Recordings & Info 190. Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead
[There is two known listed recording of this ballad in the Child Collection]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection
4) The Saturday Review, 1893 article with some info on Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 3364: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead (14 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead
Traditional Ballad Index: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead [Child 190]
NAME: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead [Child 190]
DESCRIPTION: The Captain of Bewcastle raids the Fair Dodhead. Jamie Telfer, the victim, races about the countryside in search of assistance. Some refuse, but he gathers enough friends to fight the raiders. The avengers suffer casualties, but Bewcastle is defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: violence robbery revenge help
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Child 190, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
OBB 141, "Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
PBB 67, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Roud #3364
NOTES: Child lists several speculations about this song (derived mostly from Scott, who is the only source for this piece). These tie it, very tentatively, to an event of 1582, at which time Bewcastle was a well-known haunt of robbers and sundry criminals. All of this, however, must be treated as little more than speculation. Nor is there any real evidence that the piece is traditional. - RBW [There is an additional text of 'Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead,' found by MacMath in C.K. Sharpe's papers. The ballad has also been collected from Willie Scott. R. Matteson 2012]
Child Collection-Child Ballad 190: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead
Child-- Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
190 Andrew Calhoun Telfer's Cows Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland 2003 7:58 Yes
190 Willie Scott Jamie Telfer O' the Fair Dodhead Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs - Classic Scottish Ballads 1992 :54 Yes
The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, Volume 75, 1893.
By John Douglas Cook, Philip Harwood, Walter Herries Pollock, Frank Harris, Harold Hodge
SCOTTISH BALLAD POETRY
WHOEVER turns over the leaves of Mr. Todd's Scottish Ballad Poetry will be allured by the promise of a piece "here, it is believed, printed in a ballad collection for the first time." The poem has the attractive name of The Bluidy Stair, and is given on p. 196. The second verse runs
A scald o' Norway struck the harp,
And a good harper was he,
For hearts beat mad, and looks grew wild,
Wi' his sang o' victory.
The mention of a "scald" is more than suspicious. Does Mr. Todd know any instance of a " scald" in a genuine ballad? Thethird line of the verse cited is quite out of harmony with the old ballad manner; much worse is
Till darkness don her blackest dress,
And midnicht marks the hour.
Even a babe in ballad-lore must be startled by darkness donning her blackest dress. "The stars will dreip out their beds o' blue " is as modern as yesterday's newspaper; so is
And I never will be your base leman,
While death to my dagger is true.
And no old Maker ever wrote about pain." Again, And rain may fa', and time may ca' Its lazy wheels about. An editor who can be deceived by this has really no business to meddle with ballads. Mr. Todd derived his treasure from "a guide-book" to Rothesay Castle, published by Bryce Ferguson, Rothesay, in 1878. The poem clearly belongs to the end of the present century. Ballads have always been a field for literary frauds. Every one knows how Surtees took in Scott; how very dubious Avid Maitland is; what good reason there is to be at least wary as regards Jamie Telfer; while a very keen sceptic might urge that Kinmont Willie is based on the account in Satchells, not the 6tory in Satchells on Einmont Willie. Scott himself notices the resemblances, and, as nobody but Scott could have forged Kinmont Willie, we probably should consider it authentic. But The Bluidy Stair we believe to be no more genuine than The Bluidy Brother, a very clever imitation of the old style by a contemporary poet.
Perhaps it is too severe to deny Mr. Todd any lot or part in ballad-lore because he has, as we must believe, accepted a pastiche as an old poem. "The wild Norse warrior was there" is absolutely impossible, and this occurs in his Bluidy Stair. He might as well accept the ballad_ of Hume of Auchindolly at once :—
By the braes o' Auchindolly
There's a wan and wasting bride,
And it's Oh, Waly, Waly!
Through the hail country side;
And a river to wade for a dying maid,
And a weary way to ride.
Or why not include The Lass 0' Tullybole?
Oh, maidens, dance the Deid Man's mass,
And deal the Deid Man's dole,
And it's oh, it's oh, for the bonny lass,
The Lass o' Tullybole!
Many such weird scraps of ballad, still lingering in the memorie3 of the youngest inhabitants, are, we feel assured, quite as germane to the matter as Mr. Todd's Bluidy Stair.
Mr. Todd's introduction deals with the origin of the ballads, on which, as a general question, he cannot throw much light. Discussing a theory propounded in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he seems to doubt, if we understand him, whether the problem of ballads corresponds to that of popular stories. Nobody, of course, would assert that all ballads are as widely diffused and' as unhistorical as Cinderella or Puss in Boots. There are historical ballads as The Outlaw Murray, and ballads founded on fairly definite historical traditions as Marie Hamilton, though here the tradition is vague enough. But mere local names in a ballad, as Carterhaugh in Tamlane, or the Douglas burn (which is a good way below the outlet of St. Mary's Loch) in the Douglas Tragedy, prove nothing. Incidents which occur in Scandinavian or other ballads have been localized, that is all, and Mr. Todd seems to understand this in p. 12. But there are ballads, as Binnorie, which turn on widespread marchen; Binnorie has its analogue even among the Santhals, an aboriginal hilltribe of India. Again, in Italian, Portuguese, Romaic, and French, Mr. Todd will find many examples of ballads closely akin to the Romantic ballads of Scotland. If he has no inclination for original research, he will find examples enough in Professor Child's masterly, but still unfinished, collection, with which, of course, he is well acquainted. The resemblances are not confined to Scandinavian ballads, though the Scandinavian ballads are most akin to those of Scotland. The problem is more limited than in the case of popular tales. We know few instances— hardly any—of non-European ballads resembling our own. Noris it at all difficult to understand how ballads may have been diffused in the middle ages. The real difficulty about popular tales is their diffusion beyond the range of traceable communication. Moreover, some ballads are popular tales versified, and where the tale could go the poetical version might be separately made. The style in the ballads of all Europe is very early and popular, but that style yet prevails in parts of Italy and Greece.
As to his method of editing, Mr. Todd takes no combined versions, but the best traditional version accessible, and here, for his purpose, he acts judiciously. As to his notes, they are of moderate excellence; we do not know " Singler" in Selkirkshire (mentioned in Jamie Telfer); we do know Singlee, on Ettrick, tetween Kirkhope and Tushielaw; Mr. Todd perhaps alludes to Singlee. We presume that "StobsHa" was Stobs, the seat of the Eliots, not far from Hawick and Branxholme, and to this opinion we are wedded. How could a man run from Dodhead, near Singlee, on Ettrick, to Mr. Todd's Stob Hall, between Yetholm and Morebattle, and thence ride to the Coultart Cleugh, on Teviot, and thence to Catslack—if it be Catslack, on Yarrow— and thence to Branxholme, on Teviot, all in one night? The Dodhead is that near Skelfhill, not far from Stobs, and Stobs is near Branxholme; as for Catslockhill, we presume there is another Catslack besides that on Yarrow. If not, the topography is nonsense. The initial mistake is that about the Dodhead. Professor Child discusses the topography in a note, on information from a kinswoman of auld Jock Grieve; and Mrs. Graham Tomson has a correct note. If we dwell a little longer on this matter, the absurdity of Mr. Todd's note, derived partly from Scott's footnotes to the edition uniform with the magnus opus, will become apparent. First, the English ride into Teviotdale "to drive a prey." In Borthwickwater, on the north side of Teviot, about three miles from Hawick, they meet a guide who directs them to the Dodhead. If this be the Dodhead near Singlee, the English had to ride up Borthwickwater to the great tableland, where they would either skirt Alesmuir Loch, and so, by Clearburn and Buccleuch, down Rankelburn, to Ettrick, hence five miles or so to Singlee, or they would cut across country lower down, with an eight- or ten-mile ride over wild lands before them. Now it was in Teviotdale, not Ettrick, that they were driving a prey. Well, they plunder the Dodhead. Where does Jamie Telfer, the plundered, go to for aid? Why, he runs back " ten miles " to Stobs, not near Yetholm at all, but on the Slitterick, near Hawick, as Scott says. Now, if Telfer lived on the Teviotdale Dodd, he was not nearly ten miles from Stobs; whereas if he lived near Singlee, he had, indeed, a ten-mile run before him, or more. Mrs. Graham Tomson reads, "ran three miles afoot," perhaps an emendation. But, if he lived at Dodhead in Ettrick, why did he go to Stobs P His feudal protectors would be near him—the Scotts of Tushielaw or the Scotts of Thirlestane. He paid his blackmail, as we learn, to Buccleuch at Branxholme, near Hawick. Finally he does go to Branxholme, with Jock Grieve, and they "warn the water," 'Gaudilands, a mile below Branxholme, Commonside, somo three miles further up Teviot, Harden, in his glen near Borthwick Water, and so forth. Had the raid been made into Ettrickdale, obviously Thirlestane, Tushielaw, Kirkhope, would have been roused, not the Teviot men. They pursue by the drove road, over into Liddesdale. At best the topography is not easy; as xead by Mr. Todd, and even by Scott, it seems to us hopeless. But whether this is an argument for or against the authenticity of the ballads we are unable to decide. It is not wholly unlike Hogg's work, but perhaps is too good for James. Perhaps Mr. Todd should have said that Buccleuch's reply to Elizabeth— "What would a man not dare to do? "—is merely traditional. In his version of The Bonnie House o' Airlie, it is plain that the author really thought the burning occurred during "the Prince of Wales's expedition to Scotland in 1745," as Maxwell of Kirk connell styles that affair in his history. No mortal ever called Charles I. "Charlie," nor brought him into Lochiel's company in the Highlands. Lady Airlie says of her lord:—
O, I hae borne him seven bonny sons,
The last ne'er saw his daddie,
And gin I had as many o'er again,
They'd a' be men to Charlie.
This answers exactly to—
I ance had sons, who now hae nane,
I bred them, toiling sairly,
And I wad bear them a' again
And lose them a' for Charlie.
Mr. Todd prints from "a modern broadside." Certainly Lochiel and Charlie have been introduced since the Forty-five. Kinloch's ballad, though it anticipates Montrose's loyalty, and introduces Prince Charles, is more correct than Mr. Todd's version.