Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Two Little Boys / Two School Boys / Two Brothers / Twa Brithers / Two Pretty Boys / Rolling of the Stones / Little Schoolboy / Jessel Town / The Twa Brothers (Child No. 49) - Sung by Lizzie Higgins (Elizabeth Ann Youlden, 1929-1993) of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Daughter of settled Travellers, the famous Scottish traditional singer Jeannie Robertson and Donald "Donty" Higgins, an accomplished piper. Lizzie learned the song from her father. Filmed and recorded by David Kotyk as part of the John D. Niles folklore research team for the "Scottish Voices" project in the sitting room of Lizzie's home in Aberdeen in August 1986.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:20 Sings The Twa Brothers
00:06:58 Ends
The original movie can be watched here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/ASNLTMLAU5OBCP9C
I used my knowledge on video editing to share the films on Youtube in the highest possible quality, I used manual video upscaling (no AI was used!) for this, to further document variants of traditional ballads and songs which has been my hobby for many years. I claim no ownership of the video, all the rights belong with the University of Wisconsin which houses the John D. Niles Collection.
Note by Kevin W.:
I was delighted to discover these videos of Scotland's great tradition bearers in the John D. Niles Collection. The often poorly treated Scottish Travellers honor the memories of their ancestors through songs, music and storytelling. They are proud of their culture and kept old traditions alive for hundreds of years. Many of our most gifted traditional singers and storytellers are Travellers.
Scottish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority in Scotland who live or traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle and for centuries were unfairly shunned by the settled population. For that reason the singing culture of the Travelling people had not been well documented before the 20th century when non-Travellers with an interest in folklore visited and befriended Travellers and started recording their songs, music and stories.
Lizzie's slow style of singing which she based on her father's and her uncle Isaac "Seely" Higgins' bagpipe playing is beautiful and highly demanding with lots of ornamentation. Interestingly Lizzie used the pipe style decorations for her father's songs but sang closer to her mother's style for Jeannie's songs.
For more information on Lizzie Higgins the booklet notes to "In Memory of Lizzie Higgins 1929-1993" (2006) Musical Traditions MTCD337-8 are essential reading (and the album is well worth getting): mustrad.org.uk/articles/higgins.htm
Lizzie's version of The Twa Brothers resembles Child's E text, taken from "Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern" (1827) by William Motherwell: http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=Child_d04905
But her ending resembles Child's D text, published by Robert Jamieson in "Popular Ballads and Songs, From Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces From the Danish Language, and a Few Originals by the Editor" in 1806. It was noted from a Mrs. W. Arrott of Aberbrothick:
http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=Child_d04904
It features the same curious mention of Kirkland. It might've been a real place name, some texts of the ballad do mention a town as the place of burial, but it could just as easily be a corruption of kirkyard.
Song transcription:
There wis twa brothers at the school
An' when they got awa'
Aye, it's will ye play at the stane chucking
Or will ye play at a ba'
Or will ye gang up tae yon bonnie green hills
An' there we'll wrestle an' fa'
I winnae play at the stane chucking
Or will I play at the ba'
But I'll go up tae yon bonnie green hills
An' there we'll wrestle an' fa'
They wrestled up an' they wrestled down
Till John fell to the ground
A dirk fell out of William's pouch
Gave John a deadly wound
"Lift me, lift me on yer back
Tak' me tae yon well so fair
Wash the blood frae off my wound"
But aye it bled the mair
"Ye'll tak' off yer Holland sark
Rive it frae gare tae gare
Ye'll stap it in that bloody wound"
But aye it bled the mair
He's ta'en off his Holland sark
Rived it frae gare tae gare
He's staped it in that bloody wound
But aye it bled the mair
"Lift me, lift me on yer back
Tak' me tae Kirklan' fair
Dig a grave baith wide and deep
And lay my body there
Lay my arrows at my head
My bent bow at my feet
My sword and buckler by my side
Like I was wont tae sleep"
I sung it exactly as he teached me, the last part of it in a crescendo, when the great warrior died as he was wont tae sleep.
Two Little Boys / Two School Boys / Two Brothers / Twa Brithers / Two Pretty Boys / Rolling of the Stones / Little Schoolboy / Jessel Town / The Twa Brothers (Child No. 49) - Sung by Lizzie Higgins (Elizabeth Ann Youlden, 1929-1993) of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Daughter of settled Travellers, the famous Scottish traditional singer Jeannie Robertson and Donald "Donty" Higgins, an accomplished piper. Lizzie learned the song from her father. Filmed and recorded by David Kotyk as part of the John D. Niles folklore research team for the "Scottish Voices" project in the sitting room of Lizzie's home in Aberdeen in August 1986.
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:20 Sings The Twa Brothers
00:06:58 Ends
The original movie can be watched here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/ASNLTMLAU5OBCP9C
I used my knowledge on video editing to share the films on Youtube in the highest possible quality, I used manual video upscaling (no AI was used!) for this, to further document variants of traditional ballads and songs which has been my hobby for many years. I claim no ownership of the video, all the rights belong with the University of Wisconsin which houses the John D. Niles Collection.
Note by Kevin W.:
I was delighted to discover these videos of Scotland's great tradition bearers in the John D. Niles Collection. The often poorly treated Scottish Travellers honor the memories of their ancestors through songs, music and storytelling. They are proud of their culture and kept old traditions alive for hundreds of years. Many of our most gifted traditional singers and storytellers are Travellers.
Scottish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority in Scotland who live or traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle and for centuries were unfairly shunned by the settled population. For that reason the singing culture of the Travelling people had not been well documented before the 20th century when non-Travellers with an interest in folklore visited and befriended Travellers and started recording their songs, music and stories.
Lizzie's slow style of singing which she based on her father's and her uncle Isaac "Seely" Higgins' bagpipe playing is beautiful and highly demanding with lots of ornamentation. Interestingly Lizzie used the pipe style decorations for her father's songs but sang closer to her mother's style for Jeannie's songs.
For more information on Lizzie Higgins the booklet notes to "In Memory of Lizzie Higgins 1929-1993" (2006) Musical Traditions MTCD337-8 are essential reading (and the album is well worth getting): mustrad.org.uk/articles/higgins.htm
Lizzie's version of The Twa Brothers resembles Child's E text, taken from "Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern" (1827) by William Motherwell: http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=Child_d04905
But her ending resembles Child's D text, published by Robert Jamieson in "Popular Ballads and Songs, From Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces From the Danish Language, and a Few Originals by the Editor" in 1806. It was noted from a Mrs. W. Arrott of Aberbrothick:
http://71.174.62.16/Demo/LongerHarvest?Text=Child_d04904
It features the same curious mention of Kirkland. It might've been a real place name, some texts of the ballad do mention a town as the place of burial, but it could just as easily be a corruption of kirkyard.
Song transcription:
There wis twa brothers at the school
An' when they got awa'
Aye, it's will ye play at the stane chucking
Or will ye play at a ba'
Or will ye gang up tae yon bonnie green hills
An' there we'll wrestle an' fa'
I winnae play at the stane chucking
Or will I play at the ba'
But I'll go up tae yon bonnie green hills
An' there we'll wrestle an' fa'
They wrestled up an' they wrestled down
Till John fell to the ground
A dirk fell out of William's pouch
Gave John a deadly wound
"Lift me, lift me on yer back
Tak' me tae yon well so fair
Wash the blood frae off my wound"
But aye it bled the mair
"Ye'll tak' off yer Holland sark
Rive it frae gare tae gare
Ye'll stap it in that bloody wound"
But aye it bled the mair
He's ta'en off his Holland sark
Rived it frae gare tae gare
He's staped it in that bloody wound
But aye it bled the mair
"Lift me, lift me on yer back
Tak' me tae Kirklan' fair
Dig a grave baith wide and deep
And lay my body there
Lay my arrows at my head
My bent bow at my feet
My sword and buckler by my side
Like I was wont tae sleep"
I sung it exactly as he teached me, the last part of it in a crescendo, when the great warrior died as he was wont tae sleep.
