US and Canadian Versions: Child 13. Edward
[Of the nearly 60 versions in this collection, none are from Canada, and among them there are some ballad recreations (Percy- the Smiths Davis AA; Edward from Woofter, 1924; What Blood? Randolph 1932; Niles version; The Edward Ballad (also considered to be a version of Child 49) from George Edwards; Father's Murder from Gainer in the late 1960s). A ballad forgery would be expected from The Smiths (R. E. Lee Smith and Thomas P. Smith), from Carey Woofter, John Jacob Niles and Patrick Gainer. The Randolph recreation is rare and from a reputable and, as far as I know, a still honest collector-- while George Edwards would readily admit his recreation was not strictly traditional and was composed based on his family recollections mixed with printed materials.
Several of the US versions collected in the 1900s date back to the 1800s or earlier since they have been passed down within their family for several generations (the Flanders version, Sharp A, the 1939 Hicks version and Davis D- the Moncure version). If we trace Sharp A, for example, we find that it was taken from Jane Hicks Gentry of Hot Springs, NC who learned many of her ballads from Council Harmon, her grandfather. She was Cecil Sharp's most prolific informant, contributing 64 songs and ballads. Council "Old Counce" Harmon was a musician, dancer and storyteller. Counce learned ballads from his grandfather, "Big Sammy," Samuel Hicks (1753- 1835) who was descended from David Hix (also spelled Hicks) whose great grandfather, also named Samuel Hicks, came from England to Virginia in 1638. In 1778 David moved to Watauga County, NC where the Hicks/Harmon family ballad singers remained in isolation in the remote Appalachian Mountains, passing their ballads down through their families.
Davis D, the Monicure version, is said by John Stone to have "come from old Colonial days," which would pre-date Child B from Percy's Reliques (1765). Although this is simply conjecture, there is little doubt that versions of Child 13 were sung in the US in the 1700s. Certainly the ballad was sung in Sweden in the early 1600s and the British versions date to the early to mid- 1700s.
If Child B, known as Percy's "Edward," were traditional in the British Isles you would expect to find some US versions with Edward as the name of the son. You would also expect to find versions where the father is murdered. That is not the case, there are no versions, aside from the ballad recreation by Gainer, where the son murders the father. There are two traditional versions that mention the Edward name: 1) in Sharp/Karpeles E, the informant mentioned the the murdered brother was named Edward and 2) Randolph C "When will you come home, Edward my son?" which is a clear attribution, however this may be from a print source. This finding in US versions generally discounts the absolute (the text was altered) validity of Child B.
The ballad is rare in US and generally not found in New England (one version) and Canada. Beside the Southern Appalachian region the ballad has taken hold in the Midwest to Southwest including Texas and Oklahoma. According to the Moores (Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest- 1964) Edward was a very popular ballad in Oklahoma. They found 22 texts with music, making it the 5th most popular Child ballad in their collection (they however, published only one version). None of the "Edward" titles are local and I've changed the generic "Edward" titles to reflect the actual text (titles are now, "What Blood?; etc.). An example of a version that still retains the Edward title is the 1924 version "collected" by Woofter which is a ballad re-creation and has been questioned by Wilgus in his 1966 article, The Oldest (?) Text of "Edward" (See article attached to Recordings & Info: Edward page). In this version Woofter retains the "Edward, O Edward" text from Child B.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
CONTENTS: (Individual texts are attached to this page on left hand column- access also by clicking on highlighted titles below)
1) Percy- Smiths (VA-NC) c.1851 Davis AA--This is a ballad re-creation by the Smiths based on Child A. From Davis; More Traditional Ballads 1960. This version from the Smiths (Collected by R. E. Lee Smith, of Palmyra, Va. Sung by his brother, Thomas P. Smith, of Palmyra, Va., and himself).
2) It Is the Blood- Robertson (MO- OH) c1890 Eddy--From Ballads and Songs from Ohio; Eddy, 1939. "Mrs Robertson remembers singing this song with her school children fifty years ago (c.1890) in Missouri. It was not uncommon for the children to act the story in some fashion."
3) What Is That Blood?- Lowrimore (CA-OK) 1890 CFQ--My title. From: A California Version of "Edward" by Burton S. Lowrimore; California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jul., 1946), pp. 310-311. Although this version was collected in Berkeley, California it was learned in Oklahoma cica 1890 by Burton S. Lowrimore's mother.
4) What's on Your Sword? Purcell (VA) 1891 Davis B--From Davis- Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929. His notes follow. The Purcell version of Lord Randal was "collected by Miss Margaret Purcell, of Greenwood, Va. Sung by her mother, Elizabeth Ashton Garrett Purcell (Mrs. S. H. Purcell), of Greenwood, Va., in the early nineties."
5) How Come That Blood?- Shreve (AR) c.1910
Blood on your Shirt Sleeve- Almeda (AR) c1910 REC
How Come this Blood?- Ballenger (MA) 1910 Olney
Brother's Blood- DeLoach (FL-GA) c1910 Morris A
Ronald- Carlisle (AR) c.1912; Randolph D
What's On Your Sword? Cummings (VA) 1913 Davis C
How Come That Blood?- Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp A
What Will You Say?- Hensley (NC) 1916 Sharp B
How Came That Blood? Medford (NC) 1916 Sharp C
What Has Come This Blood?- Gann (TN) 1917
How Came That Blood?- Shook (NC) 1917 Sharp E
Your Little Blood Red- Richards (VA) 1918 Sharp G
What is that on your Sword?- Moncure (VA) 1917
What Is This The Blood Of?- Cannady (VA) 1918
How Came That Blood?- Weaver (VA) 1918 Sharp I
What Blood?- Gibson (NC) 1918 Sharp J
What Are You Going To Do? Long (VA) 1918 Sh F
When Will You Return? Plegne (NC) 1918 Sharp MS
How Came This Blood?- Ritchie (KY) pre1920
How Come That Red Blood? Hurt (VA) 1921 Davis A
Dear Son- Robbins (NC) c.1921 Brown B
What Blood?- Stevens (VA) 1922 Davis E
Edward- Pierce (WV) 1924 Woofter- Combs
The Cruel Brother- Harvey (MS) 1926 JAF Hudson B
Little Guinea Gay Haw- Harmon (NC) c1927 Burton
What Blood?- Hick (MS) 1928 Hudson A
My Son, Come Tell It To Me- Brixey (OK-AR) c1930
What Blood? Dusenberry (AR) 1931 Randolph A
How Come this Blood?- Bishop (VA) 1932 Davis BB
What Blood?- Langley (OZ) 1932 Randolph
The Murdered Brother- Bowerman (VA) 1932 Scar C
How Come this Blood?- Callahan (SC) 1932 Scar A B
The Murdered Brother- Metcalf (NC) 1934 Niles
Edward Ballad- Edwards (VT) 1934 Flanders
How Come That Blood? Baird (NC) c1937 Burton
How Come That Blood? Burke (TX) 1938 Owens A
The Blood of Fair Lucy- Wilson (NC) 1939 Halpert
What Will You Do?- Michael (NC) 1939 Abrams
Little Sister Mary- Hicks (NC) pre1939 Abrams
How Come That Blood? Ward (VA) 1941 Lomax
The Little Yellow Dog- Ingenthron (Mo.) 1941
How Comes That Blood- (NC) 1941 Collins- Brown A
How Come this Blood?- Barker (VA) 1941 Brown D
How Come That Blood? Dryden (TX) 1941 Owens B
How Came That Blood? Roberts (NC) 1945 Moser
What Blood Is That? Frye (NC) 1945 Brown C
Blood on the Lily-White Shirt- Phelps (FL) 1950
The Blood of the Old Red Rooster- Finch (AR) 1953
What Makes the Blood? Ives (IL-NY) 1953
How Come That Blood?- Beddow (KY) 1956
What Is the Blood? McCord (MO) 1958 Max Hunter A
How Come That Blood? Johnson (AR) 1958 Hunter B
The Father's Murder- (WV) late1960s Gainer
Blood on Your Coat Sleeve- Brewer (AR) 1964
The Two Brothers- Gilbert (AR) 1969 Max Hunter
What is that Blood Stain? Workman (KY) 1976 REC
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4. Edward- Dennis (KY) 1922 (Child 13)
[Traditional Ballads & Folk Songs Mainly from West Virginia- John Harrington Cox- 1939 Edited by George Herzog and Herbert Halpert 1939 and George Boswell, 1964.
Cf. The version Learned by Jean Ritchie from her sisters, Una and May, who learned it in the early 1900s at Hindman School, KY published with music in 1965. Since Una Ritchie was a 1920 Hindman School graduate, the date would be pre-1920.
R. Matteson 2014]
4- EDWARD
Taken from the manuscript song book compiled by Miss Camelia Dennis from the singing of school children at Hindman, Knott County, KY, 1922-23.
1. "How came this blood on your shirt sleeve?
O, dear love, tell to me."
"It is the blood of the old, gray horse
That ploughed that field for me. "
"It does look too pale for the old gray horse
That ploughed that field for thee, thee, thee,
That ploughed that field for thee."
2. "How came this blood on your shirt sleeve?
O, dear love, tell to me."
"It is the blood of the old greyhound
That traced that fox for me."
"It does look too pale for the old greyhound
That traced that fox for thee, thee, thee,
That traced that fox for thee."
3. "How came this blood on your shirt sleeve?
O, dear love, tell to me."
"It is the blood of my brother-in-law,
That wont away with me, me, me,
That went away with me."
4. "And it's what did you fall out about?
O, dear love, tell to me."
"About a little bit of bush
That soon would have made a tree, tree, tree,
That soon would have made a tree."
5. "And it's what will you do now, my love?
O, dear love, tell to me."
"I'll set my foot in yonder ship
And I'll sail across the sea, sea, sea,
And I'll sail across the sea."
6. "And it's when will you come back, my love?
O, dear love, tell to me."
"When the sun slinks into yonder sycamore tree,
And that will never be, be, be,
And that will never be."
See NC II 41-42.
The local title given for the ballad coincides with the title used in Child's compilation (Halpert). [Obviously this local title was assigned by someone who knew the Child ballads- since Edward is not mentioned in the song. R-]
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Flanders/Coffin's notes Ancient Ballads, 1966
Edward
(Child 13)
"Edward" is common to America and to Scandinavia, but has pretty well dropped out of British oral tradition in recent years. The definitive study of the ballad is Archer Taylor's monograph Edward and, Saen I Rosengard (Chicago, 1931). In it, he presents the following conclusions about the song.
1. The ballad originally told a story of fratricide. patricide (Child B, the famous Percy text) has enrered the tale by purposeful or chance substitution.
2. The mother, common to most Anglo-American versions, is not originally an accomplice in the crime. Her presence is due to corruption by some similar tale.
3. "Edward" began as a British song which traveled to Scandinavia. The present British texts, which contain only vestiges of the old tale, and the modern Scandinavian texts are related through an extinct original.
4. Scandinavian texts preserve more of the original plot of the story than do British texts.
In WF, VIII, No. 4, 3L4-I9, Coffin added to Taylor's conclusions the hypothesis that the original motive for the murder in "Edward" was incest. The argument is based on the presence of the testament ending, the affinity the song has for tales such as "Lizie Wan" and "The Twa Brothers" that are probably or certainly incest tales, and the
evidence that has piled up that the crime occurs over a
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Davis' notes, 1929, Traditional Ballads of Virginia:
EDWARD
(Child, No. 13)
This ballad, like the preceding, is a colloquy between mother and son. The son has killed some one, usually a father or brother, and the mother by persistent questioning extracts the truth from him. The final stanza in Child usually implicates the mother. All the Virginia texts, however, are strikingly filial: the mother is never cursed or implicated in the murder, nor is the father ever
the victim. The tragedy is always fratricidal, with the "little brother" as victim. They are more closely related to Child A than to B, in form, in language, and in the identity of the victim, but the absence of the mother-cursing stanza and her implication in the guilt distinguishes them sharply from all the Child versions. Whether this change is the result of American filial sentimentality or of an unconscious rationalization of a somewhat unnatural conversation, there is some loss of dramatic force at the close. For a man to say that he will be back
When the sun and moon set on yonder hill,
And that will never be
is an inadequate substitute for the compressed meaning when he tells his "ain mither deir" what he will leave her:
The curse of hell frae me sall ye beir,
Sic counceils ye gave to me O.
In Virginia the ballad is usually known by its repeated first line, as " What Is That on the End of Your Sword?" "What Is That on Your Sword So Red?" and "How Come That Red Blood on Your Coat?" American texts are few. See Bulletin, Nos. 2-4, 6, 9; In Campbell and Sharp, No. 7 (North Carolina); Hudson, No. 5 (and Journal, xxxlx, 93; Mississippi); Pound, Ballads, No. 9; Sharp, Songs, I, No. 1 (Tennessee); Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 7; Perrow reported the ballad from Kentucky in a letter to Kittredge (1914).
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HOW COME THAT BLOOD ON YOUR SHIRT SLEEVE- Owens 1950 Texas Folk Songs
This ballad came to me first as a fragment from Mrs. C. H. Burke of Silsbee. Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Thompson had arranged for me to record at their home. When I had the recording machine set up they sent for Mrs. Burke, only to be told that she had gone to the woods to pray, as she did every morning. After a while she came to the house and though it was against her religion, sang a dozen or so songs, among them "The Boston Burglar" and "Little Mohea." She finally told me that she knew one more song, but that it was too old for me to want. She sang enough of it, however, for me to recognize it as "Edward."
It was several years before I located a complete version of the song. This time the singer was Mrs. Ben Dryden of the Sandy Creek settlement. Since then I have found several more versions, but none as full as Mrs. Dryden's. I heard all of these
in Southeast Texas and was unable to find the song elsewhere in the state. Collectors from other parts of the United States have reported it only a few times.
The version printed by Bishop Thomas Percy (Reliques of English Poetry; 3 vols., 1765) is a story of patricide, with a suggestion of incest as the motive. In the versions I have found the crime in invariably fratricide, and there is no hint of incest. The murder always grows out of an argument over cutting down a juniper tree.
In one Texas version the answer to the opening question is, "It is the blood of rny guinea gew hawk," and the song is cailed "The Guinea Gew Hawk." It apparently has no relation to "The Gay Goshawk."
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--Missing Versions--
EDWARD
Source Gordon, Folk-Songs of America (1938) p.66
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
EDWARD
Source Chase, Traditional Ballads, Songs & Singing Games (1935) pp.15-16
Performer Martin, Andrew (2v only)
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Sevierville (Tune)
Collector Sharp, Cecil J. (Tune)
Roud number 200 | Roud number search
HOW COME THAT BLOOD
Source Folk-Legacy FSA 11 (`Ozark Folksongs & Ballads')
Performer Hunter, Max
Place collected USA : Missouri : Springfield
Collector Paton, Sandy
Max Hunter – Ozark Folksongs And Ballads
Folk-Legacy Records – FSA-11; 1963
EDWARD
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder 1 item CAL 1
Performer
Place collected USA : California
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
EDWARD
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder A69 item NC 104
Performer Bird, W.E.
Place collected USA : N. Carolina
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
EDWARD
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder G20 item Misc 32
Performer Weathers, Mrs.
Place collected USA
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
EDWARD
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder G39 item Misc 61
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
EDWARD
Source Robert W. Gordon Collection (American Folklife Center, LOC) Cylinder G48 item Misc 75
Performer
Place collected USA
Collector Gordon, Robert W.
EDWARD EDWARD
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.351 (version d)
Performer Ewell, Miss Maud
Place collected USA : Virginia : Haymarket
Collector Morton, Susan R.
HAZEL NUT TREE, THE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.351 (version b)
Performer Holyfield, Mrs. Winfred
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
Roud number 200 | Roud number search
SON DAVIE SON DAVIE
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.351 (version c)
Performer Adams, Finley
Place collected USA : Virginia : Big Laurel
Collector Adams, John Taylor
Roud number 200 | Roud number search
WHAT IS THAT ON YOUR SHIRT
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.351 (version a)
Performer McNeil, Mrs. Nannie
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
EDWARD
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 1783 A2
Performer Lunsford, Bascom Lamar
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Asheville (New York)
Collector Hibbitt, George W. & William Cabell Greet
EDWARD
Source Haun, Cocke County Ballads & Songs (1937) p.89
Performer Haun, Mrs. Maggie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Cocke County