for the men vied with one another who should go overboard for his comrade. Fornaldar Sögur, Rafn, II, 37 f.^[8]

A very pretty Little-Russian duma, or ballad, also shows the efficacy of confession in such a crisis: 'The Storm on the Black Sea,' Maksimovitch, Songs of Ukraine, p. 14, Moscow, 1834, p. 48, Kief, 1849; translated by Bodenstedt, Die poetische Ukraine, p. 118. The Cossack flotilla has been divided by a storm on the Black Sea, and two portions of it have gone to wreck. In the third sails the hetman. He walks his deck in sombre composure, and says to the sailors, Some offence has been done, and this makes the sea so wild: confess then your sins to God, to the Black Sea, and to me your hetman; the guilty man shall die, and the fleet of the Cossacks, not perish. The Cossacks stand silent, for no one knows who is guilty, when lo, Alexis, son of the priest of Piriatin, steps forth and says, Let me be the sacrifice; bind a cloth round my eyes, a stone about my neck, and throw me in; so shall the fleet of the Cossacks not perish. The men are astounded: how can a heavy sin be resting on Alexis, who reads them the sacred books, whose example has kept them from wickedness! Alexis left home, he says, without asking his father's and mother's blessing, and with an angry threat against his brother; he wrenched the last crust of bread from his neighbors; he rode along the street wantonly spurning the breasts of women and the foreheads of children; he passed churches without uncovering, without crossing himself: and now he must die for his sins. As he makes this shrift the storm begins to abate; to the amazement of the Cossacks, the fleet is saved, and not one man drowned.

The rich merchant Sadko, the very entertaining hero of several Russian popular epics, is nowhere more entertaining than when, during one of his voyages, his ship comes to a stop in the sea. He thinks he has run upon a rock or sand-bank, and tries to push off, but the vessel is immovable. Twelve years we have been sailing, says Sadko, and never paid tribute to the king of the sea. A box of gold is thrown in as a peace-offering, but floats like a duck. It is clear that the sea-king wants no toll; he requires a man. Every man is ordered to make a lot from pine-wood and write his name on it. These lots are thrown into the sea. Everyone of them swims like a duck but Sadko's, and his goes down like a stone. That is not the proper wood for a lot, says Sadko: make lots of fir-wood. Fir lots are tried: Sadko's goes down like a stone, the rest swim like ducks. Fir is not right, either; alder, oak, are tried with the same result. We are quite wrong, says Sadko; we must take cypress, for cypress was the wood of the cross. They try cypress, and still Sadko's lot sinks, while all the others float. I am the man, says Sadko. He orders his men to get for him an oblation of silver, gold, and pearls, and with this, taking an image of St. Nicholas in one hand and his gusli in the other, commits himself to the sea, and goes down like a stone. But not to drown. It was quite worth his while for the rare adventures that followed.^[9]

The casting of lots to find out the guilty man who causes trouble to a ship occurs in William Guiseman, Kinloch's Ancient Scottish Ballads, p. 156, Kinloch Manuscripts, V, 43, a copy, improved by tradition, of the "lament" in 'William Grismond's Downfal,' a broadside of 1650, which is transcribed among the Percy papers, from Ballard's collection.

Captain Glen is thrown overboard without a lot, on the accusation of the boatswain, and with the happiest effect; broadside in the Roxburghe collection, Logan's Pedlar's Pack, p. 47, Kinloch Manuscripts, V, 278.

Translated by Gerhard, p. 66, Knortz, L. u. R. Altenglands, p. 155, No 40. Swedish A by the Howitts, Literature and Romance of Northern Europe, I, 276; Danish B by Prior, II, 227.

Footnotes:

1. Danish B begins very like 'Sir Patrick Spens.' A skeely skipper Haagen eyes the sky and tells his master that anyone who sails to-day will never come back alive, etc.

2. In Danish A the ship is stopped by a sea-troll that lay on the bottom. The helmsman crying out, Why does not the ship sail? the troll replies, You have a sinful man among you; throw him over. It certainly looks officious of a heathen troll to be arresting sinners. See also 'Germand Gladensvend, Grundtvig, No 33, and the corresponding 'Sætrölls kvæði,' Íslenzk fornkvæði, No 5.

Hysmine is selected by lot and thrown over, in a storm, "according to sailor's custom," in the Greek romance of Hysmine and Hysminias, VII, 12, 15. Serpents (någas) stop a ship in mid ocean and demand that a certain holy man whose instructions they desire shall be delivered to them; when the holy man has thrown himself in, the vessel is free to move: Burnouf, Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisme indien, p. 316 f. (Ramband, La Russie Épique, pp 175 f, 178 f.)

3. A resemblance to Jonah, but a circumstance not unlikely to be found in any such story. In Danish C, Kristensen, I, 16, after the skipper and steersman have informed Peter that he is to be thrown overboard, they suggest the confession which he elsewhere makes unprompted. So Joshua to Achan, Joshua vii, 19, and Saul to Jonathan, 1 Samuel xiv, 43, in a similar emergency.

4. In Danish A the ship is stopped by a sea-troll that lay on the bottom. The helmsman crying out, Why does not the ship sail? the troll replies, You have a sinful man among you; throw him over. It certainly looks officious of a heathen troll to be arresting sinners. See also 'Germand Gladensvend, Grundtvig, No 33, and the corresponding 'Sætrölls kvæði,' Íslenzk fornkvæði, No 5.

5. Lord Howard throws Sir Andrew Barton's body over the hatchhord into the sea,

And about his middle three hundred crowns; 'Wherever thou land, this will bury thee!'

6. Herre Peder han red, og skibet det skred,
De fulgte så glade hit strand;
Så glad da var hans fæstemø
At han var kommen til land.

7. The importance of confession for the soul's welfare is recognized by Jon Rimaardssøn.

'Now would I render thanks for his grace
To bountiful Christ in heaven,
For in great peril my soul had been
Had I gone hence unshriven

8. Cited by Dr. Prior, Ancient Danish Ballads, II, 227, as also Saxo.

9. Cited by Dr. Prior, Ancient Danish Ballads, II, 227, as also Saxo. [This footnote is the same as 8. ?]

Brief Description by George Lyman Kittredge

The only version of 'Brown Robyn's Confession' is the one printed in Ballads of the North of Scotland, the copy in Motherwell's Manuscript having been derived from Buchan. The ballad celebrates a miracle of the Virgin, and is our only example of that extensive class of legends, unless we choose to include 'The Jew's Daughter' (No. 155) and to take Robin Hood's view of the restoration of his loan, in the fourth Fit of the Little Gest (N. 117). A fine ballad very common in Sweden ('Sir Peder's Voyage'), and preserved by tradition also in Denmark and Norway, has the same story with a tragical termination for the hero, saving a single instance, in which there is also a supernatural interference in his behalf. Compare also the throwing over of Bonnie Annie in No. 24.

Child's Ballad Text A

'Brown Robyn's Confession'- Version A; Child 57
Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 110. Motherwell's Manuscript, p. 580.

1    It fell upon a Wodensday
Brown Robyn's men went to sea,
But they saw neither moon nor sun,
Nor starlight wi their ee.

2    'We'll cast kevels us amang,
See wha the unhappy man may be;'
The kevel fell on Brown Robyn,
The master-man was he.

3    'It is nae wonder,' said Brown Robyn,
'Altho I dinna thrive,
For wi my mither I had twa bairns,
And wi my sister five.

4    'But tie me to a plank o wude,
And throw me in the sea;
And if I sink, ye may bid me sink,
But if I swim, just lat me bee.'

5    They've tyed him to a plank o wude,
And thrown him in the sea;
He didna sink, tho they bade him sink;
He swimd, and they bade lat him bee.

6    He hadna been into the sea
An hour but barely three,
Till by it came Our Blessed Lady,
Her dear young son her wi.

7    'Will ye gang to your men again,
Or will ye gang wi me?
Will ye gang to the high heavens,
Wi my dear son and me?'

8    'I winna gang to my men again,
For they would be feared at mee;
But I woud gang to the high heavens,
Wi thy dear son and thee.'

9    'It's for nae honour ye did to me, Brown Robyn,
It's for nae guid ye did to mee;
But a' is for your fair confession
You've made upon the sea.'

End-Notes

4⁴. if I sink.

Additions and Corrections

P. 13. I neglected to refer to the throwing over of Bonnie Annie in No 24, 1, 244. Add: 'Les Pèlerins de Saint-Jacques,' Decorabe, Chansons pop. d'Ille-et-Vilaine, p. 284, No 98.

As to detention of ships by submarine people, see R. Köhler, in Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, XXIX, 456-458.

15. For other cases of guilty men who endanger ships being ascertained by lot and thrown into the sea, see R. Köhler's Vergleichende Anmerkungen, prefixed to Karl Warnke's edition of the Lais of Marie de France, p. C, Eliduc, I. Köhler cites 'Tristan le Léonois,' in which Sadoc, a nephew of Joseph of Arimathea, is the offender who is thus disposed of. Wesselofsky, Archiv für slavische Philologie, IX, 288 if (as pointed out to me by Dr. Köhler), makes the admirable suggestion that Sadok (in Hebrew, The Just) is the original of the Russian Sadko.

The story of Sadko, in Miss Hapgood's Epic Songs of Russia, p. 313.

19 b. Mermaids boding storms: Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England, ed. 1881, p. 15. G. L .K.

P. 13b, 5th line. A is not a manuscript of the 'fifteenth' century, but of the date 1590 or 1591. (Note of Mr. Axel Olrik.)

P. 13. Swedish. Herr Paders Sjöresa,' Lagus, Nyländska Folkvisor, I, 56, No 14, a, b.

Danish. 'Jon Rimaardsens Sejlads,' Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, X, 296, No 73, A-D.

13 ff., II, 510, also No 20, I, 244. While Prince Lundarasena is on a voyage, a great hurricane arises. An offering of jewels is made to the sea, but does not quiet it. Lundarasena says: "It is through my demerits in former births that this day of doom has suddenly come upon you." He flings himself into the water; the wind falls immediately and the sea becomes calm. (He is not drowned.) Kathá Sarit Ságara, Tawney's translation, II, 375.

A ship stopped. Cf. the story told by Henry of Huntingdon, viii, 22, of one Reiner, a follower of Geoffrey Mandeville (Gaufridus de Magna Villa).

"Princeps autem peditum suorum, Reinerus nomine, cujus officium fuerat ecclesias frangere vel incendere, dum mare cum uxore sua transiret, ut multi perhibuerunt, navis immobilis facta est. Quod monstrum nautis stupentibus, sorte data rei causam inquirentibus, sors cecidit super Reinerum. Quod cum ille nimirum totis contradiceret nisibus, secundo et tertio sors jacta in eum devenit. Positus igitur in scapha est, et uxor ejus, et pecunia scelestissime adquisita, et statim navis cursu velocissimo ut prius fecerat pelagus sulcat, scapha vero cum nequissimis subita voragine circumducta in aeternum absorpta est." This was in the year 1144. Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum, ed. Arnold, Rolls Series, 1879, p. 278. (G.L.K.)

"Audivi a fratre Galtero de Leus quod, cum quedam mulier, mare transiens, pulcritudine sua omnes qui erant in navi ita attraxisset ut omnes qui erant ibi fere cum ea peccassent vel per actum aut consensum, et non evitaret patrem aut filium, sed indifferenter omnibus, licet occulte, se exponeret, facta in mari tempestate et navi periclitante, cepit clamare coram omnibus omnia peccata sua et confiteri ea, credens quod alii propter ea deberent periclitari. Tune, aliis confitentibus, cessavit mare a furore suo. Facta tranquillitate, nullus potuit scire que esset ilia mulier aut cognoscere earn." Anecdotes historiques, Légendes et Apologues tirés du Recueil inédit d'Etienne de Bourbon, ed. Le- coy de la Marche, 1877, p. 160. (G. L. K.)

A merchant is making a voyage to Mount Athos with a cargo of wax and incense. St. Nicolas freezes the ship in, and will not thaw it out until the master makes a vow to present the cargo to the monastery there. Bulgarian, Miladinof, p. 56, No 50. A ship in which Milica is captive is stopped by her tears and plaints until she and her brother are released. Servian, Karadžzić, I, 556, No 729. (W. W.)

16. 'Captain Glen.' Christie's Traditional Ballad 'Airs, I, 241, from recitation. As Christie remarks, some verses of the ballad are introduced into Scott's Pirate, ch. 36.

P. 13 b, IV, 463 a. Danish. 'Sejladsen,' Kristensen, Efterslæt til Skattegraveren, p. 22, No 18, p. 161 ff., Nos 116, 117; Folkeminder, XI, 148, No 57.

15 b. For Sadko, see Vesselofsky in Archiv für slavische Philologie, IX, 282.
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P. 13, 510 a, IV, 463 a, V, 220 a. A serpent stops a ship and demands a passenger: Larminie, West-Irish Folk-Tales, p. 131. On the detention of ships by submarine folk, see Whitley Stokes, Revue Celtique, XV, 294 f. G. L. K. (The article attributed to R. Köhler, II, 510 a, is by L. Laistner.) [Add Jātaka, Bk. i, No 41, Cowell, I, 110. A ship mysteriously detained because the owner has neglected a promise: Yacoub Artin Pacha, Contes pop. de la vallée du Nil, p. 74.]