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The Banks of Green Willow / The Green Banks of Yarrow / Bonnie Annie

[ Roud 172 ; Master title: The Banks of Green Willow ; Child 24 ; G/D 6:1225 ; Ballad Index C024 ; VWML CJS2/10/103 , GG/1/9/535 , HAM/3/18/26 ; GlosTrad Roud 172 ; Wiltshire 69 , 722 ; trad.]

Ewan MacColl: Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland Michael Downey: The Ploughboy’s Glory Maud Karpeles: The Crystal Spring Alexander Keith: Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs John Morrish: The Folk Handbook Roy Palmer: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams Frank Purslow: The Constant Lovers James Reeves: The Idiom of the People Ralph Vaughan Williams, A.L. Lloyd: The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

The Banks of Green Willow is a song printed in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ and A.L. Lloyd’s The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. It is related to Child 24: Bonnie Annie. A.L. Lloyd sang it in 1956 on the Riverside anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume IV and it was reissued in 2011 on his Fellside CD Bramble Briars and Beams of the Sun.

Cynthia Gooding sang The Banks of Green Willow in 1953 on her Elektra album of early English folksongs, Queen of Hearts. She noted:

Some ballads besides getting mixed with others, gradually lose their stories and become mere fragments of their former selves. Child prints a ballad called Bonnie Annie (No. 24), a long story song, of which The Banks of Green Willow is all that has been passed in tradition to the singer from whom this version was collected in 1906. The full story tells of a young man pressed to sea whose sweetheart accompanies him disguised as a man. On board ship after she calls for women to assist her in giving birth to her baby, the sailors decide the ship is jinxed. Lots are cast and each time it falls to her and her baby to be thrown overboard. This is done and when the ship comes into harbour, her body is found floating there. She is buried by her lover in a coffin variously of gold, or with gold nails. There is a song called The Undutiful Daughter which tells the same story and versions of the Daemon Lover (Child No. 243D) contain parallel verses.

Mrs Maguire of Belfast sang this song as The Green Banks of Yarrow in a Sean O’Boyle recording on the anthology Sailormen and Servingmaids (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 6; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet noted:

The tradition of sea ballads stretches far back into the middle ages and probably beyond, as witnessed by this medieval narrative called Bonnie Annie, No. 2 in Child. The theme occurs frequently in British collections. The whole story (of which this version gives only a fragment at the end) concerns a merchant’s daughter, seduced and left with child by a rich squire. She steals her father’s gold, goes on shipboard to cross over to her lover, and, during a storm at sea is seized by birth pangs. The superstitious sailors look for the Jonah that has brought their vessel into danger an the girl, burdened by a sense of her own guilt, accepts the blame for the storm and asks to be thrown into the sea with her baby. The ship sails on and Bonnie Annie floats to the shore and is buried by her mourning lover.

Sailors havel ong believed that a dead body, a murderer, or an accused person aboard ship will imperil its passage. This idea occurs in three other well-known sea ballads, Captain Glen (Laws, p. 151), The Cruel Ship’s Captain (Laws, p. 268), and Robyn’s Confession (#57 in Child). In one older Scottish version, it is clear that this belief once was rooted in the fear of evil spirits and ghosts. The crew casts lots to find the Jonah:

There’s fey fowk in our ship, she winna sail for me, (×2)
They’ve casten black bullets twice six and forty,
And ae the black bullet fell on Bonnie Annie.

The present fragmentary version was recorded from the singing of Mrs Maguire in Ayr on the West coast of Scotland. It has turned up in America only once, so far as we know, in a Maine text published by Phillip Barry.

Ewan MacColl sang the Scottish version Bonnie Annie in 1962 on his and Peggy Seeger’s Folkways album Popular Scottish Songs.

Fred Jordan sang The Watery Grave on his 1966 Topic album Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker. A.L. Lloyd noted:

During the first half of the nineteenth century there was a strong vogue, among stage comedians, for the burlesque of romantic folk ballads. Lord Lovel and William and Dinah (‘Villikins’) were two such. Also, a mildly comic version of The Banks of Sweet Willow was popularised in the 1850’s by the entertainer Sam Cowell. As The Watery Grave, the burlesque has survived better than its handsome original which scholars identify as Child No. 24.

Nic Jones recorded The Banks of Green Willow in 1971 for his eponymous album Nic Jones. He noted:

I have known this song for some years but have never sung it as none of the many tunes had particularly appealed. Whilst looking at it again in The Folk Song Journals, I began singing it to the present tune, which appears to be a mixture of various phrases that were already in my head.

Martin Carthy sang Banks of Green Willow on his 1972 album, Shearwater. He recorded Banks of Green Willow again with quite different verses and with Jez Lowe for the 1986 Fellside anthology A Selection from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. An alternative take of this with some more musicians, but with Paul Adams singing instead of Martin Carthy, is on Flash Company. Martin Carthy noted on the first album:

It’s probably due to Vaughan Williams’ decision to follow Percy Grainger in using recording techniques to gather songs, that this particular version of The Banks of Green Willow was rescued. He recorded it from an old man in Hampshire and subsequently had great difficulty in transcribing it, so what he wrote is probably only the merest sketch of the tune.

In the early sailing days, a ship which was becalmed was a ship which was bewitched, and the only way out was a sacrifice. A wrongdoer or a woman on board could jeopardise the safety of everyone on board, so if trouble came, the Jonah could expect no mercy and lots were cast to find him out. Once the demon had been exorcised, the ship could continue.

And the A Selection from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs sleeve notes said:

From Emma Overd, Langport, Somerset; noted in 1904 by Cecil Sharp. Sharp reported the song “very generally sung throughout Somerset.” Ralph Vaughan Williams noted a Hampshire version.

There is a common superstition, older than Jonah, that the presence of a wrong doer aboard ship may make the vessel unmanageable. Disaster may result unless the wrong doer is thrown overboard. In many versions the story seems to have become disordered and the meaning rather obscured. The text gives the brief outline of the plot; the woman robs her parents at her lover’s request and then sails away with him. Whilst at sea her baby is born. The sailors fear that someone is flying from retribution. In this version the woman is thrown overboard.

Tony Rose recorded The Banks of Green Willow in 1976 as title track of his LP On Banks of Green Willow. As this album is no longer available, he re-recorded it in 1999 for his CD Bare Bones. He noted on the first album:

It was a common superstition, possibly originating with the story of Jonah, that the presence of an evil-doer on board a ship might imperil both vessel and crew, unless the guilty party were sought out and thrown overboard. Such is the theme running through The Banks of Green Willow and Sir William Gower, both of which were collected by Cecil Sharp in Somerset.

Dick Gaughan sang Banks of Green Willow in 1977 on his Highway/Trailer album Kist o’ Gold. He noted on his now defunct website:

This version of this popular ballad was learned from listening to Ewan MacColl, the supreme craftsman of ballad singing. Although I do not believe his application of theatricality will work for all singers, his techniques of study are useful reading for anyone who aspires to be a singer of the great ballads—read the appropriate section of his book, Journeyman.

Frankie Armstrong sang The Banks of Green Willow live in Sweden in May 1978, which was published in 1980 on her album And the Music Plays So Grand. She noted:

This is one of the most poignant of English ballads. It has been collected very widely and some of the versions make the story clearer than the present text. There was an old superstition held by sailors (going back to Jonah and earlier), that if a ship was in dangerous sea it was because of the presence of a sinner on board. The only way to ensure saving the ship was to discover the wrongdoer and sacrifice them by throwing them overboard. Here it is the woman who is selected as the sinner, whether because of her having robbed her parents or as a result of bearing an “illegitimate” child is not clear. In either case she could not be said to have been unaided.

Frankie also sang it on the 1992 Fellside anthology of English traditional songs, Voices. Paul Adams noted on that album:

This song has been floating around in Frankie’s repertoire for so long that she cannot remember where she learnt it. The theme of a wrong-doer on board a ship being discovered and thrown overboard is reputedly older than Jonah. There are many texts for the song but most seem a little confused and tend to obscure the superstition element. The song is obviously related to Bonnie Annie (Child 24) where the whole thing becomes a little clearer.

Alison McMorland and Peta Webb sang The Green Banks of Yarrow in 1980 on their eponymous Topic duo album Alison McMorland & Peta Webb. This track was also included in 2009 on Topic’s anniversary anthology Three Score and Ten. They noted:

The Green Banks of Yarrow and Jogging up to Claudy are unusual versions of songs common in both the Scots and Irish traditions.

Steve Turner sang Bonnie Annie in 1982 on his Fellside album Jigging One Now.

Patti Reid sang Bonnie Annie in 1987 on her eponymous Fellside album Patti Reid. This track was also included in 1999 on the Fellside anthology Rolling Down to Old Maui.

Moira Craig sang The Banks of Green Willow on her 2000 album On ae Bonny Day. She noted:

This song, also known as Bonnie Annie, is of the Jonah ballad form where it is bad luck for a woman to be onboard ship and so in this version the Captain throws his own pregnant true love overboard! The words and tune can be found in Traditional Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland.

John Spiers & Jon Boden played Banks of Green Willow on their 2001 CD, Through & Through, and Jon Boden sang in as the 10 July 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted on the CD:

A version of this nightmarish ballad put together by Martin Carthy using a tune sung by Mr David Clements in 1909 (see A Century of Song, EFDSS) and various texts from Child. This was the first ballad I ever learnt and I didn’t get the melody quite right at the time—a mistake which stuck.

Bram Taylor sang Banks of Green Willow in 2004 on his Fellside album The Night Is Young.

Ron Coe sang The Banks of Green Willow in 2005 on the Dorset half of the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Hampshire and Dorset. Paul Marsh noted:

The Constant Lovers p.21, from Henry Way (of Stoke Abbott), in Bridport Union, May 1906 [VWML HAM/3/18/26] .

The Hammonds’ singer had only a small portion of the text. Frank Purslow took verses from several versions in both the Hammond and Gardiner manuscripts to present a more or less comprehensive narrative. Purslow states: s““It is evident that the reason for the girl and her baby being thrown overboard is that the ship is refusing to sail due to the presence of a s‘‘wrong-doer’ on board, a widespread superstition which plays a part in several other British ballads. The song appeared on 19^th centuiy broadsides and the tune is the one always associated with this song. It was used by the young English composer, George Butterworth (1885-1916), in his orchestral rhapsody The Banks of Green Willow—Idyll for Orchestra.”

Coope Boyes & Simpson recorded Banks of Green Willow in 2005 for their album of songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth and Percy Grainger, Triple Echo.

Jackie Oates learned The Banks of Green Willow from Tony Rose’s album and recorded it in 2006 for her eponymous first album, Jackie Oates.

Brian Peters sang The Banks of Green Willow in 2008 on his album of Child ballads, Songs of Trial and Triumph. He noted:

Child named this Bonnie Annie, listing two Scots versions in which the daughter of a lord or merchant, variously from Forfar or Dumbarton, elopes with an Irishman who is either a ship’s captain or a rich squire. In the A version it’s clear (i) that the ship is in some way becalmed or unable to steer, (ii) that the captain blames the situation on “fey folk on board”, and (iii) that “black bullets” are cast (a process analogous to the drawing of lots) to determine who is to blame, with Annie drawing the equivalent of the short straw. In the B version there’s no mention of fey folk or black bullets, and the ship’s navigational difficulties are caused by a more prosaic sand bank.

Even these two early sources, then, are contradictory and ambiguous. Why,—f this is a ‘Jonah Ballad’, and the young mother obviously the Jonah aboard—is it necessary to cast those black bullets? Is her seducer actually the ship’s captain, or a passenger? Why (in 24B) does he suddenly change his mind and send a lifeboat out after her? The several versions collected later in England don’t help at all. Most contain no mention of the captain’s inability to sail the ship, leaving the motivation for jettisoning mother and baby a mystery. Would listeners of the day have been aware of the ‘Jonah’ status of the pair and filled in the gaps in their own minds? The intriguing exception is the version collected by Baring-Gould from James Masters of Bradstone, which includes the line “the sails were outspread but of miles made not any”. Here, it seems, we have evidence for a becalmed ship. Unfortunately Baring-Gould tinkered considerably with the texts he collected, deliberately inserting Child’s “black bullets” stanza in one of his notated texts “to complete the story”, so it’s difficult to be certain of the authenticity of his “sails outspread” line.

Many folk revival singers have covered the ballad, generally using the text and tune collected from Emma Overd by Cecil Sharp [VWML CJS2/10/346] as their starting point—although Frankie Armstrong’s rendition of David Clements’ version [VWML GG/1/9/535] (recorded by Vaughan Williams and available on the EFDSS CD A Century of Song) is a powerful alternative. I based my melody on the one sung to Cecil Sharp by Louie Hooper and Lucy White of Hambridge in 1903 [VWML CJS2/10/103] , but messed around with it a bit to create a two-part tune. My first line is much the same as theirs, my second I seem to have invented, my third is a phrase they used for a refrain, doubled, and my fourth is their second. It sounds a lot more confusing, when I try to describe it in writing, than it would if you could hear their original.

My text is from several English versions, including snippets from the Baring-Gould text. The last verse seems to be unique to a version collected by George Gardiner from William Bone—I thought it rounded off the tale well.

Rod Stradling sang The Banks of Green Willow at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2008. This was published a year later on the festival CD Grand to Be a Working Man (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 5).

Paul Davenport sang All on a Falling Tide in 2011 on his and Liz Davenport’s Hallamshire Traditions CD Spring Tide Rising. They noted:

Bonnie Annie is a tale of elopement and the rigours of childbirth. This version has a shanty-like feel to it and is a little reminiscent of Lowlands. Along the East coast of Yorkshire sickness takes an additional strength when the tide begins to fall and it is believed that death will come quicker as the tide goes out. There has been nothing published in the ‘Lancet’ to support this belief. This version is a construction from a number of sources and the tune is a part remembered version from childhood.

Rachel Newton and Kris Drever sang Green Willow in 2012 on her CD The Shadow Side. Their version is from Cecil Sharp’s Folk Songs From Somerset (1904).

Ron Taylor and Jeff Gillett sang The Banks of Green Willow in 2013 on their WildGoose CD Buy It, Try It (and Never Repent You). Jeff Gillett noted:

The Banks of Green Willow is also in the The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs. Overd, Langport, Somerset in 1904. Ron learned this for a studio session with the Albion Band. The first verse came from Tony Rose. Some versions of this ballad suggest that mother and child have been sacrificed as the result of superstition. Here, the napkin tied round the woman’s head seems to imply that she died in childbirth.

John Bowden sang The Banks of Green Willow in 2015 on his and Vic Shepherd’s Hallamshire Traditions CD Still Waters. They noted:

This rather truncated version of a tragic story, set to an attractive but incongruously bouncy tune. was collected in 1904 by Cecil Sharp from Emma Overd of Langport, Somerset, and was published in the The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. According to the biography of Sharp by Maude Karpeles and A.H. Fox-Strangeways, when Sharp met Mrs Overd she was sitting outside a pub and on hearing that Sharp wanted to hear her songs, “without any warning she flung her arms around his waist and danced him round and round with the utmost vigour shouting ‘Lor, girls, here’s my beau came at last!’ ”

Sharp was obviously not fazed by this unorthodox reception. however, as he visited her several times over the following five years, collecting a total of sixty songs from her including Our Captain Cried All Hands, the tune of which Vaughan Williams used for his setting of Bunyan’s To Be a Pilgrim. Mrs Overd has the rare distinction for a traditional singer of having an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Kirsty Potts sang Bonnie Annie on her 2015 album The Seeds of Life. She noted:

This narrative is also known as The High (Green) Banks of Yarrow. I have listened to and admired Aretha’s singing and playing since I was young and somehow this just crept into the arrangement.

Shirley Collins sang The Banks of Green Willow on her 2016 album Lodestar. She noted:

This version is based on the song that George Butterworth collected from Mrs Cranstone of Billingshurst in 1907 on one of his folk song hunting expeditions in Sussex. It later inspired his idyll The Banks of Green Willow, one of the best-loved English orchestral pieces. There was a strongly held belief that it was unlucky to have women on board ship. In this song the girl pays with her and her baby’s life for following her bold sea-captain to sea. Unlucky for the woman rather than the sailors, I’d say.

Granny’s Attic sang Banks of Green Willow on their 2019 CD Wheels of the World. They noted:

A song shrouded in mystery. Ballad scholars and folklorists have discussed the song at length drawing links to the biblical story of Jonah, to the mysterious powers of the willow tree, to the superstitions of the sea and even to fairies. Musicians have long been drawn to the beautiful tunes that have been attached to this ballad; George Butterworth famously composed an ‘Idyll for small orchestra’ based around a variant of the tune. Cecil Sharp collected nine variants of this song in Somerset, with this one coming from Mrs Overd of Langport [VWML CJS2/10/346] .

Jon Wilks talked with Granny’s Attic’s Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne about The Banks of Green Willow in September 2020 in Episode 12 of his Old Songs Podcast.

Lyrics

Mrs Maguire sings The Green Banks of Yarrow

We hadn’t sailed farther, we hadn’t sailed any, (×2)
Till she cried out aloud for her baby.

Chorus (after each verse):
Love–la–i–a,
Love–lily–love–lee.

Up came the sea-captain, he spoke very bonny. (×2)
He said: “Anything that you want, I will get it.”

“O get me a woman, and let her stay near me. (×3)

Up came the sea-captain, he spoke very bonny. (×2)
Said, “I can do for you, what a woman can’t do any.”

“O hold your tongue, foolish man, hold your tongue, honey; (×2)
Sure, you never knew, what your mummy stood for you.”

Well, the nails they were scarce and the deals they were narrow, (×2)
And he buried his true-love on the green banks of Yarrow.

Nic Jones sings The Banks of Green Willow

O it’s of a sea-captain
Down by the sea-side o,
And he’s courted a young lady
And he’s got her by child.

“Go and fetch your father’s gold
And some of your mother’s money,
And go all across the ocean,
All along with young Johnny.”

“Now I’ve got my father’s gold
And some of my mother’s money,
And I’ll go all across the ocean,
All along with young Johnny.”

Now they hadn’t been a-sailing,
No miles not a great many
Before she was delivered
Of a beautiful baby.

“Go and fetch a white napkin
For to tie my head easy,
And throw me quite overboard,
Both me and my baby.”

Now see how she totters,
See how she tumbles,
And see how she’s rolling
All upon the salt water.

Go fetch me a longboat
For to row my lover back again,
For to row my lover back again,
Both for her and her baby.

For she shall have a coffin,
And the coffin it shall shine yellow,
And she shall be buried
On the banks of green willow.

Tony Rose sings The Banks of Green Willow

O it’s of a sea-captain
Down by the banks of willow,
He’s courted a pretty girl
Till she proved with child o.

She cried, “What shall I do my love?
What will become of me?
My mother and father,
They both will disown me.”

“Go fetch me some of your father’s gold
And some of your mother’s money,
And you shall sail the ocean
along with young Johnny.”

So she’s fetched him some of her father’s gold
And some of her mother’s money,
And she has gone aboard a ship
Along with young Johnny.

Well they had not been sailing
Scarce six weeks nor so many
Before she was delivered
Of a beautiful baby.

“Sea captain, sea captain,
Here’s fifty pounds for thee
To see me safe home again,
Me and my baby.”

“Oh no,” said the captain,
“Such things they never can be.
’Tis better to lose two lives
Than ’tis to lose many.”

“Then tie the napkin round my head,
Come tie it soft and easy,
And throw me right overboard,
Me and my baby.”

So they tied the napkin round her head,
They’ve tied it soft and easy.
They’ve thrown her right overboard,
She and her baby.

Don’t you see how she swims, my lad,
Don’t you see how her body quivers?
She’ll swim till she comes to
The banks of green willow.

And my love shall have a coffin made
Of a gold that shines yellow,
And she shall be buried
On the banks of green willow.

Martin Carthy sings Banks of Green Willow on Shearwater

It’s of a sea captain
Who lived down by the seaside, oh,
And he’s courted with a fair maid,
And he’s got her with child.

Go and get your father’s goodwill,
And get some of your mother’s money,
And we’ll sail right o’er the ocean
Along with young Johnny.

Oh she’s got her father’s goodwill,
And she’s ta’en some of her mother’s money,
And she’s sailed right o’er the ocean
Along with young Johnny.

Now they had not been a-sailing
But six weeks or better,
Before she needed women
And she could not get any.

Oh hold your tongue you silly girl
Oh hold your tongue my honey
For we cannot get women
For love nor for money.

Now they had not been a sailing
But seven weeks or better,
With our sails high and the sea smooth,
But miles we made not any.

Oh there’s fay folk in our gallant ship,
The captain he cried so boldly,
Oh there’s fay folk in our gallant ship,
She will not sail for me.

So they’ve cast the black bullets,
And they’ve cursed twice six and forty,
And it’s oh the black bullet
Fell on his dearest honey.

Oh he’s tied a napkin all round her head
And he’s tied it round so softly,
And he’s thrown her right over,
Both she and her baby.

And it’s seeing how she doth swim my boys,
And it’s seeing how she doth swagger,
She will never leave off swimming
Till she come to some cover.

Oh she shall have a coffin
And the nails shall shine yellow
And my love she shall be buried
On the banks of green willow

Dick Gaughan sings Banks of Green Willow

Thair wis a rich mairchant at lived in Strath Denny
An he had bit ae dochter an her name it wis Annie

An thair wis a rich mairchant an he lived in Dunbarton
An he has got this bonnie lassie big, big wi bairnie

“O ye’ll tak ship wi me an ye’ll be ma hinnie
Whit mair cud a wumman dae than A will dae fur ye?”

Bit thae hadnae been sailin a week bit scarcely ony
Afore she needit weemin bit thair werenae ony

“O captain, tak gowd an captain, tak money
An steer fur dry laun fur the sake o ma bairnie”

“Hou can A tak gowd an hou can A tak money
Whan thair’s fey fowk on ma ship an she winnae steer fur me?”

“Ye’ll tak me by the fingers an lift me up houlie
An cast me owerboard an hae nae pity on me”

He’s taen her by the fingers an lifted her up houlie
An thrown her owerboard tho she wis his ain dearie

See hou she swims an see hou she swaggers
She’ll never leave aff swimmin till she comes tae some harbour

His luve she wis thair whan thae come tae the dry laun
An her lyin deid on the cauld sea strand

Her bairnie wis born an lyin at her feet
Fur the loss o his bonnie luve sair, sair did he greet

He’s caused mak a kist o the gowden sae yellow
An thae aa three lie sleepin on the banks o green willow

Frankie Armstrong sings The Banks of Green Willow

It’s of a sea captain, lived by the sea side oh,
And he has courted a fair maid till she’s proved with child oh.

Cryin, “Oh my love what shall I do and what will become of me?
For my father and mother they both will disown me.”

“Go fetch some of your father’s gold and some of your mother’s money,
And you can sail the ocean along with your Johnny.”

So she’s fetched some of her father’s gold and some of her mother’s money
And she’s gone on board a ship along with her Johnny.

They hadn’t been asailing scarce six weeks nor so many
Before she wanted womens’ help and could not get any.

“Oh hold your tongue you foolish girl, oh hold your tongue my honey,
For we cannot get womens’ help for love nor for money.”

They hadn’t been asailing scarce six miles nor so many
before she was delivered of a beautiful baby.

“Sea captain, sea captain, here’s fifty pounds for thee,
If you’ll fetch me home safe again, both me and my baby.”

“Oh no,” says the sea captain, “for such a thing can never be
For ’tis better to lose two lives than it is to loose many.”

So he’s tied a kerchief round her head, he’s tied it soft and easy,
And he has thrown her right overboard, both she and her baby.

“See how my love do swim my boys, see how my love do quiver,
She will never cease swimming till the banks of Green Willow.”

“My love shall have a coffin of the gold that shines so yellow
And she shall be buried by the banks of Green Willow.”

Martin Carthy sings Banks of Green Willow on Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

Go and get your father’s goodwill,
And get your mother’s money,
Sail right o’er the ocean
All along with young Johnny.

She had not been a-sailing
It wasn’t many days, oh,
Before she needed women’s help
And she could not get any.

Oh, fetch me a silk napkin
And tie her head up easy,
And I’ll throw her overboard,
Both she and her baby.

Oh they fetched him a silk napkin
And he tied her head up easy,
And overboard he threw his love,
Both she and her baby.

Oh, see how my love tumble,
See how my love do waver,
See how she try to swim,
That makes my heart quaver.

Oh, make my love a coffin
Of the gold that shines yellow,
And she shall be buried
On the banks of green willow

Brian Peters sings The Banks of Green Willow

Oh it’s of a sea captain lived by the sea-side,
And he’s courted of a lady till she’s proved by child.
“Go and fetch some of your father’s gold and some of your mother’s money
To sail across the ocean along with young Johnny.”

Now they hadn’t been sailing six days nor not many
Before she needed woman’s help but could not get any.
And they hadn’t been a-sailing a mile or not many
Before she was delivered of a beautiful baby.

Now they hadn’t sailed on for today and tomorrow,
She was wringing of her hands and she was crying with sorrow.
But then says the captain, “The ship will not sail for me,
Though the sails are outspread she lies still on the salt sea.”

“Oh Captain, oh captain, here’s fifty gold pounds
To take me back safe again, and to turn the ship round.”
“Oh no,” says the captain, “such a thing it never can be,
For ’tis better to lose two lives than it is to lose many.”

“Bring me a silk napkin and bind my head easy
And throw me right overboard, both me and my baby.”
So he’s brought a silk napkin and bound it so softly
And he’s thrown her right overboard, both her and her baby.

“Oh fetch me the lifeboat and row her back to me,
Oh bring my love back again, both she and her baby.”
“Ah but see, boys, how she do tumble and see how she do taver.
I’m afraid that she is drowning, which makes my heart quaver.”

“I will write me a letter, tell her friends that my love is drowned
And she shall have a coffin if she ever is found.
And her coffin shall be made of the gold shining yellow
And she will be buried on the banks of green willow.”

Rachel Newton and Kris Drever sing The Banks of Green Willow

“Go home and get your father’s gold,
Some of your mother’s money.
And you shall go on board with me
For to be my dear honey, for to be my dear honey.”

They had not sailed many miles
Not many miles, nor scarcely,
Before he was troubled
With her and her baby, with her and her baby.

For the ship was pixy-held
And lots were cast for the cause on’t;
But every time the lot fell out
On her and her baby, on her and her baby.

He tied a napkin round her head
And he tied it to the baby;
And then he threw them overboard,
Both her and her baby, both her and her baby.

“See how my love she’ll try to swim,
See how my love she’ll follow;
See how my love she’ll try to swim,
To the banks of green willow, to the banks of green willow.

“I’ll build a coffin for my love,
And I’ll edge it all with yellow,
And then she shall be buried
On the banks of green willow, on the banks of green willow.”

Acknowledgements

Martin Carthy’s Shearwater version transcribed by Garry Gillard. The other words are from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, eds Ralph Vaughan Williams & A.L. Lloyd, Penguin, 1959. Martin Carthy’s variations transcribed by Reinhard Zierke.