Dewy Dens of Darrow- Delorme (NY) 1941 Flanders/Olney
[From Flanders, Ancient Ballads III, 1963. My date, the Lily Delorme version is certain much older than the 1941 date it was collected and since she learned it at home from her father I've set a date of 1879 when she was ten. Flanders notes follow.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
The Braes of Yarrow
(Child 214)
Scholarship on Child 214, "The Braes of yarrow," and on 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" has suffered much confusion in America. In 1950, T. P. Coffin, in an article in JAF, LXIII, 328-335, attempted to clarify the situation. His findings amount to this (see Coffin, 129-132 for a more detailed summary): The Child A-L series in which a girl's lover is slain by her cruel brother and eight other members of the family for stealing is not found in this country, although collectors have claimed it. what has been found are two fragments of Child 215, "Rare Willie" [see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 292, Text B, and Mary
O. Eddy, Ballads and Songs from Ohio (New York, 1939), 69]; a version of William Hamilton's poem that Child cited as influencing his J, K, and L texts [see Child, IV, 163; Allan Ramsey's Tea-Table Miscellany (London 1733), 242; and J. Harrington Cox, Folk Songs of the South (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 137]; and a few New York and New England versions of the Child Q-S, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" ballad in which ten men battle over a girl and in which a dream-reader in the girls family predicts her true love's death. However, since 1950, Norman Cazden has suggested in a NYFQ, Winter, 1952, 242-266 article that
Child's 215, "Rare Willie," is really two ballads, one dealing with a drowning at Gamrie and one with a drowning at Yarrow. Furthermore, he feels the Yarrow versions belong rightfully to the tradition of 214. And, in 1958, Mary Celeste Parler printed two southwestern texts of "The Braes of Yarrow." one of these is quite like the usual New York, New England Child Q-S tradition. The other, however, is a cowboy version that appears to have derived from Child L.
The Flanders texts add even more confusion to this already troublesome tradition. Flanders A, while like the Child Q-S series, also shows certain similarities to the child A-I series. The third and fourth stanzas of Flanders A include questions and answers not unlike those in Child A, B, and I, while the murder of the lover by the arrow shot from behind the tree is similar to Child D, stanza 7. Flanders B, moreover, includes a stanza, the third, which is not in child's texts of 214 but is found in somewhat similar form in Child 215, D-H. The answer to all this can only lie in the fact that "The Braes of Yarrow" as sung in Child A-L.
"The Braes of Yarrow" as sung in Child Q-S, and "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" have become as mixed in oral tradition as they have in the minds of American scholars.
The song includes much superstition from early times: the dream-reader, the blood revenge, the girls drinking the blood of her slain lover, the use of the girl's hair. The original form of the ballad may be quite old, and in this connection it is worth noting that there is a Scandinavian analogue [see MacEdward Leach, The Ballad, Booh (New York, 1955), 570, for a text]. Beyond the references given in Coffin, 129-132 (American), see Dean-Smith, 64 (English); Greig and Keith, 141-144 and Ord , 426 (Scottish). Child, IV, 160 f. discusses possible origins of the story, and Cazden, in addition to taking issue with Child in the NYFQ article cited above, has used the song as a vehicle for remarks on the social significance of balladry in JAF, LXVIII, 201-209.
The two tunes for Child 214 seem to be unrelated. The Richards tune is related to various tunes associated with Child 84.
The Dewy Dens of Darrow- Sung by Lily Delorme of Caddyville, NY; on December 4, 1941 as learned from her father who was born in Starksboro , VT. Collected by Flanders/Olney.
Now a father had a young plowboy,
Whom this lady loved most dearly.
She dressed him as a gallant knight,
To fight for her on Darrow.
Then he went up this high, high hill,
And on the lane so narrow,
And there he saw nine noble knights
On the Dewy Dens of Darrow.
"Oh, it's will you try the hunting hound?
Or will you try the arrow?
Or will you try the single sword
On the Dewy Dens of Darrow?"
"No, I won't try the hunting hound,
Nor will I try the arrow,
But I will try the single sword
On the Dewy Dens of Darrow."
His sword he drew; three knights he slew
And was fighting with the other,
When her brother sprang from behind a tree,
And they shot him with their arrow.
And she went up this high, high hill
And on the lane so narrow,
And there she saw her noble knight
On the Dewy Dens of Darrow.
Her hair was about three-quarters long,
And the color being yellow,
She tied it round his waist so strong,
And she carried him home to Darrow.
"O daughter, dear, dry up those tears,
And give no more to sorrow,
For tomorrow you'll wed with a handsomer knight
Than the one you lost on Darrow."
"O father, dear, you have nine sons,
And you may wed them all tomorrow;
But you'll never find a handsomer knight,
Than the one I lost on Darrow."