Grey Walker wrote this review which first ran over at Green Man Review.
“A strapping, handsome young gallant, tall in the saddle, a bruiser in football and good at knightly games, [the Bonny Earl of Murray] was in many ways a quintessential popular hero, and when he was brutally butchered the people rewarded him with a measure of immortality.” So says folklore professor Sandy Ives, and he makes his case with a splendidly written book.
“The Bonny Earl of Murray” is one of Professor Ives’ favorite ballads. In his book, The Bonny Earl of Murray, he gives the reader “the rest of the story” — the story of the life and death of the Bonny Earl himself. He also traces the path of the ballad through history, following it through stanza shuffles and tune modifications, on and off the concert stage. Using this two-pronged approach, Professor Ives shows the reader how folk music — and especially the ballad — arises from historical events, but also how folk music in turn, shapes our collective understanding of history.
Using vivid and nimble prose, Professor Ives draws a clear picture of “the Bonny Earl,” a young man in sixteenth century Scotland who was irresponsible, brash, and charming. He earned his paragraph in history books chiefly by feuding with the Earl of Huntly, a powerful nobleman, who was entirely out of his league. Much as one would swat an irritating mosquito, Huntly cut down Murray in cold blood one day, then rode back to court to go hunting with King James VI.
And that might have been all there was to it, except that Huntly bargained without “the folk.” Murray’s mother did not. She commissioned a large death portrait of Murray, complete with a faithful and gruesome rendering of each bloody wound. The portrait was paraded through the streets, raising public hue and cry. However, public interest in Murray might still have died quickly had not some unknown but gifted balladeer penned a few simple but evocative stanzas praising Murray and decrying his murder.
Professor Ives shows how the ballad, now known as “The Bonny Earl of Murray”, with its especially haunting final image of a lady waiting at a window for the return of her murdered lover, has kept Murray’s story alive for four centuries. Ives also contends that the ballad’s storyline, even as it breaks from the historical account, tells a “true” story that lives on in public imagination. In fact, as Ives points out, many histories of Scotland refer to Murray as “the Bonny Earl,” apparently on the strength of the ballad alone! Such is the power of song.
If you are a history buff, this book is for you. On the other hand, if your interest in history was cauterized by too many high school history classes, this book is still for you. If “The Bonny Earl of Murray” is your favorite ballad, this book is for you. If you are somewhat unsure of exactly what a ballad is, but you think you like them, this book is for you. In short, this book is entertaining as well as informative; it will feed a passion for ballads-or perhaps awaken one.
(Incidentally, Professor Ives also mentions in passing the “Mondegreen,” another bit of folk stuff named after “The Bonny Earl of Murray.” The first stanza of the ballad sings, “They ha’e slain the Earl of Murray, and laid him on the green.” Some modern listeners, unfamiliar with village greens, have heard this line as “They ha’e slain the Earl of Murray, and Lady Mondegreen.” Sylvia Wright is thought to have coined “Mondegreen” to describe all such misheard lyrics–and there are legion. Mondegreens Ripped My Flesh and The Archive of Misheard Lyrics are but two of the many web pages devoted to Mondegreens.)
(University of Illinois Press, 1997)
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