Recordings & Info 238. Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie
[There are no known US or Canadian traditional versions of this ballad.]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Mainly Norfolk
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 101: Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie (96 Listings)
Alternate Titles
Bonnie Jeannie o Bethelnie
Glenlogie
Traditional Ballad Index: Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie [Child 238]
DESCRIPTION: Jean o Bethelnie is enraptured with handsome Glenlogie; he wants someone richer. Jean takes to her bed; her father's chaplain appeals to Glenlogie. Glenlogie changes his mind and marries Jean
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1768 (Percy collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Child 238, "Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" (9 texts)
Bronson 238, "Glenlogie, or, Jean o Bethelnie" (21 versions+1 in addenda)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 144-145, "Glenlogie" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 412-415, "Bonnie Jean o' Bethelnie" (1 text)
Greig #58, pp. 1-2, "Glenlogie or Jean o' Bethelnie"; Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 21, ("Bethelnie, O Bethelnie") (1 text plus 1 fragment)
GreigDuncan5 973, "Glenlogie" (15 texts plus two fragments on pp. 601-602, 18 tunes)
OBB 85, "Glenlogie" (1 text)
DT 238, GLENLOG GLENLOG2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Chambers, The Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1870 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 308-309, "Glenlogie"
Roud #101
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Glenlogie" [fragment] (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743); "Glenlogie (Jean o' Bethelnie)" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "A Rich Irish Lady (The Fair Damsel from London; Sally and Billy; The Sailor from Dover; Pretty Sally; etc.)" [Laws P9] (lyrics in some texts)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Jeannie o Bethelnie
NOTES: Reported to be the story of Jean Meldrum and Sir George Gordon of Glenlogie. Meldrum became a servant of Mary Stewart in 1562. Some versions of the song follow the details of the story very closely, implying either that the song is of broadside origin or that the alleged history is just that: Alleged.
(For details, see the notes in Ord, which quote an article by Dr. Shearer in the _Huntly Express_ of January 24, 1882). - RBW
Grafted onto the end of GreigDuncan 973A and 973B is the "ye shine where ye stand" fill-in-the-name verse found in such songs as "Bonny Portmore" (see references there). In this case, "Bethelnie, O Bethelnie, Ye shine where ye stand, May the heather bells around you Shine o'er Fyvie's land." - BS
Child Collection- Child Ballad 238: Glenlogie or Jean o Bethalnie
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
238 Alex Robb Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Alexander Clark Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Allison Gross Glenlogie Black Ballads 2003 3:13 Yes
238 Andrew Calhoun Jeannie O' Bethelnie Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland 2003 5:10 Yes
238 Back of the Moon Glenlogie Luminosity 2005 6:08 Yes
238 Bell Duncan Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Black Donald Glenlogie Dancing Hazards - A Musical Portrait of the Scottish Highlands 1985 5:08 Yes
238 Colleen Raney Jeannie O' Bethelnie Linnet 2008 No
238 Danny Carnahan & Robin Petrie Glenlogie Journeys of the Heart 1984 5:08 Yes
238 Dick Gaughan Bonnie Jeanie Scotland - Tunes from the Lowlands, Highlands & Islands 1995 4:34 Yes
238 Dick Gaughan Bonnie Jeannie O' Bethelnie The Good Old Way - British Folk Music Today 1980 No
238 Dick Gaughan Bonnie Jeannie O' Bethelnie Gaughan 1978 5:24 Yes
238 Dick Gaughan Bonnie Jeannie O' Bethelnie Folk Vol. 1 - Musik aus England, Irland und Schottland 1979 No
238 Dick Gaughan Glenlogie Live in Edinburgh 1985 4:23 Yes
238 Dick Gaughan Glenlogie WDR Radio 1985 4:59 Yes
238 Ellen Rettie Glenlogie (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Ellen Rettie Glenlogie (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Ewan MacColl Glenlogie The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads) - Vol. 3 1964 5:13 Yes
238 Giordano Dall'Armellina Glenlogie Ballate Europee Del Tempo Che Fu - Old Time Ballads from Europe 2001 5:55 Yes
238 Heidi Talbot Glenlogie In Love and Light 2008 4:45 Yes
238 Hermes Nye Glenlogie - Jean O Bethelnie Ballads Reliques - Early English Ballads from the Percy and Child Collections 1957 2:04 Yes
238 Jack Foster Bonnie Jeannie O' Bethelnie An Hour Before the Dawn 2012 No
238 James Christie Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Jane Lobban Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Jim Malcolm Glenlogie Live in Glenfarg 2003 3:50 Yes
238 Jock Duncan Glenlogie Ye Shine Whar Ye Stan! 1996 No
238 John Adams Glenlogie Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs - Classic Scottish Ballads 1992 3:31 Yes
238 John Elwood Jeannie of Bethelnie + Bonny Lass of Anglesy Retrospective 1988-2005 2006 No
238 John Strachan Glenlogie Glenlogie - The Classic Ballads 1975 No
238 John Strachan Glenlogie The Bothy Songs and Ballads of North East Scotland - Vol.3 2001 No
238 John Strachan Glenlogie World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vol. 3 - Scotland 1998 2:17 Yes
238 John Strachan Glenlogie Songs from Aberdeenshire 2002 2:15 Yes
238 John Strachan Glenlogie (Jean O' Bethelnie) Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 2:15 Yes
238 John Strachan Glenlogie (Jean O' Bethelnie) The Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5: The Child Ballads 2 1961 2:17 Yes
238 John Strachan Glenlogie or Jean O' Bethelnie The Green Wedding - The Classic Ballads 3 1976 No
238 Lizzie Higgins Glenlogie What a Voice 1985 No
238 Mary Smith Glenlogie (Bonnie Jean O' Bethelnie) Of Rogues and Lovers 2003 3:24 Yes
238 Mirk Glenlogie Tak a Dram Afore Ye Go 1982 4:59 Yes
238 Mrs M.J. Hastie Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Mrs Rettie Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Old Blind Dogs Jean O' Bethelnie (Glenlogie) Close to the Bone 1997 3:36 Yes
238 Peter Barnett Glenlogie The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
238 Phil Cooper & Margaret Nelson Glenlogie The Only Dance We Know 1995 5:10 Yes
238 Robin Roberts Glenlogie Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies 1959 3:07 Yes
238 Shantalla Glenogie Seven Evenings, Seven Mornings 2002 4:23 Yes
238 Shepheard, Spiers & Watson Glenlogie (Bonnie Jean O Bethelnie) They Smiled as We Cam In 2005 No
238 Shirley & Dolly Collins Glenlogie Love, Death and the Lady 2003 3:45 Yes
238 Shirley & Dolly Collins Glenlogie The Harvest Years 2008 3:47 Yes
238 Shirley & Dolly Collins Glenlogie Picnic - A Breath of Fresh Air 1970 No
238 Smithfield Fair Glen Logie Cairdeas (Kinship) 2000 4:16 Yes
Mainly Norfolk: Glenlogie
[Roud 101; Child 238; Ballad Index C238; words trad. arr. Shirley and Dolly Collins, tune Shirley Collins]
Shirley Collins sang the Scottish ballad Glenlogie on her and her sister Dolly's album Love, Death & the Lady. She commented in the album's notes:
One of the classic Scots ballads printed in the Oxford Book of Ballads. Because there was no tune, I wrote my own. The ballad appealed to me at the time because of the triumph of love over all—even indifference.
Lyrics
There were four and twenty nobles rode to the king's hall,
And bonny Glenlogie was the flow'r of them all.
And bonnie Jean Gordon came running downstairs
And fell in love with Glenlogie above all that was there.
She sent for the footman that run by his side,
Saying, “Who is that young man and where does he bide?”
“His name is Glenlogie when he is from home,
And he's of the gay Gordons and his name is Lord John.”
“Glenlogie, Glenlogie, and you will prove kind,
I have laid my love on you until in my mind.”
He turned around lightly as the Gordons do all
Says, “I thank you, Lady Jeannie, but I'm promised away.”
She sends for her ladies a bed for to make,
And the rings from off her finger she did them all break.
“So it is there a bonny boy who would won a gold band,
Who would rode to Glenlogie and bid my love come?”
When Glenlogie got the letter, a loud laugh laughed he,
But when he had read it the tears blinded his eye.
Saying, “What is my lineage or what is my make,
That such a bonnie lady should die for my sake?”
When he came to her castle, no mirth there was there
But was weeping and wailing and tearing the hair.
And pale and wan was she when Glenlogie came in
But red and rose grew she when she saw it was him.
“Turn around, bonnie Jeannie, turn around on your side,
And I'll be the bridegroom and you'll be the bride.”
And it was a merry wedding and a fortune done told,
And bonnie Jean Gordon scarce sixteen years old.
Acknowledgements
Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke