US and Canadian Versions: Child 10. Twa Sisters (Two Sisters)- CONTENTS BELOW PHOTO
[Of the 155 versions in this collection, there are several covers, several recreated ballads, one country version by WLS star Bradley Kincaid and one "cowboy" version from 1932 featuring a yodel. I'm missing a few traditional versions (see list at bottom of this page) but not many.
This is an old ballad in the US and Canada surely dating back to the 1700s or possibly earlier but there are no documented versions before the Civil War (1864). It's possible, through family lines, to trace the ballad back much further. The excellent version with resuscitation stanzas by informant Nora Hicks, 1886-1953, of Sugar Grove, Watauga County, North Carolina, was copied by her daughter Addie and sent to Abrams around 1939. Her version came from her grandmother Fannie Hicks (1837–1914), who was Big Sammy's (Samuel Hicks 1753- 1835) granddaughter. Big Sammy's father was David Hix (also spelled Hicks) whose father, also Samuel Hicks, was born at Tuckahoe Creek along the James River shore in Virginia about 1695. It was Samuel's father or grandfather who first came to the Virginia Colony from England but further documentation has proven to be elusive. By the 1770s Samuel's son David and David's son Big Sammy had moved to Watauga County, NC bringing the family songs and ballads with them. There no way of proving when this version was learned but very likely it came to Virginia along the James River and on to North Carolina. This family version was likely passed from Big Sammy to Fannie Hicks to her granddaughter Nora:
There was two sisters loved one man,
Gilley flower gent the roseberry
The youngest one he loved first,
Till the jury hangs over the roseberry.
Nora's version dated 1939 but by the flower/herb refrains it's clearly an ancient English version. Not every version was retained from their forebearers like the Hicks-Harmon family- well known in that remote region of North Carolina for their folklore. What's even more remarkable is this version, which I would consider to be one of the most important US/Canada versions, is not even known- has not been published or talked about by folklorists. Because similar versions with the flower/herb refrains were documented by other family members, including Jane Hick Gentry (her daughter Maud Long) and Samuel Harmon both related to "Old Couce" Harmon who lived with his grandfather Big Sammy Hicks, the ballad can confidently dated to be at least as old as 1779 when Big Sammy settled in Watauga County.
There are few US and Canada versions that tell the tale of the harpist or fiddler that makes an instrument with strings from the murdered sister's hair and body parts, called resuscitation stanzas (see Barry BFSSNE). The Hicks version (mentioned above) is one on them. There are two basic types of forms in North America, the first represented by Child Y and found in many US versions (Child Z) is the stanzic trinary form (first line, refrain, first line, refrain, first line, second line, refrain). One version from the Brown Collection (Gordon, Brown C) uses the same form but with different refrains similar to Child B. The second type of form is the simple quatrain (4 lines) form usually two rhyming lines with alternating refrains. Two well known variants of the quatrain form are found in the US which feature a single line repeated and two refrains: one is "wind and rain" refrain and the other "Down by the Waters Rolling." The first extant version with the "wind and rain" refrain, was collected by Buchanan in West Virginia in 1931 from a Rev. Sims (Bronson No. 93) but is really a Virginia version. Similar versions were collected in the NC Appalachian region from Dan Tate (1941) and nearby neighbor Kilby Snow (learned circa 1913 and recorded in 1969).
The resuscitation stanzas are rare in the US and not found in Canada. The extant versions are Sims' version, Sharp A (Jane Hicks Gentry, NC), Maud Long's (variant of Gentry, her mom), Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight's version (NY), Henry C (Harmon TN), Kilby Snow's "Wind and Rain," Dan Tate's, Dragon's (Flanders F fragment), Nora Hick's (Abrams Collection) and Gordon's (Brown C). These are the few traditional versions that include making an instrument from the dead girl's hair and/or body parts. They are associated with the flower/herb refrain, the "wind and rain" refrain and the "waters rolling" refrain.
Kilby Snow's and also Dan Tate's “Wind and Rain” seems to be responsible for the recent (last 40 years or so) popularity of the "Wind and Rain" version. It's been covered by the Armstrongs, Jody Stecher, the Red Clay Ramblers and Grateful Dead--to name a few. I'm not including two "ballad recreations" in this collection from Thomas Smith (Davis AA- a blatant rewrite of Child B) and Patrick Gainer (Singa Hypsy Doodle- a standard text with two non-traditional stanzas tacked on at the end). Niles B and C versions are included but surely recreations.
The older tradition in the US and Canada, distinguished by the miller and sister both being punished, is found in Child Z, Flanders B, and Barry C. Usually in these older versions, the miller is hung and the sister burned at the stake. In the newer versions as distinguished by Child Y and many Appalachian versions, the sister Kate is murdered and the miller is hung on the mill gate-- while the murderous sister goes unpunished.
There are several large collections of US versions of "The Two Sisters" with the largest number from Virginia, Missouri and North Carolina:
1) SharpK "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians" 1932 has version A-N with several long texts.
2) Brown Collection of NC Folklore; dating as early as 1915, has A-E with several other versions with music from Volume 4.
3) Vance Randolph's "Ozark Folk Songs" has A-H under the heading, "The Miller's Daughters."
4) A.K. Davis' Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929 has A-K but three versions, F, G and J were collected by Sharp.
5) Belden's Folk Songs and Ballads from the Missouri Folkelore Society, 1940 has A-F.
6) Flanders Ancient Ballads has A-G.
7) Winston Wilkinson A-G music, with several texts in MS notebook. Bronson included the versions in 1959. Wilkinson worked with Kyle Davis Jr. and one version (his B) is found also in Davis's More Trad Ballads as BB.
8) Davis, More Traditional Ballads from Virginia AA-JJ, many with music. AA is a recreation by Thomas Smith from Child B, Horton Barker's version was collected by Halpert and Brown, several others were from Miss Davis in c1913 (Davis K is repeated but with music) and should have been in the 1929 book.
In the US there are distinct variants based on the refrain:
1) The standard refrain has "Bow down" or "Bow and balance to me" and usually ends, "If my love be true to me."
2) The 'Wind and rain" or "dreadful wind and rain" refrain as done by Kilby Snow (c. 1913) and Dan Tate (recorded 1941) and others. This version has been redone with modified lyrics by Jody Stecher, Jerry Garcia and others. Some of lyrics consist of one repeated line.
3) The "Florida" refrain as found in Morris' three version from Florida, "Rolling by Rolling," and "Down by the waters rolling." Another old version with this refrain is Mr. Ezra ("Fuzzy") Barhight's of Cohocton, New York and Bayard's Pennsylvania version.
4) The oldest North American versions have the "flower" refrains:
Gilley flower gent the roseberry
Till the jury hangs over the roseberry.
as found in Sharp A and Nora Hicks' version.
It's been pointed out by Barry and others that the refrain, "With a heigh-ho, the wind and the rain," in the song ca 1550 from the epilogue of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, "When that I Was a Little Tiny Boy" closely resembles the refrain "Oh, the wind and the rain" found in Kilby Snow's, and Dan Tate's versions titled, "The Wind and Rain." Shakespeare's refrain seems to be from tradition. Kilby Snow- Shakespeare, fact is stranger than fiction!
When that I Was a Little Tiny Boy
When that I was a little tiny boy
With a heigh-ho, the wind and the rain
A foolish thing was but a toy
For the rain it raineth ev'ry day
chorus: With a heigh-ho, the wind and the rain
For the rain it raineth ev'ry day.
But when I came to man's estate
With a heigh-ho, the wind and the rain
'Gainst thieves and knaves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth ev'ry day.
But when I came, alas!, to wive
With a heigh-ho, the wind and the rain
By swaggering never could I thrive,
For the rain it raineth ev'ry day.
A great while ago the world begun
With a heigh-ho, the wind and the rain
But that's all one, our play is done
And we'll strive to please you every day.
For a description of the ballad as a play-party dance see: The Twa Sisters- Rosie Hall (KY) 1939 from Jean Thomas', The Singin' Gatherin'. Thomas includes a detailed description and photos of the play-party dance and pantomime that accompanies the ballad. It appears p. 77-83 in her 1939 book, The Singin' Gatherin'. I have an autographed copy from my grandfather's collection.
Waltz the hall: The American Play-Party by Alan L. Spurgeon: "In a few songs the subject matter is tragic as in the "Two sisters" as performed by Nita Kinney of Kahoka in northeast Missouri." Botkin, also gives three play-party versions from Oklahoma in American Play-Party Song (1937). Botkin says, "As related to the square dance." In 1924 Raines commented " 'Bowee down!' and 'Bow and balance to me!' are a remnant from an old dance jingle, which was occasionally sung by dancers even after the music was furnished by the fiddle."
Barry points out three Scotch-Irish versions, the first is a Child MSS., XVIII, 20 from Iowa, via County Meath, Ireland which have the Swan Swims Bonny refrain. The Iowa text has never been published. The other two are from British Ballads from Maine, B, P. 42 and Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, K, p. 104.
I've found two MS versions from my grandfather's MS book, one is probably from Maryland- it's titled Balance Unto Me as sung by Thomas Furlow June 3, 1952, one stanza with music. The other with music is 6 stanzas and is titled "Bow Down" as sung by Clora Greene for m Allegheny County, NC; no date I assume it's from the mid-1930s before my grandfather moved to NY.
The Scottish "Binnorie" tradition was not brought to the US indicating that it is a later tradition. Only two versions have been found in the US. The Scottish "Bows of London" refrains have been collected in Maritime Canada apparently arriving with the early Scottish settlers in the fishing trade.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014, 2018]
The "Capture" of the Cruel Sister- 1939
Recordings: The first recording was made by Bradley Kincaid in 1928 on a 78 for Supertone (9212) titled "Two Sisters" backed by "The Green Grass Grew All Around." He learned the ballad from his mother Elizabeth Hurt Kincaid who sang the old songs. Bradley remembered, “She went further back. She sang the old English ballads. I learned a lot of ballads from her Like ‘Fair Ellender’ and ‘The Two Sisters.’ When my Mother used to sing the old blood curdlers to me my hair would stand straight up on my head!” Later he guessed he had learned as many as 80 songs from his parents. The text was published in "My Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old Time Songs," Bradley Kincaid, 1928 (See: Two Sisters- Bradley Kincaid, KY, 1928).
Here is the recording of "Peter and I" from Ammerman, Michigan), collected in 1931 [Click to play: Peter and I- Peggy Seeger]
CONTENTS (Approximate Chronological Order)- To open individual variants click on highlighted title or see attached to this page on left hand column:
1) The Fair Sisters- Smiths (VA) 1844 Davis AA-- From Davis, More Traditional Ballad of Virginia, 1960. This is a "ballad recreation" based on Child B by Thomas P. Smith, who collected songs and ballads for the Brown Collection when he lived in Zionville, NC. Some 20 years later he "contributed" this version to Kyle Davis Jr. By then Smith had moved to Palmyra, Virginia within Davis' collecting region. Although the date is given as 1844 the ballad was probably first created c.1930s when it was sent to Abrams (Abrams Variant 5) after which it was revised, removing the exact text of Child B, and sent to Davis, who accepted it as legitimate.
2) Bow Down- Moore (ME) c.1848 Barry BBM-- My title. From British Ballads from Maine, Barry Eckstrom, Smyth, 1929. Not given a letter. This fragment was given by the informant after it was read to her and is not so much a version as it is a reference of the age of this ballad.
3) The Twa Sisters- W. Maynard (RI) c.1864 Barry- From JAF 1905, Barry version A
4) Two Sisters- Joyce (ME) c.1867 Barry D-- From British Ballads from Maine, Barry, Eckstorm, Smyth, 1929. Taken down, September 8, 1927, from the recitation of Mrs. Oliver K. Joyce of Gott Island, off Mount Desert, aged seventy-four years, who said that this was the way the ballad was sung on that island sixty years before.
5) The Miller's Two Daughters- Hood (WV) 1868 Cox A--From Folk-Songs of the South, John Harrington Cox, 1925, w/music. Communicated by Miss Mabel Richards, Fairmont, Marion County, October, 1915; obtained from Mrs. John Hood, who learned it about forty-seven years ago.
6) There was an Old Woman- Lindsey (NE) 1870 Pound--From: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. Communicated by Professor Louise Pound, 1916. "In a manuscript collection of songs in the possession of Mrs. Mary F. Lindsey, of Hebron, Neb. Dated 1870." A summary of this version plus a single (last) verse was given by Pound in her 1915 Syllabus.
7) Down by the Waters Rolling- Griffin(FL) 1877 Morris A--From Folksongs of Florida; Alton Morris, 1950, pp. 235-36 with music. Mrs. G. A. Griffin was born in Dooly County, Georgia in 1863. In 1877 she moved to Newberry, Florida. She learned this song from her father, a fiddler, before 1877. This is the first version of a group of songs that uses the "Down by the waters rolling" refrain.
8) The Two Sisters- Ashby (MO) 1874 Belden C
Two Sisters- Woman (NY) 1883 Newell; Child U
Two Sisters- ladies (NY) 1886 Kittredge; Child Z
The Miller's Daughters- McCord (MO) c.1890 Rand G
Old Man in the Old Country (MO) c1890 Randolph E
O Sister- Purcell (VA) c.1890 Davis GG
The Two Sisters- Montague (VT) 1899 Flanders B
Peter and I- Ammerman (MI-NE) 1901 Gardner B
Old Man In The North Country- (KY) 1903 Belden A
Old Farmer in the Countree- Waters(MO) 1903 Belden B
The Two Sisters- H. M. R. (ME) 1905 Barry B JAFL
My Sister Kate- Williams (MO) 1909 Belden D
Lord Of Old Country- (KY) 1911 Combs and Shearin
Two Sisters- Carlisle (AR) 1912; Randolph F
The Wind and Rain- Kilby Snow (VA) c1913 Seeger
The Two Sisters- Carrier (Va) 1913; Davis E
Poor Sister Kate- Finchum (VA) 1913 Davis HH
Sister Kate- Arthur/Stone (VA) 1914 Davis D
The Miller's Daughter- Davis (VA) 1914 Davis K
The Old Man in the North Countree- VA 1915 Davis I
The Two Sisters- Crawford (Va) 1915; Davis C
Miller's Two Daughters- Barnett (WV) 1915 Cox B
The Two Sisters- (NC) 1915 Brown A
West Countree- Case(MO) 1916, Kittredge; Belden E
The Two Sisters- Jane Gentry (NC) 1916- Sharp A
The Two Sisters- Batter (VA) 1916 Sharp B
The Three Sisters- Chisholm (VA) 1916 Sharp C
The Three Sisters- Walton (VA) 1916 Sharp D
The Lady of the North Country- (VA) 1917 Davis H
Two Little Sisters- Knuckles (KY) 1917 Sharp F
Two Sisters- Henry (KY) 1917 Sharp G
The Three Sisters- Combs (KY) 1917 Sharp I
Daughters Three or Four- Franklin(KY) 1917 Sharp L
Beaver Hat- Combs (KY) 1917 Sharp N
Two Little Sisters- Deeton (NC) 1918 Sharp E
Three Daughters- Mayo (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
The Two Sisters- Mitchell (NC) 1918- Sharp H
The Three Sisters- Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp J
The Three Sisters- Blackard (VA) 1918 Sharp K
Dear Sister- Hughes (NC) 1918 Sharp M
Beaver Hat- Jones (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
Old Lord of the North- Furcron (VA) 1919 Davis A
Old Lady in the North Country- (WV-PA) 1919 Cox C
The Two Sisters- (MO-KY) 1920 Martin, Belden F
Two Sisters- Barhight (NY) pre1920 Stekert REC
Two Sisters- Walters (NL) 1920 Greenleaf/Mansfield
The Two Sisters- Gordon (NC) c1920 Sutton Brown C
Two Little Sisters- Jones (MS) c1923 Hudson
Sister- Pritchard (NC) 1924 Chappell
Old Woman of the North Countree- Pritt (VA) 1924 B
The Two Sisters- (AP) pre1924 Raine
There was an Old Farmer- McCue (WV) 1925 Cox
Two Sisters- Robbins (ME) 1926 Barry C
The Two Sisters- (S.. App) Richardson 1927
Two Sisters- Bradley Kincaid (KY) 1928 REC
The Twa Sisters- Clark, (NC) 1929; Henry A
Sometimes She Sank- Black (ME) 1929 Barry B
There Was An Old Jaynor- Justis (MO) 1930 Rand B
The Twa Sisters- Harmon (TN) 1930; Henry B
The Two Sisters- Harmon (TN) 1930; Henry C
The Oldest Sister- Goodhue (AR) 1930; Randolph A
Bow Your Bend To Me- Ritchie (KY) c1930 Moser
The Two Sisters- Nelson (TX-KY) pre1930 Dobie
The Two Sisters- Menefee (MO) 1931 JAFL
Two Little Girls- Sims (WV) pre1931 Buchanan
The Twa Sisters- Davis (VA) 1931, Davis EE
Bowie, Bowerie- Tolliver (KY) 1932 Niles B
Little Drownded Girl- Whetmore (KY) 1932 Niles C
The Two Sisters- Barker (NC) 1932 Brown F Vol. 4
The Two Sisters- Manoloff (IL) 1932 Vincent
Daughters Three- Williamson (VA) 1932 Wilkinson B
Bow Ye Down- Pedneau (VA) 1932 Davis JJ
Three Daughters- Prusser (AR) 1933; Randolph C
Old Lord by the Sea- Fugate (KY) 1933 Niles A
Two Young Daughters- Bender (MO) 1934 Rand D
The Two Sisters- Muchler (MI) 1934 Gardner A
The Wed Lady- Ogden (VA) 1934 Davis II
Old Woman Lived in the West- Corn (IN) 1935 Brew A
The Two Sisters- Morris (VA) 1935; Wilkinson A
Daughters Three- Reynolds (VA) 1935 Wilkinson C
Lord Mayor- Smith (VA) 1935 Wilkinson D
Daughters Three- Lewis (VA) 1935 Wilkinson E
Daughters Three- Lam (VA) 1935 Wilkinson F
Daughters Three- H. Lam (VA) 1935 Wilkinson G
Sister, O Sister- Chase (NC) 1936 Wilkinson H
Old Woman Lived in the West- Wilkin (IN) 1935 Brew
The Youngest Daughter- Eaton (VT) 1935 Flanders A
The Swim Swom Bonny- Butcher (WV) 1935 Bayard
Two Little Sisters- McCullough (IN) 1936 Brewster
The Two Sisters- Lovingood (NC) 1936 Scarborough
Bow Bans To Me- Bryant (IN) 1936 Brewster D
Two Little Sisters- Sistrunk (FL) 1936 Morris B
Two Little Sisters- Sineath (FL) 1936 Morris C
Old Woman Lived on the Seashore- Eno (IN) 1936
Two Little Sisters- Plumlee (OK) 1937 Botkin A
Bow-ee Down- Oldham (OK-AZ) pre1937 Botkin B
Old Woman By The Seashore- Monnett (OK) 1937 Botkin C
Daughters Three or Four- Milmine (TN) 1938 Horn
The Two Sisters- Barker (VA) 1939 Halpert REC
The Two Little Sisters- Jennings (OH) 1939 Eddy
There Lived An Old Lord- Hall (KY) 1939 Thomas
Old Man from North Countree- Kuykendall NC 1939
Miller, O Miller- Ball (VA) 1939 Halpert REC
The Two Sisters- Hicks (NC) pre1939 Walker/Abrams
The Two Sisters- Sullivan (VT) 1940 Flanders E
Balance Unto Me- Tucker (MD) pre1940 Carey
Prince by the Northern Sea- Ives (IL) 1940 REC Abr
The Two Sisters- Ledford (KY) c1940 Norris
The Dreadful Wind and Rain- Dan Tate (NC) 1941
Three Daughters- Johnson (NC) 1941 Brown 4-G
Three Old Maids- Rogers (AR) 1941 Randolph H
Two Little Sisters- Garrison (AR) 1942 Garrison
The Miller- Dragon (VT) 1943 Flanders F
Two Little Sisters- (NC) pre1943 Brown D
The Two Sisters- (NC) pre1943 Brown 4A
My Sister Kate- Frye (NC) 1944 Abrams/ Brown E
The Three Sisters- Price (RI-MA) 1945 Flanders C
The Two Sisters- Pine Mountain School (KY) 1946
The Two Sisters- Mayo (TX/NY/KY) 1948 Greenhaus
There Was an Old Woman- McAlexander (VA) 1948
The Two Sisters- White (CT) 1949 Flanders D
Old Man in the North Country- Lunsford (NC) 1949 R
Two Sisters That Loved One Man- Presnell NC 1951
The Two Sisters- Kazee (KY) 1954 Roberts
The Two Sisters- Maud Long (NC) 1955 Rec. Moser
The Two Sisters- Eddy (WV) 1957 Musick JAFL
Bow And Balance To Me- Huntington (MA) 1958 REC
Old Woman Lived on a Sea Shore- Brewer (AR) 1958
The Miller's Daughter- Smith (AR) 1958 Max Hunter
Bonny Busk Of London- Decker (NL)1959 Peacock
Two Sisters- Maguire (AR) 1959 Max Hunter
The Squire's Daughter- Curry(KY) 1960 Thomas REC
Two Daughters- Murray (UT) 1961 Hubbard
Wind and Rain- Collins (IL) 1961 Armstrong REC
The Two Sisters- Creighton (KY) 1962 Foss
The Two Sisters- (NL) 1963 Peacock
Rollin', A-Rollin'- Coltman (FL) pre-1963 REC
The Twin Sisters- Townsend (OK) pre1964 Moores
The Two Sisters- Galloway (OK) pre1964 Moores B
The Two Sisters- Shope (KY) 1965 Sweeney
Two Sisters- Hattie Presnell (NC) 1966 Burton
Lord of the North Country- Tuckwiller (WV) 1969
Two Sisters- Gilbert (AR) 1969 Max Hunter
The Sister's Murder- Gainer (WV) late1960s REC
Daughters Three- Hammons (WV) c.1960s REC
Bow Down- Furlow (MD) pre1971 Carey
Oh, the Wind and the Rain- Stecher (NY) 1977 REC
Wind and Rain- Red Clay Ramblers (NC) 1981 REC
_________________
Add:
The Two Sisters (Part 1)
by Mary Myers
Recorded by Alan and Elexabeth Lomax circa 1937
"Martin's Creek, Manchester", Clay Co. KY
1. There was a young man come courting there
Bow down, bow down
There was a man come courting there
O bow and balance[?] to me
There was a young man come courting there
He courted the youngest one there
I'll be true to my love if you'll be true to you
2 He bought the youngest a beaver hat;
The oldest, she wants no part of that.
3 O sister O sister let's walk the seashore brim;
The oldest pushed the young one in.
4 O sister O sister read me your hand,
Pull me back to the promised land.
5 I'll neither will read you my hand or my thumb;
For all I want is your true love
6 She swam her way up to old mill pond
The miller took her to be some swan.
7 The miller he caught her with his fish hook
He pulled the damsel out of the brook
----------------------
2B. All Bow Down- Cooke (WV) 1926 (Child 10)
[From: Traditional Ballads & Folk Songs Mainly from West Virginia- John Harrington Cox- 1939 Edited by George Herzog and Herbert Halpert 1939 and George Boswell, 1964.
R. Matteson 2014]
2B. - ALL BOW DOWN
(The Twa Sisters, Child, No. 10)
Communicated by Miss Margaret Nestor, Ocoana, Wyoming County, 1926. Obtained from Miss Dixie Cooke, Cyolone.
1. There was an old woman lived on the seashore,
All bow down,
There was an old woman lived on the seashore,
She had some daughters, three or four,
All bow down.
2. The youngest one she had a beau,
The oldest one she didn't know.
3. The youngest one's beau bought her a beaver hat,
The oldest one she didn't like that.
4. "Oh sister, oh sister, let's walk the seashore,
And watch the wild waves as they race o'er.
5. As they were walking out on the seashore,
The oldest one pushed the youngest one o'er.
6. "Oh sister, oh sister, please lend me your hand,
I'll bring you safe on to dry land."
7. "I neither will lend you my hand nor my glove,
For all you want is my own true love."
8. She bowed her head and away she swam,
She swam till she came to the miller's dam.
9 The miller threw out his drifting hook,
And brought the dead maid out of tho brook.
10 The miller was hung at his own mill door,
For bringing the dead maid to the shore.
11 This lady was hung at her own yard gate,
For drowning her sister Kate.
--------------------
"Bow and bend to me" from The complete annotated Grateful Dead lyrics: Page 76; This line and a number of variations are used as a refrain in the ballad "The Two Sisters" ( Child #10, Sharp #5). Bronson writes:
"This ballad is still in active traditional life, especially in those regions of the USA where the `play-party' dancing custom has persisted. In many variants the words of the refrain affirm the association..."(p. 34). [Bronson is referring to "Bowee down" (Bow ye down) and also "Bow and balance to me," both dances calls. See Botkin's 1937 book, American Play-Party Songs, for references and examples.]
Some of the variants found in Bronson and Sharp:
Bow it's been to me
The bough has bent to me
Bow and balance to me
The bough has been to me
The boughs they bent to me
The boughs were given to me
The boys are bound for me
The vows she made to me
And thou hast bent to me
Of these variants, one is of particular note: "Bow and balance to me," because it is a dance step. The balance is described as follows in the Country Dance Book:
"Balance Partners: Partners face each other, then each step to the side with right foot, point toe of left foot in front, step back to place with left and point toe of right foot in front of left foot."(p. 34)
You may see this step executed at the start of almost every dance at any contra dance in the U.S. today, and it is a very courtly step, lending the dance an air of chivalry.
----------------------
From Flanders, Ancient Ballads, Vol. 1, 1966, The Twa Sisters (Child 10)
[Notes by Coffin]
One finds more confusions and more plot variations in the versions of this song than in those of any other Child ballad. Texts A-C below follow the most common English pattern: the "singing bones" motif is absent; the "bow down, I'll be true" refrain is used; the miller robs the drowning girl, shoves her back in the water, and is later executed; and the events teeter on the edge of comedy. In A and B the elder sister is burned at the stake. C, in which the two sisters, one drowned, flee "beyond the seas"; D, in which the miller is the father and lover of the girls and rescues the younger; and E, in which "to church they all did go" at the end, are quite typical of the mix-ups that can occur in this song. C, it would appear, has been learned in some fashion or other from Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland (English County Songs [London, 1893], 118). For texts similar to D, see JAF, XVIII, 131, and J. Harrington Cox, Folk Songs of the South (Cambridge, 1925), 2A. For one similar to E, see Harold Thompson's Body, Boots, and Britches (New York, 1940), 393. Songs such as the F fragment which actually include the harp made from the dead girl's body are rare in America. See Belden, 17, for a list of the few texts that preserve this trait which Child called the germ of the ballad. Archer Taylor, who studied the British backgrounds of this song in JAF, XLIII, 238 L., concludes that American variants with their use of the "beaver hat" (see A and D below) and their failure to describe the yellow hair of the victim (see A-E below) are from English, rather than Scottish, sources. For a bibliography, as well as an extensive cataloguing of story variations that have been worked off this English theme in America, see Coffin, 38-42. For a start on a British bibliography, see Dean-Smith, 113; Ord, 430 f.; and Greig and Keith, 9 f. Barry includes the song in British Ballads from Maine, 40.
The story itself is widespread in Europe in both tale and ballad form. Paul Brewster has recently done a complete study of "The Twa Sisters" in FFC, No. 147 (1953). He also included a good working bibliography to both the tale and the ballad in his Ballads and Songs of Indiana (Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series No. I [Bloomington, 1940], 42-43). He feels the song began in Norway before 1600, spread through Scandinavia, and then to Britain and the west. However, he indicates that the folktale tradition (see Aarne-Thompson, Mt. 780) is Slavic in origin. Harbison Parker's remarks in JAF, LXIV, 347-60, are not out of sympathy with this point of view.
In the light of this scholarship, it is fascinating to find a Polish version of the ballad like G in New England. Mrs. Stankiewicz' text, in which the younger sister is murdered during a raspberrying contest and in which the flute is made from reeds at the grave, is probably a folk variant of a ballad "Maliny," written in 1829 by Alexander Chodzko (1804-91). See Phillips Barry's detailed discussion of this text in BFSSNE, X, 2-5, and XI, 2-4. Pertinent bibliography beyond what is given there can be had by consulting the following: Paul Brewster's monograph cited above; the earlier study by Lutz Mackenson in FFC, No. 49 (Helsinki, 1923); Child, I, 124-25; and Jonas Balys, Lithuanian Narrative Folksongs (Washington, D.C., 1954), G7, 119-20. In Slavic countries it is more common to find "The Twa Sisters" as a tale than as a ballad. See also, BFSSI/E, VII, 14, for a Swedish-American text.
The five tunes for Child 10 fall into three categories: 1) The versions sung by Eaton, Price, and White are fairly closely related, corresponding to group Ba in BC1 with the Eaton version a simplified form of the other two. The Montague tune corresponds to group Bd in BC1, being distantly related to the others, while the Polish melody does not seem to have musical relationship to any Anglo-American ballad tunes.
-----------------
Brewster's notes: Ballads and Songs of Indiana, 1940
Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series
THE TWO SISTERS (Child, No. 10)
Three good texts and two fragments of this ballad have been recovered in this state. All of them belong with Child R.
For American texts, see Campbell and Sharp, No. 4; Cox, No. 3 (fragment); Gray, p. 75; Hudson, No. 3; Hudson, Folksongs, p. 68; Journal, XVIII, 130; XIX, 233; XXX, 286; XLIV, 295; Pound, Ballads, No. 4; Scarborough, Song Catcher, p. 164; Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 7 (fragment); Thomas, p. 70; Smith and Rufty, p. 2; Greig, Last Leaves, pp. 9-13; BFSSNE, III, 21; VI, 5; VII, 14; IX, 4-6; X, 10; Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands, p. 38; Cox, Traditional Ballads, Mainly from West Virginia, pp. 6, 8; JFSS, I, 253; II, 283; Gordon, Folk-Songs of America, p. 65; PTFLS, X, 141; Stout, Folklore from Iowa (MAFLS, XXIX), p. 1; Botkin, The American Play-Party Song, pp. 338, 339; Neal, Brown County Songs and Ballads, No. 37; Randolph, Ozark Mountain Folks, p. 211.
The ballad is widespread in the Scandinavian countries, where it is known as "Systrarna," "Den talende Strsengeleg," "Dei tvo systar," "Den talende Harpe," "Den underbara harpan," "Systermordet," "Horpu-rima," etc. For Scandinavian versions, see Grundtvig, Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, II, 512-17; III, 875-78; Jyske Folkeminder, X (1889), 69-71, 375-78; Geijer and Afzelius, Svenska Folkvisor (ed. Bergstrom and Hoijer), I, 72; III, 16; Arwidsson, Svenska Fomsdnger, II, 139 f.; Skattegraveren, IV (1885), 161; Sandvik, 0. M., Folke-Musik i Gudbrandsdalen, pp. 102-3; Rancken, J. O., Ndgra prof af folksong och saga i det svenska Osterbotten, pp. 10-12; Wigstrom, Skdnska Visor, Sagor och Sagner, p. 4; Andersson, Den Aldre Folkvisan (Finlands Svenska Folkdiktning, V1), pp. 75-86; Lindeman, Norske Fjeldmelodier, I, 9; II, 103.
The motif of a murder's being revealed through an inanimate object made from the corpse or associated with it, present in only three or four American texts of the ballad, appears frequently in the oral literature of many peoples. See, e.g., RTP, II, 125, 365 f.; IV, 463; V, 178; VI, 500; VII, 223; Archivio per lo studio delle trad, pop., Ill, 71; Romania, VI, 565; Gonzenbach, Sicilianische Marchen, No. 51; de Gubernatis, Le tradizioni popolari di S. Stefano, p. 154 f.; de Vasconcellos, Tradicoes populares de Portugal, p. 125 f.; Coelho, Contos populares de Brasil, p. 57 f.; Nigra, Canti del Piemonte, No. 19; Journal, IV, 267 ("La Stregha Chitarra"); (his Volksleven, II, 67; VII, 83; Monseur, Bulletin de Folklore Walien, I, 39 f.; Dykstra, Uit Frieslands Volksleven van vroegeren alter, II, 99; de Mont and de Cock, Vlaamsche Wondersprookjes, p. 195 f.; Melusine, I, 423; Doncieux, Romancero frangais, p. 36; Meyrac, Traditions, coutwmes, legendes et contes des Ardennes, p. 486 f.; Sebillot, Litterature orale de la Haute-Bretagne, pp. 220-26; Camoy, Litterature de la Picwdie, p. 236 f.; Grimm, No. 28; Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum, III, 35; Erk-Bohme, Aederhort, I, 26; Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern u. Rilgen, pp. 399-401; Schneller, Mdrchen zu Sagen aus Walschtirol, No. 51; Afanasjew (Afanasiev), Russische Volksmdrchen, II, No. 137d; Sklarek, Ungarische Volksmdrchen, p. 195 f.; Woycicki, Polnische Volkslieder, p. 105; Naake, Slavonic Fairy Tales, p. 170 f.; Waldau, Bomische Granaten, II, 97; Rud-chenko, South Russian Popular Tales, I, Nos. 55, 56; II, No. 14; Nesselmann, Littauische Volkslieder, p. 320 (=Rhesa, Dainos, p. 231); Ulmann, Lettische Volksliede\r, p. 199; Lewestam, Polnische Volkslied, p. 105; Lagus, Nyldndska Folkvisor, I, 27; Kristensen, Jyske Folkeminder, I, 253; X, 68, 375; Land-stad, Norske Folkeviser, No. 53; Hammershaimb, Fssrtfsk Anthologi, No. 7; Studach, Schwedische Volksharfe, p. 78; Revue Celtique, II, 199.
For discussion of "The Two Sisters" and its ballad and prose analogues, see Taylor, "The English, Scottish, and American Versions of 'The Two Sisters," in Journal, XLII (1929), 238-46; Mackensen, Der singende Knochen (FFC, 49); Ploix, "L'os qui chante," in RTP, VIII, 129-41; Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, I, 49, 54, and Aufsdtze ilber Mdrchen und Volkslieder, p. 79 f.; Bolte-Polfvka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmdrchen der Brilder Grimm, I, 260-76; Norlind, Studier i Svensk Folklore (Lunds Uni-versitet Arsskrift, NF Afd. 1, Bd. 7, Nr. 5), p. 139 f.; Hartland, The Legend of Perseus, I, 192 f.; Barry, "The Two Sisters: Prolegomena to a Critical Study," in BFSSNE, III, 11-14; and the study of Liestol in Maal og Minne (1909)
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BFSSNE, No. 9, 1935 [Collected and presented by Samuel Bayard, followed by critical commentary by Phillips Barry, editor of the Bulletin.]
British Ballads
THE TWO SISTERS
(Child 10)
"The Swim Swom Bonny." Sung by Mr. Nicholas w. Butcher, native of Hundred, Wetzel County, West Virginia. S. P. B.
1 'Dear Sister, dear Sister, let's take a walk-
Hey oh, my Nanny!
"To see the ships a-sailing o'er-
And the swim swom bonny!
2 As they were walking along the sea shore,
The oldest pushed the youngest in.
She bowed her head and away she swam,
And she swum till she come to the miller's dam.
4, (Crying) "Miller, oh miller, it's stop your mill,
For yonder comes a swan or a milk white maid."
5 'The miller threw out his old grab hook;
He fetched her safely from the brook.
The- miller got her pretty gold ring,
And pushed her back in the brook again.
She bowed her head and away she swum,
Till she came to her eternal home.
The miller. was hung in his own mill-gate,
For drowning of my sister Kate.
All of my other versions of The Two Sisters belong to the vulgate southern form, both as to words and airs. This version has the teat of the southern vulgate form (except perhaps for stanza 4) but its air and refrain belong to the Scoto-Irish tradition (FSSNB., Bulletin 3, pp. 20-21). I think this air is a variant of Stanford-Petrie No. 688. Nicholas Butcher does not know where, or from whom he learned to sing the ballad this way. He sings these same words, also, to a form of the southern vulgate air, with appropriate refrains, thus:
[music upcoming]
The close similarity between the first lines of this air and that of Hey oh, my Nanny suggests that the vulgate air has had an influence on the Scoto-Irish air. The Scoto-Irish air and refrain, Mr. Butcher called: "another way of singing The Sea Shore."
Samuel, P. Bayard,
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
We are much indebted to Mr. Bayard for this very unusual version of The Two Sisters. Conflation of texts, done unhesitatingly by Scott (Child C, from Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, II, 143) and apologetically by recent editors of popular anthologies, is something the folk has always done, though detection of it is difficult. Ballad tradition is by no means as simple as has been supposed. We have elsewhere noted (FSSNE., Bulletin 3, p. 13), that in the case of the Edinboro type of the Scottish tradition, the original Binnorie air of the ballad has been replaced by the Edinboro air of The Cruel Mother, with a resultant change of refrain. In the present instance we have proof of the use of two different airs, each with its own refrain, by the same singer, showing that the refrain belongs not to the text, but to the air, and, being the least stable part of the ballad, is not surely the oldest.
The Scoto-Irish tradition is a survival of a nearly extinct Scottish tradition, which early made its way to Ireland. Ten versions or fragments of it are known:
1. Child C* (J. C. Walker's text, combined by Scott with Mrs. Brown's text, Child B*--long lost, but since recovered from the Ritson-Rosenbach transcript of W. Tytler's manuscript --to form Child C).
2. Child G (Motherwell's MS., p. 104, ESPB., I, 131).
3. Child J (Notes and Queries, 4 ser., V, 23, from N. Ireland, ESPB, I, 132).
4. Child P (Motherwell's MS., P. 245, ESPB., I, 135: melody with one stanza in Motherwelf's Minstrelsy, p. xx., ed. Ticknor, Boston, 1846, pp. 274-5, FSSNE., Bulletin 3, P. 21).
5. Child DD (Child MSS., XVIII, 20, from Co. Meath, Ireland).
6. Child EE (Cunningham, Songs of Scotland, II, 109, one stanza, ESPB., I, 119).
7. Petrie 688.
8. Kidson, JFSS., II, 285, from an Irish singer in Liverpool.
9. Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, K, p. 104.
10. Bayard Collection, Scoto-Irish A, printed in this Bulletin.
Child C*, communicated to Scott by J. C. Walker, Esq., author of Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, was "transcribed . . . from the memory of an old woman who had no recollection of the concluding verses; probably the beginning may also be lost, as it seems to commence abruptly" (Scott, l. c., ed. Lockhart, p. 170). Scott quotes the first stanza with the refrain which is diagnostic for texts of the Scoto-Irish tradition:
"O sister, sister, reach thy hand!
Hey ho, my Nanny, O:
And you shall be heir of all my land,
While the swan swims bonny, O."
A collation of Child C with Child B* gives the following results :
Stanzas 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, not of the tradition of Child B*;
Stanzas 10, 12, 13, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, correspond to nothing in Child B*;
Stanzas 10, 12, 22, 23, 25, 26, represented elsewhere in Scoto-Irish texts;
Stanza 13, in incremental sequence with child G, 7;
Stanza 27, "yonder stands my brother Hugh," unique, but absolutely genuine.
On the basis of the collation, stanzas 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 of Child C, together with the stanza quoted
by Scott, are to be assigned to Child C*, Walker's text, the oldest actual record of the Scoto-Irish tradition.
Stanza 4, of Mr. Bayard's text is sersungen, it may have been originally:
"Miller, oh, Miller, it's stop your mill-dam,
For yonder comes a maid or a milk-white swan,"
that is, nearly as in Child Q, 12, a Scottish text of the fourth type: compare also the Type I Scottish text, Child M, 12, and the Scoto-Irish texts, Child G, 11, P. 13. The rhyme "dam . . swan" is Scottish (Taylor, JAFL., XLII, 238, fr.), but it exceeds the warrant of fact to regard the two rhymes "dam . . swan" and "swan . . woman" as diagnostic for Scottish and English tradition, respectively. Both rhymes are found in a conflate stanza of a purely Scottish text, Child CC, 12 (ESPB., IV, 449) overlooked by Dr. Taylor.
The swan-trait is old: it is in Child's archaic Scottish texts, V , 12 and CC, 12 (ESPB., I, 494, IV, 449) and has in the Scoto-Irish tradition only been carried over into the refrain. We doubt not a Scandinavian origin, even though no known Scandinavian text has it. There is good reason why the floating body at a distance might suggest a "milk-white swan." In the Scandinavian tradition of the ballad, the elder sister invites the younger to bathe in the sea-a trait sporadically surviving in both Scottish and Anglo-American texts, Child F1, 5; V, 7-8; U, 2--and, as she stands on the buck-stone, pushes her into deep water. As the two sisters were following the custom of their country, the body was nude when seen by the fishermen (Swedish B, in Geijer-Afzelius, III, 16), in contrast to the condition of overdress depicted incrementally in Child B*, B, 20-22; V, 14-18, and by inference in the Anglo-American texts, in which the rniller strips the body, but lacking in all known versions of the less sophisticated Scoto-Irish tradition.*
P. B.
* These comments are excerpted from Editor's monograph, The Two Sisters, A Critical Study"
Addenda THE TWO SISTERS (addenda by Bayard then additional comments by Barry)
(Child 10: Addenda to FSSNE., 9, pp. 4-6)
Additional and variant lines to "The Swim Swom Bonny" (The Two Sisters, Child No. 10); sung by Mr. Nicholas W. Butcher, Hundred, West Virginia, in the summer of 1935.
Coming before the first stanza as printed in FSSNE., 9, p. 4, by N. W. B., in 1935:
'There was an old woman lived on the sea shore,
Hey oh, my Nanny!
She had some daughters, some three or four,
And the swim swom bonny (or, bony)
He gave to her a guinea gold ring,
And to the other, much nicer thing.
Second verse of the second stanza, as varied
The oldest pushed the youngest o'er (or, off).
First verse of stanzas three and seven, as varied by N. W. B., in 1935:
It's first she sank and then she swam.
Following stanza three:
The miller's daughter a-being at need
For to get some water to mix her bread.
There was no variation in the tune, as far as I could determine. (Oct. 3, 1935.)
Samuel, P. Bayard,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Barry: We congratulate Mr. Bayard for his recovery from tradition of the foregoing additional lines and stanzas; particularly the last with its curiously Celtic mid-rhyme, which is diagnostic for the older Scottish tradition (Child D, 12; E, 9; H, 12; I, 10; Q, 11; V, 11; W, 5; BB, 15a; CC, 11) and for the Scoto-Irish tradition (Child G, 10 ; P, 12; Kidson, 1, 3; Davis K, I). In the Anglo-American tradition, the traditional air to which, though independent of the Scando-Scotic Binnorie, is also Nordic, a form of the Scandinavian Hafsfrun (FSSNE., Bulletin 7, p. 14), this stanza, possibly not original, is found only sporadically and in a corrupt form: compare Child Rc, 6 (here quoted from the original source, T. Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse, p. 225):
The miiler's daughter stood by the door,
Hey-down, &c.
As fair as any gilly-flow-er.
And I'll, &c.
Compare also Child Ra, 8; Rb, 8 i Y, 9. No known American version of this group has it.
We take occasion here to print the melody to the first Scoto-Irish version of The Two Sisters found in America (text in Davis, traditional Ballads of Virginia, p. 102). It was sent to us, April 1, 1931, by Miss Martha M. Davis, Harrisonburg, Virginia, as obtained from the singing of her aunt. The ballad of sung in braid Scots: "so" pronounced "saer," and "bread," "brede."
[music upcoming- See also Davis K)
This melody is a set of the form of the Scando-Scotic Binnorie, associated with the Scoto-Irish tradition. As sent in, it lacks tonal unity: phrase 1 is out of key. If this phrase be transposed, as indicated in the score, unity is secured, and the set shown to be closely related to Kidson's (JFSS, II, 28b); less so to Mr. Bavard's (FSSNE, Bulletin 9, p. 4).
P. B.
--------------------
BFSSNE, Vol. 12, 1937
[J. Levi Sims' important "Wind and rain" version. According to Buchanan: His father of Irish descent, born in Aiken County, SC, later moving to Walker Mountain area, north of Marion Virginia, where Levi was born. Grandfather Sims was born near Belfast Ireland.]
THE TWO SISTERS
(Child 10)
From Rev. J. L. Sims, Pageton, West Virginia, and his daughter, Mrs. Elziebell Ferguson, Marion, Smyth County, Virginia. Collected by Miss Annabel Morris Buchanan, Marion, Va., Oct. 13, 1931. Text printed in Adventures in Virginia Folkways Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 31, 1936.
1 Two little girls in a boat one day--
Oh, the wind and rain--
Two little girls in a boat one day,
Crying, oh, the wind and rain.
2 They floated down on the old mill dam-
Oh, the wind and rain-
They floated down on the old mill dam,
Crying, oh, the wind and rain.
3 Charles Miller came out with his long hook and line, etc.
4 He hooked her out by the long yellow hair, etc.
5 He made fiddle strings of her long yellow hair, etc.
6 He made fiddle screws of her long finger bones, etc.
7 And the only tune the fiddle would play, etc.
Mr. Sims was born in Marion, Virginia, and lived there until a few years ago, when he moved to West Virginia. He learned
the song as a child, from his own people, as I remember.
ANNIBEL MORRIS BUCHANAN,
Marion, Virginia
This version of The Two Sisters is unique: it is perhaps the most primitive that has survived in English tradition. It is one of three American versions that have kept the resuscitation-ritual (FSSNE., 10, 2-4): the other two being Sharp-Karpeles
A (I, 26), and Henry C (JAFL, XLV, 7) neither of which, however, in the confused account of events that they give, has
retained the lover as the agent of the ritual. Traditionally, it is important also in that it enables us to unify the Old English (Child A, L) and the Anglo-American sub-groups of texts.
We have shown that the earliest treatment of the theme made the sisters three, and their brother the agent of the ritual
(FSSNE., 10, 2-4). By fission, the character of the brother emerges as two persons, brother and lover: compare the Scoto-Irish Child C*, 27--obtained by Sir Walter Scott from the Irish historian J. C. Walker, Icelandic A (S. Grundtvig and J. Sigurdson, Islensk Fornkvaedi, pp- 87, ff.) of the 17th century, is the oldest version making the lover find the corpse and construct the symbolic body:
16 Bidillin Eekk a sandi,
Thar likiil rak ad la'ndi;
17 Hann tok hennar hvita hold:
Grof hann thad i vigda mold;
18 Hann tok hennar gula har,
Gjiirdi ur horpustrengi thrja.
("The wooer walked on the sand:
there the body came to land;
he has taken her white lichame
And buried it in the moist mould;
he taken her golden hair,
made of it three harp-strings.")
In Old, English A (Child A), 7, the miller finds the body and makes of it the magical harp, as also in Old English Be (Cf. Le, ESPB, VIII, 418), of-which texts, the former was printed in 1666, the latter traced traditionally to 1747. Both have been vulgarized to the comic; Child La, Lb, more than Lc, but this fact does not invalidate their evidence for the development of the theme, as is shown very clearly by Lb, 9, 14 (Hughes, The Scouring of the White Horse, pp. 228-9):
1: He laid his fiddle on a shelf
In that old manor-hall,
It played and, sung all by itself,
And thus sung his fid-doll: . . . "
14: Now when this fiddle thus had spoke
It fell upon the floor,
And into little pieces broke,
No word spoke never more.
(Compare Esthonian: FSSNE., 10, 2, Swedish C, Grundtvig, DgF, II, 840, in which the breaking of the harp, the symbolic body, is followed by the resurrection of the young sister). More clearly, however, than in either Old English A, or Old English B, is the miller- personalized as Chirles Miller--implied the lover of the younger sister in Mr. Sims's version. The Aberdeenshire Scottish tradition, Child M; Greig, Last Leaves, pp. 9-73, 250-51, names the miller as the lover, also Barry A, of the Anglo-American tradition (JAFL., XVIII, 130):
The miller, he loved the youngest one,
But he was loved by the eldest one.
It is thus in keeping with the old English form of the theme, that in Barry A, the miller --the lover of the younger sister
--should find her body.
The reason for making the miller the lover in Old English and Anglo-American tradition may be circumstantial to the locale of the ballad. The younger sister is "taken for a walk"--an old, popular euphemism for premeditated murder-- to
"the sea brym" (Child A, 1); till sajafar floda "a tidal inlet" (Icelandic A, 3), a "navigable ship-channel, with deep water and strong current, was suitable for a mill-site, with a good, chance that a body, caught in the undertow, might be sucked into the sluiceway, to be found by the miller. Since the early tradition of Icelandic A makes the lover find the body, the miller and the lover were made the same person in the Old English tradition. Only in later tradition, the Scottish Child H, and the Anglo-American tradition exclusive of Barry A, is the miller, no longer the lover, because of the knavery of English lllers generally, reduced to the part of the villain (FSSNE., 11, 16). Unique in the tradition of the ballad is the refrain: compare "with hey, ho, the wind and the rain" (Twelfth Night, Epilogue, sung by the Clown; King Lear, The Fool's Song, III, 21 74, ff.).
Mr. Sim's melody is musicologically rather puzzling. It is regressive - in its tonality (see above, p. 5), yet in the first
and last phrase, shows clear affinities with the music to the Scoto-Irish tradition of The Two Sisters (FSSNE., 9, 4; 10, 10-11; JFSS., II, 285) which, in the present state of our knowledge, we regard as a re-creation of the Scando-Scotic air Binnorie. Moreover, it appears related to a large sub-group, traditional in Britain and America. The oldest set of this group, Ladie Cassiles Lilt (Skene MS., ed. W. Dauney, Old Scottish Melodies, p. 228) by its amtivalent cadence, la-do'-sol, conditioned the traditional development as either la-do, or la-sol. Compare, for example, The Gupsy Laddie, J. Johnson, The Scots Musical Museum, No. 181 (regressive set); Watlen, Johny Faa, or, The Gypsy Laddie (normal set; identical, except for the closing note).
We are forced to the conclusion that the number of originally distinct British folk melodies is small; increasing, however,
traditionally, through what may be called secondary differentiation.
P. B.
-------------
The Psychopathology of Ballad Singing
(Condensed from paper read by Phillips Barry at Annual Meeting of The American Folklore Society, Andover Mass., December 28, 1935.)
We shall show that, in the re-creation of popular ballads, one important factor is the presence of psychopathological traits in folk-singers. The Anglo-American tradition of The Two Sisters exists in three types:
Type I: Barry A, JAFL, XVIII, 130-31; the miller is the lover of the murdered sister.
Type II: Maine C, BES., British Ballads from Maine, pp. 42-3; the miller and the elder sister share guilt and penalty.
Type III: Child Y* (Percy MSS, 129), Y, BSPB., I, 495; the miller alone is put to death for the murder of the younger sister, Kate. Whereas Dr. Archer Taylor has referred to our unique Type I text as corrupt, (JAFL., XLII, p. 244 footnote 1). we call attention to the fact that in the important Aberdeenshire tradition (Child M, Greig, Last Leaves, pp. 9-13; 250-51), the miller is the lover of the younger sister: in one text (Greig, p. 251), he identifies the body by her engagement ring.
Ballad convention, generally, made the miller a rogue (Roxburghe Ballad's, VIII, 610), ready for any crime from petty larceny from robbing the dead (The Two Sisters, Child H, 14) and murder (Type II, III, in which he rescues the younger sister, strips her and throws her back to drown). Back of the ballad is always the ballad singer, who constantly intrudes his critical personality: hence the rise of folk in Type III, to spare the elder sister, either by commutation of the death penalty to a penance-voyage (Child, Rb, 14a, Rc, 14a, FSSNE., Bulletin 5, p. 20; 7 p.7), by letting her go unpunished (Child Y*, Davis C, Traditional Ballad's of Virginia, PP. 96-7).
A little over fifty years ago, the late Mr. W. W. Newell sent Child a fragment of the Two Sisters which Child subsequently printed (U, in ESPB, I, 137) with a misreading of the clearly written "west" (I, 1) as "mist." On April 26, 1935, Mrs. Helen H. Flanders recorded version of the ballad so closely related to Child U that we assign it to the same tradition. This version is here printed by courtesy of Mrs. Flanders:
The Youngest Daughter. Sung by Mr. Amos J. Eaton, South Royalton, Vermont, as learned from his mother in Sutton, Vermont. Text and air transcribed by H. H. F.
[music upcoming]
I There was a man who lived out west-
Lived out west, lived out west;
There was a man who lived out west;
He loved his youngest daughter best.
2 He bought for his youngest a gay gold ring;
The oldest she hadn't anything.
3 He bought for his youngest a beaver hat;
The oldest, she was mad at that.
4 One day these girls went down to swim;
The oldest pushed her sister in.
5 First she sank and then she swam,
Until she reached the miller's dam.
6 The miller put out his line and hook,
And caught her by the Petticoat.
7 The miller took off her gay gold ring,
And threw her into the stream again.
8 The king and his son were riding by
They heard the youngest daughter cry.
9 And so the riders pulled her out
To see what she was crying about.
10 Next day the old miller was hung for her sake,
And the eldest daughter was burned at the stake.
For purpose of record, we shall classify Child U as Child U*a, and Mr. Eaton's version, Vermont B, as Child U*b. Stanzas 1, 2, 3, 4, of U*a, correspond respectively to 1, 4, 5, 6 of U*b. In U*a 2 and U*b 4, we have a unique trait in Anglo-American tradition, surviving from the Scandinavian, the bathing stanza.
The textual affinities of Child U* are with a group of Type II versions, Child Z (ESPB., II, 509), Maine A, C, D, (BES, British Ballads from Maine, pp. 40, ff.), Vermont A (FSSNE., Bulletin 6, P. 5), Sharp-Karpeles H (I, P. 32), distinguished by the intrusive petticoat stanza, U*a, 4: U*b, 6, rather more common in the Northeast than in the South. On the other hand, the vulgate tradition of Type III in the South, represented by Davis C, and closest akin to Child R, S, Y, distinguished by the name, "Kate," of the younger sister, is absolutely unknown in the Northeast. If, given the clear evidence of a cleavage in tradition, both textual and geographical, which thus sets off Type III from Type II, a certain specific trait should be discovered to be common to certain versions of both types, in which the chance of textual crossing is not to be regarded as a factor, we should seek for the origin of such a trait, not a traditional, but a psychological explanation.
There is such a trait. It is found in the following texts:
Type II: Child U*,2, Maine A (BES., op. cit., pp. 40-41).
Tvpe III: Child Ra; Y (as printed by Child, ESPB., I, 495-6).
It consists in the progressive disappearance, finally becoming complete, of the part of the suitor of the younger sister, whose choice by him is the inciting cause, in the normal tradition of the ballad, of the elder sister's homicidal jealousy.
Every text, not obviously defective or fragmentary: of the normal tradition of The Two Sisters, introduces the suitor in the first act of the ballad music-drama. In the Anglo-American tradition, the "lover-stanza" takes the form as in our master-text of Type II, Maine C, 1 (BES., op. cit., p. 43):
There came a young man making love there,
And he made choice of the youngest fair.
The same stanza is found in both copies of Child Y*, omitted, however, with the omission marked, by asterisks, as printed by Child (Y, in ESPB., I, 495). This fact has remained quite unnoticed.
The beginning of the process of regression in the re-creation of the plot is seen in Child Ra, which has lost the lover stanza, retained in the normal text of Child Rb. The effect is incongruous: the father is put in the position of giving the youngest daughter the love-tokens which in the normal text are given by the suitor, who in Child Ra 6, Rb 6, is referred to in a stanza corresponding to Vermont A, 5 (ESSNE., 6, 5):
"No, I won't give You my glove,
But I will have your own true love."
Child Z has gone a step farther. The first stanza has, in the second line, been consciously re-created to the exact form of the corresponding line in Child U*a, 1; U*b, I ; Maine A, 1: "he loved his youngest daughter best". No normal text has this line: only Barry A, I (JAFL., XVIII, 130) has "and he had two daughters, just of the best", giving the rhyme "west . . . best". The rhyme, however, is so obvious in relation to the developing situation of paternal partiality to the younger sister, that it has no need of being referred to any textual precedent. And, whereas Child Z has retained, most incongruously, in stanza 6, the secondary reference to the suitor, Child U*a, U*b, Maine A have reached the final stage in regression. The suitor has entirely disappeared from the drama; the elder sister resorts to murder because she cannot face a situation in which her pathologically adored father is at least no less pathological in his affection for her younger sister. To put it succinctly, we have in Child U*a, U*b, Maine A, the Lear-complex and the Electra complex, both sides of a picture of father-daughter fixation, familiar in literature from Euripides and Shakespeare to The Barretts of Wimpole Street and O'Neill's neo-classic Lavinia-Electra. Psychologically, the situation calls for three sisters (E. R. Mason-Thompson, The Relation of the Elder Sister to the Development of the Electra-Complex, in International Journal of Psychoanalysis, f, 186-95). We may note that not only the nuncupative versions of Lear and. Electra, but also the Anglo-American tradition of the ballad generally, in common with the Polish tradition (cf. p. 2, above) and some forms of the Scottish (Child D, H, W) and Scoto-Irish (Child G) fulfil this condition. Child D, 4, by the way, shows through erotic symbolism (traces of which are in other Scottish texts), that the second, of the three sisters was the knight's leman.
It is easy to say that the loss of the lover-stanza is due to the action of Krohn's Law of Forgetfulness (Die Folkloristische Arbeitsmethode, pp. 59, fr.). That folk-singers forget verses and stanzas is known to every tyro in the field, but only a tyro is content to admit a fact without the attempt to account for it. Folk-singers are not mere animated dictaphone records: the best of them participate emotionally in the action of a ballad-drama. Such emotional reaction --the emotional coefficient, let us call it--is more of a factor in shaping tradition than has been suspected. In the case of the tradition of The Two Sisters, the loss of the lover-stanza so spoils the plot that this stanza ought to be the one least likely to be forgotten. Given, however, a folk-singer soured on the world by frustration or suffering from a regression to an infantile level of consciousness, as is observed in the Electra-complex, the lover-stanza would be not the least, but the most likely to slip from memory.
Wherefore we submit that, the regressive form of the plot of The Two Sisters, as we have it independently developing in both Type II and Type III of the Anglo-American tradition has developed through the reactions of a certain type of psychopathic personality to the situation in the normal form of the plot. The key-position for the proof, which answers by way of anticipatory exclusion, the argument that such a version as Child U*b, though regressed to an infantile level, is a "nursery" version of the sort that appears in the tradition of such a ballad of intersibling fixation as The Two Brothers, is held, as it were by Child Y*.
We have said that Child Y* (Y*a, 1770, Y*b, 1775, the former lacking the execution stanza) has the normal form of the Type III plot. The copy taken for printing as Child Y, made between April 29, 1884, when the Percy MSS were sold at Sotheby's, and June of the same year, showed the lover-stanza omitted and asterisks substituted for it. Child Y, not a true copy of Child Y*, is left a text of the type of Child Ra, which has lost the lover stanza retained in Child Rb; it is a text, not only independent of any connection with the tradition of Type II, a purely American form, but, as printed, it is independent even of folk-tradition. Logic cannot dematerialize a fact.
P. B.
----------
The Two Sisters
by Loman Cansler
Missouri Folk Songs c. 1959
Andrew Shields: My third choice is a Child Ballad, The Twa Sisters (or The Two Sisters), and, in my opinion, [Paul] Clayton’s is the definitive version of the song. It also shows Clayton’s complete mastery of the long narrative song. He was later to teach Dylan a variant version which included a repeated chorus of “Turn, turn to the rain and the wind” which the latter went on to use as the basis for his own, Percy’s Song. Although Clayton performed this variant on a number of occasions in concert (most notably at Newport in 1963), he never recorded it.
-----------------
Abrams Collection: Recorded on August 16, 1945, Dr. Cratis Williams performs "The Twa Sisters."
-----------
Ballads and Folk-Songs from Iowa, collected and edited by Earl J. Stout. Erastmus Manford Fritz was born Oct. 1859 in Indiana
He married about 1878 in Iowa and died after 1930.
1. The Twa Sisters
No local title. Contributed by Leone Densmore, of Harlan, as sung by her gandfather, Manford Fritz, of Harlan, who learned it a long time ago in school.
1. There was an old woman lived under the hill,
And she had daughters two or three;
The youngest one had a beau,
The oldest one had none.
Chorus: I'll be true to my love,
If my love will be true to me.
2. Oh, sister dear, let's walk the seashore
And spy the ships as they sail o'er.
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
3. The oldest shoved the youngest in
. . . .
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
4. Oh, sister, dear sister, it's sister lend me your hand,
Balance sent to me;
I'll neither lend [you] my hand or glove.[1]
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
5. . . . .
She swam into the miller's brook.
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
6. Oh, miller, dear miller, I've gold rings three,
If you'll take this lady from the brook.
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
7. The miller threw out his great grub-hook
And took this fine lady from the brook.
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
8 The miller takes off gold rings three
And pushed the lady in the sea.
Chorus: I'll be true etc.
1. originally has "me"
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[Below is a recreation of Child B sent to Abrams (or Brown to Abrams?) by Thomas P. Smith. Smith tried to adapt Child B and sent it in as traditional, but some of the text is clearly copied from Child B (the last stanza for example). Apparently Smith or his brother then reworked the text again removing the exact lines found in Child B and sent it to Kyle Davis Jr., who published it as traditional (See: The Fair Sister- Smith (VA) 1844 Davis AA). It's not often a recreated ballad can be clearly identified- but that is the case here.]
The Two Sisters, Variant 5, Page 1
Transcript (NO. 10 THE TWA SISTERS) [Thomas P. Smith]
1.
There was a king lived in the West
Bown down, Bow down
There was a king lived in the West
Bow once to me
There was a king lived in the West
He had two daughters of the best
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
2.
A knight he courted the eldest one
Bow down, Bow down
A knight he courted the eldest one
Bow once to me
A. knight he courted the eldest one,
But he loved the youngest one
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
3.
He gave the youngest a gay gold ring
Bow down, Bow down
He gave the youngest a gay gold ring
Bow once to me
He gave the younges a gay gold ring
And to the eldest gave not a thing
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
4.
He gave the youngest a satin cap
Bow down, Bow down
He gave the youngest a satin cap
Bow once to me
He gave the younest a satin cap,
The eldest she got mad at that
I will be true, ture to my love
And my love will be true to me
5.
One day as they walked by the river side
Bow down, Bow down
One day as they walked by the river side
Bow once to me
One day as they walked by the river side
They sat at the bank and they cried, and cried,
I will be true, true to my love,
And my love will be true to me.
6.
The eldest she pushed the younest in
Bow down, Bow down
The eldest she pushed the youngest in
Bow once to me
The eldest she pushed the youngest in
The youngest said it was a sin,
I will be true, true to my love,
And my love will be true to me.
7.
She swam till she came to the miller's pond
Bow down, Bow down
She swam till she came to the miller's pond
Bow once to me
She swam till she came to the miller's pond
And there she swam all round, and round
I will be true, true to me love
And my love will be true to me.
8.
O out it came the miller's son
Bow down, Bow down
O out it came the miller's son
Bow once to me
O out it came the miller's son
And saw the fair maid swimmin in
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me
9.
O father, father draw your dam
Bow down, Bow down
O father, father draw your dam
Bow once to me
O father, father draw your dam
Here's either a merimaid or a swan
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me
10.
The miller quickly drew the dam
Bow down, bow down
the miller quickly drew the dam
Bow once to me
The miller quickly drew the dam
And there he found a drowned woman
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
11.
An by there came a harper fine
Bow down, bow down
And by there came a harper fine
Bow once to me
An by there came a harper fine
That harped to the king to dine
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me
12.
He's taen three locks of her yellow hair
Bow down, Bow down
He's taen three locks of her yellow hair
Bow once to me
He's taen three locks of her yellow hair
An wi them strung his harp so fair
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
13.
The first tune he plays and sings
Bow down, Bow down
The first tune he plays and sings
Bow once to me
The first tune he plays and sings
Was "Farewell to my father the King"
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
14.
The nextin that he played syne (pronounced seen)
Bow down, Bow down
The nextin that he played syne
Bow once to me
The nextin that he played syne
Was 'Farewell to my mother the Queen'
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me
15.
The lasten tune that he playd then
Bow down, bow down
The lasten tune that he playd then
Bow once to me
The lasten tune that he playd then
Was, 'Woe to my sister, fair El-len,
For I will be true, true to my love
An my love will be true to me.
13.
The first tune he plays and sings
Bow down, Bow down
The first tune he plays and sings
Bow once to me
The first tune he plays and sings
Was "Farewell to my father the King"
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me.
14.
The nextin that he played syne (pronounced seen)
Bow down, Bow down
The nextin that he played syne
Bow once to me
The nextin that he played syne
Was 'Farewell to my mother the Queen'
I will be true, true to my love
And my love will be true to me
15.
The lasten tune that he playd then
Bow down, bow down
The lasten tune that he playd then
Bow once to me
The lasten tune that he playd then
Was, 'Woe to my sister, fair El-len,
For I will be true, true to my love
An my love will be true to me.
---------------
Flanders G-1
Sung by Mrs. Emila Stankiewicz, Springfield, Vermont.
Printed in BFSSNE, X,4.
Philips Barry -- H.H. F., Collectors
August 3, 1934
Structure A B C (14/4, 16/4, 7/8); Rhythm divergent;
Contour: undulating; Scale: hexatonic; t.c. G.
Dwie Siostry
Pruez litewski lan
Jedzie, jedzie pan;
Przy nim za nim jego cugi,
W zlocie, w sirebrze jego slugi,
Jedzie w goscine.
Przyjechali w dr,vor
Do mamusia dwoch cor;
'Mama, mama ma dwie rozy,
Obie krasne, obie ladne,
Daj mnie ktora z nichl'
----------------
[Missing Versions:]
TWA SISTERS, THE
Source Stout, Folklore from Iowa (1936) pp.1-2
Performer Fritz, Manford
Place collected USA : Iowa : Harlan
Collector Stout, Earl J.
TWO SISTERS, THE
Source Musick: Ballads, Folk Songs & Folk Tales from West Virginia (1960) pp.3-4, 12
Performer Eddy, Mrs. Amanda Ellen
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Rivesville
Collector Musick, Ruth Ann
OLD WOMAN, THE
Source Folktrax 903-30
Performer Sheilor, Mrs.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Meadows of Dan
Collector Kennedy, Peter
TWO SISTERS, THE
Source Sweeney: Kentucky Folklore Record 11:2 (1965) pp.18-20
Performer Shope, Mrs. Ernest
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector Sweeney, Margaret
The Two Sisters- Margaret McSweeney; Kentucky Folklore Record XI 1965 p. 18.
------------
Between 1938 and 1942, folklore collectors sponsored by the Federal Writer's Project (part of the Works Progress-later Projects- Administration) roamed over Virginia in search of traditional material. Like Virginia Folklore Society members, these WPA collectors were mostly enthusiastic amateurs devoted to the documentation of Virginia's folk culture in all its diversity.
The guidance these collectors received from Herbert Halpert, Director of the National Folklore Project, and Mariam H. Sizer, Virginia's Folklore Consultant, was professional. Collectors were instructed to transcribe items verbatim- exactly as heard- and to take extensive field notes as to the history, source and use ofthe folklore, and the experience of the people who keep the lore alive well as for the folklore item itself. With these guidelines in mind, collectors gave chase, often in their own backyards. Raymond Sloan of Ferrum, Virginia, for example, once interviewed himself and, incidentally, did a good job of it. Emory L.
Hamilton of Wise visited his relatives and friends looking for the old ballads and had extraordinarily good results. All of the material collected under the auspices of the National Folklore Project was to have been housed in a national archive for the
use of students, educators, and writers, but this national archive never materialized (although the Archive of Folk Song in the Library of Congress is the national folksong depository). Consequently, almost all of the Virginia material collected was deposited in Alderman Library of the University of Virginia. In 1967 this material was rediscovered and the folksong segment was organized by title with the final list of folksong holdings published in 1969 as The Folksongs of Virginia: A Checklist,
compiled by Bruce Rosenberg. Dr. Charles L. Perdue, Jr., folklorist at the University of Virginia, is currently preparing an indexed listing of all Virginia folklore material in the Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress.
BOW DOWN
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1434 (version c)
Performer Buchanan, Annabel Morris
Place collected USA : Virginia : Marion
Collector Blair, Gertrude
BOW DOWN
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder 92 item CAL 166
Performer
Place collected USA : California
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
MILLER'S TWO DAUGHTERS, THE (likely a ballad recreation by Woofter)
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.199 item 4
Performer Gainer, F.C.
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Tanner
Collector Combs, Josiah H. / Woofter, Carey
THREE SISTERS, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1434 (version d)
Performer Thomas, Miss Jean
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
THREE SISTERS, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1434 (version e)
Performer Mays, Mrs. Letty
Place collected USA : Virginia : Dante
Collector Adams, John Taylor
TWA SISTERS, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1434 (version a)
Performer Watkins, Mrs. Carrington (album)
Place collected USA : Virginia : Culpeper
Collector Jeffries, Margaret
TWA SISTERS, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1434 (version b)
Performer Martin, S.M.
Place collected USA : Virginia : Hillsville
Collector Blair, Gertrude
TWO SISTERS
Source Kincaid, My Favorite Mountain Ballads & Old-Time Songs (1928) p.22
Performer Kincaid, Bradley
Place collected USA : Kentucky
TWO SISTERS, THE
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder A110 item NC 163
Performer Shannon, Ruth
Place collected USA : N. Carolina
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
TWO SISTERS, THE
Source Song Ballads & Other Songs of the Pine Mountain Settlement School (1923) pp.73-74
Place collected USA : Kentucky : Pine Mountain
TWA SISTERS, THE
Source Haun, Cocke County Ballads & Songs (1937) p.106
Performer Haun, Mrs. Maggie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Cocke County
TWA SISTERS, THE
Source Anderson: Tennessee Folklore Soc. Bulletin 8:3 (1942) p.71
Performer Garner, Nanette
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Blount County
TWA SISTERS, THE
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.98
Performer Hicks, Alvin & Lawrence
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County