The Wayworn Traveler: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"The Wayworn Traveler" takes its name from the first line of a nineteenth-century American gospel hymn that appears in hymnals as "Deliverance Will Come" and in folk-song collections as "Palms of Victory."[1][2] Who wrote it is unsettled: the Traditional Ballad Index credits Rev. John B. Matthias and dates it to 1836, and the 1902 Church and Sunday School Hymnal likewise names Matthias and 1836 for the tune.[2][3] Hymnary.org, however, assigns the words to Charles Titus Catlin, whose text was printed in the Christian Watchman & Reflector in 1854, and the tune to William McDonald, who printed it in his Advocate of Christian Holiness in 1876, so sources differ.[1] Under the title "Deliverance Will Come" it was carried in Moody and Sankey's Gospel Hymns Consolidated of 1883, and Hymnary.org now lists it in well over a hundred hymnals.[4][1]

Pen drawing of two robed pilgrims walking along a country road through a wide landscape

Pieter Baltens, Landscape with Two Pilgrims Walking Along a Road, pen and brown ink, 16th century. Two pilgrims walking a country road, shown for the hymn's wayworn traveler; the drawing has no connection to the hymn.

The hymn also passed into oral tradition in the southern United States, and Vance Randolph printed a fragment of it in Ozark Folksongs.[2] Homer Rodeheaver recorded it as "Palms of Victory" around 1925, and the Carter Family cut "The Way Worn Traveler" for Decca on June 8, 1936, with A. P., Sara and Maybelle Carter singing.[2][5] Field collectors kept finding it: Louis Watson Chappell recorded Worthy Perkins singing it unaccompanied in Wirt County, West Virginia, in 1939, and I. G. Greer's collection of songs from northwestern North Carolina holds a copy under all three of its titles.[6][7] John Quincy Wolf recorded Almeda Riddle singing it in 1962; she suspected some link to Pilgrim's Progress but was unsure which came first.[8] In 1966 Linzy Hicks sang it for Anne and Frank Warner on Beech Mountain, North Carolina, and Helen Schneyer later described it as a Primitive Baptist hymn.[4]

The young Bob Dylan set new words to the Carter Family's melody as "Paths of Victory," and Hedy West sang the hymn under the title "Pans of Biscuits."[9][4] Later singers also put "Wayworn Traveller" in their titles for it, among them Helen Schneyer on a 1974 album and Swan Arcade in 1986.[4] Dulcimer players will find it among the 35 songs in Elwood Donnelly's Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family, written out in DAD tuning with instructions and notes for mountain dulcimer, backup and voice, and sold as a download that pairs the full 92-page book with a separate PDF for each song.[10]

Our book that contains the song "The Wayworn Traveler"

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "I saw a wayworn traveler".
  2. Traditional Ballad Index: "Palms of Victory (Deliverance Will Come)".
  3. Hymnary.org: "Deliverance Will Come," Church and Sunday School Hymnal (1902).
  4. Mainly Norfolk: "Palms of Victory".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Decca 5359".
  6. West Virginia & Regional History Center, WVU Libraries: "Christ Was A Way Worn Traveller" (Worthy Perkins, 1939).
  7. Appalachian State University, W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection: "Deliverance Will Come, Sheet Music".
  8. Lyon College, John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection: "Wayworn Traveler (Palms of Victory)," sung by Almeda Riddle.
  9. FolkWorld: "The Carter Family" (FolkWorld #72, July 2020).
  10. Elwood Donnelly: "Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family".
  11. Image: Pieter Baltens, Landscape with Two Pilgrims Walking Along a Road, pen and brown ink, 16th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song