The Dowie Dens o Yarrow
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1976.246.B1
Original Tape ID
Summary
The lady is courted by nine nobles and a ploughman. They challenge him to a fight and he kills three while three run away and the others are wounded, but her brother comes up behind him and fatally stabs him. She dreams she is pulling the heather bells on the dowie dens of Yarrow and her father says it is a sorrowful omen as her love is lying on the dens. She finds his body, wraps her long hair round him and carries him home. She tells her father that he can marry off his seven sons but the fairest of all was the ploughboy lad from Yarrow.
Danny Spooner learned the song from Donald MacCall, of London, whose mother was from Fife. He was killed in the war.
Item Notes
Transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 10 verses.
See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 2, pp. 99-113
Ord pp. 426-427
Non Scottish Recording Location
Australia, Victoria
Non Scottish Recording Location
Astràilia, Bhictòria
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good