Two Little Brothers From School One Day- Russell (VA) 1932 Davis CC
[More Traditional Ballads from Virginia; Davis 1960. Davis' notes follow,
Marion is southwest (near NC) of the most prolific area in Virginia (the Brown's Cove region, Albermarle and Green plus neighboring counties) which 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.
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.
CC. "Two Little Brothers from School One Day" Phonograph record (aluminum) made by A. K. Davis, Jr. Sung by S. F. Russell, of Marion, Va. Smyth County. - August 15, 1932. Text transcribed by P. C. Worthington. Tune noted by E. C. Mead, who described "a fine tune," and urges the importance of all musical variants.
1. Two little brothers from school one day,
And the oldest says to John,
"Will you throw a-ball with me
Or will you catch a stone ?"
2 "I'll [not][1] throw a ball with you
Nor neither catch a stone,
But if you'll go with me to the shady grove[2]
I'll wrassel you a fall."
3 And when those two little brothers came,[3]
Johnny wrasseled Willie down,
In Willie's pocket 'twas a penknife found
That give Johnny a deadly wound.
4 "O brother, brother, you have wounded me,
You have wounded me full sore,
There is a man[4] in this wide world
Could love my brother any more.
5 "If you meet my mother as you return home,
And she inquires for her son John,
Oh, tell her I'm gone to the far-off town,
You'll bring my new book home.
6 "If you meet my true love as you return home,
And she inquires for her love John,
Oh, tell her I'm buried at the old church yard,
Let her know it's for her sake I'm gone.
7 "Go bury my prayer book by my side,
My Bible at my feet,
My little hymn book on my breast,
The sounder I may sleep."
1. The recording jumps here and the negative is not heard.
2. Could be "cherry big grove."
3. This line is indistinct.
4. Could be "the wretched man" or "the richer man," but the sense is "There is no man. . . ."