The Dewy Dens of Yarrow- Philbrick (MO) 1957
[From Ozark Folksongs online, sung by Max Hunter Bentonville, Arkansas on January 10, 1960 Reel 322, Item 5; learned in 1957 (Paton, see his notes following). Also in Max Hunter Collection. This waltz is one of the two 1958 published versions by Mary Celestia Parler (see Bronson TTCB, 1966). Max Hunter's cover of Herbert Philbrick's version is the second version. Text, music and recording are found at Ozark Folksongs online or at Max Hunter;s Collection here:
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=127
The unusual text transcription found on some sites on-line with an added n: fightn for their own true loven, is incorrect. Hunter spells it "Dewey" which has been changed to the standard spelling.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
Sandy Paton: Max Hunter's version of 'The Dewy Dens of Yarrow" was learned from Herbert Philbrick, an old man who lived in Crocker, Missouri, in the summer of 1957. The text actually combines elements of two of the Child ballads: #214 ("The Braes o' Yarrow) and #215 ("Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow"). Mary Celestia Parler, who wrote the notes that accompany Max's record, notes its textual similarity to the version Herbert Halpert collected from George Edwards in the Catskills, although the tune is quite different.
Bronson also includes a fine version that Mary Parler overlooked (or had no access to) when she wrote the notes for my recording of Max Hunter, namely the fine version sung for Marjorie Porter in 1941 by Lily Delorme in Cadyville, New York. Helen Hartness Flanders included this one in her Vermont collections on the strength of its having been learned from Mrs. Delorme's father who had lived in Starksboro, Vermont. Max's version, by the way, is still available from Folk-Legacy on one of our "custom" cassettes, and comes with the accompanying booklet of notes and lyrics.
THE DEWY DENS OF YARROW- In August of 1957, Max Hunter of Springfield, Missouri learned "The Dewy Dens of Yarrow" from an elderly man, Mr. Herbert Philbrick near Crocker, Missouri.
Listen: http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=127
There were five sons and two were twins
There were five sons of Yarrow
They all did fight for their own true love,
In the dewy dens of Yarrow
Oh mother dear I hadn a dream
A dream of grief and sorrow
I dreamed I was gathering heather blooms
In the dewy dens of Yarrow
Oh daughter dear I read your dream
Your dream of grief and sorrow
Your love, your love is lying slain
In the dewy dens of Yarrow
She sought him up and she sought him down
She sought him all through Yarrow
And then she found him lying slain
In the dewy dens of Yarrow
She washed his face and she combed his hair
She combed it neat and narrow
And then she washed that bloody bloody wound
That he got in the Yarrow
Her hair it was three quarters long
The color it was yellow
She wound it round his waist so small
And took him home from Yarrow.
Oh Mother dear go make my bed
Go make it neat and narrow
My love my love he died for me
I'll die for him to-morrow
Oh daughter dear don't be so grieved
So grieved with grief and sorrow
I'll wed you to a better one
Than you lost in the Yarrow
She dressed herself in clean white clothes
And away to the waters of Yarrow
And there she laid her own self down
And died on the banks of the Yarrow
The wine that runs through the water deep
Comes from the sons of Yarrow
They all did fight for their own true love
In the dewy dens of Yarrow