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Edom o Gordon

[ Roud 80 ; Child 178 ; G/D 2:231 ; Ballad Index C178 ; Mudcat 65909 ; trad.]

Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs The Oxford Book of Ballads

Folkal Point sang Edom o’ Gordon in 1972 on their eponymous album Folkal Point.

Ewan MacColl sang Edom o’ Gordon in 1976 both on the Argo anthology Poetry and Song, Vol. 12 and on his and Peggy Seeger’s Larrikin album of traditional and contemporary folk music, No Tyme Lyke the Present. He also sang it in 1979 on his and Peggy Seeger’s Blackthorne album Blood & Roses Volume 1. He noted:

The assassination in 1570 of the regent Murray plunged Scotland into a three-year orgy of furious and constant butchery. In Aberdeenshire, the struggle for power between Queen Mary’s Catholic party, on the one hand, and her son’s (James VI) Protestant party, on the other, was fought out between the Catholic Gordons and the Protestant Forbes family. Sir Adam Gordon (Edom o’ Gordon), the queen’s lieutenant-deputy in the north, was successful, on two occasions, in routing the Forbeses in armed encounters. “But what glory and renown,” says the contemporary history of King James VI, “he (Gordon) obtained of these two victories was all cast down by the infamy of his next attempt; for immediately after this last conflict, he directed his soldiers to the castle of Towie, desiring the house to be rendered to him in the queen’s name; which was obstinately refused by the lady, and she burst forth with certain injurious words. And the soldiers being impatient, by command of their leader, Captain Ker, fire was put to the house, wherein she and the number of 27 persons were cruelly burnt to death.” This was in November 1571.

Of the seven versions given by Child, only the one taken from Motherwell’s MS contains the moving epitaph that concludes our version of the ballad.

Alison McMorland sang Edom o’ Gordon in 2000 on her Tradition Bearers album of Scots songs and ballads, Cloudberry Day. Geordie McIntyre noted:

David Buchan (The Ballad and the Folk; R.K.P London 1972) informs us that this feud-ballad clearly emanates from Aberdeenshire where it mirrors the long bitter and brutal rivalry “between the Gordons and the Forbes the two most powerful families in the region at the time”. It is evidently founded on a specific bloody incident at the time of Mary Queen of Scots (circa 1571).

Peggy Seeger was the direct source and inspiration for this ballad. Alison was invited by Peggy to the Seeger-MacColl family home, London, to focus, in this instance, on techniques of banjo accompaniment on a one-to-one basis. At the end of this weekend “Peggy sang me this ballad, with its magnificent tune saying, ‘learn this… it would suit you.’” The text, but not the tune, is in fact very close to that collected by Gavin Greig from Mrs Courts of Aberdeen (Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs, Aberdeen 1925) collated with two verses from Renfrewshire via the William Motherwell M.S.S. This is a well-honed text without the retribution element that is found in other versions.

Malinky sang Edom o Gordon on their 2005 Greentrax CD The Unseen Hours. They noted:

To start us off, a 16^th century spat between clan Gordon and clan Forbes in Aberdeenshire. George Gordon, the Catholic Earl of Huntly, was Mary Queen of Scots’ lieutenant-governor, and his brother Adam, or Edom, was sometimes called the Queen’s deputy-lieutenant in the north. In November 1571, Captain Thomas Ker was sent by Adam Gordon to take Corgarff Castle (‘Towie’s Hoose’) for Queen Mary, a seat of the Forbeses belonging to Alexander (or John) Forbes. The men were refused entry by Forbes’s wife Margaret Campbell. They then burned the house, killing up to 30 of its occupants. As the Child ballad collection states, “The details are somewhat in dispute; but there must have been something quite beyond the common in Captain Ker’s proceedings, for they are denounced even in those days as infamous, and the name of Adam Gordon is said to have been made odious by them.” [Child 178, Captain Car, or, Edom o Gordon’].

Iona Fyfe sang Edom o Gordon unaccompanied in 2020 on her download album Ballads Vol. I. This video shows her and Luc McNally at a Silver City Session in Aberdeen in March 2017:

Lyrics

Ewan MacColl sings Edom o’ Gordon

It fell aboot the Martinmas time
When the wind blew shrill and cauld,
Said Edom o’ Gordon tae his men,
“We maun draw tae some ha’.

“Whit ha’, whit ha’, my merry men?
Whit ha’, whit ha’?” quo’ he.
“I think we’ll gang tae Towie*s hoose,
"And see his fair lady.”

She thocht it was her ain dear lord
That she saw riding hame;
But ’twas the traitor, Edom o’ Gordon
That recked nae sin nor shame.

“Come doon, come doon, Lady Campbell,
And gie your hoose to me;
Or else this nicht I swear I’ll burn
ou and your bairns three.”

“I winna come doon,” the lady said
“For laird nor yet for loon,
Nor yet for ony rank robber
That comes frae Auchendown.

“Come here, come here, my Jock,” she cried,
“And gie my gun tae me.
This nicht I’ll mak’ a Gordon bleed,
A fause traitor tae dee.”

The lady, frae the battlements,
Twa bullets she let flee;
But she missed her mark wi1 Gordon
For it only grazed his knee.

“Noo, Lady Campbell,” the Gordon cried,
“That shot will cost you dear.”
And he has ca’d the lady’s Jock
To bring the faggots near.

“For seven years,” the lady said,
“I paid ye weel your fee;
And would ye noo turn Gordon’s Jock
And burn my babes and roe?”

“For seven years I served ye weel
And ye paid me weel my fee;
But noo I am turned Gordon’s Jock,
I maun either do or dee.”

Then oot it spak her youngest son,
Sat on the nurse’s knee:
“Open the door and let me oot,
For the reek is choking me.”

“I would gie a’ my land,” she said,
“My gear and a’ my fee,
For ae blast o’ yon wastlin’ wind
Tae blaw the reek frae thee.”

Then oot and spak her dochter dear
She was baith jimp and sma’:
“O, row me in a pair o’ sheets
And throw me ower the wa’”

They’ve rowed her in a pair o’ sheets,
And thrown her ower the wa’,
But on the point o’ Gordon’s sword
She’s got a deidly fa’.

The Gordon turned her ower and ower,
And O, her face was wan;
“Ye are the first that e’er I slew
I wished alive again.”

The Gordon turned her ower and ower,
And O, her face was white;
“I micht hae spared that bonnie face
T’hae been some man’s delight.”

O, wae tae see yon castle brunt
That was built wi’ stane and lime;
And wae for Lady Campbell hersel’
That was brunt wi’ her bairns nine.

Three o’ them were married wives.
And three o’ them were bairns;
And three o’ them were leal maidens
That ne’er lay in men’s airms.

Malinky sing Edom o Gordon

It fell aboot the Martinmas time
When the wind blew shrill and cauld
Cried Edom o’ Gordon tae his men,
“We maun draw tae some hauld.”

“Whit hauld, whit hauld?” cried his merry men,
“Whit hauld sal we gang tae?”
“It’s tae Towie’s Hoose that we maun rided
And see yon fair Lady.”

She thocht it was her ain dear lord
That she saw ridin hame
But was the traitor Edom o’ Gordon
That rik nae sin nor shame.

“Come doon, come doon, Lady Campbell!” he cried,
“And gie yer hoose tae me,
Or else this nicht I swear I’ll burn
Ye an yer bairnies three!”

“I winna come doon,”: the lady cried,
“For laird nor yet for loon,
Nor yet for any rank robber
That comes frae Auchendoon!”

The Lady frae the battlements
Twa bullets she let flee,
But it missed its mark wi Gordon
For it scarcely grazed his knee.

“Lady Campbell,” the Gordon cried,
“That shot will cost you dear!”
For he has ca’ed tae his ain Jock
Tae bring the faggots near.

“I winna come doon ye fause Gordon!
I winna gie up tae ye,
I winna forsake ma ain dear Lord
That is sae far frae me.”

Then up and spak her youngest son
Sat on the nooris’ knee,
“Oh open the door and let me oot
For this reek is choking me!”

“I wid gie up ma gowd,” she cried,
“Ma siller and ma fee
For a blast o’ the whistling wind
Tae blaw this reek frae me.”

Then oot an spak her dochter dear,
She wis baith jimp and sma,
“0 row me in a pair o sheets
And throw me ower the wa!”

They rowed her in a pair o sheets
And threw her ower the wa,
But on the point o the Gordon’s sword
She got a deidly fa.

Then Gordon turned her ower and ower
And o her face was white.
Ah, micht hae spared that bonny face
Tae be some man’s delight.

Oh pity on yon fair castle
That was biggit wi stane and lime
And wae for lady Campbell herself
Burnt wi her bairnies nine.

h three o them were mairried wives,
And three o them were bairns,
And three o them were leal maidens
That ne’er lay in young men’s airms.