The Twa Brothers from The Book of British Ballads (1842)
"The Twa Brothers" is a traditional ballad (Roud38, Child49) existing in many variants.[1]
Synopsis
Two brothers are wrestling when a blade that one of them is carrying mortally wounds the other; occasionally, one of them stabs the other intentionally.
Attempts to staunch the blood are not successful, and the dying brother tells the living one (usually) how to bury him, and (always) a long list of excuses to give the rest of the family, about his traveling to distant locations, to avoid admitting his death, ending with the injunction to tell his true love the truth.
Some variants end there.
In others, the living brother is taxed with the blood—as in "Edward" and "Lizie Wan"—and attempts to tell false tales do not work. He usually leaves, never to return.
In still others, the true love laments him so long that it disturbs the dead man in his grave, or she wants a kiss from the dead man—as in "The Unquiet Grave" or some variants of "Sweet William's Ghost"—and he asks her to stop and let him rest, or refuses it because it will kill her. In the American variant "The Rolling of the Stones", she "charmed her true love out of his grave."[2]
Parallels
This ballad, in several variants, contains most of the ballad "Edward", Child 13.[3]
The majority of traditional recordings were made in the United States. Alan Lomax's recordings of Clay Walters (1937),[10]Texas Gladden (1941)[11] and her brother Hobart Smith (1942)[12] are among several Appalachian recordings. Texas Gladden and Hobart Smith's recordings were eventually released on Texas Gladden, Ballad Legacy (2001) and Hobart Smith, Blue Ridge Legacy (2001) respectively. Many Ozark recordings were also made, such one performed by Evelyn Skaggs of Wayton, Arkansas (1954) and another by George Lay of Fayetteville, Arkansas[13] which can be heard online courtesy of the Max Hunter Folk Collection.[14]Helen Hartness Flanders also recorded several versions along the east coast.[15][16][17]
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