Binnorrie Elizabeth Stewart (Aber)
[My date. Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen: Travellers' Songs, Stories and Tunes by Elizabeth Stewart; Also Elizabeth Stewart, Songs, ballads and tunes; Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen EICD002.
R. Matteson 2018]
Notes from Vic on Mudcat: Elizabeth's version is certainly a glorious one. I would suggest that the three best versions of this ballad collected from Scots travellers all come from women who at one time all lived in the same street, Gaval Street, Fetterangus - Jane Turriff (born Jane Stewart), Lucy Stewart and her neice Elizabeth - all related and all quite remarkable singers, though Lucy's "other-worldly" singing and tune would be my favourite. The most interesting thing about Elizabeth's version is that third from last verse about the archers. Many old versions suggest that the king's musicians (harpers, fiddlers or pipers) come upon the corpse and mutilate it, usually taking the breast-bone, to make an instrument and cut the hair to make strings. They then return to the king's court where the instrument "sings its lain" - plays on its own - and tells the king and queen its sororicidal story followed by the hanging/burning/stabbing of the murderer. In his album notes to the Folkways Lucy Stewart Goldstein says, "Child considered the heart of the ballad to be the making of a musical instrument from the drowned sister's body, the instrument in turn revealing the identity of her murderer. Most recently collected texts have eliminated this supernatural motif." This is certainly the case with both Lucy's and Jane's versions, which makes the whistling arrows tell the story in Elizabeth's version all the more interesting.
Binnorrie- sung by Elixabeth Stewart of the Aberdeenshire Fetterangus Stewart family, dated c. 1978.
There was twa sisters lived in this place
Oh heigh ho and binnorrie-O
Oh one was fair and the ither was deen
And the swan it swims sae bonnie-O
Dear sister, dear sister, will you tak' a walk
Wid ye tak' a walk doon by the miller's dam?
Dear sister, dear sister, put you your fit on yon marble stane
An' so slyly, so slyly she gently pushed her in.
Dear sister, dear sister, will ye gie to me your hand
An' it's I'll gie to you a' my hooses an' my land
Dear sister, dear sister, I winna gie tae you my hand
For I've come here for to mak' sure that ye droon
Noo, the miller he'd a daughter an' her bein' a maid
She went doon for some water for to bake
Dear father, dear father, there swims in your dam
It's either a maid or a white milk swan
Noo the miller took a click(cleek) and he clicked her oot*
And he put her on the dyke for to drip and to dry
Noo the king's three archers, they cam' ridin' by
And they took three strands o' her bonnie yellow hair
One day when their arrows, they were aiming high
"My sister Jane murdered me." they seemit tae cry
"She drooned me doon in the miller's dam.
It was a' because she wanted my ain true love John"
Her father, her father, him being the King
Had her hung fae a tree and left her there for tae hing.
* The Scots Dialect Dictionary compiled by Alexander Warrack (Waverley Press) defines click as to seize, catch up hastily, grab. My granny used to say to me, "Click ma tigs fae the press, laddie, I'm goin' tae hing oot the washin'." - Grab my pegs from the cupboard....