Recordings & Info 42. Clerk Colvill
[There are no known traditional US or Canadian versions specifically of this ballad. See discussion of the relationship with George Collins (Child 85: Lady Alice) in Coffin's British Traditional Ballads of North America, below. See attached pages for more information.]
CONTENTS
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection
4) Coffin, 1950: British Traditional Ballad in North America
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud 147: Clerk Colvill, Giles Collins; Lady Alice
2) George Collins- Barbara M. Cra'ster 1910
3) The "Johnny Collins" Version of Lady Alice- Bayard
4) The "Clerk Colvill" Mermaid- Harbison Parker 1947
Alternative Titles
Clark Colven
Traditional Ballad Index: Clerk Colvill [Child 42]
DESCRIPTION: (Clerk Colvill) is warned (by his mother/lover) not to be too free with women. He refuses the advice; "Did I neer see a fair woman, But I wad sin with her body?" A woman gives him a fatal headache and turns into a mermaid to avoid being killed by him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: sex sin courting infidelity magic death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 42, "Clerk Colvill" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Bronson 42, "Clerk Colvill" (1 version)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 216-217, "Clark Colven" (1 text, plus a copy of the transcribed tune and a modern reprint for clarity; there are two tune reconstructions on pp. 293-294)
Leach, pp. 149-150, "Clerk Colville" (1 text)
OBB 29, "Clerk Colven" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 30, "Clerk Colvill" (1 text, which includes textual interpolations heretofore unpublished)
Gummere, pp. 197-199+347-348, "Clerk Colven" (1 text)
Hodgart, p. 39, "Clerk Colvill" (1 text)
DT 42, CLRKCLVL
Roud #147
NOTES: A number of scholars (Coffin, Lloyd, Bronson) have speculated that "Clerk Colvill" is actually a fragment of a longer ballad, "George Collins," with "Lady Alice" [Child 85] forming the rest. See the discussion in the notes to "Lady Alice." - RBW
Child Collection- Child Ballad 042: Clerk Colvill
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
042 Andreas Schmidt Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Carl Loewe - Lieder & Balladen, Complete Edition, Vol. 7 2000 No
042 Andrew Calhoun Clark Colven Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland 2003 4:32 Yes
042 Bären Gässlin Herr Oluf Mythomania - Von Hexen, Feen, Wassermännern, Zauberern Und Geistern 1999 3:12 Yes
042 Branâ Keternâ Herr Olof Jod 2005 3:38 Yes
042 Catriona MacDonald Sir Olaf Over the Moon 2007 4:21 Yes
042 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Carl Loewe - Balladen & Lieder 1999 No
042 Elster Silberflug Herr Oluf Anno '76 2000 4:55 Yes
042 Ewan MacColl Clerk Colven [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 7 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1967 6:51 Yes
042 Frankie Armstrong Clerk Colven 'Till the Grass O'ergrew the Corn - A Collection of Traditional Ballads 1996 8:05 Yes
042 Garmarna Herr Olof Garmarna 1993 3:54 Yes
042 Garmarna Herr Olof Live 2002 4:46 Yes
042 Gjallarhorn Herr Olof (Master Olof) Ranarop - Call of the Sea Witch 1997 4:26 Yes
042 Gjallarhorn Herr Olof (Sir Olof) Grimborg 2002 5:38 Yes
042 Jean Redpath Clerk Colven There Were Minstrels 1977 7:21 Yes
042 Jean Redpath Clerk Colven Maiden Voyage 2002 No
042 Knowe O' Deil Sir Olaf + Swaapan for Aasks The Viking's Bride 1987 4:01 Yes
042 Kurt Moll Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Carl Loewe - Balladen 1992 No
042 Litha Herr Oluf Dancing of the Light 2012 No
042 Lula Mysz-Gmeiner Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Carl Loewe Zu Ehren - Aufnahmen Von 1902-1970 1997 No
042 Margaret MacArthur Clerk Colvin Ballads Thrice Twisted 1999 4:50 Yes
042 Michael Raven & Joan Mills Clerk Colville Can Y Melinydd (The Miller Song) 1976 3:23 Yes
042 Michael Raven & Joan Mills Clerk Colville The Dutch Connection 1976 No
042 Paul Bender Herr Oluf (Erlkönigs Tochter), Op 2 No 2 The Songs of Carl Loewe 1996 No
042 Paul Bender Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Lebendige Vergangenheit 2000 No
042 Robert Holl Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Carl Loewe - Ausgewählte Balladen 2001 No
042 Sedayne Sir Olaf Zither Songs Volume 1 - the Wax Baby 2005 No
042 Steeleye Span Dance with Me All Around My Hat 1975 3:54 Yes
042 Steeleye Span Dance with Me Gaudete 2003 No
042 Steeleye Span Dance with Me On BBC TV [Electric Folk BBC2] 1975 4:21 Yes
042 Steeleye Span Dance with Me A Parcel of Steeleye Span - Their First Five Chrysalis Albums 1972-1975 2009 5:47 Yes
042 Steeleye Span Dance with Me The Best of Steeleye Span - EMI Gold Issue 2002 No
042 Thomas Quasthoff Herr Oluf, Op.2 Nr. 2 Carl Loewe - Balladen - Ballads - Ballades 1989 No
042 Venereum Arvum Elf Dance: Sir Olaf & La Folia Scowan Urla Grun + Fower Muckle Sangs 2003 No
042 Wishful Singing Herr Olof och Havsfrun New Blue 2010 No
Coffin, 1950: British Traditional Ballad in North America
42. CLERK COLVILL
See the discussion of Lady Alice (Child 85).
85. LADY ALICE
Texts: Anderson, Coll Bids Sgs, 44 / Barry, Brit Bids Me, 452 (trace) / Brown Coll / Bull lenn FLS, IV, #3, 75 / Bull U SC # 162, #9 / Cambiaire, Ea Venn Wstn Va Mt Bids, 76 / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 33 / Child, II, 279 / Combs, F-S Ky HgUds, 8 / Cox, F-S South, no / Cox, W. Va. School Journal and Educator, XLVI, 124 / Crabtree, Overton Cnty, 125 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 346 / Focus, III, 154; IV, $o / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 53 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 71 / Henry, Beech MtF-S, 2 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 89 / Henry, Sgs Sng So Aplchns, 47 / Hudson, F-S Miss, 107 / Hudson, F-T Miss, 7 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-S, #14 / JAFL, XXVIII, 1515 XXXII, 500; XXXIX, 1025 LII, 47; LVIII, 75 / Morris, F-S Fla, 441 / N. T. 'Times Mgz, 11 17 '40 / Perry, Carter Cnty, 201 / Randolph, OzF-S, I, 139/ Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 1 17 / Sharp C, EngF-S So Aplchns, 4^22 / SharpK, EngF-S So Aplchns, I, 196 / Reed Smith, SC Bids, 142 / The Survey, XXXIII, 373 / Va FLS Bull, #82-10.
Local titles: A Lover's Farewell, Johnny (John) Collins, John Harman, George Collins (Collands, Colon, Colcman, Allien, Promcr, Collen, Collum, Carey, Collie), Giles Collins, Young Collins.
Story Types: A: Johnny Collins rides out one day and meets a sweetheart washing a white marble stone. (She is his fairy love.) She warns him of his impending death. He leaps in the water and swims homeward. Convinced that he will die that night, Collins requests to be buried by the marble stone. After he dies, his mortal true-love sees the funeral coming. She halts the
procession, kisses the corpse, and trims her own shroud before dying.
Examples: Cox, F-S South (A, B); JAFL, LVIII, 75; Davis (A, B).
B: Giles Collins comes home one night, is taken ill, and dies. His sweetheart, upon hearing the news, goes to his grave, opens the coffin, and kisses him. Her mother tries to be philosophical about the affair, but to no avail.
Examples: Cox, F-S South, (C, D); Davis (C, D); SharpK (A).
C: The story follows that of Type B at the start. However, the girl interrupts the funeral and then joins her lover in death. The lily-north wind motif (see Child B) is often in this version.
Examples : Hudson, F-S Miss (A).
D: A lyric song rises from the stanza so often found in Lady Alice about the "snow-white dove" on "yonder pine" mourning for his love. A second stanza of the "go dig my grave wide and deep" sort completes the lyric.
Examples: Gardner and Chickering.
Discussion: Samuel P. Bayard, using Barbara M. Cra'ster's article (JFSS IV, 106) for leads, states (JAFL, LVIII, 73 ff.) convincingly that Johnny Collins as it is printed by him (p. 75. See also Cox, F-S South, A and B) represents the full form of the early European Clerk Colmll story infiltrated by ballad conventionality and Celtic lore. The British Clerk Colvill (Child 42),
the Giles Collins versions of Lady Alice, and the abbreviated Johnny Collins version of the same song can be considered to tell only portions of the original narrative. Moreover, in modern versions of Johnny Collins an attempt has been made by folk-singers who have forgotten the meaning of the old story to rationalize the supernatural lover and the mortal girl who mourns
Johnny's death to be one person.
The original story behind Johnny Collins, Clerk Colvill and Giles Collins "fragments" then is that of a man who renounces his fairy lover for a mortal girl, meets the fairy, and learns he is to have his life exacted as revenge for his faithlessness. (Bayard conjectures that the elf-woman has been replaced by a mermaid in Clerk Colvill and by "a washer at the ford" in Johnny
Collins, the latter entering the story from Gaelic lore while the ballad existed in Ireland. Harbison Parker, JAFL, LX, 265 ft, considers incorrect a belief in either the Irish tradition of the songs or the Gaelic banshee characteristics of the supernatural lover and states convincingly (to the satisfaction of Dr. Bayard, I understand) that a Scandanavian-Shetland-Orkney-Scottish series of locales and the accompanying selkie lore accounts for the actions of the mermaid or fairy lover and, in Clerk Colvill, possibly even for the title itself.) In any case, after embracing his mistress the young man swims ashore and goes home, where he is, quite naturally, apprehensive that he is about to die. He requests to be buried near the stone at the foot of the fairy hill. He then dies. His mortal lover sees the funeral, stops the procession when she learns the dead person is her lover, and states that she too will die of a broken heart.
Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 53 print the "dove and pine" stanza that is so frequently found at the end of the American texts of Lady Alice and another conventional phrase as a song (see Type D) derived from Lady Alice. Though these conventional "dove" phrases are of the sort that might derive from any number of sources (see JAFL, XXXIX, 149 and Thomas, Sngin Gathrn, 34), Gardner and Chickering put forth a fairly convincing defense of their stand. The "dove" stanza does appear in Child 85 in West Virginia (Cox, F-S South), Virginia (Davis, Trd Bid Fa), Mississippi (Hudson, F-S Miss), North Carolina (Henry, Sgs Sng So Apkhns), etc. as well as in the JAFL, XXXIX, 104 and XXVIII, 152 texts. See Gardner and Chickering, op. cit., for other references.
Types A and B are the usual American forms of the story, while Type C follows the Child A, B story closely and utilizes the conventional ending of B. See also Child, III, 515.
There are many parodies of the song, and one version, Giles Scroggins, was a great favorite in early nineteenth century America. See Davis, op. cit., 352; Randolph, OzF-S, I, 140; Heart Songs, 246; The New England Pocket Songster (Woodstock, Vt.); The Singer's Own Book (Woodstock, Vt., 1838); The Songster's Companion (Brattleborough, Vt., 1815); The Isaiah Thomas Collection in Worcester, Mass., #95; and Worthington Ford, Broadside Bids, etc. Mass, #3126.
The Randolph, op. cit., I version, though called George Collins and containing the "dove 55 stanzas like so many of the Type B stories, seems to be closer to Johnny Collins in narrative.