US and Canadian Versions: Earl Brand- Child 7
[There are sixty-seven versions in my collection which represent nearly all the extant US/Canada versions. This is not a popular ballad but still it is well represented, with a large number of ballads found in the Southern Appalachian region. Over one dozen versions were collected by Sharp, Davis, Wilkinson, and Foss in the Shenandoah region in Virgina (encompassing Albermarle, Greene Counties and specific areas such as Brown's Cove). North Carolina is also well represented with around a dozen versions published from the Brown Collection of NC Folklore (1952) and more from collectors like Sharp and Abrams.
The names of the lord, Sweet William (Lord William) and his lover, Fair Margaret (Lady Margot) are the same as found in Child 74- Lady Margaret and Sweet William. This results in an obvious confusion of titles although the ballad texts are distinct. Some versions of Child 7 use the Fair Ellen (Ellendor/Elindor) name for the lady (See Greer 1913, Brown B). Common titles include "Seven Brothers," "Seven Brethren," "Seven Sleepers," "Sweet Willie," "Rise You Up," and "He Rode Up To the Old Man's Door."
Also confusing is that the related ballad best known in the US as "The Bold Soldier" has been classified as a version of "Earl Brand." For example Mary O. Eddy includes three versions from Ohio of "A Soldier" (Bold Soldier) under Earl Brand. In a recording (Abrams Collection online) Abrams calls a version of the Bold Soldier by Pat Frye (NC), Earl Brand. The Roud Index mixes the versions under Roud 23. These and the other related variants of "The Bold Soldier and "Lady and the Dragoon" are found in my appendix- 7A. The Lady and the Dragoon which follows Child 7- Earl Brand (see left hand column- attached pages).
The ending stanza found in many US versions is perhaps derived from 'Fair Margaret's Misfortune' (black-letter in the Roxburghe and Douce Collections, reprinted in Roxburghe Ballads, ed. Ebsworth, vi. 641), as is also this stanza in the stall-copies amended by Scott:
'Lord William he died ere middle o' the night,
Lady Margaret long before the morrow;
Lord William, he died for pure true love,
And Lady Margaret died of sorrow.'
Another ending found in the US versions and other ballads such as Barb'ra Allan is perhaps derived from 'Lord Thomas's Tragedy' (white broadside, dated 22nd April 1776), it reads:
'Lord Thomas was buried in St. Mary's,
Faire Eleanor in the quire,
And out at Lord Thomas their sprang a bush,
And from fair Eleanor a brier.
And these two grew, and these two threw [throve]
Until that they did meet,
Whereby any person, they might know,
That these were lovers most sweet.'
See: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Volume 3 edited by Thomas Finlayson Henderson, 1903.
The peculiar adjectives describing the lineage of "Lord William" (to the king and queen) are commonly not found in British versions. The editors of the Brown Collection comment on Perrow's version from 1913 (Brown A) about "regis king" and "Quaker queen":
"I thank you kindly, sir," he says;
"I am no Steward's son,
My father is of a regis king,
My mother's a Quaker's queen."
Brown editors explain: "he proudly declares that his father is a regis king and his mother a Quaker's queen. Possibly this has been picked up, and corrupted, from the English stall ballad of 'The Orphan Gypsy Girl,' the opening line of which in Cox's West Virginia version (FSS 335) runs: "My father is king of the gypsies, my mother is queen of the Jews."
The word is, in fact, regis, derived from the Old English (originally Latin) regis which means "regal." There are many variants and mishearings of "regis" but I believe this is the proper archaic adjective.
There is a Scandinavian legend (see Riborg and Guldberg) that if a warriors name is called in battle, it will cause death. Several collectors have pointed this out and applied the legend to Earl Brand: When Fair Ellen calls Sweet William’s name during battle, it causes him to receive his death wound. In most cases Sweet William's name is called after the battle, and the legend seems to be a bit of a stretch in this case. It's certainly not something that is known by the informants.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
CONTENTS: (To open individual texts: click on title or on the version attached to this page on left hand column
1) Rise Ye Up- Stevens (MO) c1828 Randolph- From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph- Volume I Ballads, from the section British Ballads and Songs. Randolph reports that, "Mrs. Stephens said it's sometimes known as "Lady Margaret" and has been sung in her family for more than one hundred years."
2) Lady Margaret- Larkin (IL) 1868 Musick--From: The Old Album of William A. Larkin by Ruth Ann Musick; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 60, No. 237 (Jul. - Sep., 1947), pp. 201-251; Handwritten MS from 1868.
3) Seven Brothers- Grogan (NC) c1875 Brown C--From the Brown Collection; 1952, one of 11 Versions. Includes music from Greer and Abrams housed at Appalachian State University- available online (some recordings). The collector, Thomas P. Smith of Zionville, NC, moved to Virginia and was an informant/collector with his brother (and family) for Davis (More Traditional Ballads) in the 1930s.
4) Sweet William and Fair Ellender- Griffin (FL) 1877 Morris--From: Folksongs of Florida; Morris, 1950. This is originally a Georgia version. Griffin was born in Dooly County, Georgia in 1863. In 1877 she moved to Newberry, Florida. She learned songs from her father, a fiddler, before 1877.
5) Lord William and Lady Margaret- Delorme (NY) c1880--From Ballads Migrant in New England; Flander; also Ancient Ballads; 1966. Sung by Mrs. Lily Delorme of Cadyville, NY; dated c. 1880; She was born in 1869 and learned this ballad at her home as a child. Collected in 1942.
6) The Seven Sleepers- Miller (WV) c1880 Cox--From Folk-Songs of the South- 1925; Cox. Communicated by Mr. J. Harrison Miller, Wardensville, Hardy County, January 29, 1916; obtained from his mother, who learned it when a girl from Scotch Roach.
7) Lady Margaret- Hopkins (IN) c1885 Brewster A--From Traditional Ballads from Indiana by Paul G. Brewster; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 48, No. 190 (Oct. - Dec., 1935), pp. 295-317. Brewster more carefully dates their version: They were contributed by sisters, who had learned the song from an aunt more than fifty years ago.
8) Sir William & Fair Ellender- Prather (NC) c1890--From the Brown Collection, Version E, 1952, one of 11 versions. No informant named but it's from Prather- two MS versions are given from the Abrams Collection; According to Abrams, Mrs. Prather was Frank Proffitt's great-aunt (not aunt as many on-line sources say). She titled the song, "As he rode up to the old man's gate."
9) Lord Douglas- Raspbury (AL-OK) 1898 Moore B--From the Moores 1964 book, Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest; version B, single stanza with music. The only US or Canadian version that can legitimately titled Lord Douglas (after Child B). Unfortunately the rest of the ballad (I'm sure it was not remembered well) is lost.
10) Seven Sons All- Thornton (NH) 1909 Barry MLN--From: The Ballad of Earl Brand by Phillips Barry; Modern Language Notes, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Apr., 1910), pp. 104-105. This was the first reported and published version of Earl Brand in the US or Canada.
11) Seven Brothers All- Moore (GA) 1909 Sharp D; Rawn--My title, replacing the generic Child title. From Sharp/Campbell, English Folk Songs From The Southern Appalachian, 1917. This is, to my knowledge, the earliest Appalachian version of the ballad of Earl Brand collected. Surprisingly it's from Isabel Rawn of the Martha Berry School of Georgia, who was not credited in either the 1917 or the 1932 edition of EFSSA.
12) Sweet William and Fair Ellen- Greer (NC) 1913 Brown B--From the Brown Collection; 1952, one of 11 Versions. Includes music from Vol. 4 which is different than the LOC recording made in 1946. This is the text from 1913 that Greer collected and reworked and recorded twice. The Greer's first recording listed by Meade was 10-26-29 made in NYC for Paramount. A second entry for this ballad gives the slightly different text and music of the 1946 recording.
Seven Bretherens- (NC) 1913 Perrow JAFL
Sweet William- Greer (NC) 1913 LOC REC
Brandywine- Gabbard (KY) 1913; Niles C
The Seven Brothers- Cover (VA) 1913 Davis C
William and Ellen- Napier (KY) 1913; Niles B
The Seven Sleepers- Harwell (VA) 1915 Davis A
Lord William- Crawford (VA) 1915 Davis D
The Seven Sons- F. C. Gainer (WV) c1915 Gainer
Seven Bretherens- Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp A
Sweet William- Sands (NC) 1916 Sharp B
Seven Brothersen- House (NC) 1916 Sharp C
Seven Brotheren- Dunaway (KY) 1917 Sharp H
Rise You Up- Hayes (KY) 1917 Sharp I
He Rode Up- Bishop (KY) 1917 Sharp J
Milk-White Steed- Creech (KY) 1917 Sharp K
Seven Sons Bold- Gibson (VA) 1918 Sharp E
Lord William- Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp F
Lady Margret- Fitzgerald (VA) 1918 Sharp G
Seven Brothers- Dodd (VA) 1918 Sharp L
The Seven Brethren- Langille (NS) 1919 Mackenzie
Sweet William and Fair Ellen- Nolan (KY) 1920
Sweet Willie- Barnett (NC) c1920 Sutton; Brown F
Sweet William & Fair Ellen- (NC) c1921 Brown 4B(2)
Sweet Willie- (NC) 1921 Sutton; Brown G
He Rode Up- Byers (NC) 1922 Brown D
The Seven Sleepers- Morris (VA) 1922 Davis B
Sweet William- Long (MS) c1923 Hudson
The Seven Brothers- Sprague (ME) 1927 Barry B
The Seven Brothers- Hathaway (ME) 1928
Sweet William- Kelley (MS) 1928 Hudson
Lord Loving- Harmon (TN) 1929 Henry JAFL
Lord Robert- Ghaney (NL) 1929 Karpeles
Lord Robert- Payne (NL) 1930 Greenleaf
The Seven Sleepers- Morris (VA) 1932 Davis AA
Sweet Willie- (NC) 1933 Warner
Sweet Willie- Bragg (NC) 1933 Matteson
The Seventh Brother- Gibson (VA) 1933 Davis BB
Sweet William- Morris (VA) 1935 Wilkinson MS
Lord William- Shiflett (VA) 1936 Wilkinson
Sweet William- Potter (Dark Ridge NC) c.1937
Sweet William- Fields Ward (VA) 1937
Lord William- Lawhorne (VA) 1937 Wilkinson MS
Lady Margaret & Sweet William- Henson (KY) 1938
Douglas Tragedy- sung by Viola Cook of Whitesburg, Kentucky c. 1938 from James Madison Carpenter Collection, JMC/1/3/H, pp. 06768-06769
Lord William's Death- Holcolm (KY) c1940 Niles A
Sweet William & Fair Ellen- (NC) c1940 Brown 4B(1)
Seven Horsemen- Thomas (VA) 1940 Davis CC
Sweet William & Fair Ellen- Pfoutz(PA) pre1940 KFQ
Seven Brothers- Johnson (NC) 1941 Brown 4C
He Rode and He Rode- Pennington (AR) 1954 Parler
Sweet William Stepped Up- Presnell(NC) 1958 Burton
Lady Margret- Kisner (Arkansas) 1960
Sweet William- Dowell (AR) 1961 Ozark Collection
Seven Sons Bold- Shifflett (VA) 1961 Foss
The Seven Sleepers- Wrinkle (OK) 1964 Moore A
Wake You Up- (KY) pre1967 Sweet Rivers of Song
The Douglas Tragedy- Warnock (KY) 1978 Roberts
NOTES: A version of Earl Brand titled "Sweet Willie," was collected by my grandfather Maurice Matteson at Elk Park, NC back in 1933. My grandfather bought his dulicmer from Nathan Hicks nearby on Beech Mountain. The Hicks family knew the ballad as "Lady Margaret."
He rode up to the old man's gate,
And boldly he did say:
'Keep your youngest daughter at home,
But the oldest I will take away." Mrs. Lloyd Bare Bragg, Elk Park NC 1933
The classic US recording is The Greer's, "Sweet William and Fair Ellen" recorded way back in 1929. You can listen Lomax's recording of Daw Henson on Kentucky Mountain Music by clicking on the highlight: Listen: Daw Henson- "Lady Margaret and Sweet William." Daw Henson came from the crossroads of Billy's Branch in Clay County, KY in the middle of what is now the Daniel Boone National Forest. His version is confused-missing important events that are charateristic of this ballad. It does include the dream, an event sometimes present in US version. Here's an important list of US Versions from Doris C. Powers in her article- The American Variants of "Earl Brand," Child No. 7:
GROUP I: [I:i-a] Paul G. Brewster, "Traditional Ballads from Indiana," JAF, XLVIII (1935), 308f.; [I:2-a] W. Roy Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea-Songs from Nova Scotia (Cambridge, Mass., 1928), pp. gff.; [I:2-b] Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine (New Haven, 1929), pp. 35ff.; [I:2-c] Barry, pp. 37ff.; [I:2-d] Barry, "The Ballad of Earl Brand," MLN, XXV (1910), 104f.; I:2-e] Maud Karpeles, Folk Songs from Newfoundland (Oxford, 1934), pp. 83-7; [I:2-f] Elisabeth B. Greenleaf and Grace Y. Mansfield, Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland (Cambridge, Mass., 1924), pp. 7f.; [I:2-g] Vance Randolph, Ozark Mountain Folks (New York, 1932), pp. 2i9ff.; [I:2-h] Randolph, Ozark Folk Songs (Columbia, Mo., 1946), I, 48f.; [I:3-a] Cecil J. Sharp and Maud Karpeles, English Folk-Song from the Southern Appalachians (Oxford, 1952), I, 23; [I:3-b] Sharp and Karpeles, I, 22f.; [I:3-c] Winston Wilkinson MSS., University of Virginia Collection of Folk Music, 1936-7, p. 5; [I:3-d] Helen Hartness Flanders, Ballads Migrant in New England (New York, 1953), pp. 228ff.; [I:3-e] Mellinger Henry, Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands (New York, 1938), p. 37.
GROUP II: [II:i-a] Arthur K. Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), pp. 9of.; [II:2-a] Sharp and Karpeles, I, 21f.; [II:2-b] Winston Wilkinson MSS., University of Virginia Collection of Folk Music, 1935-6, pp. 9ff.; [II:2-c] John Harrington Cox, Folk-Songs of the South (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), pp. 18f.; [II:2-d] Davis, pp. 87f.; [II:2-e] Wilkinson MSS., 1935-6, pp. 7f.; [I:2-f] Davis, pp. 89f.; [II:2-g] Davis, pp. 88f.
GROUP III: [III:i-a] Alton C. Morris, Folk Songs of Florida and their Cultural Background (Gainesville, Fla., 1950), pp. 241ff.; [III:-b] John A. and Alan Lomax, Our Singing Country (New York, 1941), pp. 154f.; [III:i-c] Evelyn K. Wells, The Ballad Tree (New York, 1950), pp. 147f.; [III:i-d] Arthur P. Hudson, Folk-Songs of Mississippi and their Background (Chapel Hill, N.C.,
1936), pp. 66ff.; [III:l-e] Arthur P. Hudson, George Herzog, and Herbert Halpert, Folk-Tunes from Mississippi (New York, 1937), pp. 22f.; [III:2-a] Cecil J. Sharp and Maud Karpeles, English Folk- Song from the Southern Appalachians (Oxford, 1952), I, 19f.; [III:2-b] Sharp and Karpeles, I, 14f.; [III:2-c] Sharp and Karpeles, I, 16f.; [III:2-d] Sharp and Karpeles, I, 17ff.; [III:2-e] Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (Durham, N.C., 1952), II, 28f.; [III:2-ee] Folk Music of the United States, Library of Congress, Music Division, "Anglo-American Songs and Ballads," Album 12, No. 6oB; [III:2-f] North Carolina Folklore, II, 29f.; [III:2-g] Mellinger Henry, Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians (London, 1934), pp. 45f.; [III:2-h] Described in North Carolina Folklore, II, 30 [III:2-i] Described in North Carolina Folklore, II, 31; [III:2-j] Described in North Carolina Folklore, II, 31; [III:2-k] Described in North Carolina Folklore, II, 31f.; [III:2-m] E. C. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South," JAF, XXVIII (1915), 152ff.
The large collections of Earl Brand are found in 1) Cecil J. Sharp and Maud Karpeles, English Folk- Song from the Southern Appalachians and 2) Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. Arthur K. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia has four versions A-D.
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Earl Brand - Peggy Seeger Long Harvest
1 Rise up, rise up, you seven sleepers,
And do take a warning from me,
Do watch after your eldest sister,
The youngest is coming with me.
2 Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons,
And bring your sister down,
It'll never be said that a steward's son
Had carried her out of town.
3 I thank you kindly sir, said he,
But I am no steward's son,
My father was a regis king
And my mother a Quaker queen.
4 She mounted on the bonnie, bonnie black,
And him on the ample grey,
He hung his bugle all round her neck
And they went singing away.
5 Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons,
Put on your arms so bright:
It'll never be said that a daughter of mine
Did sleep with a lord all night.
6 They were not three miles out of town
When he looked back again,
And he saw her father and seven bretheren
Come a-trippling o'er the plain.
7 Light down, light down, Lady Margret, he said,
And hold my horse for awhile,
While I fight your seven bretheren
And your father a-walking so nigh.
8 And she held, and she held so still
And never did speak a word,
Not even when she seen her seven bretheren,
Come a-tumbling in their blood.
9 And she held, and she bitter bitter held,
Nor never a word did speak,
Until she seen her father's head
Come a-tumbling by her feet.
10 O, hold your hand, Love William, she said,
For your stroke is now to sore
It's many a true lover I might have
But a father I have no more.
11 If you ain't pleased, Lily Margret, he said,
If you ain't pleased, said he:
You oughta have stayed in your mother's house,
And me in a chambery.
12 But you must choose, Lily Margret, he said,
Will you go with me, he cried.
I'll go with you, Love William, she said,
For you left me without a guide.
13 So wind you east, and wind you west,
I'll wind along with thee:
So he hung his bugle all around her neck
And they went bleeding away.
14 They rode till they come to his mother's gate,
And he pulled on the pin,
Crying mother, O mother, asleep or awake,
Come rise and let us in.
15 Sister, sister, go make my bed,
For my wound is now full sore:
Mother, O mother, bind up my head
For me you'll bind no more.
16 Father, father, go dig my grave,
Go dig it wide and deep,
And lay Lily Margret in my arms,
Together that we may sleep.
17 Love William died as 'twas midnight,
Lily Margret just at day,
And I hope every lovers that ever do love
Will see more pleasure than they.
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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;
7. EARL BRAND
Note: References to secondary versions songs about a bold soldier and with a happy ending can be found under Erlinton, Child 8.
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 3 5 / Brewster, Bids Sgs Ind, 37 / Brown Coll / BFSSNE, I, 4 / Bull Tenn FLS, VIII, #3, 64 / Cox, F-S South, 1 8 / Cox, W. 7 a. School Journal and Educator, XLVI, 83 / Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 86 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 7 / Henry, Beech MtF-S, 10 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 36 / Henry, Sgs Sng So Aplchns, 45 / Hudson F-S Miss, 66 / Hudson, F-T Miss, 22 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-L,#.z / Hummel, Oz F-S / JAFL XXVIII, 152; XLII, 256; XLVIII, 307 / MacKenzie, Bids Sea Sgs N Sc, 9 / MacKenzie, Quest Bid, 2,6, 60 / Morris, Fla F-S, 373 / Lomax and Lomax, Our Sgng Cntry, 154 / Minish
Mss. / MLN, XXV, #4, 104 / Perry, Carter Cnty, 191 / Randolph, Oz F-S, I, 48 / Randolph, Oz Mt Flk, 221 / Scarborough, Sgctchr So Mts, 114 / SharpC, Eng F-S So Aplcbns, #3 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, 1, 14 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 7 / SFLQ, VIII, 136 / Va FLS Bull, #s 2, 46, 10.
Local Titles: Fair Ellender, Lady Margaret, Lord Loving, Lord Robert, Lord William, Lord William and Lady Margaret, Rise Ye Up, Sweet William, Sweet William and Fair Eleanor, Sweet Willie, The Child of Ell, The Seven Brethren, The Seven Brothers, The Seven King's Sons, The Seven Sleepers.
Story Types:
A: A girl is carried off by her lover who, in some songs, spends the night with her first. Her father and seven brothers pursue them. The lover halts his flight and slays all eight. After the damage has been done, the girl tells him to hold his hand, and then, desperate and crushed, she continues on with him. Often a scene in which they stop to drink at a river
and the fatal bleeding of the lover stains the water is included. The song ends at his mother's house where they both die, he of wounds, she of heartbreak. Examples: Barry (A), Brewster (A), Davis (A), SharpK(A), FIg, VIII, 137.
B: The usual story has a stanza (perhaps from Barbara Allen) inserted so that the mother dies as well as the lovers.
Examples : Cox, W. Va. School Journal and Educator, XLVI,83; SharpK(B).
C: The usual story is told as far as the fight. Then, on the death of her father, the girl turns against her lover and wishes him in the middle of the sea. Examples: Hudson, F-S Miss,
D : This text is similar to that of Type C, except that the lover becomes harsh with the girl after the fight and tells her if she does not like what he has done she can get another suitor. He tells her he wishes that she were back in her mother's room and he somewhere else. This ending is very abrupt.
Examples : Henry, Sgs Sng So Aplcbns.
Discussion: The Type A ballads follow the story of Child B, Scott's The Douglas Tragedy, a song that may well be based on a real Selkirkshire event as far as its detail goes. (See Davis, Trd Sid Va, 86 and Child, I, 99.) The Douglas Tragedy contains the rose-briar ending, although this feature is lacking in a large percentage of the American versions. None of Davis' Virginia collection has this motif, though SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, A, C contain it. Also, in the SharpK southern texts can be found the names Fair Ellender, Lord Thomas, in addition to the Barbara, Allen stanza (see Type B). These points indicate that Child 73 and 84 have both contacted this song.
Other American story types derive from varying causes. The girl's turning against her lover in Type C seems to be a combination of forgetting and sentimentality, while both this and the Type D versions tend to substitute a more active and less powerful dramatic scene for the pathos of the Type A ending. In Type D the change in tone after the father's death may well have come from the loss of a few key phrases somewhere in oral transmission. Compare the very similar lines as they exist in a Type A story (JJFL, XXVIII, 153) also from North Carolina where they have a pathetic tone.
In the American versions of the ballad the girl seldom, if ever, speaks before her father is slain. Also, the Brewster, Bids Sgs 2nd, A text is worth noting because of its extreme beauty and the interesting condensation of the end. The lovers never reach home, and the rose-briar lines are compressed. The A. C. Morris (SFLQ, VIII, 136) text differs from most American versions
in that the hanging of the bugle about William's neck is repeated. (See Child B.) For a complete description of leading American texts see Zielonko, Some American Variants of Child Ballads, 21.
The tale is not an uncommon one. Child's remarks (I, 88 ff.) concerning the Scandanavian counterpart Ribold and Guldborg are important" in this respect.
Reference should also be made to Child 8 (Erlinton) for the ballads called The Soldier's Wooing, etc. that are often printed as American secondary versions of Earl Brand or Erlinton. See Child 8 in this study.
Notes by Davis; Traditional Ballads of Virginia:
EARL BRAND (Child, No. 7)
Instead of the title "Earl Brand" or "The Douglas Tragedy," this ballad is known in Virginia as "The Seven Brothers," "The Seven Sleepers," "The Seven King's Sons," or "Lord William." All the Virginia variants seem to follow Sir Walter Scott's version, "The Douglas Tragedy" (Child B), more closely than any other. But they all lack the last three stanzas of Child B, about the plants springing from the graves of the dead lovers and intertwining above as a symbol that love has transcended death. This "rose-and-briar" ending is reserved in Virginia for "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet," "Fair Margaret and sweet William," "Lord Lovel," and "Barbara Allen." The mathematical restraint of the usual Virginia ending,
Eleven lives lost for one,
recalls the concluding stanza of Child A,
This has not been the death o ane,
But it's been that of fair seventeen.
But otherwise the kinship with Child B is much closer, though several of its stanzas are not found in the Virginia variants. The longest Virginia text shows twelve stanzas; Child B has twenty or seventeen without the rose-and-briar ending.
Not as a version, but as appendix to the ballad, is given an interesting modern piece retelling the story of "Earl Brand." It, too, comes from oral tradition in the Virginia mountains. [See 7 Appendix for text]
Sir Walter Scott is authority for attaching the events of this ballad to a definite place. "The ballad of the Douglas Tragedy," he says, "is one of the few to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality. The farm of Blackhouse, in Selkirkshire, is said to have been the scene of this melancholy event. There are the remains of a very ancient tower, adjacent to the
farm house, in a wild and solitary glen, upon a torrent named Douglas burn, which joins the Yarrow after pausing craggy rock called the Douglas craig. . . . From this ancient tower Lady Margaret is said to have been carried by her lover. Seven large stones, erected upon the neighboring heights of Blackhouse are shown, as marking the spot where the seven brethren were slain and the Douglas burn is averred to have been the stream at which the lovers stopped to drink; so minute is tradition in ascertaining the scene of a tragical tale, which, considering the rude state of former times had probably foundation in some real event." See Child, I, 99.
For American texts) see Brown, p. 9 (North Carolina); Bulletin, Nos. 2, 4-6, Campbell and Sharp, No. 3, (North Carolina, Georgia); Cox, No. 2; Hudson, No. 2 (Mississippi);. Journal XXVIII, 152 (Perrow; North Carolina); Mackenzie, p.6o; Mackenzie, Ballads, No. 2; Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 7. For additional references, see Cox, p. 18.
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Brown Collection Notes:
3. Earl Brand (Child 7)
This admirable specimen of the tragic ballad seems to have held its place in the favor of ballad singers better in America than in the old country. Greig reports it from Scotland, to be sure, both in the Folk-Songs of the North-East and in Last Leaves, and Ord has it in his Bothy Songs; but the absence of any mention of it in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society seems to show that it is extinct in English tradition. On this side of the Atlantic it has been reported as traditional song in Newfoundland (BSSN 7-8), Nova Scotia (BSSNS 9-11), Maine (BBM 35-40), Virginia (TBV 86-91, SharpK I 21-3, 25), West Virginia (FSS 18-19), Kentucky (SharpK i 24-5), Tennessee (FSSH 36-7, BTFLS viii 64-5), North Carolina (JAFL xxviii 152-4, SharpK 1 14-19, SSSA 45-6, BMFSB lo-ii, SCSM 115-16), Georgia (SharpK I 19-20), Mississippi (FSM 66-8), Florida (SFLQ viii 136-8), the Ozarks (OMF 219-21, OFS I 48-9), Indiana (BSI 37-8), and Illinois JAFL IX 241-2). 'The Soldier's Wooing,' reckoned by some as a secondary form of "Earl Brand,' is dealt with later in the present volume. The American texts follow in general the tradition of Scott's form of the ballad ('The Douglas Tragedy' of the Minstrelsy, Child's version B), clinging in particular to the '"buglet horn" that "hung down by his side," recognizable through a variety of transformations. Old Carl Hood has vanished entirely. Most of the North Carolina versions, and also that from Georgia, have introduced a new element, the question of the hero's origin. *When scornfully described by the girl's father as "a steward's son" (transformed in texts A, C, F below into "Stuart's son"), he proudly declares that his father is a regis king and his mother a Quaker's queen. Possibly this has been picked up, and corrupted, from the English stall ballad of 'The Orphan Gypsy Girl,' the opening line of which in Cox's West Virginia version (FSS 335) runs: "My father is king of the gypsies, my mother is queen of the Jews."
Missing versions:
LADY MARGARET
Source Tennessee Folklore Soc TFS 104 (`The Hicks Family')
Performer Winningham, Nancy Hicks
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Armathwaite
Collector Fulcher, Bobby
LADY MARGARET
Source WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.356
Performer Johnson, Mrs. Polly
Place collected USA : Virginia : Wise
Collector Hamilton, Emory L.
EARL BRAND
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2912 B1
Performer Harmon, Edith & Austin
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Maryville
Collector Halpert, Herbert
EARL BRAND
Source Anderson: Tennessee Folklore Soc. Bulletin 8:3 (1942) p.64
Performer Harmon, John
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Walland
SWEET WILLIAM
Source Jean Thomas Coll. (Dwight Anderson Music Lib, Univ. of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky) Box 4A folder 194
Performer Hatfield, Sid
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector Thomas, Jean
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