The Lowland Sea

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 18

The Lowland Sea

[Specially written for "The Press” by

DERRICK ROONEY]

QNE of the most extensive Anglo-Scottish folk-song families is the “lowland” group—songs which contain the word “lowland” in the title or chorus. The ring of the word “lowland” must have had a special fascination for ballad singers, for there are dozens of these songs, all set in the coastal seas and nearly all with a tragic theme. In the dictionary sense, “lowland” means the south 1 and eastern part of Scotland, below the highlands; but in ballads, it means the coastal seas off any country. And so many “lowland” ballads though of British origin, have crossed to America to become more firmly established there.

The most frequently heard is “The Golden Vanity,” a song often taught in schools in New Zealand. Sir Walter Raleigh is the villian in this old song, but unlike the majority of old ballads it cannot be traced to any historical event

There are many variants (Cecil Sharp alone collected 11 during his trips to the southern Appalachians in 1916-18) and Raleigh’s ship is known variously as the Golden Vanity, the Merry Golden Tree, the Sweet Trinity, the Green Willow Tree, the Silver Family and the Bold Trinitee; but in all the story outline is similar. The captain, challenged by a pirateer,

offers a fat purse of money and his daughter in marriage to the man who will sink the robber.

The cabin-boy obliges by drilling nine holes in the enemy’s side with an auger. Here the stories differ. In most versions, the captain refuses to let the boy claim his reward, and leaves him to