Lord Daniel- Greer (NC) c.1913; Brown C
[No informant is named. From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore- Volume 2 Ballads, 1953; music from Volume 4 (bottom of page). The Brown editors notes follow after a bio from App State. The MS is from the Greer Collection.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
[I. G. Greer Folksong Collection (Appalachian State)]: Isaac Garfield (I. G. or “Ike”) Greer (1881-1967) was born in the Zionville community of Watauga County, North Carolina. He served as a history and government professor at Appalachian State Teacher’s College (the precursor to Appalachian State University) from 1910 to 1932. Dr. Greer was one of the earliest collectors of northwestern North Carolina folk songs, with texts primarily acquired from the counties of Ashe, Wilkes, and his native Watauga. In addition to his avid collecting of regional folk songs, Dr. Greer frequently performed the very ballads he collected (resulting in both a commercial recording on the Paramount label and several recordings for the Archive of American Folk Song by the Library of Congress Division of Music). His vocal renditions were often accompanied by his dulcimer playing first wife, Willie Spainhour Greer. Through these persistent scholarly efforts, Dr. Greer emerged as one of the first nationally recognized authorities on mountain folk music. The I. G. Greer Folksong Collection, presented as part of the Documenting Appalachia digital initiative, consists of approximately 1,100 document pages that comprise more than 300 individual song titles, some with as many as ten distinct variants. The documents in this collection include manuscripts (some written as early as the mid-19th century), typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s secretarial staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs represented herein range from traditional Child Ballads to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.
From: Brown Collection Vol. 2 Ballads 1952
OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH
26. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard (Child 81)
For the fortunes of this ballad in America (where it has lasted much better than in the country of its origin), see the admirable discussion by Barry (BBM 150-94) ; and for its geographical range, see BSM 57-8 — adding to the references there given Vermont (NGMS 135-9), Kentucky (BTFLS in 95, TKMS 62-71), North Carolina (FSRA 25-31), Missouri (OFS I 124-6), Ohio (BSO 48-51), and Michigan (BSSM 46-9). In addition to Barry's evidences for a distinctive and early American tradition for this ballad may be mentioned certain traits common to all or most of the American texts, both north and south, and rare or absent altogether in Child's British versions. One of these is the expression "cost me deep in purse" when the lord is telling of his two swords. The only approximation to this in the Child versions is in A, from a seventeenth-century print: "Full deere they cost my purse." But in America it appears in more than a score of texts ranging from Nova Scotia and Maine to North Carolina and to Missouri, sometimes in a corrupted form that shows the locution was heard but not understood, as in Cambiaire's reading "they cost me keep in purse" (ETWVMB 53). The expression sounds rather literary than dialectal, but it is a mark of the American texts. Another item peculiar to American texts is the form of punishment meted out to the lady by her injured husband". Nowhere in American texts do we find the savagery of Child A, "He cut her paps from off her breast"; but we do find, in texts ranging again from Nova Scotia to North Carolina and to Missouri, that he "split her head in twain," sometimes in a way to show that the locution was traditional but not understood: "cut her all up into twain" (TBV E), "split her head into twine" (SharpK B). The attempt of the lady by threats or bribery to prevent the page from carrying the news of her behavior to her husband, found in Child CDEFHIJKL, does not appear in American texts. That the bugle is blown as a warning by a friend of Musgrave's, a trait that appears in three of the texts in the present collection, is not exactly diagnostic; it is found in C J L of the Child versions and may perhaps be inferred in some of the others; and it appears sporadically in American texts both north and south, e.g., in BBM Fa Fb, TBV B, SCSM A, FSRA, SharpK I J K, FSSH A B, BSM, and BSSM.
C. 'Lord Daniel' or 'Little Mathigrew.' Sent in by I. G. Greer of Boone, Watauga county, probably in 1913 or 1914. This text is nearer to B than to A, but differs interestingly from both in details. The manuscript is not divided into stanzas.
1 It was on one day, it was on one day.
The first day of the year,
Little Mathigrew rode down to church,
To see and to be seen.
2 The first came down was a raven's wife,[1]
The next came down was a fair;
The next came down was Lord Daniel's wife;
She was the fairest there.
3 She looked all around through every room;
She placed her eyes on him.
Says 'You must go home with me this night,
This livelong night to stay,'
4 'I can't go home with you this night,
This livelong night to stay.
For the rings that's on your fingers, love,
You are Lord Daniel's wife.'
5 'It makes no difference whose wife I am,
To you nor no other man;
Lord Daniel's not at home tonight ;
He's in some distant land.'
6 The little foot-peg was standing by;
He turned on his heels and he ran.
He ran till he came to the bridge broken down;
He fell upon his breast and swam.
7 He swam till he came to the other side;
He turned on his heels and he ran.
He ran till he came to the Cane-Castle door,
And he rattled at the bells and he rang.
8 'What news, what news, my little foot-peg,
What news have you brought unto me?'
'I've come to let you know that Little Mathigrew
Is in the bed with your fairest dee.'[1]
9 'If this is a lie you have brought unto me.
What I suppose it to be,
I'll grease my rope from end to end
And I'll hang you to a tree.
10 'But if this is the truth you have brought unto me.
Which you suppose it to be,
I have but one daughter in this wide world,
And a married bright[3] you shall be.'
11 He gathered his men all in a row,
Says, 'Boys, now let's us go;
And nary a man in this crowd
Musn't let his bugle blow.'
12 There was a man in this same crowd
That knew Little Mathey well.
He placed his bugle to his mouth
And blew both loud and shrill.
13 I must get up, I must get up,
I must get up and go.
Lord Daniel he is coming, love,
For I heard his bugle blow.'
14 'Lie down, lie down. Little Mathigrew,
Lie down and go to sleep.
For it's nothing but my father's little boys
A-herding in their sheep.'
15 They turned into each other's arms
And fell into a sleep.
And when Little Mathigrew woke up
Lord Daniel was at his feet.
16 'Get up, get up, Little Mathigrew,
And put your clothing on.
For it never shall be said when I am dead
That I murdered a naked man.'
17 I can't get up, I can't get up,
I cannot for my life,
For you have two bran-new swords at your side
And I have nary a knife.'
18 'Very well, I have two swords to my side,
They cost me deep in purse;
You may have the best one.
And I will take the worst.'
19 Little Mathigrew struck the first lick,
And slew Lord Daniel's soul.[4]
Lord Daniel struck the very next lick,
And Little Mathey couldn't strike no more.
20 He took his fair young lady by the hand
And sat her on his knee.
Says 'Which of us do you love the best,
Little Mathigrew or me?'
21 'Very well do I like your red rosy cheeks.
Much better do I like your chin.
But I wouldn't give Mathigrew's little finger nail
For you and all your kin.'
22 He took his fair lady by the hand
And led her through the hall;
With his bran-new sword in his right hand
Lord Daniel's wife's head did fall.
23 The handle of the sword was against the wall
And the point toward his heart;
Says 'Ain't this hard to the friends all around
Lord Daniel and his wife has to part.'
Footnotes:
1. Barry (BBM 181) supposes a like locution in one of his texts to be corrupted from "arrayed in white."
2. "fair lady" or "fairest lady."
3. One expects "bride"; but the line is not easily construed if that reading is substituted. [In the MS it's underlined as if to write (sic) after the word- clearly this is bride.]
4. If this line means what it seems to mean it is clearly wrong, for Lord Daniel is by no means dead at this point. Perhaps it should read "And smote Lord Daniel sore."
C. Lord Daniel' or 'Little Mathigrew.' ms score from I. G. Greer, of Boone, Watauga county, probably in 1913 or 1914.
For melodic relationship cf. *SharpK I 182, No. 230. Our first two measures might be called a variation of the same in the Sharp version. Scale : Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center : g. Structure : aba1c (2,2,2,2) = aa1 (4,4).