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The Two Brothers
The Two Brothers / Two Pretty Boys / The Rolling of the Stones
[
Roud 38
; Child 49
; Ballad Index C049
; DT ROLLSTON
; Mudcat 47394
; trad.]
Sheila Douglas: The Sang’s the Thing James Kinsley: The Oxford Book of Ballads John Jacob Niles: The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles Elizabeth Stewart: Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen
Texas Gladden from Rich Valley, Smyth County, Virginia, sang The Two Brothers to Alan Lomax in 1941. This recording was included in 2001 on her Rounder anthology in the Alan Lomax Collection, Ballad Legacy. John Cohen noted:
Ballad scholars have always been impressed by the mythic qualities of the Child ballads, and how they echo both Biblical themes and ancient Greek legends. I’ve been impressed by the way the story of The Two Brothers has been passed down in Appalachian tradition, with the leading roles done by schoolboys who play ball, roll marble stones, and kill each other with tomahawks.
In his notes to Anglo-American Ballads, Vol. 2 (Rounder CD 1516) Ben Botkin commented on Texas Gladden’s recording: “For sheer pathos The Twa Brothers is unsurpassed among ballads of domestic tragedy. Some versions show a marked resemblance to Edward in the closing stanzas, in which the murderous brother, after protesting that the blood on his knife is that of a hawk, greyhound, or steed, confesses it to be that of his slain brother. In other versions the killing is accidental. Stripped of all semblance of the murderer’s remorse, the present version compresses the harrowing story into nine graphic stanzas, preserving a nice balance between narrative and dialog elements.”
On the companion CD to this one [Blue Ridge Legacy, Rounder CD 1799], Hobart Smith sings The Two Brothers with guitar accompaniment in three-quarter time. Rhythm is heavily stressed in comparison to Gladden’s unaccompanied version, yet the siblings’ singing renditions of the melody and ornamentation are almost identical.
Mrs J. (Florence) Puckett from Afton, Albermarle & Nelson Counties, Virginia, sang The Two Brothers on 3 August 1955 to Maud Karpeles. This recording was included in 2017 on the Musical Traditions anthology of historic recordings of Appalachian singers and musicians, When Cecil Left the Mountains. Mike Yates and Rod Stradling noted:
Child 49. A brother asks if his sibling will see who can throw a stone the furthest. The sibling refuses, but agrees to a wrestling match. One child is stabbed and dies, but not before a list of questions and answers are given between them. It sounds like a rather simple ballad, though it may have its roots in ancient Greece myth—such as the story of Telamon and Peleus—or perhaps to the Biblical Cain and Able. Alternately, as the ballad seems to have been especially popular in Scotland, it may be that its origins lie in the system of inheritance that once existed amongst the aristocracy of that country.
Jeannie Robertson sang The Twa Brothers in 1959 as the title track of her Collector EP Twa Brothers. This track was also included in 2000 on the Folk-Legacy anthology Ballads and Songs of Tradition. Hamish Henderson noted on the first album:
Professor Child, writing about this song—it is No. 49 in his English and Scottish Popular Ballads—says: “All the Scottish versions were obtained within the first third of this (the 19th) century, and since then no others have been heard of.” Since 1955, however, several fresh versions have come to light, in Perthshire and in Aberdeenshire. Among these, Jeannie’s is outstanding for its fine text, and its measured elegiac grandeur.
In a number of variants, American as well as Scottish, The Twa Brothers is fused with another classical ballad, usually known as Edward (Child 13). Jeannie is quite firm that these are two distinct songs, and her own version of Edward—now world-famous—is called Son David.
Lucy Stewart sang Two Pretty Boys in a recording made by Kenneth S. Goldstein in December 1959 on her 1961 Folkways album Traditional Singer From Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Vol. 1 - Child Ballads. Goldstein noted:
This ballad appears to be better known in America then in the old world. And, indeed, until recently it was believed to have completely died out in British tradition. Neither Greig nor Ord reported versions from Scotland in this century; however, Hamish Henderson of the School of Scottish Studies reports that several versions have been collected in Scotland in recent years. Lucy Stewart’s version was collected earlier (in 1955) by Peter Kennedy, but as published in The Journal of the English Folk Dance & Song Society (Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1957, pp. 112-113) the text is a poor transcription and is a compilation of Lucy’s text with that of her brother Donald Stewart of Huntley. The present recording, made in December 1959, is a superb example of Lucy’s great singing style.
The present version is most closely related to Child’s “C” text in that the mother (stepmother in Lucy’s text) of the two boys appears to have instigated the death of the younger (smaller) brother. No reason for the action is given however. Perhaps Lucy’s ‘stepmother’ reference supplies a motive in that the younger boy has displeased his stepmother, who then wished (or prayed) that he would never return. The older son (perhaps the real son of the stepmother) is somehow enjoined to put his mother’s prayer into action.
For additional texts and information, see: Child, Vol. I, pp. 439ff; Coffin, pp. 60-62; Bronson, Vol. 1, pp. 384-402; JEFDSS, Vol. VIII, No. 2, 1957, pp. 112-113.
Ewan MacColl sang The Two Brothers in 1961 on his Folkways album Two-Way Trip. He noted:
In four of the six known Scots versions of The Twa Brothers, the ‘deadly wound’ is the result of an accident, and Motherwell states that any alternative reading “sweeps away the deep impression this simple ballad would otherwise have made upon the feelings: for it is almost unnecessary to mention that its touching interest is made to centre in the boundless sorrow and cureless remorse of him who had been the unintentional cause of his brother’s death, and in the solicitude which that high-minded and generous spirit expresses even in the last agonies of nature, for the safety and fortunes of the truly wretched and unhappy survivor”. Be that as it may, most of the American versions state unequivocally that the deed is murder and the motive jealousy. The version here given is from Sharp. Ewan MacColl plays the autoharp here cimbelum-style.
Isabel Sutherland sang The Two Brothers in 1966 on her Topic album Vagrant Songs of Scotland. She noted:
This seems to me one of the best of the classical ballads. I learned it from Belle Stewart of Blairgowrie. Some 19th century commentators, without much evidence, believed the ballad originated in an actual event which took place in July 1589 when the elder son of Lord Somerville accidentally killed his brother while drying his pistol which was wet with dew. In the Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, 1871, Gardner writes that “if precedents are to be allowed to count for anything in such a case, we might turn to a much better known and earlier occurrence, the murder of Abel by his brother Cain”.
Heather Wood sang a fragment of The Two Brothers called The Rolling of the Stones (Bronson: Child 49 variant 14) in 1968 on The Young Tradition’s last LP, Galleries. She noted:
This is a fragment of a longer ballad, and was learned from the singing of Oscar Brand.
Peter Bellamy sang Two Pretty Boys unaccompanied in 1969 on his third solo album, The Fox Jumps Over the Parson’s Gate. A.L. Lloyd noted:
Francis James Child called this ballad The Two Brothers, and it’s No. 49 in his great compilation. As is often the case, there is more to this ballad than meets the ear. The songs has its relatives not only in Britain but on the continent too, and tracing its sundry versions we find that it concerns not merely a violent bit of schoolboy horseplay but a murderous quarrel over a patch of land, and beyond that, in the oldest versions of all, we find that the root of the dispute is in incestuous jealousy, with both brothers enamoured of their sister.
Peter Bellamy learnt the song from a recording by Lucy Stewart of Fetterangus, Aberdeenshire (see: The Child Ballads 1 (The Folk Songs of Britain Vol. 4; Caedmon 1961, Topic 1968)).
Dave and Toni Arthur sang Two Pretty Boys in 1970 on the BBC Radio series Folk on Friday, and Dave sang Monday Morning Go to School in 2010 on Rattle on the Stovepipe’s WildGoose CD No Use in Cryin’. They noted:
A fratricide ballad popular in Scotland from at least the early 1800s, and widely collected in America in the 20th century. Cecil Sharp came across fourteen versions of it when tramping the Appalachians in 1916-18 with Maud Karpeles. In Madison County, North Carolina, a remarkable hotbed of singers and storytellers, Sharp generously paid for clothes for the 13-year-old daughter of one of his singers so that she could attend a nearby mission school. The girl, Emma Hensley, repaid the debt some thirty-five years later when Karpeles was retracing Sharp’s earlier collecting trips in the mountains. As Mrs Emma Shelton she recorded, among others, Monday Morning Go to School, accompanied on the harmonium, which Dave heard in New York a few years ago. One of her verses that we’ve used as a chorus is almost identical to a verse collected by William Motherwell from the recitation of Widow McCormick in Scotland in 1825.
Nic Jones recorded this ballad with its customary title, The Two Brothers, and with somewhat different lyrics in 1971 for his eponymous second album, Nic Jones. He noted:
The motive for the murder is not given in this ballad but other versions include the possibility of jealousy on the elder brother’s part. Superstition and the supernatural rear their ugly head in the last verses of the song as the buried man explains that he cannot sleep peacefully in his grave while his love weeps and mourns. It seems to me to be highly predictable that supernatural elements should appear in folk songs, for superstition has obviously played a massive role in the mental attitudes of the imaginative, but largely uneducated mass of people. It is only when education and reason begin breaking through, that the old superstitions begin to die out until some social upheaval again plunges people in insecurity and a world of primeval phantoms and witches. Perhaps we shall never be quite rid of it, at least, not as long as folk songs are still sung!
Lizzie Higgins sang The Twa Brothers in 1975 on her Topic album Up and Awa’ Wi’ the Laverock. Peter Hall noted:
This is one of the ballads which many scholars had thought had passed from the folk memory, but is in fact retained on the tongues of a number of Scots travellers. It has obvious connections with another song in the repertoire of the late Jeannie Robertson, My Son David (Child 13) and I have written elsewhere pointing out the underlying characteristics of a number of similar ballads in the traveller’s repertoire (“Scottish Tinker’s Songs”, Folk Song Journal 1975). The song was not found in North East Scotland by Gavin Greig nor any of his co-workers who were collecting at the opening of the century. Most versions found prior to the discoveries of the School of Scottish Studies are from the early 19th century and from further south. The piece probably moved into the area from outside and of course none are better placed than the members of the travelling community to act as distributors.
Belle Stewart sang The Twa Brothers in a recording made by Fred Kent in Blairgowrie, Perthshire in May 1976. It was released a year later on her album Queen Among the Heather and in 1998 on the Topic anthology O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Vol. 3). Geordie McIntyre noted on Belle’s album:
This ancient story of fratricide is widespread internationally. It is particularly popular with Scots travelling people, who have provided some of the best oral versions. The plot varies; sometimes the killing is deliberate, triggered off by a quarrel over land, or a girl. In Belle’s version the killing is accidental and the dying boy assists his brother by framing an alibi. The unusual conclusion of blaming the step-mother for the event has strong echoes of the common ‘mother-curse motif’ emphasised in such ballads as Clyde Waters (Child 216). Belle’s text is very close, including the vindictive mother, to Child‘s ‘C’ text from the MS of William Motherwell. Belle learned this superb version of the ballad from her brother Donald McGregor. For Belle this ballad has a ‘special meaning’. It was ‘one of her father’s favourite songs’. ‘It always appealed to me… I only had two brothers who lived out of a whole family of nine… two sisters and four brothers died before I was born….
Belle’s daughter Sheila McGregor (Stewart) sang The Twa Brothers in 1974 to Peter Kooke and Hamish Henderson. This recording (School of Scotthish Studies SA 1974/148) was included on the anthology The Muckle Sangs (Scottish Tradition 5; Tangent 1975; Greentrax 1992). Hamish Henderson noted:
In his introduction to the versions of this ballad which he had to hand, Professor Child wrote (1882): “All the Scottish versions were obtained within the first third of this century, and since then no others have been heard of. It is interesting to find the ballad still in the mouths of children in American cities—in the mouths of the poorest, whose heritage those old things are. The American versions, though greatly damaged, preserved the names John and William, which all the other copies have.”
Since Gavin Greig, for all his exhaustive labours, did not secure a copy among his contacts in Aberdeenshire, and since Greig’s yokefellow, Rev. Duncan of Lynturk was likewise unsuccessful, few could have expected us to land as many versions as we did in the mid-50s. The reason appears to be a social one. Practically all Greig’s informants came from the farmer or farm-servant section of the community, or what one might call the rural community’s ancillary services; practically none came from among the travelling folk—the ‘tinkers’ or ‘tinkler-gypsies’—who have proved such an invaluable folklore source in the last twenty years or so. The Twa Brothers seems to be one of the ballads the travelling folk have specially ‘adopted’ and made their own, and once the initial breakthrough was made (in 1954) and the fraternity realised that this was one of the songs we were after, versions came pouring in from all over Central and North East Scotland. The first singer to alert us to the fact that the ballad was still on the go was Nellie MacGregor, who did the same service for The False Knight, but after her, versions came thick and fast—Jeannie Robertson, Betsy Whyte of Fraserburgh, and Belle and Sheila of the ‘Stewarts of Blair’ all contributed noteworthy performances. Jeannie’s version is available on a Collector EP (Twa Brothers, JES 4). For this disc we have selected what must surely rank among the finest of all our ballad-recordings—the rendering of Sheila MacGregor, daughter of Belle Stewart.
Sheila comes of a long and famous line of singers and musicians. Her grandather, old John Stewart, was one of the finest pipers in Scotland: a renowned pibroch player, he earned the respect of John MacDonald of Inverness, Angus Macpherson of Invershin and many others in the top flight of the piping world, although the social distinctions to which we have already referred opera ed as much in these circles as in other classes of the community. Her father Alec and her mother Belle (the ‘Stewarts of Blair’) are now undoubtedly among the most famous folksinging families in the world. Sheila herself has long been known to ‘folk’ cognoscenti as a magnificent ballad-singer, and The Twa Brothers (which she got from her mother) is a five-star example of her art.
There seems some reason for believing, with Motherwell, that The Twa Brothers is the parent ballad from which Son David (Edward, Child 13) sprang.
Maggie Stewart, Jeannie Robertson’s aunt, who was the first singer from whom we recorded Son David, has a line in her version (“And a good scholar I’ll come home”) which at once recalls The Twa Brothers. Be that as it may, the two ballads now have a strongly demarcated separate identity. What does link them is that in Scotland both have lived on exclusively among the travelling people.
The ‘Stewarts of Blair’ were discovered in 1955 by the Dundee journalist Maurice Fleming, a native of Blairgowrie, who now edits The Scots Review. Maurice did a great deal of invaluable collecting work for the School of Scottish Studies in the early years of its existence.
This tune, with its modality shifting in its effect from minor to major and back again, was passed on to Sheila from her mother, Belle Stewart. It is like Jeannie Robertson’s tune (both are in Bronson, IV, Addenda), but the ending is different and is extended to cover repetition of the fourth line of each verse.
Sheila’s doom-laden rendering is one of the most expressive and moving in this album. Her persuasive use of portamento (a technique also inherited from her mother) reminds one of the operatic singer Maria Callas: although the music they sing is of different genres, both artists have the same power to hold their listeners in the thrall of enchantment.
(Note. The question of the modality of tunes has in recent years become highly controversial: my approach to this subject in these notes is based mainly on that of Professor B. Bronson in his Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, I-IV, Princeton, 1959-72).
Sheila Stewart also sang The Twa Brothers in a recording made by Doc Rowe in Blairgowrie, Perthshire on 15 October 1998 that was released in 2000 on her Topic CD From the Heart of the Tradition. Doc Rowe noted:
This version was originally from her uncle, Donald McGregor, but Sheila learned it from the singing of her mother, Belle. […]
A story, particularly popular with Scots travelling people, whose plot varies from version to version. Jealousy is sometimes given as motivation for the killing—usually over property or a girl: or the fratricide is more often an unpremeditated ‘road rage’. In this rather inconclusive version the killing appears at first to he accidental and the dying sibling seems to he helping his brother with an excuse for bis inevitable absence. Blaming the ill-wishing stepmother embodies the common ‘’mother-curse sibling motif’ that appears in other ballads.
And Sheila Stewart sang The Twa Brothers at Celtic Connections at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in January 2001. This recording was included in the following year on the festival album Scots Women.
Jake Walton sang The Rolling of the Stones in 1976 on his, Roger Nicholson and Andrew Cronshaw’s Leader album Times and Traditions for Dulcimer.
Fiddler’s Dram sang The Two Brothers, “a dramatic ballad from the Appalachians”, in 1978 on their Dingle’s album To See the Play.
Silly Wizard sang The Twa Brithers in 1978 on their second album, Caledonia’s Hardy Sons. They noted:
A ballad still sung in Perthshire about internal family conflict which leads to the “accidental” death of the older son at the hands of his younger step-brother. With his dying breath he curses his step-mother who, he realises, is responsible for plotting his death.
Alison McMorland and Peta Webb sang Two Pretty Boys in 1980 on their Topic album Alison McMorland & Peta Webb. They noted:
Lucy Stewart of Fetterangus has been a particular influence on Alison’s singing and Sailing’s a Weary Life and the very powerful ballad Two Pretty Boys come from her.
Blowzabella sang The Rolling of the Stones in 1983 on their Plant Life album In Colour. They noted:
Paul [James] learnt The Rolling of the Stones from a friend of his called Graham Jenkins who taped it off the radio.
Mick West sang Twa Bonnie Boys in 1995 on his Lochshore album Fine Flowers and Foolish Glances. He noted:
I came across this old Scottish ballad on a recording of Dave & Toni Arthur many years ago, I have speeded it up slightly and translated their English back into Scots.
Sue Brown and Lorraine Irwing sang Two Pretty Boys in 1997 on their WildGoose CD Call & Cry. They noted:
A version of The Twa Brothers (Child no. 49). The origin of the fetal dispute between the brothers is not explained here, but in the earliest versions of the ballad it appears to be incestuous jealousy, with both brothers in love with their sister.
Heather Heywood sang Two Pretty Boys in 2000 on her Tradition Bearers album Lassies Fair and Laddies Braw. She noted:
I have known this song for a long time and I am fairly sure I heard Belle Stewart of Blairgowrie sing it. Belle was a great encouragement to me, she had a wonderful smile and an incredible presence in her performances and took a genuine interest in younger singers like me. Like many of the ballads, some of the plot is left to your imagination. Was the killing an accident or were there deeper motives?
Scandinavian group Færd (on this album including Ian Carr and Karen Tweed) sang Svend Vonwed (DgF 18) in 2002 on their eponymous album Færd.
Ellen Mitchell sang The Twa Brithers in 2002 on her Tradition Bearers album On Yonder Lea. She noted:
My favourite ballad sung by Lizzie Higgins. This is where I have to admit to cheating a little bit, but it was a long time ago and not too many people noticed even at the time. I remembered the tune she sang and of course the gist of the story but not all of the words. These words came from an old school poetry book, The Lanimer Book of Scottish Verse, which included several ballads by ‘anonymous’. I found the words fitted the tune I remembered Lizzie singing and there were not all that many major differences in the text, a fact I was relieved to find when Rod [Stradling] sent me the recording I mentioned earlier.
Lucy Stewart’s niece Elizabeth Stewart sang Two Pretty Boys in 2004 on her cassette ’Atween You an’ Me. This track was also included in 2004 on her Elphinstone Institute CD Binnorie. Thomas A. McKean; noted:
“Lucy used to tell us how the laird’s wife had died, leaving him with a son. He soon married again and his new wife had a son as well. The laird’s son was jealous of the younger and hated his stepmother, so that’s how they fell out” (ES). Hamish Henderson, with Motherwell, believes this may well be the antecedent of Son David (Edward, Child 13; Muckle Sangs, pp. 9-10), though it may be a parallel development, rather than an offshoot. The two certainly share the central incidents of fighting and murder (whether deliberate or inadvertent), followed by question and answer, between the brothers in Two Pretty Boys, between the son and (step)mother in Son David, though details of the dialogue differ. In some ways, the latter song can be seen as a sequel to Two Pretty Boys, in which the younger brother is required to explain himself further and to pay penance.
The Demon Barbers learned Two Brothers from Nic Jones’ album. They sang it in 2005 on their CD Waxed.
Tim Radford sang The Rolling of the Stones on his 2005 CD Home From Home. He noted:
A version of the ballad The Two Brothers (Child No. 49), with a tune learned via The Young Tradition, who sang a three verse version. My words were obtained only relatively recently from Maine, U.S.A., via the Internet! I had heard about and been looking for a full version of this song for many years—thank the Lord for technology.
Alasdair Roberts sang The Two Brothers in 2005 on his CD No Earthly Man. He noted:
This version of the ancient fratricide ballad is based on the singing of Belle Stewart and also her daughter Sheila Stewart of Blairgowrie. Part of the melody has been altered.
“A clear link connects this ballad with the early ritual practice of the Sacred King and his Tanist Brother and Successor. Although actual practices in specific times and places are known to have varied enormously, the general pattern was this: at a certain time of the year, one chosen man superseded the present ‘king’ usually by killing him. The victim represented the light part or waxing year, his successor the dark season, or waning year.” (Bob Stewart, Where is St George? Pagan Imagery in English Folk Song).
Paul and Liz Davenport sang The Rolling of the Stones in 2006 on their Hallamshire Traditions album Under the Leaves. They noted:
The original of this is called The Two Brothers. We got the tune and the second verse from a singing session which took place at Chippenham Folk Festival late one night. Intrigued by the oddity of the ‘rolling of the stones’ verse we then discovered another two verses in a version sung by Heather Wood in the days of The Young Tradition. The bulk of the song heard here comes from Cecil Sharp’s Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians, 1st edition. The opening line is from Mrs. Carrie Ford of Black Mountain, North Carolina. Having decided that it wasn’t, after all, a supernatural song we came upon the necromantic verses and changed our minds again. A tablet, by the way, is a wooden grave marker.
The Owl Service sang The Rolling of the Stones in 2007 on their album A Garland of Song and in 2012 on their reworked Garland Sessions containing alternative versions.
Jim Causley sang Rolling of the Stones in 2007 on his WildGoose CD Lost Love Found. He noted:
James [Delarre] taught me this haunting song. It had been floating around in is head for some while so he decided I might as well sing it for him! It crops up in the Child collection and is a not too distant cousin of The Two Brothers. James and I are aware it is “supposed” to be the ‘the tossing of the ball’ but this is the folk-process and we are stubbornly sticking with our miss-interpreted lyrics coz we like them.
Jim Causley’s former Devil’s Interval partner Emily Portman sang Rolling of the Stones a year later with Rubus on their CD Nine Witch Knots. She noted:
Not a heavy rock anthem but a ballad of sibling rivalry better known as The Two Brothers. It can be found in Bronson’s The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, sung by Mrs. Mary E. Harmon of Cambridge, Mass. When collating my favourite parts of British and American variants, I came across a beautiful version from Scottish traveller Lizzie Higgins and decided to sing both Scottish and American tunes interchangeably. Remarkably I have found that these two melodies, from opposite sides of the Atlantic, harmonise with each other. In some versions Susie charms her true love out of his grave with her banjo, or even “small hoppers”, but tempting as it was, I found I couldn’t sing either of these with a straight face! Some versions end with Susie’s “charm”, but I wanted to find out what happened next. At this point the story transforms into another ballad: The Unquiet Grave. The song shows that it can be a risky business waking the dead after a year and a day have passed.
Elizabeth Stewart of Fetterangus (the niece of Lucy Stewart) sang The Twa Brothers at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival in Collessie, Fife, in May 2007. This recording was published a year later on the festival’s CD Nick-Knack on the Waa (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Vol. 4). Peter Shepheard noted:
One of the classic big ballads—two boys are in a playful fight and one kills the other. The ballad still survives, as here, in the living tradition, although Francis J. Child thought it was extinct in Scotland when he published his The English and Scottish Popular Ballads in 1882 (Child 49).
Gavin Davenport sang Two Pretty Boys in 2010 on his Hallamshire Traditions album Brief Lives. He noted:
This cheerful tale of fratricide is cobbled together from memory, but most likely welds bits of versions from Peter Bellamy and Nic Jones to a hastily constructed tune. I have a soft spot for misery in a major key.
Former Witch of Elswick, Fay Hield learnt Two Brothers from Peter Bellamy’s recording and sang it in 2010 on her first solo CD, Looking Glass.
Jon Boden sang Two Pretty Boys as the 10 August 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted:
From Bellamy again. Strange tune—I wonder if Bellamy wrote it. It’s great though and a really dark song. I think the implication may be that the step mother has instructed big brother John to stab his step brother, and he’s done so despite loving his brother like… er, a brother. Horrific really, or maybe it’s just an accident.
Diana Collier sang Two Brothers unaccompanied on her 2015 album All Mortals at Rest.
Granny’s Attic sang Two Brothers in 2016 on their WildGoose CD Off the Land. They noted:
Child ballad 49, a classic ballad of sibling rivalry and murder. The text is an amalgamation and tune is also something of an amalgamation. Cohen [Braithwaite-Kilcoyne] put together this song after finishing early in an A level music exam, perhaps the only half decent piece of music to come out of an A level music exam? We all have brothers but we’ve not made any plans to wrestle or stab them…yet.
Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner sang The Two Brothers in 2019 on their WildGoose CD Watching for Winkles. They noted:
The sadness is in the telling and the singing, and your questions are never quite answered.
Gigspanner Big Band sang The Rolling of the Stones on their 2025 album Turnstone.
Other Two Brothers songs
Mike Waterson sang the burlesque song The Two Brothers (Roud 6360) in 1977 on his eponymous LP, Mike Waterson.
Isla Cameron sang the American Civil War song Two Brothers on the album Songs From ABC Television’s “Hallelujah”.
Lyrics
Texas Gladden sings The Two Brothers
“O brother, O brother, can you play ball,
Or roll a marble stone?”
“No, brother, no, brother, I can’t play ball,
Nor roll a marble stone..”
(repeat last line, for each stanza)
He took his tommyhawk from him,
He hacked him across the breast,
Saying, “Now, brother, I reckon you can’t play ball
Nor roll a marble stone.”
“O take my bunting shirt from me,
And tear it from gore to gore,
And wrap it around my bleeding breast.
That it might bleed no more.”
He took his hunting shirt from him.
And tore it from gore to gore,
And wrapped it around his bleeding breast.
But it still bled the more.
“O brother, when you go home tonight,
My mother will ask for me.
You must tell her I’ve gone with some little schoolboys
Tomorrow night I’ll be at home.
“My little sister will ask for me,
The truth to her you must tell.
You must tell her I’m dead and in grave laid,
And buried at Chesley town.
“O take me up all on your back.
And carry me to Chesley town,
And dig a hole and lay me in.
That I might sleep so sound.”
He took him up all on his back,
And carried him to Chesley town,
And dug a hole and laid him in,
That he might sleep so sound.
He laid his bible under his head,
His tommyhawk at bis feet,
His bow and arrow across his breast,
That he might sleep so sweet.
Mrs J. (Florence) Puckett sings The Two Brothers
There was two brothers a-going to school
A-going to the very same school
The young one said to the youngest one
“Let’s have a wrass-el-ing fall”
The very first fall the young one give
He threw the young one down
And he drew a knife from his pocket
And give him a deathly wound
“Pick me up, pick me up, all in your arms
And carry me yonder’s church ground
And dig my grave both wide and deep
And gently lie me down”
He picked him up all in his arms
And he carried him yonder church ground
And dug his grave both wide and deep
And gently lie him down
“What must I tell your mother dear
This evening as I go home?”
“Just tell her I’m going from the old church school
My books are all to bring home”
“What must I tell your sweetheart dear
This evening as I go home
“Just tell her I’m in the old green woods
A-lea(r)ning yon hounds to run”
Lucy Stewart sings Two Pretty Boys
O two pretty boys they were goin’ to the school,
An’ the evenin’ comin’ hon,
Said the biggest boy to the littlest boy,
𝄆 “O can you throw a stone?” 𝄇
“I can neither throw a stone,
O little can I play at the ball,
If you come down to this merry green woods.
𝄆 I will try you a wrestling fall.” 𝄇
They went down tae the merry green woods,
To try their wrestling fall,
The big brother John took out a little pen knife
An’ stabbed William to the ground,
He stabbed William to the ground.
“O you’ll take off my white linen shirt
An’ tear it from gore to gore,
You’ll a-wrapt him around my wound
𝄆 An’ the blood will come no more.” 𝄇
He took off his white linen shirt
An’ he tore it fae gore to gore,
He a-wrapt him around his wound
𝄆 But the blood came ten times more. 𝄇
“O what will your dear father think
This night when you go home?”
“Tell him that I’m at London school
𝄆 An’ a good boy I’ll come home.” 𝄇
“O what will your dear stepmother think
This night when you go home?”
“Tell her the last prayer she prayed for me
𝄆 That I would ne’er come home.” 𝄇
Ewan MacColl sings The Two Brothers
Monday morning go to school,
Friday evening home,
Brother combed my sweetheart’s hair
As we went marching home.
Brother, will you play me a game of ball?
Brother, will you toss me a stone?
Brother, don’t comb my sweetheart’s hair
As we go marching home.
I won’t play no game of ball,
Neither will I toss you a stone,
I won’t play no game at all
Brother, leave me alone.
The oldest threw the youngest down,
Threw him to the ground,
He drew out his wee pen knife
And give him a deathless wound.
He took off his Holland shirt,
Ripped it from gore to gore,
Laid it around that bleeding wound,
But still it bled the more.
It’s take me up all on your back,
Carry me to Chesley town,
Dig me a deep and lonely grave
And gently lay me down.
He took him up all on his back,
Carried him to Chesley town,
Dug him a deep and lonesome grave
And gently laid him down.
He put the Bible at his head,
Testament at his feet,
His bow and arrow in his hand
The sounder he might sleep.
He met his mother as he turned ’round home,
Inquiring for her son, John,
I left him in a lonesome place
A long long lesson to learn.
He met his love as he turned ’round home,
Inquiring for her love, John,
I left him in the new schoolhouse,
His books to carry home.
She took her harp all in her hand,
Tied up with a silver string,
She harped above his lonely grave,
So sweetly she did sing,
That she sang the red fish out of the sea,
The wild birds out of their nest,
She sang her true love out of his grave
So he can’t find no rest.
Go home, go home, you rambling reed,
Weep no more on me,
I am gone to a golden place,
My face no more you’ll see.
Heather Wood sings Rolling of the Stones
Will you go to the rolling of the stones
Or the dancing of the ball?
Or will you go and see pretty Susie
Dance among them all?
Will you drink of the blood,
The white wine and the red?
Or will you go and see pretty Susie
When that I am dead?
Susie charmed the birds from the sky,
The fish from out the bay
And there she lay in her true love’s arms
And there was content to stay.
Peter Bellamy sings Two Pretty Boys
Two pretty boys was going to school,
All in the evening coming home,
Said the biggest boy to the littlest boy,
𝄆 “O can you throw a stone?” 𝄇
“Well, I can either throw a stone
And a little can I play at the ball,
But if you come down to yon green wood
𝄆 I will try you a wrestling fall.” 𝄇
So they’re away to the merry greenwood
For to try a wrestling fall,
But big brother John’s drawed his little penknife
And stabbed William to the ground,
He stabbed William to the ground.
“O you’ll pull off my white linen shirt
And tear it from gore to gore,
And wrap it all around my wound
𝄆 That the blood may flow no more.” 𝄇
So he’s pulled off his white linen shirt
And he tore it from gore to gore,
And wrapped it round his brother’s wound
𝄆 But the blood came ten times more. 𝄇
“O what will your dear father think
Tonight when I come home?”
“Just tell him I’m away to the London school,
𝄆 And a good boy I’ll return.” 𝄇
“But what will your dear step-mother think
Tonight when I come home?”
“Just tell her that the last prayer she’s prayed for me
𝄆 Was that I might never return.” 𝄇
Nic Jones sings The Two Brothers
Well it’s of two brothers a-going to school,
A-going to the very same school.
And one of them to the other said,
“Can you take a wrestle and fall?”
And the very first fall the eldest gave,
He fell into the ground.
And he’s taken out his little penknife
And he’s given him a deadly wound.
“Take me up, take me up all in your arms
And carry me to yonder church ground.
And dig a grave both wide and deep
And gently lay me down.”
O he’s took him up all in his arms
And he’s carried him to yonder church ground.
And he’s dug a grave both wide and deep
And gently laid him down.
“And what shall I tell my mother dear
This night when I go home?”
“Just tell her I’m running in yonder green wood,
A-bringing my school books home.”
“And what shall I tell your Susie dear
This night when I go home?”
“Just tell her I’m down in yonder churchyard,
A-buried beneath the ground.”
But she’s wept and she’s cried so bitterly,
She’s wept from door to door.
And she’s wept him away from his own gravestone
For rest he could find no more.
“And why do you weep my Susie dear,
And why do you weep for me?”
“It’s just one kiss from your clay lips
That’s all I ask of thee.”
“Then go home, go home, my Susie dear,
Go home and leave me be.
And don’t stay here to weep and mourn
For my body you’ll never more see.”
Well it’s of two brothers a-going to school,
A-going to the very same school.
And one of them to the other said,
“Can you take a wrestle and fall?”
Belle Stewart sings The Twa Brothers
O two pretty boys were going to the school,
And one evening coming home,
Said William to John, “Can you throw a stone,
Or can you play at a ball, a ball;
Or can you play at a ball?”
Said William to John. “I cannot throw a stone,
Nor little can I play at a ball,
But if you come down to yon merry green woods,
I’ll try you a wrestling fall, a fall,
I’ll try you a wrestling fall.”
So when they came to yon merry green woods
Beneath the spreading moon,
The little penknife slipped out of William’s pocket,
Which give John his deadly wound, wound,
Which give John his deadly wound.
“O you’ll take off your white holland shirt,
And you’ll tear it from gore to gore.
And you shall bind my deadly wounds,
And they shall blood no more, no more;
And they shall blood no more.”
So he took off his white holland shirt
And he tore it from gore to gore.
And he did bind his deadly wounds,
But they bled ten times more, and more,
O they bled ten times more.
“O what will I tell to your father dear,
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell him I’m away to a London school,
And the good scholar I’ll come home, home,
And the good scholar I’ll come home.”
“And what will I tell to your sister dear,
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell her I’m away to a London school
And the good books I’ll bring home, home,
And the good books I’ll bring home.”
“But what will I tell to your sweetheart dear,
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell her I’m dead and in grave laid,
And the grass is a-growing green, green,
And the grass is a-growing green.”
“But what will I tell to you stepmother dear,
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell her I’m dead and in grave laid,
For she prayed I might never come home, home,
For she prayed I might never come home.“
Sheila Stewart sings The Twa Brothers
Two pretty boys were going tae the school
And one evening coming home
Said William tae John, “Can ye throw a stone
Or can you play at a ball.
Or can you play at a ball?”
Said William tae John, “I cannot throw a stone
Nor little can I play at a ball.
But if you come down tae yon merry green woods
I’ll try a wrestlin fall,
I’ll try a wrestlin fall.”
So they cam doon tae yon merry green woods
Beneath the spread in moon.
And the little pen-knife slipped out of William’s pocket
And give John his deadly wound,
And give John his deadly wound.
“O you’ll take off your white holland shirt
And tear it fae gore tae gore.
And you will bind my deadly wounds
And they will bluid no more
And they will bluid no more.”
So he took off his white holland shirt
And he tore it fae gore tae gore.
And he did bind his deadly wounds
But they bled ten times more an more
But they bled ten times more.
“O what will I tell tae your sister dear.
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell her I’m away tae a London school.
And the good books I’ll bring home
And the good books I’ll bring home.”
“And what will I tell tae your brother dear,
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell him I’m away tae a London school.
And a good scholar I’ll come home
And a good scholar I’ll come home.”
“An what will I tell tae your sweetheart dear.
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell her I’m dead and in graves laid,
And the grass is growin green.
And the grass is growin green.”
“An what will I tell tae our father dear,
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell him I’m dead and in graves laid.
And the grass is growin green
And the grass is growin green.”
“An what will I tell tae your stepmother dear.
This night when I go home?”
“You can tell her I’m dead and in graves laid.
For she prayed I might never come home.
She prayed I might never come home.”
Tim Radford sings The Rolling of the Stones
“Will you go to the rolling of the stones
Or the dancing of the ball?
Or will you go and see pretty Susie
And dance among them all?”
“I will not go to the rolling of the stones
Or the tossing of the ball,
But I will go and see pretty Susie
And dance among them all.”
“Will you drink of the blood,
The white wine and the red?
Or will you go and see pretty Susie
When that I am dead?”
They hadn’t danced but a single dance
More than twice around
Before the sword at her true love’s side
Gave him his fatal wound.
They picked him up and carried him away,
For he was sore distressed.
They buried him all in the greenwoods
Where he was wont to rest.
Pretty Susie she came a-wandering by
With a tablet under her arm,
Until she came to her true love’s grave
And she began to charm.
She charmed the fish out of the sea
And the birds out of their nests,
She charmed her true love out of his grave
So he could no longer rest.
“Will you go to the rolling of the stones
Or the dancing of the ball?
Or will you go and see pretty Susie
And dance among them all?”
“I will not go to the rolling of the stones
Or the tossing of the ball
But I will go and see pretty Susie
And dance among them all..”
Elizabeth Stewart sings The Twa Brothers
O two two pretty boys they were gaun tae the school,
An they were comin home;
Said the biggest boy to the littlest boy,
“O can you throw a stone,
O can you throw a stone.”
“O I can neither throw a stone,
And it’s little can I play at the ball;
But if you go down to the merry greenwood,
I will try you a wrestling fall,
I will try you a wrestling fall.”
So they went down to this merry greenwood,
To try a wrestling fall;
There brother John took out his little penknife,
And stabbed William to the ground,
And stabbed William to the ground.
“O you’ll tak off your white linen shirt,
And you’ll tear it fae gore to gore;
An you’ll a-wrap it roun the wound,
Till the blood will come no more,
An the blood will come no more.”
So he took off his white linen shirt,
And he tore it fae gore tae gore;
And he a-wrapped it roun the wound,
But the blood came ten times more,
But the blood came ten times more.
“It’s what will your dear father think,
This night when you don’t go home?”
“Tell him I’ll go to a London school,
And like a good boy I’ll come home,
And like a good boy I’ll come home.”
“It’s what will your dear stepmither say
This night when you don’t go home?”
“Tell her the last prayer she prayed for me,
That I would ne’er come home,
That I would ne’er come home.”
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Garry Gillard for his good ears and his help with Peter Bellamy’s version.