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Helen of Kirkconnell Lea

[ Roud 8191 ; Ballad Index OBB152 ; trad.]

Walter Scott published Fair Helen of Kirconnell in Volume 2 of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

Archie Fisher sang Helen of Kirkconnell Lea in 1976 on a bonus track of his Folk-Legacy CD The Man With a Rhyme. He commented:

The story which forms the subject of this ballad was first told in Pennant's Tour in Scotland. It also appear in Ritson's Scottish Songs and in Scott's Minstrelsy. The tradition says that Helen Irving, daughter of the Laird of Kirkconnell in Annandale, at about the latter end of the reign of James V, was loved by two gentlemen, Adam Fleming of Kirkpatrick, whom she herself favoured, and another, said to have been Bell of Blacket House, who was encouraged by her friends. As Helen and Fleming walked on the banks of the Kirtle, her rejected suitor “leveled his carabine” at the breast of his rival. Helen threw herself before her lover, took the bullet in her own breast, and dropped, dying, in his arms. A thorn tree in the glen is pointed out to this day as the spot where she fell. The legend further tells us that Fleming avenged her immediately (“I hackit him in pieces sma‘ “) and later, upon returning from the wars in Spain, visited the lonely spot, and, overcome by grief, died on her grave.

The story [sung] here is somewhat abbreviated, which is probably just as well. (Information borrowed from Eyre-Todd's Ancient Scots Ballads, London and Glasgow, nd, by S.P.)

Dave Walters sang Helen of Kirkconnell in 1977 on his Fellside album Comes Sailing By.

Bobby Eaglesham sang Helen of Kirkconnell in 1982 on his Fellside album Weather the Storm. This track was also included in 2006 on the Fellside anniversary anthology The Journey Continues.

Claire Mann sang Helen of Kirkconnell on Tabache's 1999 album Waves of Rush. They noted:

This beautiful song is an 18^th Century tragic love story from the south west of Scotland, about a young lady called Helen Irving. She had do choose between two lovers, and eventually chose Adam Fleming. One day whilst walking along the banks of the River Kirtle Helen spotted the rival lover, Bell of Blockhouse, with a gun in his hand. She threw herself in front of Adam to try and save him but was killed by the bullet meant for him.

We're not quite sure what he did after that, but some say he crossed the river to lay his rival. He then fled to Spain and served in the Spanish army. However, it is also said that he pursued Bell of Blockhouse throughout Europe and eventually found and killed him near Madrid, before returning to Helen's grave where he expired and was buried alongside her.

Claire learned this song from the singing of Jamie McMenemy. There is also a slightly different version attributed to Robert Burns, O that I were Where Helen Lies.

Sangsters sang Helen of Kirkconnel in 1993 on their Greentrax CD Begin.

Ian Giles sang I Wish I Were Where Ellen Lies in 1997 on his WildGoose CD The Amber Triangle. He noted:

Sometimes known as Helen of Kirkconnell, a border ballad of love, death and revenge.

John Morran sang Helen o Kirkconnel in 1998 on the Linn anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 6.

John Wright sang Helen of Kirkconnell in 2000 on his CD A Few Short Lines.

Isla St Clair sang Helen of Kirkconnell on her 2000 CD Murder & Mayhem.

Emily Smith sang Fair Helen of Kirkconnel in 2002 on her first CD, A Day Like Today. She also sang it on most of the concerts of the Unusual Suspect's 2004 tour. On the last concert at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, in February 2004 she wasn't available though and Annie Grace sang it instead:

Hector Gilchrist sang Fair Helen of Kirkconnel in 2007 on his WildGoose CD Ingleneuk. He noted:

I first recorded this song on vinyl at the Liverpool Folk Festival in 1966. It recalls the many friends whom I made during my eight years in Cheshire and at the Crewe Folk Club. The lass Helen, in this ballad, was obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time! The tale is well documented in Border literature.

Wendy Weatherby sang Helen o' Kirkonnel in 2010 on her Fellside album A Shirt of Silk or Snow.

Barbara Dymock sang Helen of Kirkconnel on her 2016 CD Leaf an' Thorn. She laconically noted:

Helen of Kirkconnel is just such a fascinating and tragic story.

Fiona Hunter sang Helen of Kirkconnell Lea in 2016 on the Greentrax CD of pipe music and song from the Scottish Borders, Reclaimed. The album's booklet commented:

Fiona sings the classic ballad Helen of Kirkconnell Lea taken from Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802). The action is set on the banks of the Kirtle Water in Dumfriesshire (only a few miles from Middlebie) where Helen Irving dies defending her lover Adam Fleming from a rival suitor. Adam kills his rival, flees overseas to serve in the Spanish army, and eventually returns to Kirkconnell where he is said to be buried near Helen in the kirkyard of the Old Parish Church.

Lyrics

Acknowledgements

See also the Mudcat Café thread Where Helen Lies/Kirkconnel Lea.