The Two Brothers- Barnet (Mo.) 1913 Belden
[My title. From Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. No title given, Kittredge left off the 4th verse, which was very similar to the third. Belden's notes from 1940 follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Two Brothers
(Child 49)
Child gives nine versions of this ballad, of which all but two, one from Cheshire and one from America are Scotch. He did not find it in other languages. Nor does it appear to have persisted in the country of its origin; at least I do not find it reported by British collectors since Child's time. It is not found in the collections made in the North American British provinces. But it has been something of a favorite in the United States, texts having been published from Maine (BBM 99-100, a fragment), Vermont (BFSSNE v 6), Virginia (TBV 147-57, SharpK I G6-B), West Virginia (FSS 33-5), Kentucky (FSKM 55-8, SharpK I 69-74, SFLQ II 65-6), Tennessee (SharpK I 76), North Carolina (SharpK I 65-6, 74-6, SCSM 166-T), Mississippi (FSM TB-4), Arkansas
(Ozark Life; No. 12), Indiana (JAFL XXIX 158, XLVIII 298-9), and Nebraska (JAFL XXVI 361-2). And Child's version G is from the singing of little girls in South Boston, with variants contributed by W. W. Newell from New York.
The story seems from the beginning to have been conceived in two ways, either as a tragic accident (Child A E F, TBV ?C ?D, SharpK ?F ?I, JAFL XXVI 361-2, XXIX 158) or as an intentional killing; and the motivation of this killing varies. In Child H the brother is killed 'for your lands sa broad;' in Child F because he 'killed two pretty tittle birds;' in the American texts it
is often because of jealousy (TBV I, SharpK K, FSKM). A sweetheart is mentioned in a majority of the versions: Child A B C D F, TBV A B C D E F H K L, SharpK E F G, SCSM. But that rivalry in love is the reason for the killing is in most cases rather inferred than stated. The K version SharpK lends perhaps some support to Barry's idea (BFSSNE y 6ff.) that the theme was originally rivalry between the brothers for their sister's love. Here the girl in the affair is 'your sister Susan dear, and it is she that 'harped her brother John from his grave' and demanded 'one sweet kiss from you, sweet ruby lips'- a motive borrowed perhaps, as Child suggested, from Sweet William's Ghost, and appearing in Child B, C, BBII, TBV A B D F H I K,
SharpK B C D F ?I, FSIKM, JAFL XLVIII. Neither this, nor the Edward ending (found in Child D E F G H I but in some of the American texts appears in the Missouri version.
[The Two Brothers.]- Communicated by Professor Belden. Sent to him without title in the summer of 1913 by Mrs. George H. Barnett of Columbia, Mo., who learned it from her mother.
1. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .
"Go away, go away, and let me alone,
For I am too young and small."
2. His brother took out his little penknife,
Both sharp and keen at the point,
And he pierced it in his younger brother's heart
Between the short ribs and the long.
3. "O brother, O brother, when you go home
My mother will ask for me;
Tell her I'm down in Dublin town,
Sleeping beneath the churchyard tree."
4. "O brother, O brother, when you go home
My sister will ask for me;
Tell her I'm down in Dublin town,
Sleeping beneath the churchyard tree."
5. His brother took off his shirt
And he ripped it from seam to seam,
And he bound it around his younger
Brother's precious bleeding heart.