The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond

The story I was told, on a bus, by a Scot, in the middle of Scotland was that the tale was of two captured soldiers. The captors had told these men that one man would be executed and the other set free to tell the tale, but it was up to these men to decide. These fought and fought for hours, each insisting it would be he, and not his comrade, who would die. In the end, one man fell asleep, and as soon as he did, the other man called to the guards and said they had decided he would be executed. The man asleep would be spared. And this song was the song of farewell of the soon-to-be executed soldier. It's not too far off from the popular tale, just adds the aspect of self-sacrifice and brotherhood. Either way, I really love the song. the Real McKenzies do a great punk version with a bagpipe, but Runrig's live version's pretty sweet.

Wiki: There are many theories about the meaning of the song. One interpretation is that it is (apocryphally) attributed to a Jacobite Highlander who was captured after the 1745 rising while he was fleeing near Carlisle and is sentenced to die. The verse is his mournful elegy to another rebel who will not be executed. He claims that he will follow the "low road" (the spirit path through the underworld) and arrive in Scotland before his still-living comrade. Another is that the song is sung by the lover of a captured rebel set to be to be executed in London following a show trial. The heads of the executed rebels were then set upon pikes and exhibited in all of the towns between London and Glasgow in a procession along the "high road" (the most important road), while the relatives of the rebels walked back along the "low road" (the ordinary road traveled by peasants and commoners).

Lyrics of the popular version: By yon bonnie banks,
And by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love
Were ever want to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

'Twas then that we parted
In yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond,
Where in purple hue
The Highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

The wee birdie sang
And the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping,
But the broken heart it kens
Nae second Spring again,
Tho' the waeful may cease frae their greeting.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Another Version:
1. O whither away, my bonnie May,
Sae late and sae dark in the gloamin'?
The mist gathers gray o'er moorland and brae.
O whither sae far are ye roamin'?

I trysted my ain love last night in the broom,
My Donald wha loves me sae dearly.
For the morrow he will march for Edinburgh toon,
Tae fecht for his king and Prince Charlie.

Chorus:
O, ye'll tak' the high road and I'll tak' the low road,
An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye.
For me and my true love will never meet again
By the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

2. O braw Charlie Stewart, dear true, true heart,
Wha could refuse thee protection?
Like the weeping birk on the wild hillside,
How gracefu' he looked in dejection.

O, weel may I weep for yestre'en in my sleep.
We lay bride and bridegroom together.
But his touch and his breath were cold as the death,
And his hairtsblood ran red in the heather.
Chorus:

3. As dauntless in battle as tender in love,
He'd yield ne'er a foot tae the foeman.
But never again frae the fields o' the slain
Tae his Moira will he come by Loch Lomond.

The thistle may bloom, the king hae his ain,
And fond lovers will meet in the gloamin'.
And me and my true love will yet meet again
Far above the bonnie banks o Loch Lomond.
Chorus: