Binnorie- John Strachan (Aber) c.1931 Carpenter
[This Carpenter version of Child 10 is from the James Madison Carpenter Collection, JMC/1/5/1/T, pp. 08719-08720. A better recording is found online here: https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/view/id/5156 as recorded by Alan Lomax in 1951.
Lomax notes: John Strachan was a well-to-do farmer at the Aberdeenshire farm of Crichie, near Fyvie, who had a wonderful fund of old ballads and bothy ballads. In 1951 Hamish Henderson took American folklorist Alan Lomax to record Strachan's singing. Strachan was born in 1875 and died in 1958. From the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Carpenter gives two stanzas with music (c. 1931)- the first stanza has changed in the 1951 recording and the second is missing.
R. Matteson 2018]
(The Two Sisters) Binnorie O Binnorie- sung by John Strachan of Aberdeenshire, c. 1931 and again in 1951,
There were two sisters lived in a glen[1]
Binnorie o Binnorie,
And the bonnie millert laddie cam a–coortin o them,
By the bonnie mill dams o Binnorie.
[He courted the elder wis diamonds and rings[2],
Binnorie o Binnorie,
He courted the younger wis far better things,
By the bonnie mill dams o Binnorie.]
Oh sister, oh sister, will ye take a walk
Roond be the dams o Binnorie,
For to hear the blackbird whistle o’er its notes
By the bonnie mill dams o Binnorie.
They walked up and sae did they doon
And roon be the dams o Binnorie,
Till the elder stepped aside and dang the younger in
To the deep mill dams o Binnorie.
Oh sister, oh sister stretch oot yer hand
Binnorie o Binnorie,
And I’ll gie ye my gold and a fifth o my land
For the bonny millert laddie o Binnorie.
It wisna for yer money that I dang you in
Binnorie o Binnorie,
It’s you being so fair love and I so very grim[3]
For the bonny millert laddie o Binnorie.
Oh millert oh millert rin oot yer dam
Binnorie o, Binnorie,
For there’s some grand lady or some deid swan
Floatin' up and doon the dams o Binnorie.
__________
1. The 1931 first stanza:
There were two sisters lived in a booer[bower]
Binnorie o Binnorie,
And a knight cam tae be their wooer,
By the bonnie mill dams o Binnorie.
2. stanza missing from the 1951 recording
3. usually "din"