"The Dreadful Wind and Rain"
Analysis of A 400-Year-Old Murder Ballad - Page Two

Story Characters: The two sisters are from a wealthy medieval family composed of a father, mother, brother, and possibly another sister. Others involved are a wealthy suitor, a miller, the miller's daughter, and a traveling minstrel who plays the fiddle.

Older Sister: Child's versions have her as Jean, Alison, Helen, and Jane. The older sister is "dark" as in dark haired, dark eyed, possibly with olive-toned skin.

Younger Sister: Child's versions have her as Isabel, Ellen, and Kate (Katherine?). The younger sister is "fair" as in a blonde with fair skin.

Because of the difference in appearance between the two sisters, it may be that they were halfsisters or stepsisters from two different relationships.

Mother and Father: Their mother and father are sometimes referred to as a king and queen or as mill operators and the father is referred to once as a baron in a Scottish version. Perhaps they were a Lord and Lady, or a Baron and Baroness, or maybe a merchant family. At the very least it seems safe to assume they were wealthy and owned a fleet of fishing boats.

Brother and Other Sister: There is a brother Hugh mentioned by name only once and a third sister that is not named. The purpose of these characters in the story seems to be to help the haunted fiddle prove its identity by knowing all the family members at the climax of the story.

Suitor: The suitor is called a squire and a knight with the name William and John with Lord John once. He was likely a squire nearing knighthood who was soon knighted.

In the Middle Ages, a squire served as a knight's apprentice, with a knight in training between the ages of 14 and 21 years old. Knights appeared at the end of the 8th century and served lords from around age 21. (notes: 2) This suitor was probably in his late teens to mid 20s and likely older than the two sisters.

Miller and Miller's Daughter: These two characters are not named in any version of this ballad. The miller is referred to as "the miller" and the mill dam is one of a number of dams, so I will assume there were a least a few millers and dams near this village.

Minstrel or Fiddling Fool: The minstrel is mentioned only twice as a harp player, with the rest of the versions as a fiddler or a fiddling fool, therefore I'm going with fiddler. In two versions he is said to be blind, however, I find that unlikely as he couldn't see what the maiden looked like much less find the body while wandering blindly through the woods. In one version it mentions that the violin has three strings and so would be an older style vielle, or medieval fiddle, a forerunner of the violin that emerged in 10th-century (900AD) Europe. The word "fool" was used to describe a minstrel until around 1100AD.

Place and Time: The ballad indicates a medieval town known for its mill (or mills) that had a fishing port on a river, possibly near the river's mouth where it meets the ocean.

Tide mills were in Ireland and England since the 7th century (600AD). The suitor as a knight or squire would place this event no earlier than 800AD to no later than 1500AD. The medieval fiddle or vielle appeared in the 10th century placing the fiddler not earlier than 900AD. Minstrels, or traveling musicians and entertainers, existed all through these times under various names with the term fool used only until around 1100AD. Considering the above, I will assume that this story occurred between 900AD and 1100AD with a median date of Circa 1000AD.

The Child's versions have places of origin that include Binnorie, in an unknown country (bonnie mill-streams o Binnorie and bonnie mill-dams o Binorie), Edinburgh, Scotland (Bonnie St Johnston stands upon Tay), London, England (Bonny Bows o London), and the Tweed mill-dam on the water of Tweed. Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town in Northumberland, England, looks promising. It's located on the shore of the North Sea around 56 mi south east of Edinburgh, Scotland. From the late 10th and early 11th centuries, the region between the Forth River and Tweed River was under Scottish control.

Even though Edinburgh and nearby Berwick in Northumberland are of interest I haven't deeply researched Edinburgh (or London either) on the basis that there should be historic records that other researchers have found that would have solved this mystery years ago. Because the place name "Binnorie" is mentioned the most out of the 21 versions (notes: 3), I'm going with that one.

Based on the direction of the research thus far, "Binnorie" may have been the name of a village ruled by a local lord or a rich merchant, in this case perhaps a mill owner. However, it may have had another official name used in records and on maps. It also could have been a local place named after a wealthy family. Because Binnorie may have been a reference to an elite family's name, it may have been altered somewhat so that the public knew who the song was about without naming exact names. Otherwise, there seems to be no town or village in history that was called Binnorie and therefore it could be completely fictional.

Although a medieval town named Binnorie is historically unknown in Europe, there is a place called Brionne, in Normandy France and it has existed from medieval times to this day. There is also a wealthy family named Brionne from there. The names Binnorie and Brionne are so close, that it is the same letters (minus one extra letter i) in a slightly different order.

A river runs through Brionne and it likely had a few mills over the centuries, however, it isn't close to the ocean where a fleet of fishing boats could come to port. The Brionne family name has connections to Clare County in Suffolk, England beginning in 1,066AD (notes: 4) with the River Stour near the old castle. This area is far from the ocean as well, but likely had a mill on the river.

Incidentally, County Clare in Ireland was named as the home of the two sisters in a few versions of this ballad. County Clare was under the lordship of Thomas de Clare after the Norman invasion of Ireland around 1170. Thomas de Clare was a decendent of Gilbert de Brionne. Based on satellite photos of Clarecastle and the Fergus River it had many tidal ponds until more recent times. Also, the Furgus River tidal mud flats south of the town have some well-preserved medieval fishing weirs that indicate large-scale fishing operations.

     

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