The Two Brothers- Shifflett (VA) 1919 Davis A
[From Davis Traditional Ballads of Virginia; 1929. Davis's notes follow. Robert Shiflett's version was collected by George Foss in the Brown's Cove, Virginia region around the year 1959. Robert's father was Raz Shiflett and the version John Stone collected in 1919 was from Raz's daughter Etta, who was Robert's sister, given here as Davis A. See also Robert's version.
This area of Virginia became the repository for a version of this and other ballads, notably John of Hazelgreen, also collected from both Shifletts. See an excerpt (after my notes) from Foss about that area and the Shiffett family. See also Sharp C (Davis D) for another area version.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
The George Foss excerpt; White Hall to Bacon Hollow:
From White Hall to Bacon Hollow is about a place and about its culture and people. I have granted myself the author's indulgence of selecting a title significant in its double meaning. White Hall to Bacon Hollow is a stretch of twisting country road, Virginia route 810, crossing the line between Albemarle and Greene Counties. Heading west from Charlottesville toward Staunton across the mountains in the valley of Virginia and the Shenandoah River, turn north through the small industrial town of Crozet past orchards of apples and peaches and fields of corn and rye to a small country store in the fork of the road which is White Hall. From there the road winds ever closer to the mountains northward some twenty miles to Bacon Hollow. This region is bounded on the west by the southernmost section of the Skyline Drive and nestles into the gaps and coves which reach up to the Shenandoah National Park line near the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
There are numerous Shiflett-Shiflett marriages and numerous Shiflett-Morris marriages. Robert Shiflett, for example, is one of seven children of Erasmus Shiflett and Ludy Morris.
The exact reasons for such a concentration of traditional songs and ballads within a small area are impossible to state. If the Shiflett family was of French lineage until the Revolution, then their vast store of British lore must be adopted, possibly from such sources as the Morris and Brown families. Then there are those talented singers and story tellers who are from other lineages. Here the common ground is not family but community. It seems from my own experience collecting folksongs, not only in Virginia but over much of that territory covered by Cecil Sharp, that the richness of the folklore harvest is related both to family and community. In the area from White Hall to Bacon Hollow these two factors come together most strongly and the result is correspondingly beneficial to the folklorist. To these two factors we must add a third: the gifted individual. While it is no coincidence that so many fine singers are members of the Shiflett family, I met and talked with many, many Shifletts who did not sing and disavowed any interest in the old songs. Likewise, although the region is culturally homogenous over the past two hundred and more years, not every member of the community practices, is interested in, or even really aware of all its traditional arts. The old stereotype of every log cabin ringing to the tunes of the antiques ballads is not and probably was never true. Family and community provide the environment, the rich soil, but the gifted individual like the good farmer, “makes the crop.”
TRADITIONAL BALLADS OF VIRGINIA- DAVIS' NOTES
11. THE TWA BROTHERS (Child No. 49)
This is one of the very few ballads of which American texts were known to Child, included in the body of his work, and actually commented upon in his head-note. " It is interesting," he says, "to find the ballad still in the mouths of children in American cities, --in the mouths of the poorest, whose heritage these old things are. The American versions, though greatly damaged preserve the names John and William, which all the other copies have." And in a foot-note he quotes W. W. Newell, who obtained the American version[s] to this effect: "I have heard it sung at a picnic by a whole carful of little girls. The melody is pretty. These children were of the poorest class."
The Virginia singers seem to have no distinctive title for " The Two Brothers." The bulk of the Virginia versions differ from the bulk of the Child versions in that only two of the Virginia texts out of a total of eleven leave even the possibility that the fratricide was accidental. Of the other nine, some leave the stabbing as an outburst of passion, some indicate that the two brothers were in love with the same girl and that jealousy was therefore the motive. This essential point, and others, connect the bulk ot tne Virginia texts with Child B. The other two muy be related to A in this respect, otherwise, especially verballY, to B.
In all of the Virginia texts the age of the "little boys" is incompatible with the rest of the story, the love affair in particular. Several variants, like Child B and C, conclude the ballad with several stanzas taken from "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child; No. 77), but none follows Child D, E, F, G, in supplementing the story with more or less of the ballad of "Edward" (Child, No. 13). As Child C differs in several essential points (accidental killing, the mother's parting anger at the younger son, etc.), we are led back to Child A and B, especially B, for our closest relationship.
The brothers, when not simply older and younger, are John and William, as in Child. The girl, when not merely a truelove or little sweetie, is Susie, not Margaret as in Child B.
A. "The Two Brothers." collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Miss Etta Shifflett, of Blackwell's Hollow, Va., Albemarle county. November 10, 1919. With music. "I got this song and its tune from Etta Shifflett, the little daugther of Raz Shifflett, of Blackwell's Hollow. she and her brother can sing it" (Mr. Stone).
1 There were two brothers in one school.
One evening coming home
The oldest said to the youngest one,
"Let's have a wrestle and fall."
2. The oldest threw the youngest one,
He threw him to the ground,
And-out of his pocket he drew a pen knife
And gave him a deadly wound.
3 "Pull off, pull off your woolen shirt
And tear it from gore to gore
And wrap it around your bleeding wound,
And it will bleed no more."
4 So he pulled off his woolen shirt
And tore it from gore to gore,
He wrapped it around his bleeding wound
And it did bleed no more.
5 "Pick me all up upon your back
And carry me to yonder churchyard,
And dig my grave both wide-and deep,
And gently lay me down."
6 "What must I tell your loving father
When he calls for his son John?"
"Tell him I'm in some lonely green wood
Teaching young hounds run."
7 "What must I tell your loving mother
When she calls for her son John?"
"Tell her I'm in some graded school,
A good scholar to never return."
8 "What must I tell your loving Susie
When she calls for her dear John?"
"Tell her I'm in my lonely grave,
My books to carry back home."
9 When loving Susie heard of this,
She took her horn and blew;
She charmed the birdies from the nest
And the fishes out of the sea.
10. She charmed young Johnny from his grave,
He said, "Susie, what do you want?"
"One sweet kiss from your lips
Is all my heart doth crave"'
11. " Go home, go home, my loving Susie,
And weep no more for me,
For one sweet kiss from my sweet lips
Will cause your days [to] short on"[1]
1 Probably for shorten.