Duncan Williamson sings "The Cruel Grave," with commentary

Research team head

Niles, John

Date

• 1986

Summary

• One of Duncan Williamson's most impressive songs was "The Cruel Grave," a revenant ballad. It tells of the return, for just this one night, of a lover from beyond the grave to visit at the window of his former beloved, who has been lost in grief. The song is of the same type as "Willie's Lost at Sea" (Roud no. 22567; Greig-Duncan no. 338). Here Duncan sings it for an audience of half a dozen North Americans at a house in Auchtermuchty, Fife, rented by John Niles and his research team.