The Banks of Yorrow- Long (WV) pre1973 Gainer
[My date. Collected by Patrick W. Gainer and published in 1975 book, Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills, p. 77. His notes follow. This version, and others collected by Gainer, seems like a ballad recreation.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
(CHILD 214, "THE BRAES O YARROW")
We have recovered only this fragment of three stanzas of this Scottish ballad rare 'in oral tradition in West Virginia. "Aunt" Mattie Long, of Gassaway, sang it and said she was sorry that she could not remember all of the song, which she had learned when she was a girl. Aunt Mattie's great-grandfather came to America from Scotland before the Revolutionary War and fought in the Revolution.
THE BANKS OF YORROW- Sung by 'Aunt' Mattie Long, of Gassaway, West Virginia before 1973.
O do not go away from me,
My true love do not go.
For I dreamed last night that you'd be killed,
When you did leave me so.
"O I must go tonight, my love,
Even though you sorrow,
For I told your brothers I'd meet them there,
Upon the banks of Yorrow."
Her brothers waited there for him,
As he went down to Yorrow,
They slew him there just as they planned,
And left his wife in sorrow.