The Cruel Mother

On Springthyme SPRCD 1039
Jock Duncan - Ye Shine Whar Ye Stan!

Jock learned this ancient supernatural ballad from George Kidd, farm grieve at the family's neighbouring farm back in around 1935 when Jock was 10 or 12 years old and he never heard the song from anyone else. The ballad is number 20 in F.J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads and Greig-Duncan has three tunes and four fairly full texts from the North East (GD 193). To find a new version in the 1990s as full as Jock's is remarkable and sung with such style and authority. Jock's version is unique in many ways but is perhaps most similar to the north-east version collected by Peter Buchan in the early 1800s (Buchan: Ballads of the North of Scotland 2: 217/ Child 20 version I). This includes the use of flower and plant symbolism in the chorus: the rose being the flower of passion and the lindie the linden or lime tree, being somewhat akin to the Rowan and having significance as a holy tree giving protection against evil.

Brian McNeill - concertina; Chorus vocals

1: A maiden was coorted seiven years an a day, Hey tae the rose and the lindie O, Until her beau did her betray, Doun by the greenwood sidey O. She leaned her back against a wa, And bore him bonnie bairnies twa. Then she took oot a wicked knife, And dang awa their precious life. [i.e. beaten to death Oh she beeried them 'neath a marble stane, And then went hame a maiden again. Ae nicht she looked ower her castle wa, And saw twa bonnie boys at the ba. "Oh bonnie bairnies gin ye were mine, I wad feed ye on fine cakes an wine." "And I'd lat ye drink the ferra coo's milk, [i.e. farrow cow And dress ye in fine satin an silk." "Oh cruel, cruel mither when we were thine, We didna feed on cakes an wine." "Nor did we drink on the ferra coo's milk, Nor did we dress in satin an silk." "For you took oot a wicked knife, And you dang awa oor precious life." "Oh bonnie bairnies ye'll tell tae me, Fit kin o pain for ye I mith dree." [i.e. what pain I might endure "Cruel, cruel mither we'll tell tae ye, Fit kin o pain for us ye maun dree." [i.e. what pain you must endure "It's seiven lang years a fowl in the woods, An seiven lang years a fish in the floods." "Then it's seiven lang years a tongue to the bell, Hey tae the rose and the lindie O, And the rest o the time in the flames o Hell, Doun by yon greenwood sidey O."