US & Canada Versions: 49. The Twa Brothers/ The Two Brothers
[In the seventy-five US and Canadian versions of Twa Brothers in this collection, the older brother (usually William) challenges the younger brother (usually John) to a contest ("throwing the ball," "wrestling" and "rolling of stones" as in the Highland Games)- to prove who is superior or the dominant brother. When the younger brother says he is unable to compete because he is too small, they wrestle anyway and the older brother stabs the younger brother with his penknife, mortally wounding him. The younger brother pleads with his brother to tear apart his shirt to stop the bleeding. The older brother tears it "from gore to gore" (side to side) and presses it against the wound but the younger one bleeds "all the more." As he is dying, he wants to spare his parents the loss of a child, so he tells his brother: When my father comes to look for me tell him in in some lonely Greenwood; A-teaching the hounds to run. Then he tells him: When my mother comes to look for me tell her I'm studying at school. But when he talks to his sweetheart: When my sweetheart comes to look for me tell her in dying and have been buried.
He instructs his brother to bury him with a Bible at his head and a psalter (hymnbook) at his feet. As in Child B and C (Motherwell c. 1825) his sweetheart (usually Susan/Susie) finds the location of his burial and sings, plays or weeps him from his grave where she asks for a final kiss. The murdered brother warns her that to kiss him would prove to be fatal for her and she sees him no more. The revenant ending stanzas resemble Sweet William's Ghost.
Newell gave Child two US versions which were published in English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Volume 2: Ballads 29-53; published June 1884 w/Additions and Corrections). The shorter ballad, a two stanza version dated 1850, is Child G b; the longer, undated by Child, is Child G a, which was later dated circa 1882 by Barry (BBM, 1929).
In my opinion the term, "The rolling of the stones," has evolved from the Highland Games- "the putting of stones" or "the throwing of the stones." This is usually found in the introductory stanzas as found in Child B, collected by Motherwell from Widow McCormick, January 19, 1825; Westbrae, Paisley:
It's whether will ye play at the ba', brither,
Or else throw at the stone?
One version, titled "The Rolling of the Stones" has recently gained some currency in the US. It first appears in the US under that title in 1939 from Mrs. Mary E. Harmon of Cambridge, Massachusetts as published in Linscott's Folk Songs of Old New England. Subsequent versions came from Oscar Brand, Joe Hickerson, Young Tradition and Bok-Muir-Tricket.
Some versions of Twa Brothers have the Edward (Child 13) ending (See Child D, E, F, and G). The mixture of the two ballads has caused some confusion. The best US example is George Edwards version from Vermont (titled Edward Ballad), which was published first as a version of Edward; just as Child 49 I has been recognized (Gilchrist and others) as a version of Edward. I believe George Edwards version is likely a ballad re-creation based on print sources (confirmed by Bronson).
The ending stanzas of many US and Canada versions where the murdered brother (usually John) is summoned from the grave (by the singing/music playing of Little Sweetie/Suse/Susie/Susan/Suzanne and in several cases his sister) for a "sweet kiss" before he returns to the dead, is a motive according to Belden, "borrowed perhaps, as Child suggested, from Sweet William's Ghost, and appears in Child B, C, BBII, Davis TBV A B D F H I K, SharpK B C D F I, FSIKM, JAFL XLVIII." It is important to note that the murdered brother warns that such a kiss from the dead will be the downfall/death of his love. That the murdered brother at the beginning of the ballad is a young child or schoolboy, makes this revenant ending seem out-of-place and perhaps it has been added along the path of oral transmission. Motherwell's texts from c. 1825 (Child B and C) both have the revenant ending.
The extensive collections are from Sharp A-M and Davis A-K (although several versions are reprinted from Sharp, Davis adds AA-EE in More Traditional Ballads). The title, "Two Brothers," is not a local title. The notes on US & Canadian versions of this ballad by Coffin are extensive and are included below. Many of the dates I have assigned are significantly older. The age of the ballad in the US is quite old with Virginia being the main repository. Immigrants came to Virginia in the early 1600s with a large settlement that began expanding westward by the mid to late 1600s. The Hicks family, for example, had moved up the James River into Goochland County (then Henrico) by the late 1600s. By the Revolutionary War family members had moved into remote regions in North Carolina (Beech Mountain) and brought their ballads with them. The Hicks family is not known for this ballad, however the fertile ballad region of Albemarle and the Shenandoah basin is just west of Goochland and Tuckahoe Creek.
One area in Virginia (the Brown's Cove region, Albemarle and Green plus neighboring counties) became the repository for a specific version of this ballad (for another ballad see John Hazelgreen). From this region the Virginia Folk-Lore Society, under the direction of C. Alphonso Smith (who died in 1924) and later John Stone and Kyle Davis Jr., collected six texts (Davis Traditional Ballad of Virginia 1929). Also reprinted by Davis were the three versions Sharp collected from that area in 1917; Scarborough also published one; Davis again in More Ballads- five; Wilkinson- four; and Foss- one.
George Foss, who wrote an excellent article about the area titled, From White Hall to Bacon Hollow, collected an excellent version from Robert Shiflett (see also Davis A from his sister), who was Raz Shiflett's son.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
CONTENTS: Individual version may be viewed by clicking on the highlighted title below or clicking on the title attached to this page on the left hand column.
1) Jack and William - a child (NY) 1850 Newell; Child G b. -- My title. From English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol. 2, 1884. Two stanzas, from a child in New York, 1850. Communicated by Mr. W.W. Newell.
2) As Two Little Schoolboys Were Going To School - Hicks (VA) c1851 Davis DD -- My date, based on the "almost 80 years ago" given by Davis. From: More Traditional Ballads from Virginia; Davis 1960. The last stanza is part of the revenant ending found in Child B (Motherwell).
3) Two Born Brothers- Housely (PA-OH) pre1860 Eddy A -- From Ballads and Songs From Ohio; Eddy, 1939. The date of this version is pre-1860, which is based on the information that the informant learned this about 80 years before it was submitted to Eddy (by 1939).
4) Martyr John- Delorme (NY) c.1868 Flanders B -- My date, when Delorme was 9. From Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. The informant, “Grandma” Lily Delorme, of Hardscrabble on the Saranac, NY, learned songs from parents and her grandfather, Gideon Baker, who fought in the War of 1812. Delorme was one of the best informants of Flanders and Olney (also Porter who recorded 100 of her songs). Most of her ballads date back into the 1800s since she was born in 1869 and learned them from her family.
5) Billy Murdered John- Carr (ME) c1868 Barry -- Fragment from British Ballads from Maine, 1929. Sung and from a manuscript book compiled at least twenty-five years ago by Mrs. Susie Carr Young of Brewer to preserve the old songs sung by her grandmother, mother, and others of the family. Mrs. Young says she learned this song at least sixty years ago from her Grandmother Carr (b. 1793).
6) Two Brothers- Dusenberry (AR) 1870 Randolph A
John and William- (MA) pre1884 Newell; Child G a
The Two School Boys- Griffin (GA-FL) 1877 Morris
The Two Brothers- Berry (VA) c1887 Flanders C
Willie and Johnny- Younger (AR-OK) c1889 Moores
The Two Brothers- Short (Mo.) 1890 Randolph B
Two Little Boys- Shelman (WA) 1909 Pound
The Two Brothers- McDonald (AR) 1910 Randolph D
John and William- (KY) 1914 McGill
The Two Brothers- Barnet (Mo.) 1913 Belden
The Two Brothers- Maxie (VA) 1914 Davis E
The Two Brothers- Sprouse (VA) 1915 Davis G
The Two Brothers- Snider (WV) 1915 Cox A
The Two Brothers- Roberts (NC) 1916 Sharp A
The Two Brothers- Smith (VA) 1916 Sharp B
Little Willie- Adkin (WV) 1916 Cox B
The Two Brothers- Walton (VA) 1916 Sharp C
The Two Brothers- Keeton (VA) 1916 Sharp D
The Two Brothers- Ford (NC) 1916 Sharp E
The Two Brothers- Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp F
The Two Brothers- Knuckles (KY) 1917 Sharp G
The Two Brothers- Huff (KY) 1917 Sharp I
The Two Brothers- Sloan (KY) 1917 Sharp H
The Two Brothers- Maples (TN) 1917 Sharp L
Jessel Town- Texas Gladden (VA) 1917 Davis BB
The Two Brothers- Freeman (NC) 1918 Sharp J
The Two Brothers- Bennett (NC) 1918 Sharp K
The Two Brothers- Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp M
The Two Brothers- Shifflett (VA) 1919 Davis A
The Two Brothers- Bryant (VA) 1921 Davis B
The Two Brothers- Hart (VA) 1921 Davis C
The Two Brothers- Stamper (VA) 1921 Davis J
The Two Brothers- Hurt (VA) 1921 Davis K
The Two Brothers- Morris (VA) 1922 Davis F
Two Little Boys Going to School- Peterson(NC) 1923
The Two Brothers- Williams (WV) 1927 Cox
The Cruel Brother- Poindexter (MS) 1928 Hudson A
The Two Brothers- Swetnam (MS) 1928 Hudson B
The Two Brothers- Kennison (VT) 1932 Flanders D
Two Little Brothers- Russell (VA) 1932 Davis CC
The Two Brothers- Williamson (VA) 1932 Davis EE
The Two Brothers- Keeton (VA) 1933 Davis AA
The Murdered Boy- Ramsey (KY) 1933 Niles
Yonder School- Rowe (AR-OK) 1933 Moores A
The Edward Ballad- Edwards (VT) 1934 Flanders A
Two Little Schoolmates- McAllister(IN) 1935 Brew A
The Two Brothers- Brewster (IN) 1935 Brewster B
The Two Brothers- Bruce (VA) 1935 Wilkinson A
Two Brothers- McAllister (VA) 1935 Wilkinson C
The Two Brothers- Lam (VA) 1935 Wilkinson E
The Two Brothers- Lovingood (NC) 1936 Scarborough
The Two Brothers- Cartwright (NC) 1936 Chappell
The Dying Soldier- McNew (KY) 1937
Said Billie to Jimmie- Jacobs (WI) 1938 JAFL
The Rolling of the Stones- Harmon(MA) 1939 Linscot
The Two Brothers- Robertson (OH-MO) 1939 Eddy B
John Gobillips- Johnson (VA) 1939 Halpert REC
The Two Little Boys- Tuttle (Ark.) 1941 Randolph C
The Little Schoolboy- Hobart Smith (VA) 1942 Lomax
The Twa Brothers- Hartan (NS) Creighton 1950
Two Brothers- Jimmy Driftwood (Ark.) c.1950s
The Two Brothers- Glasscock (WV) 1957 Musick
The Rolling of the Stones- Brand (NY) 1959
Two Brothers- Lay (Ark.) 1959 Max Hunter
Two Brothers- High (Ark.) 1959 Max Hunter
Two Brothers- R. Shiflettt (VA) c1959 Foss
The Two Brothers- Decker (NL) 1959 Peacock
The Two Brothers- Mandel (NY) 1964 Paton REC
Two Little Boys- Dearmore (Ark.) 1969 Max Hunter
Two Little Boys- Gilbert (Ark.) 1969 Max Hunter
The Rolling of the Stones- Schneyer (NY) pre-1970s
Our Young Son John- Smith (VA) pre1975 Gainer
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[Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin.]
The Twa Brothers
(Child 49)
This ballad. which seems to be unknown in England (Child's versions are all from Scotland) is quite easy to find in the New world. The story, however, is seldom constant, except in the fact that one brother is slain. Child A-F give a mutual sweetheart as a cause of trouble between the brothers, but the killing is nor always purposeful or even over the girl. In Child A, E, and F the killing is accidental; in other Anglo-American versions it is over land disputes, birds, or simply due to frustration during a scuffle. Frequently, a testament ending is attached; sometimes, as in Child D-G, the entire "Edward" ballad concludes the story. The dying brother may send messages to his roved ones; sometimes he wants them to know the truth, other times he wants to mislead them. Phillips Barry (BFSSNE, V, 6 f.) presents the idea that the motivation for the crime is in an incestuous love the two boys hold for their sister, and versions such as the Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles K text in English Folk songs from the Southern Appalachians [Oxford, 1932], I, 76 f.) support his thesis. Bur one is never quite certain what the details of the story are going to be when he encounters a new text of "The Twa Brothers." Barry (British Ballads from Maine, 105) argues that the American texts of the song may be older than the Child texts. He could well be right. Certainly, the borrowing of the testament from "Edward" and the request for a dead man's kiss from "Sweet William's Ghost" might lead one to think the Child versions were losing their individuality" At any rate, a study of the ballad should take into account Barry's thesis. One might also consult Alton Morris' article in SFQ, VIII, 140, and the discussion by Jane Zielonko, "Some American Variants of Child Ballads" (Master's thesis, Columbia University, 1945), 76 t- Coffin, 60-62; and Belden, 33-34, are helpful in starting a complete bibliography.
The A version below has been printed twice as "Edward" (Child 13). It is actually a rather confused remodeling of "The Twa Brothers" story after an "Edward" ending has become attached in the fashion typical to Child D-G. The implication of the mother in the crime (stanza 26), after stanza 5 informs us that the killing occurred because of frustration during the fight, makes little sense. The Flanders B version is more orthodox and like Child B. Here, the sweetheart is called Susan (the usual American name; Child has "Margaret"); the body which has been mourned from its grave is asked for a kiss; and the crime seems purposeful.
However, the opening needs some explanation. At first glance, line I makes the reader think the killing is over by the time the song opens. But this is merely confusing syntax and line I makes reference only to that Martyr John who was lately killed. C and D are fragments also in the general tradition of which Child B is a Part.
The six tunes for Child 49 can be divided into three groups, as follows: 1) Kennison tune I, Kennison tune III, and Barry, which correspond to BCI group A; 2) Delorme, and possibly Kennison tune II, which correspond to BCI group ts; and 3) the Edwards tune, which corresponds to the Appendix to Child 49 in BCI.
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BFSSNE- Vol 5; Notes by Barry
British Ballads
THE TWO BROTHERS.
(Child 49)
Sung at Cambridge, Mass., April 6, 1932, by Mr. Josiah S. Kennison, of Townshend, Vermont. Air transcribed from phonograph record by P. B.
1. Two brothers were going to school one day,
Two brothers were going to school;
Instead of going to school that day,
They thought the day too long,
And they thought the day too long.
2. The elder one he drew a knife,
A knife that was piercing sharp,
And he pierced it into his brother's side,
And he pierced it into his heart.
3. "O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If father should ask for me,
Just tell him I'm gone to yonder churchyard,
To fight for Liberty."
4. "O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If sister should ask for me,
Just tell her I've gone to yonder churchyard,
To learn my lessons free."
5. "O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If mamma should ask for me,
Just tell her I'm lying in yonder churchyard,
And I'm rnamma's boy no more."
Mr. Kennison, who sings his ballads in a light, easy ntbato-parlando manner, is one of the most pleasing of our Vermont songsters. This ballad was sung by him at the Annual Meeting of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast. The melody, to which Mr. Kennison sings also part of. The Jew's Daughter, is a worn-down set of the same come-all-ye air to which Mrs. Sarah R. Black, of Southwest Harbor, Maine, sang Little Musgratse and Lady Barnard. (See page 4.)
The present version has wandered far from what was the original theme of the ballad. The oldest form of this theme, or radical, the fatal rivalry of two brothers for the love of their sister, is told of Cain, Abel and their sister Luluwa in The Book of Adam and Eve, an early Egypto-Christian hagiograph (ed. S. C. Malan, pp. 94-104). Two southern texts (Sharp MSS., 882,916) have kept the "brother-sister fixation": elsewhere generally, as in Maine A, (British Ballad,s from Maine, p. 100), "Susan," no longer a sister, is the sweetheart of the younger brother, or, as in Mr. Kennison's text, the ballad has regressed to the infantile level.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that The Two Brothers, (Child 49), Lizie Wan (Child 51), in which a brother kills his sister for betraying their love, and Edward (Child 13), a ballad of fratricide, in which the motive is the love of a pre-nubile girl, are spalds of a common stock. Certainly, they supplement each other like parts of a picture puzzle.
P. B.
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[More Traditional Ballads from Virginia; Davis 1960. Notes by Kyle Davis Jr.]
THE TWA BROTHERS
(Child, No. 49)
Child prints ten versions of this ballad, one of the few known to him in an American version. It does not seem to persist in present-day tradition in either England or Scotland; at least it does not appear in either Margaret Dean-Smith's Survey or Gavin Greig's Last Leaves. Bronson (I, 384) confirms this observation. The ballad has often been collected in the United States, and eleven texts (all available) with six tunes were published in TBVa. The story changes little. Two brothers wrestle while coming home from school, and one is mortally wounded by the other's knife as a result of accident or jealousy, as in Child texts. Most Virginia texts indicate purposeful murder and are related to Child B; even when the wounding is accidental, the texts are verbally closer to Child B than to Child A.
Five versions have been collected since the publication of TBVa, one of them, EE, a later phonograph recording of version G in TBVa, there given without its tune. Of these five versions, only AA and DD retain the supernatural calling of the murdered brother from his grave by his sweetheart. In DD the idea is badly garbled, but the version is unusual in the names given the participants. The sweetheart is Fair Ellen, and the murderer Lord Thomas, seemingly taken over from "Lord. Thomas and Fair Annet," while the murdered. brother is named. Ben. In AA the blow is apparently struck from passion. In BB the murder weapon is a tomahawk, and the weapon is apparently used merely because the brother will not "play ball/Nor roll the marble stone." The bow and arrow which the dying youth wishes buried with him, coupled with the tomahawk, suggest Indian lore, but actually the bow and arrow request is English and is found in child B, leaving only the tomahawk as an American addition. In DD and EE the killing is intentional, but no clear motive is indicated. CC is the only version in which the wound seems to be accidental, but even here the dying brother seems to hint at jealousy as the motive by asking his brother to tell his sweetheart "it's for her sake I'm gone."
Interesting folklore beliefs are preserved in the ending of AA and perhaps DD: - young Susie's supernatural power to charm birds and fishes and young Johnny out of the grave, and the notion that the kissing of the deal is fatal. (See Wimberly, pp. 282-83.) In other texts (BB, cc) the ending is religious. EE is incomplete.
This ballad presents some of the finest" tunes of the collection, with a tune for every text, all except one tune minutely transcribed from phonograph records, and the one exception taken down from live performance by no less a hand than than of John Powell. Bronson (I, 384-402) prints forty tunes (with texts), plus a single variant as Appendix, and divides the forty into five groups, divided quite strictly according to the middle cadence. All forty-one variants are from American sources. Group A, of eight members, has a middle cadence on the tonic; Group B, with twelve variants, has a middle cadence on the supertonic; Group C, of ten entries, has a middle cadence on the dominant; Group D, seven members, has a middle cadence on the octave above; Group E, with three variants, contains anomalous cases; the single Appendix version is a too literary combination of "The Two Brothers', and "Edward" and is "disturbingly independent," both melodically and textually. Of the six tunes from TBVa, Bronson classifies E in Group A, H in Group B, A and I in Group C, and D and F in Group D: a very representative distribution, minus anomalies and questionable items. This Virginia record seems to corroborate Bronson's remark that "No marked regional distinctions are discernible" in his groupings. of the tunes below, AA falls into Bronson's Group C, EE into his Group A.
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Belden's notes, 1940 intro:
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.
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Two Brothers- Robert Shifflett (VA) c. 1959 Collected by George Foss
http://www.klein-shiflett.com/shifletfamily/HHI/GeorgeFoss/SONGS/song3.html
There was two brothers in one school room
One evening coming home
The oldest said to the youngest one
Let's have a rassle and fall
The oldest threw the youngest one
He threw him to the ground
And out of his pocket he drew a pen knife
He gave him a deathly wound
Pull off, pull off your woolen shirt
And tear it from gore to gore
And wrap it around my bleeding wound
And it will bleed no more
So he pulled off his woolen shirt
He tore it from gore to gore
He wrapped it around his bleeding wound
And it did bleed no more
Take me up, take me up upon your back
And carry me yonder church yard
And dig my grave both wide and deep
And gently lay me down
What must I tell your loving father
When he calls for his son John?
Tell him I'm in some lonely green woods
A' learning young hounds to run.
What must I tell your loving mother
When she calls for her son John?
Tell her I'm in some graded school
Good scholar to never return.
What must I tell your loving Susie
When she calls for her dear John?
Tell her I'm in some lonely graveyard
My books to carry back home.
When loving Susie heard of this
She got her horn and blew.
She charmed the birdies from the nest
The fishes out of the sea.
She charmed little Johnny out of his grave
Said Susie what do you want?
Oh one sweet kiss from your sweet lips
Is all my heart does crave
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 short on
Mary Wood Shiflett sings this strange version of an old ballad with its awkwardly disjointed melody recalling, "I learnt it from my father-in-law, Raz Shifflett (Robert Shifflett's father) settin' up to the fireplace playin' his fiddle and singin'. That's where I learnt it from."
Many times Robert Shifflett and Mary have told me of singing this song as children to "Professor" Stone, a local school teacher who had the love of old ballads. Indeed it appears in Traditional Ballads of Virginia by A.K. Davis as collected by Mr. John Stone in 1919. "Professor" Stone notes, "I got this song and its tune from Etta Shiflett, the little daughter of Raz Shiflett, of Blackwell's Hollow. She and her brothers can sing it." The brothers would be Mary's future husband [Dewey] and her brother-in-law, Robert Shifflett. It is amazing that from the version collected in 1919 to Mary's current recollection there is scarcely a word changed.
The ballad story given here is itself a strange mixture of old ballad tales. Onto the trunk of "The Two Brothers" has been grafted limbs from other old ballads, "Edward" and "The Unquiet Grave." Despite its hybrid nature, Miss Mary has frozen its form in her mind and it is unchanged for the last half century.
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Collected in 1959 from Charlotte Decker of Parson's Pond, NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.827-828, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965)
The Two Brothers (Collected by Kenneth Peacock) w/lyrics
Two nice little boys were going to school,
They walked all alone;
They wished they had gone to their neighbor's house,
To pay their welcome home, home,
To pay their welcome home.
"Oh, can you toss the ball," said he,
"Or can you sling a stone?"
"I am too small and I am too young,
Dear brother, leave me alone, lone,
Dear brother, leave me alone."
He then took out his little pen-knife,
And threw him on the ground;
He plunged it in his tender heart,
And the blood came streaming down, down,
And the blood came streaming down.
"Oh you take off my Holland shirt,
And tear it from gore to gore;
And wrap it around my deadly wound,
Dear brother, will it bleed any more, more,
Dear brother, will it bleed any more?"
Oh he took off his Holland shirt,
And tore it from gore to gore;
And wrapped it around his deadly wound,
But it bled still more and more,
But it bled still more and more.
"On Saturday night when you go home,
My mother will ask of me;
You tell her I've gone to see Jesus at school,
Where all the good scholars go, go,
Where all the good scholars go.
"On Saturday night when you go home,
My father will ask of me;
You tell him I'm dead and in my grave,
And buried in Johnstreet town, town,
And buried in Johnstreet town."
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
49. THE TWA BROTHERS
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 99 / Belden, Mo F-S, 33 / Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 55 / Brown Coll / BFSSNE, V, 6 / Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 17 / Child, 1, 443 / Cox, F-S South, 33 / Cox, Trd Bids WVa, Davis, Trd Bid Va, 146 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 26 / Haun, Cocke Cnty, 97 / Hudson, F"S Miss, 73 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-L, #7 / JAFL, XXVI, 361 ; XXVIII, 300; XXIX, 158; XXX, 294; XLVIII, 298; LII, 35 / JFSS, VI, 87 / Linscott, F-S Old NE, 278 / McGill, F-S Ky Mts, 55 / Morris, Flo, F-S, 388 / North American Review, CCXXVIII, 223 / Pound, Am Bids Sgs, 45 / Pound, Nebr Syllabus, 10 / Powell, 5 V& F-S, 15 / Randolph, Oz,
F-S, I, 76 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 1 66 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, # 1 1 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 69 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 7 / SFLQ, II, 65; VIII, 141 / Vt Historical Society, Proceedings, N.S., VIII, 1939, 102 / Va FLS Butt, :$:s 35, 7, 9, 10.
Local Titles: Billy Murdered John, John and William, Little Willie, Said Billie to Jimmie, Take My Fine Shirt, The Dying Soldier, The Rolling of the Stones, The Two Brothers, The Two School Boys, Two Born Brothers, Two Little Boys, Two Little Schoolmates.
Story Types: A: Two brothers wrestle (or fight in some way), and, because of jealousy over a mutual sweetheart (though this is often not clear), one pulls a knife and tills the other. Sometimes the older is the murderer; sometimes the younger. After the crime, there is a dying dialogue in which the killer asks his brother what he is to tell the family and the true-love. In some versions the dying lad's replies are actually repeated by the killer to the persons involved. Regardless, when the girl hears of the murder she charms the dead lover from his grave and requests a last kiss. The request is refused, and in a few texts the grief of the maid is revealed.
Examples: Davis (A); Belden; SFLQ, VIII, 141.
B: The story is the same as that of Type A, except the crime is accidental, rather than being the result of jealousy, passion, or the like.
Examples: Linscott; JAFL, XXVI, 361; XXIX, 158; SharpK (C).
C: The story is the same as that of Type A, except that all traces of the love affair and the jealousy have vanished.
Examples: Brewster (A, B); Davis (J); Randolph, Oz F-S (A, B, C).
D : From The Dying Soldier title and the absence of the murder, the story seems to have assumed a battlefield locale. It has become a plea for Willie to wrap "his" wound, carry him to the church, and bury him.
Examples: SFLQ, II, 66.
E : The murder happens as the result of spontaneous anger during a day-long test of strength between two brothers in the woods. The whole Type A story is included. Additional Edward, stanzas occur at the end and serve to add most the Type A of that ballad, as well as to implicate the mother in the crime. This last feature is in direct contradiction of The Twa Brothers
reason for the crime.
Examples: Vt. Historical Society, Proceedings.
Discussion: The American texts of this ballad may well be older than the Child B version which is the parallel of so many of them. Barry, Brit Bids Me, icoff. in relating his own texts with the SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplchns, and Me Gill, F-S Ky Mts, southern versions expresses this view and points to the marked similarities in the widely separated texts, as well as to the fact that no songbook copies exist.
Child B has major points in common with most New World versions (See Type A). The stabbing is on purpose and not accidental, the fe-ending is not present, and the kissing of the ghost motif (from Sweet William's Ghost, 77) appears. Generally, American versions name the girl Susie and not Margaret as in Child, though the boy's names, John and William, are re- tained. Usually, the brothers of Child become small boys whose age is incompatible with the events of the story.
Barry (BFSSNE, V, 6ff.) suggests the rivalry was originally for the incestuous love of the sister. Belden, Mo. F-S, 33 and SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, K lend support to this idea. Incestuous love is not uncommon to the ballad, as is indicated by Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 94. See also Child 11 and 51.
Other American texts follow Child A (my Type B) and the Child D-G series (my Type E). Type B simply has the accidental death, which is a well-established mitigation of the tragedy. Type E adds the Edward-snAing. With this addition, the Flanders, Ft. Historical Society, text goes even farther than the Child D-G series in modelling a new story about 49 by means of 13. The
implication of the mother is utterly out of place here because we are told earlier that the murder is the result of anger and frustration caused by the even struggle. For further study of this unique (to America) combination, Child G (the children's game); Cox, F-S South, 33; and Powell, 5 7a F-S (for similar start) should be investigated. See, as well, Morris (SFLQ, VIII,
140) who points out the relationships of The Twa Brothers to Edward, Sir Orfeo, and Sir Hugh in its theme, harping, and nursery language.
Type C stories reflect the process of forgetting. Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 79 prints a comment in a headnote that is revealing. " 'It was originally a long piece', she (his informant) said, 'about a fool boy who murdered his brother with a pocket-knife, just because he did not feel like playing baseball!" Type D may well relate to this same group, although the battlefield locale
seems to indicate localization. The Kirklands (SFLQ, II, 65) state that the singer believed the ballad to be a Civil War song. See also the last stanza of the Hudson, Spec Miss F-L, 7 text.
Two other American deviations worth note are the Chappell, F-S Rnke Alb, 17 version which is unusual in that the older boy throws the younger on a pit of stones before killing him and is told to inform the parents as well as the true-love where the body is buried; and the Haun, Cocke 'Cnty, 97 text which has a number of lines directed at mean school-teachers and has the
dying boy ask to have his teacher told he is going where he can get some peace. This latter song was collected from a little girl at school, which may account for the change. The Cox, Trd Bids W Va, 15 version is remarkable in that it opens with "girls a-rolling stone" as well as the usual boys playing ball.
Zielonko, Some American Variants of Child Ballads, 76ff. discusses a selected group of texts quite thoroughly.
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Pound gave a stanza of the version she collected in Washington (1909) that was learned in Missouri:
Folk-Song of Nebraska and the Central West- A Syllabus by Louise Pound 1915
5. Two Little Boys (The Two Brothers, Child 49). Two little boys going to school wrestle, and one of them is fatally though accidentally wounded by a "little penknife."
"Take off, take off thy fine cotton shirt
And tear it from gore to gore,
And bind it around that bloody, bloody wound
That it may bleed no more.
TWA BROTHERS, THE
Source Journal of American Folklore 29 (1916) p.158
Performer Sperlin, O.B.
Place collected USA : Washington : Tacoma
Collector Tolman, Albert H.
TWO BROTHERS (Raz shiflett's version) See Foss Shiflett 1959.
Source McNeil, Southern Folk Ballads 2 (1988) pp.136-138
Performer Shiflett, Mary Woods
Place collected USA : Virginia : Browns Cove
Collector Foss, George
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Missing:
TWO BROTHERS, THE
Source Parler, Arkansas Ballad Book pp.53-54
Performer Skaggs, Mrs. Evelyn
Place collected USA : Arkansas : Wayton
Collector Parler, Mary Celestia
TWO BROTHERS, THE c. 1960
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.827-830 (version b)
Performer Galpin, Mrs. Mary Ann
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : Codroy
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
MONDAY MORNING GO TO SCHOOL
Source Folktrax 907-60 ('Songs of the Southern Appalachians 1')
Performer Hensley, Emma
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Carmen
Collector Karpeles, Maud
Roud number 38 | Roud number search
TWO BROTHERS, THE
Source Folktrax 908-60 ('Songs of the Southern Appalachians 2')
Performer Fitzgerald, (Mrs. J. Puckett)
Place collected USA : Virginia : Afton
Collector Karpeles, Maud
TWO LITTLE BOYS
Source Sweeney: Kentucky Folklore Record 11:2 (1965) pp.22-23
Performer Shope, Mrs. Ernest
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector Sweeney, Margaret
BROTHER WON'T YOU PITCH A SHOE
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.201 item 13
Performer Woodyard, Mrs. Narcissa
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Glenville
Collector Combs, Josiah H. / Woofter, Carey
THREE LITTLE BABES
Source Mary Elizabeth Barnicle-Tillman Cadle Collection (Archives of Appalachia, E. Tenn. State Univ.) Disc BC-420
Performer Cabupp, Betty
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Knoxville
Collector Cadle, Tillman