The Two Brothers- Keeton (VA) 1933 Davis AA
[From: More Traditional Ballads from Virginia; Davis 1960. Davis' notes follow.
This version came form an area in Virginia (the Brown's Cove region, Albermarle and Green plus neighboring counties) that became the repository for a specific version of this ballad (for another ballad see John Hazelgreen). From this region the Virginia Folk-Lore Society, under the direction of C. Alphonso Smith (who died in 1924) and later John Stone and Kyle Davis Jr., collected six texts. Additionally Sharp collected three in 1917; Scarborough- one; Davis again in More Ballads- five; Wilkinson- four; and Foss- one.
George Foss, who wrote an excellent article titled, From White Hall to Bacon Hollow, collected an excellent version from Robert Shiflett (see also Davis A from his sister), who was Raz Shiflett's son. Foss also did an interview with one informant, Marybird McAllister. Following are some excerpts:
R. Matteson 2014]
THE TWA BROTHERS
(Child, No. 49)
Child prints ten versions of this ballad, one of the few known to him in an American version. It does not seem to persist in present-day tradition in either England or Scotland; at least it does not appear in either Margaret Dean-Smith's Survey or Gavin Greig's Last Leaves. Bronson (I, 384) confirms this observation. The ballad has often been collected in the United States, and eleven texts (all available) with six tunes were published in TBVa. The story changes little. Two brothers wrestle while coming home from school, and one is mortally wounded by the other's knife as a result of accident or jealousy, as in Child texts. Most Virginia texts indicate purposeful murder and are related to Child B; even when the wounding is accidental, the texts are verbally closer to Child B than to Child A.
Five versions have been collected since the publication of TBVa, one of them, EE, a later phonograph recording of version G in TBVa, there given without its tune. Of these five versions, only AA and DD retain the supernatural calling of the murdered brother from his grave by his sweetheart. In DD the idea is badly garbled, but the version is unusual in the names given the participants. The sweetheart is Fair Ellen, and the murderer Lord Thomas, seemingly taken over from "Lord. Thomas and Fair Annet," while the murdered. brother is named. Ben. In AA the blow is apparently struck from passion. In BB the murder weapon is a tomahawk, and the weapon is apparently used merely because the brother will not "play ball/Nor roll the marble stone." The bow and arrow which the dying youth wishes buried with him, coupled with the tomahawk, suggest Indian lore, but actually the bow and arrow request is English and is found in child B, leaving only the tomahawk as an American addition. In DD and EE the killing is intentional, but no clear motive is indicated. CC is the only version in which the wound seems to be accidental, but even here the dying brother seems to hint at jealousy as the motive by asking his brother to tell his sweetheart "it's for her sake I'm gone."
Interesting folklore beliefs are preserved in the ending of AA and perhaps DD: - young Susie's supernatural power to charm birds and fishes and young Johnny out of the grave, and the notion that the kissing of the deal is fatal. (See Wimberly, pp. 282-83.) In other texts (BB, cc) the ending is religious. EE is incomplete.
This ballad presents some of the finest" tunes of the collection, with a tune for every text, all except one tune minutely transcribed from phonograph records, and the one exception taken down from live performance by no less a hand than than of John Powell. Bronson (I, 384-402) prints forty tunes (with texts), plus a single variant as Appendix, and divides the forty into five groups, divided quite strictly according to the middle cadence. All forty-one variants are from American sources. Group A, of eight members, has a middle cadence on the tonic; Group B, with twelve variants, has a middle cadence on the supertonic; Group C, of ten entries, has a middle cadence on the dominant; Group D, seven members, has a middle cadence on the octave above; Group E, with three variants, contains anomalous cases; the single Appendix version is a too literary combination of "The Two Brothers', and "Edward" and is "disturbingly independent," both melodically and textually. Of the six tunes from TBVa, Bronson classifies E in Group A, H in Group B, A and I in Group C, and D and F in Group D: a very representative distribution, minus anomalies and questionable items. This Virginia record seems to corroborate Bronson's remark that "No marked regional distinctions are discernible" in his groupings. of the tunes below, AA falls into Bronson's Group C, EE into his Group A.
AA. "The Two Brothers." phonograph record (aluminum) made by A. K. Davis, Jr. Sung by Mrs. Orilla Keeton, of Mt. Fair, Va. Albemarle County. March, 1933. Text transcribed by P. C. Worthington. Tune noted by Winston Wilkinson. This version is extremely close to TBVa A, but there are a certain number of variations. The similarity is possibly explained by the fact that the two singers were neighbors in Albemarle county. Mrs. Keeton is one of the old Albemarle county, singers, many of whose song's were taken down by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles in 1916. They seem to have missed her version of this ballad. E. C. Mead cites approvingly "the simple melodic arch" of this tune.
There were two brothers in one school.
One evening coming home
The oldest said to the youngest one,
"Let's have a wrastle and fall."
The oldest threw the youngest one,
He threw him to the ground,
And out of his pocket he drew a penknife
And gave him a deadly wound.
3 "Pull off, pull off, your woolen shirt,
And tear it from gore to gore,
And wrap it around your bleeding wound,
Then you will bleed no more.''
4. So he pulled off his woolen shirt,
And tore it from gore to gore,
An-a wrapped it around his bleeding wound,
Till he did bleed no more.
5. "Pick me all up upon your back,
And carry me to yonders churchyard,
And dig my grave both wide and deep,
And gently lay me down."
6. "What must I tell your loving father,
When he calls for his son John?"
"Tell him I'm in some lonely green wood,
Teaching young hounds to run."
7. What must I tell your loving mother,
When she calls for her son John?"
"Tell her I'm in some graded school,
Say, "A good scholar never returns."
8 "What must I tell your loving Sue,
When she calls for her dear John?"
"Tell her I'm in my lowly grave,
My books to carry back home."
9 When-a this young Susy heard of this,
She took the horn and blew,
She charmed the birds all from the nest
And the fishes out of the sea.
10 She charmed young Johnny from his grave,
Said, "Susy, what do you want?"
"One sweet kiss from your sweet lips
Is all my heart does crave."
11 "Go home, go home, my loving Susy,
And weep no more for me,
For one sweet kiss from my sweet lips
Will solve your day short on." [1]
1. Shorten= short on. This enigmatic last line is about the dead kissing the lips of the living- to do so will "shorten your days" (it will kill you!).