"The Dowie Dens of Yarrow", also known as "The Braes of Yarrow" is a Scottish border ballad

Border ballad

The English/Scottish border has a long and bloody history of conquest and reconquest, raid and counter-raid . It also has a stellar tradition of balladry, such that a whole group of songs exists that are often called "border ballads", because they were collected in that region.Border ballads, like...

. It exists in many variants (Child

Francis James Child

Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of folk songs known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry...

 collected at least 18) and it has been printed as a broadside

Broadside (music)

A broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations...

, as well as published in song collections. It is considered to be a folk standard

Standard (music)

In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...

, in that the original author is unknown, and versions have been performed by many artists.

Synopsis

The song describes an unequal conflict between a group of men and one man, concerning a lady. This takes place in the vicinity of Yarrow. The one man succeeds on overcoming nearly all his opponents but is finally defeated by (usually) the last one of them.

In some versions, the lady (who is not usually named) rejects a number (often nine) wealthy suitors, in preference for a servant or ploughman. The nine make a pact to kill the other man and they ambush him in the "Dens of Yarrow".

There lived a lady in the West,

I neer could find her marrow;

She was courted by nine gentlemen

And a ploughboy-lad in Yarrow.

These nine sat drinking at the wine,

Sat drinking wine in Yarrow;

They made a vow among themselves

To fight for her in Yarrow.

In some versions it is unclear who the nine (or other number of men) are; in others, they are brothers or are men sent by the lady's father. In the ensuing fight, eight of the attackers are generally killed or wounded, but the ninth (often identified as the lady's brother, John or Douglas) fatally wounds the victim of the plot, usually by running him through with a sword and often by a cowardly blow, delivered from behind.

Four he hurt, an five he slew,

Till down it fell himsell O;

There stood a fause lord him behin,

Who thrust his body thorrow.

The lady may see the events in a dream, either before or after they take place and usually has some sort of dialogue with her father about the merits of the man who has been ambushed and killed.

"O hold your tongue, my daughter dear,

An tak it not in sorrow;

I’ll wed you wi as good a lord

As you’ve lost this day in Yarrow."

"O haud your tongue, my father dear,

An wed your sons wi sorrow;

For a fairer flower neer sprang in May nor June

Nor I’ve lost this day in Yarrow."

Some versions of the song end with the lady grieving: in others she dies of grief.

Commentary

Dowie is Scots

Scots language

Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...

 and Northumbrian English for sad, dismal, dull or dispirited
, den Scots and Northumbrian for a narrow wooded valley.

The ballad has some similarities with the folk song "Bruton Town" (or "The Bramble Briar

The Bramble Briar (ballad)

"The Bramble Briar", "The Merchant's Daughter" or "In Bruton Town" is a traditional English folk murder ballad that tells the story of how two brothers murder a servant who is courting their sister...

"). This song contains a similar murderous plot, usually by a group of brothers, and directed against a servant who has fallen in love with their sister. It also includes the motif, present in some versions of "The Dowie Dens o Yarrow", of the woman dreaming of her murdered lover before discovering the truth of the plot. However, the rhythmical structure of the two songs is quite different and there is no obvious borrowing of phraseology between them.

Historical Background

The song is closely associated with the geographical area of the valley of the Yarrow Water that extends through the Scottish borders towards Selkirk. Almost all versions refer to this location, perhaps because the rhyming scheme for multiple verses, in most versions, relies on words which more or less rhyme with "Yarrow": "marrow", "morrow", "sorrow", "thorough", "narrow", "arrow" and "yellow" for example.

The song is believed to be based on an actual incident. The hero of the ballad was a knight of great bravery, popularly believed to be John Scott, sixth son of the Laird

Laird

A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...

 of Harden. According to history, he met a treacherous and untimely death in Ettrick Forest

Ettrick Forest

Ettrick Forest is a former royal forest in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland.It is a large area of moorland, south of Peebles, stretching from Dollar Law to Selkirk.-See also:*James Hogg*Craik Forest*Wauchope Forest...

 at the hands of his kin

Family

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

, the Scotts of Gilmanscleugh in the seventeenth century
. However, recent scholars are sceptical about this story as the origin of the song.

Standard References

• Roud
  Roud Folk Song Index
  The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...
  
   13
• Child 214
• A version is published in Gordon Hall Gerould
  Gordon Hall Gerould
  Gordon Hall Gerould, B.A., B.Litt. was a philologist and folklorist of the United States.Born in Goffstown, New Hampshire, he joined the faculty of Bryn Mawr College and was a professor of English at Princeton University. In 1910 he married fellow writer Katharine Elizabeth Fullerton Gerould. He...
  
  's Old English and Medieval Literature

Broadsides

There are several broadside versions:

• National Library of Scotland, reference RB.m.143(120)

Textual Variants

There are numerous versions of the ballad. Child recorded at least 19, the earliest of which was taken from Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

's The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border is a collection of Border ballads compiled by Walter Scott. It is not to be confused with his long poem, The Lay of the Last Minstrel...

 (1803). However, the song is much older: William Hamilton of Bangour

William Hamilton (Jacobite poet)

William Hamilton was a Scottish poet associated with the Jacobite movement.He was born at the family seat in Ecclesmachan, West Lothian, Scotland. He began his literary career by contributing verses to Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany. He joined Charles Edward Stuart in 1745, andcelebrated the...

 wrote a poem called "The Braes of Yarrow" which has some basis in the ballad. It appears in a collection of his poems first published in Edinburgh in 1724. It is said to be "written in imitation of an old Scottish ballad on a similar subject".

Non-English variants

Child points out the similarity with "Herr Helmer", a Scandinavian ballad. In this, Helmer marries a woman whose family are in a state of feud with him because of the unavenged killing of her uncle. Helmer meets his seven brothers-in-law and a fight ensues. He kills six, but spares the seventh who treacherously kills him.

Recordings

Album/Single	Performer	Year	Variant	Notes
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume III	Ewan MacColl Ewan MacColl Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...  & A. L. Lloyd A. L. Lloyd Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....	1956	MacColl's version is taken from the singing of his father
Strings and Things	The Corries The Corries The Corries were a Scottish folk group that emerged from the Scottish folk revival of the early 1960s. Although the group was a trio in the early days, it was as the partnership of Roy Williamson and Ronnie Browne that it is best known.-Early years:...	1970
Stargazer Stargazer (album) Stargazer is the eighth album by trumpeter Dave Douglas. It was released on the Arabesque label in 1997 and features performances by Douglas, Chris Speed, Joshua Roseman, Uri Caine, James Genus and Joey Baron...	Shelagh McDonald Shelagh McDonald Shelagh McDonald is a Scottish folk singer, song-writer and guitarist who released two albums before her abrupt and mysterious disappearance in 1971...	1971
JSD Band JSD Band The JSD Band were a Scottish based celtic rock band, and one of the leading folk rock bands of the early 1970s. Following a split up, they reformed to produce two further albums due to the amount of interest in their early albums...	1973
And So It Goes And So It Goes "And So It Goes" is a ballad written by Billy Joel in 1983, though it wasn't released until six years later. It appeared as the tenth and final track of his megahit album Storm Front. The original 1983 demo was released on the 2005 box set My Lives. Joel wrote the song about a doomed relationship...	Steve Tilston Steve Tilston Steve Tilston is an English singer-songwriter.-Early years:Steve Tilston was born in Liverpool and raised in Leicestershire. Tilston was a graphic designer before taking up music in 1971, living in Bristol at the time, where he recorded his first album "An Acoustic Confusion". In the early...	1995
Outlaws and Dreamers	Dick Gaughan Dick Gaughan Richard Peter Gaughan usually known as Dick Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs.-Early years:...	2001	Variant of Child 214S
The Mountain Announces The Mountain Announces The Mountain Announces is the second album by the Scatter collective. The album was released in 2006 on the Blank Tapes label. It introduced a new vocalist for the group, Hanna Tuulikki, as well as including a traditional Irish folk standard, She Moved Through the Fair, and an eight-verse version...	Scatter Scatter (band) Scatter are an improvisational collective, based in Glasgow. Their music is heavily influenced by jazz and folk ....	2006
The Fairest Floo'er	Karine Polwart Karine Polwart Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide...	2007

Musical variants

The following is the tune as sung by Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...

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