The Twa Brothers
Encyclopedia
"The Twa Brothers" is Child ballad 49, existing in many variants.
Attempts to stanch the blood are not successful, and the dying brother tells the living one (usually) how to bury him, and (always) a long list of excuses to give the rest of the family, about his traveling to distant locations, to avoid admitting his death, ending with the injunction to tell his true love the truth.
Some variants end there.
In others, the living brother is taxed with the blood—as in "Edward
" and "Lizie Wan
"—and attempts to tell false tales do not work. He usually leaves, never to return.
In still others, the true love laments him so long that it disturbs the dead man in his grave, or she wants a kiss from the dead man—as in "The Unquiet Grave
" or some variants of "Sweet William's Ghost
"—and he asks her to stop and let him rest, or refuses it because it will kill her. In the American variant "The Rolling of the Stones", she "charmed her true love out of his grave."
", Child 13.
Synopsis
Two brothers are wrestling when a blade that one of them is carrying mortally wounds the other; occasionally, one of them stabs the other intentionally.Attempts to stanch the blood are not successful, and the dying brother tells the living one (usually) how to bury him, and (always) a long list of excuses to give the rest of the family, about his traveling to distant locations, to avoid admitting his death, ending with the injunction to tell his true love the truth.
Some variants end there.
In others, the living brother is taxed with the blood—as in "Edward
Edward (ballad)
Edward is a traditional murder ballad existing in several variants. In English its versions were collected by Francis James Child as Child ballad number 13.-Synopsis:...
" and "Lizie Wan
Lizie Wan
-Synopsis:The heroine—Lizie, Rosie, Lucy—is pregnant with her brother's child. Her brother murders her. He tries to pass off the blood as some animal he had killed—his greyhound, his falcon, his horse—but in the end must admit that he murdered her...
"—and attempts to tell false tales do not work. He usually leaves, never to return.
In still others, the true love laments him so long that it disturbs the dead man in his grave, or she wants a kiss from the dead man—as in "The Unquiet Grave
The Unquiet Grave
"The Unquiet Grave" is an English folk song in which a young man mourns his dead love too hard and prevents her from obtaining peace. It is thought to date from 1400 and was collected in 1868 by Francis James Child, as Child Ballad number 78....
" or some variants of "Sweet William's Ghost
Sweet William's Ghost
Sweet William's Ghost is a folk song, collected by Francis James Child in 1868 as Child ballad number 77. It exists in many forms but all versions recount a similar story. It was printed in Allan Ramsay's The Tea-Table Miscellany in 1740, and again in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English...
"—and he asks her to stop and let him rest, or refuses it because it will kill her. In the American variant "The Rolling of the Stones", she "charmed her true love out of his grave."
Parallels
This ballad, in several variants, contains most of the ballad "EdwardEdward (ballad)
Edward is a traditional murder ballad existing in several variants. In English its versions were collected by Francis James Child as Child ballad number 13.-Synopsis:...
", Child 13.