The Green Willow Tree- Ballard (VT) 1930 Flanders U; Collected Brown
[A rare version that "plows the lowlands" (see Flanders P and also T). Below are Coffin's introductory notes from Flanders' Ancient Ballads. This ballad covers over 80 pages, the most extensive collection published.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Sweet Trinity or the Golden Vanity
(Child 286)
This ballad is immensely popular in America and not hard to find in Britain. It dates back to a broadside of the 1680's in which the deceitful captain is Sir Walter Raleigh. (See Flanders FF.) Since then it has taken many forms and may conclude in any number of ways. The Flanders texts give an excellent cross section of the plot variations found in this ballad. In A-T the boy drowns in the lowlands low. In U, he sinks the captain's ship as well as that of the enemy before he drowns. In V, he also sinks the captain's ship and there is only one survivor to tell the tale. In W, he sinks the captain's ship, ironically drowning the girl he loved with the crew. In X, he dies after being hauled on deck. In EE his ghost returns to treat the captain to a glass of beer before sinking the boat. In FF-JJ, the heroic lad is rewarded with a leave of absence, the daughter's hand, or gold and silver. Of these texts, A1, with the stanzas on the phantom ship, and R, with the lines borrowed from "The Mermaid" (Child 289) are noteworthy. So are V, with its one survivor, like Melville's Ishmael; and FF, which preserves the name of Raleigh, if not the ending, from Child A" The vessel's name, originally The Sweet Trinity, varies greatly in America, becoming The Golden Vanity, The Green Willow Tree, The Merry Golden Tree, and so on. Its opponent, sunk by the cabin boy, was "a false galley" in the old broadside, but it is more likely a Turkish (or Russian, Irish, French, etc.) Revelee or "Shavaree" (sloop) in the States.
There is a certain preposterous quality to this song, and college students and music hall writers have exploited this fact in a series of parodies. see Coffin, 155, for references. Perhaps for the same reason, it has been extremely popular with sailors.
A long bibliography for "The Sweet Trinity" is easy to come by. See coffin, 153-5 (American); Dean-Smith, 69; Belden, 97 (English); Greig and Keith, 228-9, and Ord, 450-1 (Scottish). Phillips Barry, British Ballad's from Maine, 339-47, includes and discusses it. There is a song, once in a while confused with "The Sweet Trinity," called "The Low-lands Low." while it has a similar burden, it tells a very different story and goes back to an English stall ballad, "Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low" (Laws M 34), that was well known here and in Britain, see Laws, ABBB, 197-8; Belden, 127; and Dean-smith, 118, for some references to it.
The tunes for Child 286 can be divided into six groups which, however, may turn out to be related at least to some extent. The groupings are as follows: (1) Davis, Edwards, Moses, Burditt, and possibly Pease; (2) George, Daniels, Houghton; (3) Henry, Blake, George, Barry; (4) Clarke, Cassidy, Richards, Dragon; (5) Ingalls; and (6) Fish and Percival. The Ingalls runs seems to be a version of the popular "Canada-I-O." In order to save repetition, the tune relationships for standard collections are given here. Only relatively close tunes have been selected. from the large number available. In spite of their profusion, however, there is a lack of analogues for groups (2) and (6). For group (3), see Sharp I, 282-285, 2B9 I; FCB 4, 120, 47 A, 121 A (I), 123 C (I) ; BES, 346, ROI, 195, 200 (D); BI, 160. For group (3), especially the Blake rune, see BES, 34b (distant). For group (4) see Sharp l, 287, 288 G; GCM, 214; ROI, 200.
U. "Green Willow Tree" Recorded in Jamaica, Vermont from the singing of Mr. Fred Ballard, as learned from his mother, Mrs. Minerva Hathaway Ballard, who came to Vermont when she was one year old. Mrs. Ballard learned these songs from her mother and uncle; her father was a sea captain from Providence, Rhode Island, who was lost at sea, soon after the birth of his
daughter. George Brown, Collector; August 27, 1930.
The Green Willow Tree
There once was a ship in the north country,
It went by the name of The Green Willow Tree.
And he plowed the low lands that lie so low,
And he plowed the low lands low.
There was another ship in the same country
And went by the name of The Turkee Suguree,
And they plowed the low lands that lie so low,
And they plowed the low lands low.
"I'll give you gold, or I'll give fee,
Besides my only daughter, I'll marry unto thee,
If you'll sink 'em in the low lands that lie so low,
If you'll sink 'em in the low lands low."
He had an instrument all fitted for his use
To bore four and twenty holes all at a push
To sink 'em in the low lands that lie so low,
To sink 'em in the low lands low.
(The boy sinks the Turkee Suguree and upon being refused, to be allowed to board his own ship he sinks her also. Then he plunges into the deep and drowns.)