> Folk Music > Songs > Willie’s Fatal Visit

Willie’s Fatal Visit

[ Roud 244 ; Child 255 ; Ballad Index C255 ; trad.]

Jeannie Robertson of Aberdeen sang Willie’s Fate to Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy in 1955. This recording was published on the anthology The Child Ballads 2 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 5; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968). Lomax and Kennedy noted:

As in the ballad of George Collins, a fairy takes vengeance on her faithless, mortal lover. She hangs the bits of Willie’s body where his new sweetheart will be sure to see them. In the Child version she adorns the church with his flesh…

And on ilka seat o’ Mary’s kirk
O’ Willie she hang a share;
Even abeen his love Maggie’s dice,
Hanged’s head and yellow hair.

This gruesome legend did not, as far as we know, survive among American singers. The ballad is very rare in surviving tradition, and we do not find a printed version subsequent to Child.

Another recording of Jeannie Robertson singing Willie’s Fatal Visit was made by Bill Leader in 1967. It was included in the same year on the Topic anthology The Travelling Stewarts. Carl MacDougall noted:

This ballad is from Peter Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland, and is numbered 255 by Professor Child. The full story is of a maid who, inquiring after her lover, is told that he will be with her that night. The lover, Willie, is admitted and given the option of cards, dice, wine or bed. He chooses the latter, which, in Child’s opinion, is “a too familiar commonplace in Buchan’s ballads.” The maid, Meggie, charges the cock not to crow today, with the promise that:

your kame shall be o the gude red gowd,
and your wings o the siller grey.

However, the cock crows an hour too soon. Willie dresses, leaves his love and on the road home meets with a ghost, who smiles on him. “The ghost tears him to pieces, and hangs a bit ‘on every seat’ of Mary’s kirk, the head right over Meggie’s pew! Meggie rives her yellow hair.” Jeannie’s version takes up the story from Willie leaving Meggie. The implication that the ghost is Willie’s former sweetheart is not in the Buchan version.

Lizzie Higgins sang Willie’s Fatal Visit on the 1977 album sampler of Jean Redpath’s BBC Scotland television series, Ballad Folk.

Sheena Wellington sang Willie’s Fatal Visit, in 1990 on her Dunkeld album Clearsong. She noted:

These are the last few stanzas of an eighteen verse epic. The earlier verses seem to be a mix of several other ballads, notably Sweet William’s Ghost (Child 77), Clerk Saunders (Child 69) and The Grey Cock (Child 248), but the ending is unique. Ghosts appear in many ballads, to comfort, to warn or to reproach, but only in Willie’s Fatal Visit do we have a ghost capable of direct and violent physical action. I learned this from the singing of the great Lizzie Higgins, though I have slightly ‘ironed’ it—Lizzie’s marvellous ornamentations are inimitable!

Ray Fisher sang Willie’s Fatal Visit, accompanied by Martin Carthy on guitar, on her 1991 Saydisc album Traditional Songs of Scotland. Her album’s liner notes commented:

Here we have a composite version of this gruesome ballad taken from the singing of Lizzie Higgins of Aberdeen and the written text of the ballad in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by the wondrous Francis James Child. The tune used in this version was suggested by Martin Carthy, the outstanding singer who has breathed life into countless ‘bookbound’ ballads. The faithless hero of this tale foresees his own death in verse three, and the reason for it in verse six.

Jack Beck sang Willie’s Fatal Visit in 2001 on his Tradition Bearers CD Half Ower, Half Ower tae Aberdour. He noted:

This rarely collected ballad is from the singing of Ray Fisher, who reconstructed a fuller version than is normally heard, and used a tune suggested by Martin Carthy. At last, a ballad where the woman gets revenge—albeit posthumously.

Ellen Mitchell sang Willie’s Fatal Visit on Kevin Mitchell’s and her 2001 Musical Tradition anthology Have a Drop Mair. She and Rod Stradling noted:

Ellen: Again from Lizzie [Higgins], and I know her mother sang it too. Lizzie said this was based on a true story of a slighted girl who dies in childbirth. Her dead baby could be buried in consecrated ground but she was buried outside the churchyard, with rather terrifying results for William.

Although this ballad was published in three Scots song books, and in Child, it doesn’t appear to have had a broadside printing, and the only named sources within the oral tradition have been Jeannie Robertson and her daughter Lizzie Higgins.

Craig Morgan Robson sang Willie’s Fatal Visit on their 2006 CD Stranded. They noted:

Child 255. Willie has found himself a new love and on leaving her bed (the cock having crowed an hour too soon) he encounters the “grievious ghost” of the lover he betrayed. She follows him to the church where she tears him into pieces and hangs a bit of him on every seat of the church, leaving his head hanging above his new love’s pew. A gruesome tale from the singing of Lizzie Higgins.

Alistair Ogilvy sang Willie’s Fatal Visit in 2012 on his Greentrax album Leaves Sae Green.

Lucy Farrell and the Furrow Collective sang Willie’s Fatal Visit in 2016 on their second album, Wild Hog. They noted:

Lucy heard Ray Fisher singing this gruesome ballad, accompanied by Martin Carthy, on her 1971 album Traditional Songs of Scotland. As Ray writes in her notes, it is a composite version from the singing of the Aberdeen singer Lizzie Higgins (whose mother Jeannie Robertson also sang the song) and a text printed in F.J. Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The tune of this version, however, differs from that which Lizzie Higgins used, and was suggested to Ray Fisher by Martin Carthy.

Lyrics

Jeannie Robertson sings Willie’s Fate

For Willie’s gane o’er yon high, high hill,
And doon yon dowie den;
For it was there he met a grievious ghost
That would fear ten thousand men.

For he’s gane doon by Mary kirkm
And in by Mary’s stile.
Wan and weary was the ghost
On him that grimly smiled.

“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Oft hae ye travelled and sang;
Nor thought what would come of your poor soul
When your sinful life was done.

“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Your bonny new love tae see,
Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Nor thought of pooren me.

“Oft hae ye travelled this road, Willy,
Your bonny new love tae see.
But you’ll never travel this road again.
For this nicht avenged I’ll be.”

Then she has ta’en her perjured love,
And reived him gair by gair,
And ilka side o’ Mary’s stile.
Of him she hung a share.

His father and mither baith made moan,
His true love muckle mair;
His faither and mither baith made moan,
And his new love reived her hair.

Ray Fisher sings Willie’s Fatal Visit

Does my love ride, or does he rin,
Or does he walk the woods amang?
He vow’d this nicht tae come tae me,
Alas! but my love tarries lang.

He disnae ride nor does he rin,
But fast walks he along his way.
He has mair mind on his fair-new love
Than he has o’ the licht o’ day.

He saw a hound draw near a hare,
And aye that hare draw near a toon,
And that same hound has won the hare,
But Willie’s won tae ne’er a toon.

For as he gaed up yon high, high hill,
And on and doon yon dowie den,
’Twas there he met wi’ a greivious ghost
That wad fear ten thousand men.

He’s hurried on thro’ Mary’s Kirk,
And on and doon by Mary’s Stile,
And wan and weary was the ghost
That upon him grimly smiled.

“Aft hae ye traivell’d this road, Willie,
Aft hae ye traivell’d it in sin,
But ye’ll never traivel this road again,
For your days on Earth are deen.

“Aft hae ye traivell’d this road, Willie,
Wi’ ne’er a thocht o’ charity,
But ye’ll never traivel this road again,
For the slightin’ o’ the bairn and me.

“Aft hae ye traivell’d this road, Willie,
Your fair and new love for to see.
But ye’ll never traivel this road again,
For this nicht aveng’d I’ll be.”

Then she has ta’en her perjur’d love,
And she has torn him fae gair tae gair,
And on ilka side o’ Mary’s Stile
O’ Willie she has hung a share.

His faither and mither both mak moan,
His bonnie new love she grat sair.
His faither and mither both mak moan,
And his new love tears her hair.

Ellen Mitchell sings Willie’s Fatal Visit

Oh Willie’s gaed ower yon high high hill,
And doon yon dowie den.
It was there he spied a grievious ghost
Would a feared a thousand men.

Willie’s gaed ower yon high, high hill
And doon by Mary’s Stile,
Wan and weary was the ghost
That on him grimly smiled.

“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your new love for to see,
Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Wi ne’er a thought for me.

“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your bonny new love to see,
Wi ne’er a thought for your poor soul
When your sinful life is done.

“Aft hae ye travelled this road, Willie,
Your new love for to see,
But you’ll never travel this road again,
For tonight avenged I’ll be.”

And she has ta’en her perjured love
An she’s rieved him frae gare tae gare,
And on ilka side o’ Mary’s Stile
O him she’s left a share.

His faither and mither they both mak main
And his new love muckle mare,
His faither and mother they both mak main
And his new love rieves her hair.