Recordings & Info 215. Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie
[See also the two works by John Veitch attached to Braes o Yarrow Recordings & Info 1) The Original ballad of Dowie Dens from Blackwood's Magazine, June 1890 and 2) Historical Ballads: The Yarrow excerpt from: The History and Poetry of the Scottish Border: Volume 2; 1893.
The few extant US & Canadian considered to be versions of Rare Willie have verses from both 214. Braes o Yarrow and 215. Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow.
For discussion on the distinctly different versions, Child F-I, or, the 'Water o Gamery' versions, see: Traditional Ballad Index NOTES (below).
R. Matteson 2012]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index [two entries, I've included 214. Braes o Yarrow because there is some overlapping.
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
6) Folk Trax
7) The Home Book of Verse; American and English, 1580-1912: Poems of love, pt. 2; 1912
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 206: Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, the Water o Gamrie (61 Listings)
Alternate Titles
Willie's Rare
Willie Was Drowned in Yarrow
Willie Drowned in Ero
Willie Was Drowned in Gamery
Willie Was Drowned in Gamrie
Willie's Rare and Willie's Rare
Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie
Traditional Ballad Index: Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie [Child 215]
NAME: DESCRIPTION: Willie drowns in the (Yarrow). (Details of how and why vary greatly). His lover dreams a dream of woe. She sets out and finds Willie's body, and uses her hair to pull him from the water. In many accounts she (promises to) die for sorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1733
KEYWORDS: death mourning courting drowning
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW) Canada Ireland
REFERENCES: (17 citations)
Child 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (9 texts)
Bronson 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (9 versions)
Dixon XII, pp. 66-67, "The Water o' Gamery" (1 text)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 22-24, "The Water of Gamery" (1 text)
Greig #113, pp. 1-2, "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1227, "Willie's Lost at Gamery" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Eddy 22, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune, erroneously listed as Child 214) {Bronson's #4}
Leach, pp. 571-572, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 99, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (1 text which is mostly Child 214 but incorporates parts of Child 215)
Ord, pp. 454-455, "Willie's Drowned at Gamerie" (1 text)
Fowke/MacMillan 78, "Willie Drowned in Ero" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBB 93, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text)
PBB 62, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (1 text)
DT 215, YARROW2* YARROW3*
ADDITIONAL: Peter Buchan, Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1828 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), Vol I, pp. 245-248, 315, "Willie's Drowned in Gamery" (1 text)
W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 66-67, "Willie's Drowned at Gamery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #425, "But think na' ye my heart was sair///?" (1 text)
Roud #206
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" [Child 214]
cf. "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach" [Laws K19] (plot)
cf. "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie" (story)
cf. "Willie Drowned in Yarrow" (story)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Willie's Rare
NOTES: Several scholars, among them Norman Cazden, have claimed that this song is the same as Child 214, "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow/The Braes o Yarrow." Certainly there has been exchange of verses. However, I (following Leach), would maintain that there is a difference: "The Dowie Dens" is about opposition to a marriage; "Willie Drowned" is about the loss of a love.
A brief summary of the whole discussion is found in Coffin's notes in Flanders-Ancient3. It's not clear what he believes, except that the two songs are a mess and quite mixed. Which can hardly be denied.
Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_ includes a piece (item CLXIII) titled "The Braes of Yarrow," credited to J. Logan, which is clearly built upon this theme -- but it looks like a literary rewrite. Palgrave's next item (CLXIV), "Willy Drowned in Yarrow," is the real thing, though probably somewhat touched up by his (unnamed) source.
Child lists "Annan Water" as an appendix to this ballad, though it appears to me that, if it's related to any of the Child ballads, it's #216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water." - RBW
Greig: "These two ballads ['Willie's Drowned in Yarrow' from Whitelaw's text, and 'Willie's Drowned in Gamerie' from Buchan's text] have got mixed up to some extent; but they are in the main so different that it is not easy accounting for the connection." And there is also Greig #87 "Willie's Drowned in Gamerie," indexed by that name, of which Greig's correspondent says, "it can have no connection with the 'Willie's Drowned in Gamrie,' as given in Buchan's Ballads of the North, nor yet the Lovers who were drowned in Clyde's Waters.'"
Buchan is Greig's source. Buchan has the story (also quoted by Child): "The unfortunate hero of this ballad, was a factor to the laird of Kinmundy. As the young woman to whom he was to be united in connubial wedlock resided in Gamery, a small fishing town on the east coast of the Murray Frith, the marriage was to be solemnized in the church of that parish, to which he was on his way, when overtaken by some of the heavy breakers which overflow a part of the road he had to pass, and dash, with impetuous fury, against the lofty and adamantine rocks with which it is skirted. The young damsel, in her fifteenth year, also met with a watery grave, being the wages of her mother's malison. This ballad will remind the reader of the Drowned Lovers, who shared the same fate in the river Clyde [see Child 216, 'The Mother's Malison, or Clyde's Water']."
Re Greig's comment above, compare Buchan's text to Alexander Whitelaw, _A Book of Scottish Song_ (Glasgow, 1845), p. 456, "Willie's Drowned in Yarrow," cited for "Willie Drowned in Yarrow." - BS
Traditional Ballad Index: Dowie Dens o Yarrow, The [Child 214]
DESCRIPTION: Many men feel that a woman (their sister?) should be separated from her lover/husband. They set out in a band to kill the lover. He manages to kill or wound most of them, but one of them kills him from behind. In many texts the lady dies of sorrow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1768 (Percy collection)
KEYWORDS: courting fight death family
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord,High)) US(MA,NE,SE) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES: (26 citations)
Child 214, "The Braes o Yarrow" (18 texts)
Bronson 214, "The Braes o Yarrow" (42 versions+2 in addenda)
\GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 210-212, "Yarrow" (1 text)
Greig #57, pp. 1-2, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 215, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (20 texts, 25 tunes) {A=Bronson's #16; to B compare #1; D=#25?; E=#23; F=#9; G=#10 or #31?; H=#4; I=#5; J=#13; K=#8; L=#11; M=#12; N=#7; O is probably #18; P=#3; Q=#6; S=#14; T=#20; U=#17; W=#15; X=#22}
Dixon XIII, pp. 68-70, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 291-293, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 short text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" text is a composite lost love song with single stanzas from "The Braes o Yarrow," "The Curragh of Kildare," and others beyond identification; as a whole it cannot be considered a version of Child #214) {Bronson's #37}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 235-237, "The Dewy Dens of Darrow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #42}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 255-259, "The Braes of Yarrow" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #42}
Leach, pp. 568-571, "The Braes o Yarrow" (1 text, with a Scandinavian text for comparison)
Friedman, p. 99, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (1 text which incorporates most verses of "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow")
OBB 150, "The Dowie Houms of Yarrow" (1 text)
FSCatskills 45, "The Dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 24, "The Braes o Yarrow" (1 text, which Cox lists here though it is so worn down that it might as well be considered a lyric piece; the plot is entirely gone, compare the Hamilton text in Percy)
Ord, pp. 426-429, "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
MacSeegTrav 17, "The Braes o' Yarrow" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 19, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 77, "The Dewy Dells of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Ontario 23, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 text, 1 tune)
TBB 10, "The Braes O' Yarrow" (1 text)
Niles 54, "The Braes o Yarrow" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Darling-NAS, pp. 54-55, "The Dewy Dens of Yarrow" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 115-116, "The Dowie Houms o Yarrow" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 179, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (1 text)
cf. Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 362-367, "The Braes of Yarrow" (1 text, said to be William Hamilton's adaption of this song)
DT 214, YARROW1*
Roud #13
RECORDINGS:
Liam Clancy, "Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (on IRLClancy01)
Ewan MacColl, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743) {Bronson's #33}
John MacDonald, "The Dewie Dens of Yarrow" (on Voice03)
Willie Scott, "The Dowie Dens O' Yarrow" (on Voice17)
Davie [Davy] Stewart, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #24}
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(120), "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow," unknown, c. 1890 [scan largely illegible but probably this piece]
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow" [Child 215]
cf. "Yarrow Streams [Child 214]" (story and some lines)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Lady and the Shepherd
The Dreary Dream
In the Lonely Glens of Yarrow
NOTES: Several scholars, among them Norman Cazden, have claimed that this song is the same as Child 215, "Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow." Certainly there has been exchange of verses. However, I (following Leach), would maintain that there is a difference: "The Dowie Dens" is about opposition to a marriage; "Willie Drowned" is about the loss of a love.
A brief summary of the whole discussion is found in Coffin's notes in Flanders-Ancient3. It's not clear what he believes, except that the two songs are a mess and quite mixed. Which can hardly be denied.
Incidentally, there is at least one historical instance of a man fighting off six enemies but then being wounded from behind: William the Marshal, famous for his service with Kings Richard I and John, and infamous for the role he allegedly played in "Queen Eleanor's Confession" [Child 156], was part of a party that was attacked in 1168. His horse was killed under him before he had donned all his armor, but he killed the horses of six attackers before one came from behind and disabled him by spearing him in the thigh (see Frank McLynn, _Richard & John: Kings at War_, Da Capo, 2007, pp. 62-63). - RBW
Child Collection Index: Child Ballad 215: Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, or, The Water o Gamrie
Child --Artist-- Title --Album --Year --Length-- Have
215 Alex Campbell Willie's Drowned in Yarrow Alex Campbell 1964 No
215 Alex McEwan Willie's Rare Folksong Jubilee 1958 2:34 Yes
215 Alex Robb Willie Drowned in Gamerie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
215 Almeda Riddle Fair Willie Drowned in Yarrow The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection 2:35 Yes
215 Almeda Riddle Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow Ballads and Hymns from the Ozarks 1972 No
215 Almeda Riddle The Banks of the Yarrow (1) The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection - Ozark Folksongs 2:58 Yes
215 Almeda Riddle The Banks of the Yarrow (2) The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection - Ozark Folksongs 2:08 Yes
215 Betty Smith Rare Willie Drowned in the Yarrow Georgia Folk - A Sampler of Traditional Sounds 1997 2:17 Yes
215 Bracken Annan Water Prince of the Northlands 2000 4:56 Yes
215 Bram Taylor Annan Water The Night is Young 2004 6:40 Yes
215 Cloudstreet Annan Waters Swallow the Concertina 2000 6:02 Yes
215 Emily Groff Willy's Rare Song and the Single Girl 2002 No
215 Ewan MacColl Willie's Rare and Willie's Fair [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 1:31 Yes
215 Gordeanna McCulloch Willie's Droon'd in Yarrow In Freenship's Name 1997 3:19 Yes
215 Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir & Ed Trickett Yarrow Fashioned in the Clay 1985 5:32 Yes
215 Gordon Mooney Willie's Drowned in Yarrow O'er the Border - Music of the Scottish Borders played on the Cauld Wind Pipes 1994 2:03 Yes
215 Hilary James & Beryl Marriott Annan Water Love, Lust and Loss - English, Scottish & Irish Folksongs 1996 3:50 Yes
215 Isambarde Annan Water Living History 2008 No
215 Isla Cameron Willie's Rare Northumbrian Minstrelsy 1964 1:41 >Yes
215 J.P. & Annadeene Fraley Rare Willie Drowned in the Yarrow Another Side of the Fraleys 1995 No
215 Jaak Johanson & Mart Johanson Annan Waters Põhja Vahemäng (Nordic Interlude) 2002 No
215 Jack Crawford Annan Water Pride of the Season 2008 No
215 Jean Redpath Willie's Rare Skipping Barefoot Through the Heather 1962 3:00 Yes
215 Jean Redpath Willie’s Rare Father Adam 1979 2:58 Yes
215 Jean Redpath Willie's Rare Live! 2000 No
215 Jill Rogoff Willie's Rare Across the Narrow Seas 1997 3:27 Yes
215 John Wesley Harding Annan Water Trad Arr Jones 1999 6:05 Yes
215 John Wesley Harding Annan Water Dynablob 3 - 26th March 1999 2003 7:24 Yes
215 Jon Bartlett & Rika Ruebsaat Willie Drowned in Ero Our Singing Tradition, Vol. 1: Come to Me in Canada 2004 No
215 June Tabor Rare Willie An Echo of Hooves 2003 3:15 Yes
215 Kate Rusby Annan Water New Electric Muse II - The Continuing Story of Folk Into Rock 1997 5:27 Yes
215 Kate Rusby Annan Waters Hourglass 1997 5:29 Yes
215 Kate Rusby Annan Waters Evolving Tradition 2 - A Fresh New Generation of Britfolk Performers 1996 5:29 No
215 Kate Rusby Annan Waters Live at the Merlin Theatre, Frome, UK, 29th January 1999 1999 5:18 Yes
215 Kate Rusby & Bob Fox Annan Waters 20 2012 No
215 Kate Rusby Opening + The Fairest of All Yarrow Live from Leeds 2003 5:04 Yes
215 Kate Rusby The Fairest of all Yarrow Heartlands - Music from the Motion Picture 'Heartlands' 2003 3:00 Yes
215 Kate Rusby The Fairest of all Yarrow 10 2003 4:22 Yes
215 Kate Rusby The Fairest of all Yarrow Sleepless 1999 3:00 Yes
215 Kate Rusby Trio Fairest of All Yarrow Edinburgh Festival 2002 4:09 Yes
215 Kate Rusby The Fairest of All Yarrow Live at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland 2001 6:19 Yes
215 Lorna Anderson & Haydn Trio Eisenstadt Scottish Songs for William Napier III – Willy's Rare Haydn Edition 2008 3:04 Yes
215 Louis & Sally Killen Willie Drowned in Ero The Second Folk Review Record 1976 No
215 Margaret Christl, Ian Robb & Grit Laskin Willie Drowned in Ero The Barley Grain for Me 1998 4:55 Yes
215 Mary O'Hara Willie's Drowned in Yarrow Mary O'Hara's Scotland 1974 3:40 Yes
215 Mrs. Eva Bigalow Willie Drowned in Ero Far Canadian Fields - Companion to the Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs 1975 3:31 Yes
215 Mrs. Eva Bigrow Willie Drowned in Ero The Edith Fowke Collection No
215 Niamh Parsons Annan Waters In My Prime 2000 5:27 Yes
215 Nic Jones Annan Water Ballads and Songs 1970 7:06 Yes
215 Nic Jones Annan Water Never the Same - Leave-Taking from the British Folk Revival 1970-1977 2006 7:12 Yes
215 Oyster Band Annan Water English Rock 'n' Roll: The Early Years 1800-1850 1982 3:53 Yes
215 Peggy Seeger Yarrow [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 9 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 4:04 Yes
215 Phil Callery Annan Waters From the Edge of Memory 1999 No
215 Rory & Alex McEwen Willie's Fair Great Scottish Ballads 1956 2:00 Yes
215 Shanahy Annan Waters A Fair Land Lies Before Me 2004 No
215 Sìleas Willie's Fair and Rare Harpbreakers 1994 4:45 Yes
215 The Pine Beetles Annan Waters Celtic Heartland 2008 No
215 The Voice Squad Annan Waters Many's the Foolish Youth 1996 4:33 Yes
215 The Voice Squad Annan Waters Good People All 1993 4:58 Yes
215 The Voice Squad Annan Waters Holly Wood 1993 5:23 Yes
215 Tony McManus Annan Waters Pourquois Quebec 1998 4:34 Yes
215 Vivien Hamilton & Len Vorster Willie's Rare and Willie's Fair Burns and Beyond - Songs of Robert Burns 2009 No
215 Winifred Horan & Friends Annan Waters Pleasures of Home 2002 5:31 Yes
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
215. RARE WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW or THE WATER O GAMRIE
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 292 (listed as Barry B of Child 214) / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 69.
Local Titles: Yarrow.
Story Types: A.: A girl's betrothed lover has gone hunting and sent a letter back to her that he is too young to marry. She ominously dreams that she is pulling heather on the braes of Yarrow.' She then goes searching for her lover and finds him drowned. She wraps her long yellow hair about his waist and pulls him out of Yarrow.
Examples: Eddy.
Discussion: This ballad has become confused with The Braes of Yarrow in Britain as well as in this country. The story of Rare Willie in Child is as follows: Willie, his mother's darling, fails (in most cases) to get parental blessing for his marriage. On the way to church, he is washed from his horse while crossing a river or some such body of water. The bride, hearing what
has happened, sets out to find the missing groom. In texts A, B, and C, which do not give many preliminary details, she discovers the body in the cleft of a rock and by wrapping her three-quarter-length hair about Willie's
waist draws him from the water (B, C).
The three "southern" versions of the story (A, B, C) are said by Child, IV, 178, to be the older tradition of this ballad. It is probable that these texts, which now only state that Willie is to marry the girl, originally contained a similar, if not identical, story background to the one given above from the "northern" texts. Child also points out that the wrapping of the hair about the lover's waist in his 215 B and C belongs to 214, as do the "dream", the "letter", and "the wide and narrow bed" stanzas of the six stanza 215 C. In short, four of the half dozen stanzas of this version of Rare Willie have come from The Braes of Yarrow. The situation becomes further confused when he notes (IV, 163) that the drowning of 214, probably belongs to 215, The Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 69 text is printed under the contradictory heading Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow, Child 214. This text is, in reality, close to Child 215 C, which, as noted above, has been badly corrupted by 214 and undoubtedly brought with, it across the ocean the large amount of borrowed material. As the Eddy notes and remarks (see pp. 6970) seem to reveal some confusion on this point and as Rare Willie is rare indeed in this country, I have compiled a stanza by stanza analysis of the Ohio text.
The first stanza of the Ohio song is closely paralleled in all four lines by the opening stanzas of both Child 215 A and C. The second Ohio stanza is not to be found in Child 215, but it is of a conventional sort that turns up frequently in love song. These lines are probably a corruption, although the fact that they mention the hunt is of interest as almost all the Child 214 texts include this feature. The third Ohio stanza is quite like the second stanza of Child 215 C, which lends extra credance to the corruption theory for Ohio Stanza 2. The second stanza of 215 C is one of those that Child believed to have been borrowed from The Braes of Yarrow. The fourth Ohio stanza relates to Child 214 in that the girl goes up a hill to spy her lover and
is closest to 214 J, Stanza 14 of all the Child stanzas in the two ballads. The drowning, however, is like 215, and thus like 214!, also, while the use of a rock as the repository of the body is in 215 A and B. The final Ohio stanza compares closely to 21 5 C, Stanza 5 and 215 B, Stanza 2. This evidence would serve to indicate that the Ohio text is a version of Child 215 and perhaps a variant of 215 C.
Barry, Brit Bids Me; 292 prints a fragment containing the line "Between two hills of Yarrow", beginning with lines similar to Child 215 A, Stanza 2, and mentioning Willie. See also Child 214, Stanza 17. Child said that his 215 A, Stanza 2 had entered Rare Willie from his 214, and, therefore, Barry has seen fit to put the fragment under the title The Braes of Yarrow.
Folk Trax: WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW
- "Willie's rare and Willie's fair, Willie's drowned in Yarrow" - "Down in yon garden sweet and gay" - CHILD #215 - RITSON SS - GREIG-DUNCAN 6 1995 #1227 pp426-7 (2var 14v/1m)/ #1230 pp431-2 (3var 12v/2m) - RD BB 1930 p454 "W drowned at Ganerie" 7/14v w/o - BUCHAN 101SS 1962 from Ritson - SEDLEY 1967 p196 "Rare Willie" (2 tunes) - see also DOWIE DENS O YARROW -- Alex ROBB #323 rec on Dictaphone by James M.Carpenter N.E.Scotland 1929-35 - Alex McEWEN rec by PK, London: FTX-293/ EMI CLP-1220 1958/ - Isla CAMERON (unacc) rec by PK: CONCERT HALL SVSC-2329 1970/ FTX-330 - Mary O HARA: DECCA GES-1116 1974 --- Almeda RIDDLE: ROUNDER 0017 rec 1972 "Rare Willie drowned in Yarrow"
The Home Book of Verse; American and English, 1580-1912: Poems of love, pt. 2; 1912
WILLY DROWNED IN YARROW
"Willy's rare, and Willy's fair,
And Willy's wondrous bonny;
And Willy hecht to marry me,
Gin e'er he married ony.
"Yestreen I made my bed fu' braid,
This night I'll make it narrow;
For a' the livelang winter night
I lie twined of my marrow.
"Oh came you by yon water-side?
Pu'd you the rose or lily?
Or came you by yon meadow green?
Or saw you my sweet Willy?"
She sought him east, she sought him west,
She sought him braid and narrow;
Syne in the cleaving of a craig,
She found him drowned in Yarrow.