A Ballad of Two Little Boys

Here's a story about a stepfather murdering one of two brothers and the other one getting his revenge on him.
I heard a recording of it from Stanley Robertson of Aberdeenshire. He learned it from his mother and it is the only known version of it.
Apart from an Aberdeenshire version of The Twa Brothers (Child 49) that shares this tune and opening stanza I found nothing else that resembles this song.
The tune is well known as "The Star of the County Down / Dives and Lazarus".
The text as Stanley Robertson sang it:
Two little boys coming home from school
In the evening coming home.
Said the one little boy to the other little boy
Let us choose our own way home
So one went home by the bowery green
And the road o' the waters fall
And the other one ta'en the mountain track
That led tae the high castle wall
Noo the boy that went by the bowery green
And the road o' the waters fall.
He whistled and sang as the day was lang
And he had nae a care at all
'Til his step father came up tae his side
Saying "Why dae ye walk alane?
Come wi' me to the rivers bank
And we'll catch the fish that swim"
So they both went o'er to the waters bank
For tae catch the fish that swim
But murder was in the auld man's heart
As he looked o'er the deep dark glen
And he's bound young Donald by surprise
And he bounded him foot and thigh
And he cast him in tae the deep dark glen
And over the water fall high
Noo the boy that went by the mountain tracks
Stood at the high castle wall
And he saw aa' and he saw far
And he saw his brither fall
And he wep't loud and he wep't sair
And he wep't all alane
And he vowed that he woul'd have revenge,
Before the day was done
So he gathered up herbs and the foxglove flo'ers [*]
And the heids of the broon toadstools
And he's mix't it intae his stepfather's wine
And he's mix't it intae the gruel
And he put the servants aa' awa'
And he served him all alane
And before the evenin' it was done
The auld man groaned wi' pain
"A priest, a priest young Hugh" he cries,
"For I fear that I'm going tae die.
That I might confess my sins
For tae enter the heavens so high"
Young Hugh he didnae move a hand nor fig
But he stood as cauld as leid
And the auld man moaned and the auld man groaned
'Til he fell at his feet a' deid
"A grave, a grave," young Hugh, he cries.
"For tae put my false sire in."
"But bury my brither alang wi' my mither
For he is of noble kin."
"For justice, has been carried oot
And justice has been done
But I am left an orphan boy
And I'll weep here aa' by my lane"
Foxglove flowers are poisonous, but not quite to the point of being suitable for murder on their own.

[@TheFolkRevivalProject]

It's great to see all your old videos back! Also, nice performance by the way :)

[@Liederfuchs]

Thank you :)
Yep, I managed to bring most of the videos back again. Well, I was careful to leave out all the ones with copyright issues, so it should be good this time.
We didn't lose anything of real importance I think. Thankfully it was mostly the revival recordings that got claimed. I should've been more mindful about those.
I want to upload field recordings again, I need to find the time to get around to it. There's still plenty of interesting songs I'd like to document.
For example I haven't uploaded The Widow of Westmorland's Daughter yet. Eddie Butcher of Londonderry sang a really fine and pretty amusing version of it to Hugh Shields. It's the only field recording of that ballad known to me.
Of course I like Bert Lloyd's version of it too. He did a great job with it and recorded it at least three times. But I may not be able to upload those recordings.
Ah well, that's how it is. Better to be careful now.

[@EatBakeSing]

Sounds like the tune of “County Down”

[@Liederfuchs]

@@EatBakeSing It is indeed Star of the County Down.
Stanley Robertson said that the tune is often claimed to be Irish, but his mother believed it to be an old Scottish one.
It's been used for many songs, but who knows where it really originated.
Some examples from the top of my head:
Dives and Lazarus:
ruclips.net/video/FkslcSR7eNA/видео.html
The Twa Brothers:
ruclips.net/video/7wuX25V2Irk/видео.html
Sweet William's Ghost:
ruclips.net/video/jnIaNG5kGcM/видео.html
Maria Marten aka. Suffolk Tragedy:
ruclips.net/video/9r6k81mU6AQ/видео.html
Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor:
ruclips.net/video/a5BpAH5LzbY/видео.html
It resembles an old Scottish balled tune, The Hanging of Gilderoy. So perhaps Stanley Robertson was right.
Interestingly a faster variant of the Gilderoy tune has survived into modern times with the Irish song The Little Beggarman:
ruclips.net/video/uRGoUiRiNHY/видео.html

[@acapellapatrick]

Thanks for all the info. Are any of these videos your singing?

[@Liederfuchs]

Yes, the last few videos are all me singing. I'm not that good at it, but I try to get better.
There are so many nice old songs to learn. Maybe I can get other people interested in them too.

[@Liederfuchs]

The song never tells us why the stepfather murdered the boy. We don't get the details, just the gist of the story.

[@acapellapatrick]

Do you know any sources for lyrics? Child's book or something? Anything with more of the story? Thanks

[@Liederfuchs]

@@acapellapatrick This website has all of the ballad lyrics collected by Child:
71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Sort=By%20Child%20Index
But they are old ballad texts from manuscripts, and most have no tunes.
It's interesting to look at and shows you all the 305 Child ballads, but not very helpful if you want to learn and sing the songs.
A very good source for information on Child ballads is this website:
www.bluegrassmessengers.com/the-305-child-ballads.aspx
It has many, many texts and tunes as they were sung by traditional singers from England, Scotland, Ireland, America and Canada.
I also use the four volumes of "Betrand Bronson: Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads". Many of the songs I shared on RUclips are included in Bronson's books:
www.springthyme.co.uk/ballads/bronson_bronson.html

[@acapellapatrick]

Germany. That is interesting. Does Germany have a ballad tradition like Britain?
I have some videos up if you are interested. Acapellapatrick. Some British ballads but also some American songs. Love to know what you think

[@Liederfuchs]

I'll take a look at your videos, of course.
As for Germany, the ballad singing tradition here died out much earlier than in Britain and America.
I have some field recordings from Russia Germans. They brought their singing traditions with them and ballad singing survived there while it had long disappeared in Germany.
That's part of why I became so interested in English language singing traditions. Because there was actually a living tradition there that survived long enough to be recorded and documented.
It's often the more isolated communities that had the best songs and singing styles. Whether it's Appalachia, remote fishing villages in Newfoundland, the Travelling People of the British isles or the Russia Germans.
People that held onto their songs and traditions and kept them alive.
It seems that being more isolated helped preserve songs that would've been lost otherwise.

[@acapellapatrick]

I like your singing. Where are you from?

[@Liederfuchs]

Oh, I'm from southwest Germany actually.
I got introduced to folk revival recordings from people like Martin Carthy by my father and later discovered field recordings and especially traveller singing and I fell in love with it.
Absolutely admire the old fashioned singing and the songs and ballads.
I started to collect recordings of traditional singing and shared my collection here on youtube.
Now I'm learning to sing my favourite ballads myself. I'll try my best.