Fair Eleanor and Lord Thomas- Wallin (NC) 1983
[From: Far in the Mountains: Volumes 3 & 4 of Mike Yates' 1979-83 Appalachian Collection. Notes by Michael Yates. Members of the Chander/Wallin family were informants for Sharp in 1916-1918. Later generations were known as the Madison County ballad singers or the Sodom Laurel Singers.
R. Matteson 2012, 2104]
Yates: Doug and Berzilla Wallin
Doug Wallin's farm lies at the head of Crane Branch, two or three miles away from the settlement of Sodom Laurel. The path up the cove follows, and often crosses, a rock-strewn stream, which is almost impossible to negotiate by car. When I first called to see Doug (b.1919) and his mother, Berzilla Wallin, the banks of the stream were covered with the most beautiful milky-blue dwarf iris. Cecil Sharp called this country, "The most magnificent I have ever seen."
Like his neighbours, Doug grew tobacco and corn and also raised a few animals. Many of his songs came from his great-aunt, Mary Sands of Allenstand, who sang twenty-five songs, including The House Carpenter, to Sharp. Cas Wallin, Doug's uncle, did not remember Sharp. But another uncle, Lloyd Chandler, was only 14 when he gave Sharp a fine version of the ballad of Young Hunting. Many of Doug's fiddle tunes, including Shoot that Turkey Buzzard, came from Mitchell Wallin, Mary Sands' half-brother, who not only played for Cecil Sharp but who also acted as a chauffeur for the collector. (For further details of Mary Sands and Mitchell Wallin, see the article A Nest of Singing Birds on the internet magazine Musical Traditions).
Berzilla Wallin may be heard singing Love Has Brought Me to Despair, Johnny Doyle and Conversation With Death on the Folkways LP Old Love Songs and Ballads from the Big Laurel (Folkways 2309), while Doug and his brother Jack also have an album, Family Songs and Stories, out on Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40013.
15. Fair Eleanor and Lord Thomas (Child 73, Roud 4)
(Sung by Doug Wallin at his home at Crane Branch, Madison County, NC. 24.5.83)
'I riddle to you, my own dear mother,
And ask as your dear son.
Would you marry fair Eleanor now,
Or bring the brown girl home?'(x2)
'I riddle to you, my own dear son,
My own beloved one.
If you ask for my advice,
You'll bring the brown girl home.'(x2)
'For the brown girl has both house and land,
Fair Eleanor she has none.
So my advice would be to you,
To bring the brown girl home.'
'Is this your bride?' fair Eleanor said.
'To me she looks wonderful brown.
When you could have had the fairest young lady,
That ever the sun shone on'.(x2)
The brown girl had a sharp penknife,
It was ground both sharp and keen.
She plunged it between fair Eleanor's ribs,
And made her poor, aching heart rain.(x2)
'What's wrong? What's wrong?' Lord Thomas said.
'What's wrong? What's wrong?' he cried.
'Oh, can't you see my own heart's blood,
Come trickling down my side?'(x2)
He took the brown girl by the hand,
And led her down the hall.
He cut her head off, close to her shoulders,
And kicked it against the wall.(x2)
'Oh father, oh father, go dig my grave,
Go dig it wide and deep.
And place fair Eleanor in my arms,
And the brown girl at my feet'.(x2)
Notes to this song are to be found with Cas Wallin's version on CD4, track 16. It is, though, of interest to note how Doug has reduced the ballad to its emotional core by shedding much of the ballad's background material.