The Two Brothers- Kennison (VT) 1932 Flanders D
[Barry; BFSSNE 1932; Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1966. Notes by Coffin. Notes by Barry at bottom.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Twa Brothers
(Child 49)
This ballad. which seems to be unknown in England (Child's versions are all from Scotland) is quite easy to find in the New world. The story, however, is seldom constant, except in the fact that one brother is slain. Child A-F give a mutual sweetheart as a cause of trouble between the brothers, but the killing is nor always purposeful or even over the girl. In Child A, E, and F the killing is accidental; in other Anglo-American versions it is over land disputes, birds, or simply due to frustration during a scuffle. Frequently, a testament ending is attached; sometimes, as in Child D-G, the entire "Edward" ballad concludes the story. The dying brother may send messages to his roved ones; sometimes he wants them to know the truth, other times he wants to mislead them. Phillips Barry (BFSSNE, V, 6 f.) presents the idea that the motivation for the crime is in an incestuous love the two boys hold for their sister, and versions such as the Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles K text in English Folk songs from the Southern Appalachians [Oxford, 1932], I, 76 f.) support his thesis. Bur one is never quite certain what the details of the story are going to be when he encounters a new text of "The Twa Brothers." Barry (British Ballads from Maine, 105) argues that the American texts of the song may be older than the Child texts. He could well be right. Certainly, the borrowing of the testament from "Edward" and the request for a dead man's kiss from "Sweet William's Ghost" might lead one to think the Child versions were losing their individuality" At any rate, a study of the ballad should take into account Barry's thesis. One might also consult Alton Morris' article in SFQ, VIII, 140, and the discussion by Jane Zielonko, "Some American Variants of Child Ballads" (Master's thesis, Columbia University, 1945), 76 t- Coffin, 60-62; and Belden, 33-34, are helpful in starting a complete bibliography.
The A version below has been printed twice as "Edward" (Child 13). It is actually a rather confused remodeling of "The Twa Brothers" story after an "Edward" ending has become attached in the fashion typical to Child D-G. The implication of the mother in the crime (stanza 26), after stanza 5 informs us that the killing occurred because of frustration during the fight, makes little sense. The Flanders B version is more orthodox and like Child B. Here, the sweetheart is called Susan (the usual American name; Child has "Margaret"); the body which has been mourned from its grave is asked for a kiss; and the crime seems purposeful.
However, the opening needs some explanation. At first glance, line I makes the reader think the killing is over by the time the song opens. But this is merely confusing syntax and line I makes reference only to that Martyr John who was lately killed. C and D are fragments also in the general tradition of which Child B is a Part.
The six tunes for Child 49 can be divided into three groups, as follows: 1) Kennison tune I, Kennison tune III, and Barry, which correspond to BCI grouP A; 2) Delorme, and possibly Kennison tune II, which correspond to BCI group ts; and 3) the Edwards tune, which corresponds to the Appendix to Child 49 in BCI.
D. The Two Brothers. As sung by Josiah S. Kennison of Townshend, Vermont, to Phillips Barry in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who made a phonograph recording. Footnotes indicate alterations made when Mr. Kennnison later sang it to H. H. F. The changes he made were slight, just showing that no folk singer can completely repeats himself. Phillips Barry, Collector; April 6, 1932
Structure: A.1 A2 A1 A2 Az (2,2,2,2,2); Rhythm B; Contour: undulating; Scale: pentachordal; t.c. E-flat. For mel. rel. see ROI ,79; DV, 58 (L I I); SharpI, 66 (distant), 68, and 75.
The Two Brothers
(Last line of each stanza is repeated, as a refrain in singing')
Two brothers were going to school one day,
Two brothers were going to school;
Instead of their going to school that day,
They thought the day too long[1]
And they thought the day too long[2]
The elder one he drew a knife,
A knife that was piercing sharp,[3]
And he pierced ii into his brother's side,
And he Pierced it into his heart.
"O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If father should ask for me,
Just tell him I'm gone to yonder churchyard
To fight for liberty."
"O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If sister should ask for me,
Just tell her I've gone to yonder churchyard
To learn my lessons free."
"O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If mama should ask for me,
Just tell her I'm lying in yonder churchyard [4]
And I'm mama's boy no more." [5]
1 for "too long": "so big"
2 for "too long": "so big"
3 for "Piercing sharp": "pierce and sharp"
4 for "in yonder churchyard": "to yonder churchyard"
5 stanza 5 was sung as a six-line stanza with the third and fourth lines repeated.
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BFSSNE- Vol 5; British Ballads
THE TWO BROTHERS.
(Child 49)
Sung at Cambridge, Mass., April 6, 1932, by Mr. Josiah S. Kennison, of Townshend, Vermont. Air transcribed from phonograph record by P. B.
1. Two brothers were going to school one day,
Two brothers were going to school;
Instead of going to school that day,
They thought the day too long,
And they thought the day too long.
2. The elder one he drew a knife,
A knife that was piercing sharp,
And he pierced it into his brother's side,
And he pierced it into his heart.
3. "O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If father should ask for me,
Just tell him I'm gone to yonder churchyard,
To fight for Liberty."
4. "O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If sister should ask for me,
Just tell her I've gone to yonder churchyard,
To learn my lessons free."
5. "O dear, O dear, when you go home,
If mamma should ask for me,
Just tell her I'm lying in yonder churchyard,
And I'm mamma's boy no more."
Mr. Kennison, who sings his ballads in a light, easy rubato-parlando manner, is one of the most pleasing of our Vermont songsters. This ballad was sung by him at the Annual Meeting of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast. The melody, to which Mr. Kennison sings also part of. The Jew's Daughter, is a worn-down set of the same come-all-ye air to which Mrs. Sarah R. Black, of Southwest Harbor, Maine, sang Little Musgratse and Lady Barnard. (See page 4.)
The present version has wandered far from what was the original theme of the ballad. The oldest form of this theme, or radical, the fatal rivalry of two brothers for the love of their sister, is told of Cain, Abel and their sister Luluwa in The Book of Adam and Eve, an early Egypto-Christian hagiograph (ed. S. C. Malan, pp. 94-104). Two southern texts (Sharp MSS., 882,916) have kept the "brother-sister fixation": elsewhere generally, as in Maine A, (British Ballads from Maine, p. 100), "Susan," no longer a sister, is the sweetheart of the younger brother, or, as in Mr. Kennison's text, the ballad has regressed to the infantile level.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that The Two Brothers, (Child 49), Lizie Wan (Child 51), in which a brother kills his sister for betraying their love, and Edward (Child 13), a ballad of fratricide, in which the motive is the love of a pre-nubile girl, are spalds of a common stock. Certainly, they supplement each other like parts of a picture puzzle.
P. B.