Salt Water Sea- Gibson (VA) 1931 Davis AA
[From Davis; More Traditional Ballads from Virginia; 1960. Davis' notes follow.
R. Matteson Jr. 2014]
LADY ISABEL AND THE ELF-KNIGHT
(Child, No. 4)
Child observed that "of all ballads this has perhaps obtained the widest circulation" over all of Europe. It has similarly in the present century been found in oral tradition in many shires of England, in Australia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and spread generally through the eastern half of the United States. This international popularity is reflected in the twenty-eight earlier Virginia texts, of which nineteen, plus seven tunes, were printed in TBVa, and in the twelve new items described in FSVa, of which only three are here presented, two of them with recorded tunes.
The new texts add little to the body of information already presented. The common confusion of the names of the heroine and her bird will be found again, as will the rarer confusion of parent and parrot (TBVa, D). Version AA, however, retains the proper name "Collin" as found in Child D and H. The name occurs infrequently in America, where it is also represented by the form "colleen." Also preserved in AA is the initial "following" stanza. (as in TBVa, A,B, C, D, E). This stanza may be a survival of a demonic enchantment formula (Child D) or of an aspect of courtship or seduction (Child C). If the former is correct, tire stanza exhibits the only trace in the ballad of the supernatural character of the would-be murderer. The legendary and fantastic bird, blessed with the gifts of reason and conversation, has dwindled to a mere talking parrot-an obvious rationalization of the primitive belief in the "bird-soul." See Wimberly, pp. 44 ff.
The newer Virginia texts still seem to correspond more closely to the Child series C-G (and Sargent and Kittredge H) than to A and B. They represent Coffin's Story Type A. The narrative is developed in three scenes or stages, separated by the two journeys forth and back: the seduction or elopement, the waterside scene ending in the drowning of the man, the girl's return home and the dialogue with the parrot. In spite of resemblances, the three texts printed here are quite distinct variants: notice, for instance, the complete difference in the three first stanzas, which begin, respectively, as follows:
He followed me up and he followed me down [AA]
"Go bring me a portion of your father's gold [BB]
There was a man out in the land [CC]
Other differences of diction, stanzaic structure, dialect, and tunes will be noted. All three end, however, with the parrot's "cover-up" remark about the cats.
The excluded items add little beyond verbal variants, though the singer of one variant reports that once, when he was a boy (in Southampton County?), he attended an evening wedding and that after the ceremony and during the wedding supper the groom sang this long "ballet-song" to the bride. A not too appropriate selection for the occasion, one would think.
Bronson (I, 39-100) has amassed no fewer than 141 tunes (with texts) for this widely disseminated ballad, though all musical records of it are subsequent to the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He divides the tunes into two large classes, ninety-seven in Group A and forty-four in Group B. Of the seven Virginia tunes printed in TBVa, four are classified in Group A, which concerns both British and American variants, and three in Group B, which includes the more distinctive American melodic tradition of the ballad, "not shared by England, but probably imported from Scotland." Of the two new recorded tunes from Virginia, AA especially seems to add something of value to the musical tradition of the ballad. Both AA and BB clearly belong to Bronson's Group B, although AA lacks the characteristic first cadential pause on the fourth degree of the scale.
AA. "Salt Water Sea." Phonograph record (aluminum) made by A. K. Davis. Jr: Sung by Mrs. Martha Elizabeth Gibson, of Crozet, Va., Albemarle County. April 13, 1933. Text transcribed by p. C. Worthington. Tune noted by E. c. Mead. Text independently collected by Fred F. Knobloch. May 1, 1931.
The variation between the manuscript and the recording is frequent but on the whole not significant. In the composite text here printed, the wording of the record and the order of stanzas of the manuscript have been followed. Variants are footnoted.
Apparently the angle of narration shifts from the first person in stanza 1 to the third person in stanza 3, back to the first person in stanza 8, and to the third person again in stanza 12-a type of shift not uncommon in ballads. especially those sung by older singers, as here. Stanzas 1 and 8 seem to be examples of "an impersonal kind of I" mentioned by MacEdward Leach (p. 8), and scarcely to be distinguished from the third person.
These two stanzas obviously differ from the quoted speeches of the ballad, and they are therefore left unquoted. As usual with Mrs. Gilbon's difficult but impressive performance, there are problems of stanzaic division and structure enunciation, dialect. There is still some confusion of speakers in stanza 14 in spite of the change in the girl's name from Polly to miss Collin. The second stanza has been selected for notation as most typical. "A beautiful tune and impressive rhythm" (E. C. Mead)
He followed me up and he followed me down,
And he followed me onto the room;
I neither had the heart to speak unto him,
Nor the tongue for to tell him my name. [1]
"Away, away to yonders field,
There stands twenty-two or three,
And pick out two of the best work horses,
And come and go along with me, with me,
And come and go along with me.
I will take you to some forent town, [2]
And married we will be, will be,
And married we will be."
They rode, they rode that live long night,
Till they came to the salt water sea;
And when they calne to that salt water sea,
A11 the chickens were crowing for day, for day, [3]
All the chickens were crowing for day.
"Get you down, get you down, my Miss Collin,
Get you down I earnest pray;
For here I have drownded six king's daughters,
And you are the seventh for to be."
"Is this the promise you made me?
You promised to carry me
To some forent land
And married we will be."] [4]
"Pull off, pull off that gay, gay clothing
And hang on there willow tree,
For they air too nice and they air too fine
For to rot in the salt water sea, sea,
For to rot in the salt water sea.
[For here I have drowned the six king's daughters
And you are the seventh for to be, for to be,
And you are the seventh for to be."] [5]
7 "Oh, turn your back all around and about,
Oh, turn your back on me,
For that is a sin and an open shame
That a naked woman you should see, you should see,
All naked woman you should see."
8 So he turned his back all around and about, [6]
And he turned his back on me,
I picked him up in my arms so strong,
And I lied him into the sea, sea,
I lied him into the sea.
9 "Lie thar, lie there, you false-hearted villyun,
Lie thar in the place of me,
For here you have drownded six king's daughters,
And you are the seventh for to be, for to be,
And you are the seventh for to be."
10 "Some help, some help, my Miss Collin,
Some help I earnest pray,
For every promise I made you
I'll double it into three, lady,
I'll double it into three."[7]
11 "Lie thar, lie thar, you false-hearted villyun, [8]
Lie thar in the place of me,
For thar you have drownded six king daughters,
And you are the seventh for to be, for to be,
And you are the seventh for to be."[9]
12 She jump-ed on her bonny, bonny brown,
And she led her die-apple gray,
And when she came to her father's hall,
A11 the chickens were crowing for day, for day,
All the chickens were crowing for day.
13 "Oh, where have you been, my Miss Collin,
Made you stir so soon ['fore day?"
"Hush, oh hush, my pretty parrot,
And tell no tales on me,
And your cage shall be made of beautiful gold
And hung on the willow tree."] [10]
14 "Oh, where have you been, my Miss Collin,
Made you stir so soon 'fore day ?"
"Oh, the cat she came to my cage window,
And swore[11] she would worry[12] me;
I call-ed out my Miss Collin
For to drive the cats away."
1. Usually--to tell him "nah."
2. MS. has "land." Also it's, foreign town.
3. MS. has "Three hours before it was day."
4. Stanzas 4 and 5 omitted on recording, but apparently sung by Mrs. Gibson on other occasions.
5. MS. omits bracketed section.
6. MS. has "He turned hisself all around and about."
7. MS. has for this stanza,
"Some help, my Miss Collin,
Some help I earnest pray,
If I ever live to get out of here
O married we will be."
8. MS. has "wretch."
9. MS. adds here a second "Some help" stanza, following the second "Lie there" stanza,
"Some help, some help, my Miss Collin,
Some earnest help I pray,
For every promise I made you,
I'll double it into three."
10. Bracketed section omitted on recording.
11. Possibly "said" or "sore"; MS. has "So she would worry me."
12. For a comparable use of this verb, cf. Child C and also Child, No. 62, A, stanzas 23-24.