Lyr Req: Eppie Morrie (from Sileas)

Subject: Lyr Add: EPPIE MORRIE (from Sileas)
From: Roberto
Date: 21 Sep 03 - 02:10 AM

I've found on the web the text of Eppie Morrie (Child #223) as sung by the Sileas, with only two missing parts. For the first one, I think I can get the words, in stanza 11, but I don't understand the missing part in stanza 13. Can somebody help me to complete this text? The text in Child, and every text I've checked on the web, names "Scalletter", but this is not what the Sileas sing. Thank you. Roberto

EPPIE MORRIE
Sileas, Delighted with Harps, Green Linnet, GLCD 3039, 1986

Four and twenty Hielanders
Cam' frae Carron side
Tae steal awa' Eppie Morrie
For she wadna be a bride
She wadna be a bride

Oot then cam' her mither
It was a moonlicht nicht
She couldnae see her dochter
For their swords shone sae bricht
Their swords shone sae bricht

Haud awa' frae me, mither
Haud awa' frae me
There's no' a man in' a' Strathdon
Shall married be with me
Shall married be with me

They've taken Eppie Morrie, then
And a horse they've bound her on
And they hae rid o'er Carron side
As fast as horse could gang
As fast as horse could gang

Sae they came tae the minister
Held a pistol tae his breist
Oh marry me, minister
Or else I'll be your priest
Or else I'll be your priest

Haud awa' frae me, good sir
Haud awa' frae me
I daurna avow tae marry thee
Unless she's willin' as thee
Unless she's willin' as thee

Haud awa' frae me, Willie
Haud awa' frae me
There's no' a man in a' Strathdon
Shall married be wi' me
Shall married be wi' me

They've taken Eppie Morrie, then
Since better couldna' be
And they hae rid o'er Carron side
As fast as horse could flee
As fast as horse could flee

The mass was sung and bells were rung
And they'r awa' to bed
And Willie and Eppie Morrie
In one bed they were laid
In one bed they were laid

Haud awa frae me, Willie
Haud awa' frae me
Before I'll lose my maidenheid
I'll fight wi' you 'til day
I'll fight wi' you 'til day

And (a' nicht lang) they warssled there
Until the brak o' day
And aye he grat and aye he spat
But he couldna' streitch her spey
He couldna' streitch her spey

Haud awa' frae me, Willie
Haud awa' frae me
There's no' a man in a' Strathdon
Shall married be wi' me
Shall married be wi' me

Early in the morning
Before the brak o' day
In cam' the (...) chambermaid
Wi' a goun and sark alane
A goun and sark alane

Get up, get up, young woman
And drink the wine wi' me
You nicht hae ca'd me maiden
For I'm sure as hale as thee
For I'm sure as hale as thee

Haud awa' frae me, woman
Haud awa' frae me
There's no' a man in a' Strathdon
Shall married be with me
Shall married be with me

Gae fetch to me a horse, Willie
Fetch it like a man
And send me tae my mither
A maiden as I cam'
A maiden as I cam'

Fetch to me a horse, Willie
Fetch it like a man
And send me tae my mither
A maiden as I cam'
A maiden as I cam'

Fetch to me a horse, Willie
Fetch it like a man
And send me tae my mither
A maiden as I cam'
A maiden as I cam'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 07:56 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: Efiddler
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 02:02 PM

I'll hunt out my copy of the LP and give it a listen, see if I can help. I used to sing this, but it's many years ago!

Efiddler

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: GUEST,robinia
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 02:15 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 03:10 PM

Ewan MacColl's version, which he first recorded in the 50s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: GUEST,robinia
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 03:35 PM

Oops, sorry about that! I'm not heard the Sileas version (which omits a critical statement from the chambermaid -- "If you'd ha taen her maidenheid you might ha hired her hand") but have long been fascinated with the "twin" ballads of Eppie Morrie (Child 223) and Rob Roy (Child 225) that tell (up to a point) essentially the same story and even share a couple of identical "battle verses" while taking very different "sides" (and of course ending very differntly)! I hear Eppie Morrie as "deep play" in contrast to Rob Roy's "realism"; for more details, click here ( or here to see how the ballads fit into my broader thesis). The ballads are based, incidentally, on a real abduction of a rich heiress and the abductor (an impoverished descendant of the legendary Rob Roy) was, in fact, hanged.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: GUEST,Donal
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 10:55 PM

Roberto,
                As far as I can tell, the word is 'sonsie'.
                                                                               Don.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: LadyJean
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 11:43 PM

I don't remember who sang the version I heard, but it ended:
The night is dark oe'r Carringside, and brightly shines the moon.
Come saddle your horse young John Forsythe, whistle and I'll come soon come soon, suggesting that Eppie might not be entirely averse to marriage.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: Roberto
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:37 AM

What could "sonsie" mean? Roberto

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: GUEST,Ray Padgett
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:44 AM

Eppie Morrie words I belive can be found in Maccolls, Book 'The Singing Island' I'll check it out and compare with what's already printed

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 07:53 AM

MacColl has Scallater. Sileas appear to have recorded a shortened arrangement of the set he collated from two sources: William Miller of Stirling and Samuel Wylie of Falkirk. This included three verses not in Child, of which one appears in the above text (stanza 11). The only other example currently listed in the Roud Folk Song Index is one from Jimmy McBeath, which I don't think I've heard; Alan Lomax recorded him in 1951 and Peter Kennedy in 1953.

"Sonsie" in this context can mean "plump, buxom"; "comely"; "cheerful, jolly, pleasant". It may be that Sileas have made alterations of their own, or it may derive from the McBeath set. Does anyone have that?

Although there's a little overlap with Rob Roy, I wouldn't go so far as to say that this ballad is based on the same event. Marriage by abduction was not uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland at one time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 12:52 AM

I don't remember the singer, but the version I heard ended with something like:
            "The night is dark o'er Carringside,
             And brightly shines the moon
             Go saddle your horse young John Forsythe
             Whistle and I'll come soon"

Suggesting that Eppie wasn't entirely averse to marriage.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From:
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 06:24 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sileas' Eppie Morrie
From: GUEST,robinia
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 07:42 AM

True enough. . . and I do make more of the kinship between the two ballads (Eppie Morrie and Rob Roy) than Child does; in fact, he doesn't say much at all about the single text he gives of the first while devoting pages and pages to eleven variants of the second -- all of them very definitely based on the abduction of Jean Key by Rob Oig (or "junior") in 1750.   But what Child does say encourages further speculation. Maidmont (his single source for Eppie Morrie) "does not tell us where the ballad came from, and no other editor seems to know of it. Two stanzas . . . occur in a copy of Rob Roy . . . which had once been in Maidmont's hands and perhaps was obtained from the same region."    So kinship is not ruled out, though of course it's the imaginative kinship that intrigues me.....