Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
The Clattering of the Clyde Waters / The Clattering o' Clyde Waters / Clyde's Water / Clyde's Waters / Willie and May Margaret / The Drowned Lovers / The Mother's Malison (Child No. 216) - Sung by Willie Edward of Craigellachie, Banffshire, Scotland. Recorded by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies in 1952. From "Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs Classic Scots Ballads" (1975) Tangent Records TNGM 119/D (2 LP, UK, 1975).
Lines Notes by Hamish Henderson:
Child printed only three versions of this noble ballad, which has been carried forward strongly into our own day by oral transmission; all three are of surpassing interest to anyone wishing to survey the influence of 'remaking' of various sorts on our balladry. Child's A [...] is a magnificent example of supple and flexible ballad Scots. His C (Peter Buchan), which is by far the longest (29 verses) [is] in its own way a powerful piece of work. [...] Child's B is from Mrs. Brown of Falkland [...].
Gavin Greig published a version - Peter Buchan nearly word for word - in his column in 'The Buchan Advertiser', and this may well have helped to keep the ballad in circulation in some areas; however, both versions you can hear now depend on family and local tradition going back before Gavin was born.
John Strachan opens with the omen of ill fortune (nose bleeding) which is also to be found in Peter and the 'Buchanie', but his text is markedly different from theirs. It omits the motif of Willie's mother's curse which has provided the name for one of the titles given to the ballad (The Mother's Malison) although it might be argued that the curse is implicit in her strongly expressed disapproval.
Willie Edward's version, a superbly enunciated example of 'auld style' ballad Scots, gives us the second half of the ballad. He starts at the point where Willie appeals to Maggie to let him in, and Maggie's mother (counterfeiting her daughter's voice, like another cruel mother in The Lass of Roch Royal) turns him away. Again, the text is different from both Peter and 'The Buchan Observer' [sic].
Both our versions have the episode of Willie's brother standing on the river bank and telling him to 'turn to his high horse heid' and 'learn how to swim'. This episode, which is in Peter Buchan's text but not in Mrs. Brown's, is dismissed by Child as 'absurd'. However, if we look at the structure of the ballad, we can see that it is not so absurd after all. The opening scene of Clyde's Water is really a variant of a familiar folktale lead-in; Willie is offered his mother's warning (by implication with her blessing) but takes instead his much-prized horse, with her curse. It is therefore wholly in accordance with the techniques of oral composition that Willie, in extremis, should be reminded of his earlier trust in his 'ain horse heels'. And why should it be his brother who gives him this reminder? To an audience of earlier days, the minds of all its members saturated with the elemental folk motifs which link ballads and tales, there would have been no mystery - and no absurdity - about this one either. There are several ballads in which a mother's curse is associated with the death of one brother and the survival of another; [e.g. The Twa Brithers].
Song transcription:
[ So sleep ye, Maggie, waukin, Maggie,
Rise, come lat me in
For my boots are fu' o' Clyde water,
An' I'm soakin' tae the skin ] *
So who is that at my window,
So fain he would be in
'Tis yer own true lover Willie dear,
Frae Scotland he has came
'Tis I hae nae lover there-oot, she cried,
I hae nae lover but een
It's the ae true love that I dae hae
Was here late yestreen
S'well fare ye well then, false Maggie,
Since better canna be
Oh I'll awa' the road I cam,
Nae mair come thee to see ...
His brother stands upon yonder banks,
Says, Fie man, will ye droon
So turn ye roon' t'yir high horse heid
An' learn how to swim
Oh why could I turn to my high horse head
And learn how to swim
It's the deepest pot in a' the Clyde,
An' here that I maun droon
... Oh mother dear,
Come rede my drowsy dream
I dreamt sweet Willie was at my gates,
Naer yin wid lat him in
'S lie still, lie still, my Maggie dear,
Lie still an' tak' your rest
Since your true love was at your gates,
'Tis full three quarters past
But it's Maggie rose, put on her clothes,
An' to the Clyde she went
The first step noo that she took in,
It took her tae the knee
The next step noo that she took in,
It took her tae the chin
In the deepest pot in a' the Clyde
She found her Willie in
So you have got a cruel mother,
And I have got another
But here we lie in Clyde water
Like sister and like brother
* This verse was provided in the booklet notes but is missing from the recording.
The Clattering of the Clyde Waters / The Clattering o' Clyde Waters / Clyde's Water / Clyde's Waters / Willie and May Margaret / The Drowned Lovers / The Mother's Malison (Child No. 216) - Sung by Willie Edward of Craigellachie, Banffshire, Scotland. Recorded by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies in 1952. From "Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs Classic Scots Ballads" (1975) Tangent Records TNGM 119/D (2 LP, UK, 1975).
Lines Notes by Hamish Henderson:
Child printed only three versions of this noble ballad, which has been carried forward strongly into our own day by oral transmission; all three are of surpassing interest to anyone wishing to survey the influence of 'remaking' of various sorts on our balladry. Child's A [...] is a magnificent example of supple and flexible ballad Scots. His C (Peter Buchan), which is by far the longest (29 verses) [is] in its own way a powerful piece of work. [...] Child's B is from Mrs. Brown of Falkland [...].
Gavin Greig published a version - Peter Buchan nearly word for word - in his column in 'The Buchan Advertiser', and this may well have helped to keep the ballad in circulation in some areas; however, both versions you can hear now depend on family and local tradition going back before Gavin was born.
John Strachan opens with the omen of ill fortune (nose bleeding) which is also to be found in Peter and the 'Buchanie', but his text is markedly different from theirs. It omits the motif of Willie's mother's curse which has provided the name for one of the titles given to the ballad (The Mother's Malison) although it might be argued that the curse is implicit in her strongly expressed disapproval.
Willie Edward's version, a superbly enunciated example of 'auld style' ballad Scots, gives us the second half of the ballad. He starts at the point where Willie appeals to Maggie to let him in, and Maggie's mother (counterfeiting her daughter's voice, like another cruel mother in The Lass of Roch Royal) turns him away. Again, the text is different from both Peter and 'The Buchan Observer' [sic].
Both our versions have the episode of Willie's brother standing on the river bank and telling him to 'turn to his high horse heid' and 'learn how to swim'. This episode, which is in Peter Buchan's text but not in Mrs. Brown's, is dismissed by Child as 'absurd'. However, if we look at the structure of the ballad, we can see that it is not so absurd after all. The opening scene of Clyde's Water is really a variant of a familiar folktale lead-in; Willie is offered his mother's warning (by implication with her blessing) but takes instead his much-prized horse, with her curse. It is therefore wholly in accordance with the techniques of oral composition that Willie, in extremis, should be reminded of his earlier trust in his 'ain horse heels'. And why should it be his brother who gives him this reminder? To an audience of earlier days, the minds of all its members saturated with the elemental folk motifs which link ballads and tales, there would have been no mystery - and no absurdity - about this one either. There are several ballads in which a mother's curse is associated with the death of one brother and the survival of another; [e.g. The Twa Brithers].
Song transcription:
[ So sleep ye, Maggie, waukin, Maggie,
Rise, come lat me in
For my boots are fu' o' Clyde water,
An' I'm soakin' tae the skin ] *
So who is that at my window,
So fain he would be in
'Tis yer own true lover Willie dear,
Frae Scotland he has came
'Tis I hae nae lover there-oot, she cried,
I hae nae lover but een
It's the ae true love that I dae hae
Was here late yestreen
S'well fare ye well then, false Maggie,
Since better canna be
Oh I'll awa' the road I cam,
Nae mair come thee to see ...
His brother stands upon yonder banks,
Says, Fie man, will ye droon
So turn ye roon' t'yir high horse heid
An' learn how to swim
Oh why could I turn to my high horse head
And learn how to swim
It's the deepest pot in a' the Clyde,
An' here that I maun droon
... Oh mother dear,
Come rede my drowsy dream
I dreamt sweet Willie was at my gates,
Naer yin wid lat him in
'S lie still, lie still, my Maggie dear,
Lie still an' tak' your rest
Since your true love was at your gates,
'Tis full three quarters past
But it's Maggie rose, put on her clothes,
An' to the Clyde she went
The first step noo that she took in,
It took her tae the knee
The next step noo that she took in,
It took her tae the chin
In the deepest pot in a' the Clyde
She found her Willie in
So you have got a cruel mother,
And I have got another
But here we lie in Clyde water
Like sister and like brother
* This verse was provided in the booklet notes but is missing from the recording.
