The Great Silkie

The Great Silkie

by | Mar 8, 2017

 

The Ancient Ballads

The Great Silkie of Sules Skerry

The American Folk Experience

The Great Silkie

by John Fitzsimmons | The American Folk Experience

Child Ballad #113

The silkie be a creature strange
He rises from the sea to change
Into a man, a weird one he,
When home it is in Skule Skerrie.

When he be man, he takes a wife,
When he be beast, he takes her life.
Ladies, beware of him who be
A silkie come from Skule Skerrie.

His love they willingly accept,
But after they have loved and slept,
Who is the monster that they see?
‘Tis “Silkie” come from Skule Skerrie.

A maiden from the Orkney Isles,
A target for his charm, his smiles,
Eager for love, no fool was she,
She knew the secret of Skule Skerrie.

And so, while Silkie kissed the lass,
She rubbed his neck with Orkney grass,
This had the magic power, you see
To slay the beast from Skule Skerrie.

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment.

Thanks for stopping by the site!

~John Fitz

I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music. 

I share their research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite their work accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  Thanks!

Source: Wikipedia

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"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry"
Vernon Hill's illustration of the tale. From Richard Chope's 1912 collection Ballads Weird and Wonderful.[1]
Song
GenreFolk song
Songwriter(s)Unknown

"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" or "The Grey Selkie of Sule Skerry" is a traditional folk song from Orkney and Shetland. A woman has her child taken away by its father, the great selkie of Sule Skerry which can transform from a seal into a human. The woman is fated to marry a gunner who will harpoon the selkie and their son.

"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" is a short version from Shetland published in the 1850s and later listed as Child ballad number 113. "The Grey Selkie of Sule Skerry" is the title of the Orcadian texts, about twice in length. There is also a greatly embellished and expanded version of the ballad called "The Lady Odivere".

Shetland version

"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" was collected from a lady from Snarra Voe, Shetland, and 7 verses from its transcription were published by Capt. F. W. L. Thomas in the 1850s. It was later included in Francis James Child's anthology, and catalogued as Child ballad number 113.[2]

Alan Bruford has noted that "silkie" is an anomalous spelling for "selkie", and in other ballad specimens, the mythical being instead of being a "great" selkie is rather a "grey" selkie.[3]

The ballad begins:

1. An earthly nourris† sits and sings,
And aye she sings, "Ba lilly wean,†
Little ken† I my bairn's father,
Far less the land that he staps in."†

2. Then ane† arose at her bed fit,†
And a grumly† guest I'm sure was he,
Saying "Here am I, thy bairn's father,
Although I am not comely."

A synopsis is as follows: A woman, nursing a baby, laments that she does not know the child's father or where he lives. A man rises up to tell her that he is the father, and that he is a silkie — a shapeshifter that takes the form of a man on the land and a seal in the sea, and that he lives on a remote rocky island called Sule Skerry. He gives her a purse full of gold, takes his son, and predicts that she will marry a gunner who will shoot both him and their son.[4]

Orkney version

There are Orkney versions which place the heroine's setting in Scandinavia,[5] opening with the line: "In Norway land there lived a maid".

"The Grey Selchie of Shool Skerry" was published by R. Menzies Fergusson in Rambling Sketches in the Far North (1883), changing its title to "The Grey Selchie of Sule Skerrie" in the second edition, Rambles in the Far North (1884).[6]

The same 14-stanza version with some spelling differences, entitled "The Grey Selchie of Sule Skerry" was printed in the 11 January 1934 issue of The Orcadian newspaper. It was later reprinted by Finnish folklorist Otto Andersson, who also collected a traditional ballad tune for it.[7][8]

This version contains an exchange in which the seal-groom's marriage proposal is declined by the Norwegian nurse.[7] The selkie makes the same fateful prediction as in the Shetland version, that the woman will marry a gunner, who will shoot both the selkie and their son. It further supplies the grim conclusion that the gunner brings back a gold chain which she recognizes as the one that was given to her son to wear.[9]

Lady Odivere

A cognate to the "Grey Selkie of Suleskerry" includes "The Play of Lady Odivere" ("The Play of de Lathie Odivere").[5] This piece is a dramatic ballad in style, over 90 stanzas long.[10] And it may be in large part a piece of contrived fiction by Walter Traill Dennison, mish-mashed into a kernel of a traditional ballad, in the estimation of modern folklorist Alan Bruford.[11]

Here, the Lady Odivere is in peril of being burnt at the stake for adultery by her husband, when she is rescued by San Imravoe, a selchie who is a jarl of high degree in his realm.[5][11] [12]

Ballad tunes

The original tune was preserved by Andersson, who heard it sung by John Sinclair on the island of Flotta, Orkney.[7][8] Andersson said, "I had no idea at the time that I was the first person to write down the tune. The pure pentatonic form of it and the beautiful melodic line showed me that it was a very ancient melody that I had set on paper".[13]

The best known tune today is non-traditional, having been written by Jim Waters in 1954. Child was interested only in the texts of the ballads he collected, and Jim explains that the tune was "just the best I could do as a way to get a fine ballad sung".[citation needed] Over the next two years, he introduced the ballad to the Boston area at a time when "hootenannies" filled the Great Court of MIT on a weekly basis (before recorded folk songs were widely available). Jim Butler added the song to his repertoire, according to his notes, in October 1954, on a page labelled "MITOC Supp.", being the MIT Outing Club addition to his typewritten Child Ballads. Butler taught the song to several people, including Bonnie Dobson. This is the tune that Joan Baez popularized as "Silkie" in the early 1960s. Waters' own daughter recorded a version of the song in 2024.

Although Jean Redpath disparaged Water's tune as "phony", preferring a longer version of Child 113 to another tune, by 1965, Jim Butler had heard Waters' tune sung by a Scottish student at the University of British Columbia, unaccompanied in the traditional style, and under the impression that he had learned it from his grandfather. "This has to be one of the most flattering things that has ever happened to me",[citation needed] added Waters, who eventually copyrighted his version and assigned it to Folk Legacy Records. Folk Legacy reassigned all copyright interest to James Waters in August, 2012.

American folksinger Pete Seeger set the poem I Come and Stand at Every Door by Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet to Waters's tune for "The Great Silkie" in the early 1950s. In this version, the song takes the point of view of a child victim of atomic warfare.

Recordings

  • Joan Baez recorded it as "Silkie" on her 1961 album Joan Baez, Vol. 2.
  • Pete Seeger included his version of Hikmet's "I Come and Stand at Every Door" on a 1964 concert album, I Can See a New Day.
  • The American rock band The Byrds included the Hikmet/Seeger version on their third album, Fifth Dimension (1966).
  • The Seeger song was later covered by This Mortal Coil.
  • Roger McGuinn of the Byrds later recorded the song with its original lyrics as part of his Folk Den project.
  • The English folk rock band Trees included one variant, as "The Great Silkie", on The Garden of Jane Delawney, their debut album.
  • Glasgow-born folk singer Ray Fisher (1940–2011) included the song on her album The Bonny Birdy (1972). Her brother Archie Fisher has a version on his Orfeo (1970).
  • Judy Collins included her version, "Great Selchie of Shule Skerry", on her 1962 album Golden Apples of the Sun.[14]
  • The Breton folk band Tri Yann also penned an adaptation in French called "Le Dauphin" (the dolphin) on their 1972 album Tri Yann an Naoned.
  • The Highwaymen recorded this song twice, with two different versions. The first version was on their 1962 album Standing Room Only, and the second version was on their 2005 album The Water of Life.
  • In 1981 Angelo Branduardi recorded this tune on his album Branduardi '81, with lyrics by Esenin. The song is titled "La cagna". In 2013 re-recorded this tune (titled: "Silkie") with original lyrics adapted in Italian language, on his album Il Rovo E La Rosa.
  • The Irish band Solas included one variant, "Grey Selchie", on their 1998 album The Words That Remain.
  • A version appears on Maddy Prior's 1999 album Ravenchild.
  • Alasdair Roberts included his version of "The Grey Silkie of Sule Skerry" on his CD You Need Not Braid Your Hair for Me: I Have Not Come A-Wooing, released in 2005.
  • Dave Bainbridge and Troy Donockley perform a version of the song on their 2005 album When Worlds Collide.[15]
  • The Breton singer Cécile Corbel recorded it on her album Songbook Vol.2 (2008).
  • Steeleye Span recorded it as a hidden track on their 2009 album Cogs, Wheels and Lovers.
  • Singer/songwriter and cellist Liz Davis Maxfield recorded a version titled “The Great Selkie” on her 2009 album Big Fiddle. [16]
  • In 2011 June Tabor recorded it on her album Ashore.
  • English folk band The Unthanks perform a version of the song on their 2022 album 'Sorrows Away'.
  • Jim Waters' daughter Susan sang this song for the Derek Piotr Fieldwork Archive in 2024.[17]

References

Citations
  1. ^ Chope, Richard (1912). Ballads Weird and Wonderful. New York: John Lane Company. pp. 8.
  2. ^ Thomas, Capt. F. W. L. (1855), "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1, pp. 86–89. Reprinted in Child (1886), II, p. 494 and Black (1901), County Folk-lore III, pp. 183–184.
  3. ^ Bruford (1974), p. 63.
  4. ^ Douglas, Sheila (2004). "Ballads and the Supernatural: Spells, Channs, Curses and Enchantments". Studies in Scottish Literature. 33 (1): 363.
  5. ^ a b c Freeman, A. Martin; Gilchrist, A. G. (January 1921). "Extra Note on Song No. 48, verse 7". Journal of the Folk-Song Society. 6 (2): 266 (263–266). JSTOR 4434091
  6. ^ Fergusson (1883), pp. 140–141; Fergusson (1884), pp. 242–244; latter cited in Freeman & Gilchrist (1921), p. 266
  7. ^ a b c McEntire (2007), p. 124.
  8. ^ a b Bronson, Bertrand Harris (1962). "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry". The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. Vol. 2. Princeton University Press. pp. 564–565. ISBN 9781400874828. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  9. ^ Bold, Alan (2017) [1979], The Ballad, Routledge, pp. 44–45, ISBN 978-1-3153-8974-5
  10. ^ McEntire (2007), p. 128.
  11. ^ a b Bruford, Alan (1997), Narvez, Peter (ed.), "Trolls, Hillfolks, Finns and Picts", The Good People: New Fairylore Essays, University Press of Kentucky, pp. 121–123, ISBN 978-0-8131-0939-8
  12. ^ Dennison (1894), "The Play of de Lathie Odivere", pp. 54–58. Reprinted in Black (1901), County Folk-lore III, pp. 183–184.
  13. ^ Thomson, David (2010) [1954]. The People of the Sea, Edinburgh: Canongate Books., p. 212. ISBN 1847674593
  14. ^ Elektra Records Catalogue No EKS 7222
  15. ^ "When Worlds Collide, by Dave Bainbridge and Troy Donockley".
  16. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=br_4KJnxMkY&list=OLAK5uy_kETeGFo0rFg9TZD5hOZRwGPsdlq_AZps0&index=9
  17. ^ "Silkie of Sule Skerry - Derek Piotr Fieldwork Archive".
Lexicographical citations
  1. ^ "nuris". Dictionary of Scots Language. Scottish Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  2. ^ "ba". Scottish National Dictionary (1700–). Scottish Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  3. ^ "lillie". Scottish National Dictionary (1700–). Scottish Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  4. ^ "wean". Scottish National Dictionary (1700–). Scottish Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  5. ^ "ken". A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700). Scottish Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  6. ^ "stap". A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700). Scottish Language Dictionaries. p. Definition 16. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  7. ^ "ane". The free dictionary. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  8. ^ "fit". Dictionary of Scots Language. Scottish Language Dictionaries. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  9. ^ "grumly". Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
Bibliography
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Silkie_of_Sule_Skerry

Source: Mainly Norfolk

The Great Silkie of Sules Skerry

[ Roud 197 ; Child 113 ; Ballad Index C113 ; trad.]The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry is a shape-shifting song from Orkney. A silkie is a seal. Sule Skerry (Sula Sgeir) is a rocky islet 25 miles west of Hoy Head in Orkney.

Most modern recordings use the tune set by Dr. James Waters of Columbia University in the 1950s. The original tune for this song was nearly lost, but was noted down in 1938 by Dr. Otto Andersson, who heard it sung by John Sinclair on the island of Flotta, Orkney. He said, “I had no idea at the time that I was the first person to write down the tune. The pure pentatonic form of it and the beautiful melodic line showed me that it was a very ancient melody that I had set on paper.”

John Sinclair of Flotta, Orkney Islands, sang The Grey Silkie in a BBC recording made by Sean Davies on the anthology Sailormen and Servingmaids (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 6; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet lists the date of recording erroneously as June 1964, three years after the album was released. The booklet also commented:

In the west of Scotland, where seals abound, there are many tales of their response to human contact. I’ve been told again and again of seals that raised their heads out of grey, curling waves, to listen as long as anyone would sing to them. That this is not superstition is confirmed by a contemporary account of an American woman, who made a pet of a seal and swam with it all one summer. The seal would wait in the surf for her every day and call out to her as she came down the cliff to the beach.

In Scotland, they speak of “seal-people” who are said to belong to a clan whose forbears were seals. In the Shetlands, the folk believed in magical beings who lived in land beneath the deeps of the ocean and put on seal-skin for their ascent through the water. Once on shore, they put off their disguise and appeared as human-beings. Such a one was the Grey Silkie of Suleskerry who wooed and won a Shetland woman.

Here our ballad begins. A brief version of it appears as no. 113 in Child without a tune, but this is no match for the variant which old John Sinclair of Flotta in the Orkney Isles turned up with in January 1934. He has since been visited by Swedish folklorists [i.e. Otto Andersson] and recorded for the BBC. Bronson remarks that his tune is a variant of the air often associated with Hind Horn, another ballad of traffic between spirits and mortals. Sinclair (who learned the song from his mother), worked all his life as a seaman, and a farmer-fisherman until his retirement. He now lives in a cottage by the sea where Silkies perhaps may still appear.

Trees sang The Great Silkie in 1970 on their CBS album The Garden of Jane Delawney.

Ray Fisher sang The Silkie of Sul Skerry in 1972 on her album The Bonny Birdy.

Dave Burland sang The Great Silkie on his 1975 album Songs and Buttered Haycocks.

Alison McMorland sang Great Selkie of Sule Skerry on her 1977 Tangent album Belt wi’ Colours Three. She also sang The Silkie of Sule Skerry in 2001 on her and Geordie McIntyre’s Tradition Bearers CD Rowan in the Rock. They commented in their liner notes:

We owe this version to the Finnish scholar Otto Andersson who collected the tune from John Sinclair of Flotta, Orkney in 1938 and the text from Annie G. Gilchrist.

Hamish Henderson observes, “… the legend of the seal folk who inhabit a kind of half world between their native element and the littoral inhabited by their human kind is a powerful obsessive folklore motif in all areas where the Norsemen held sway…” For valuable insights into the enduring fascination with the stories and the lore of the ‘silkie’ (Atlantic grey seal) we commend People of the Sea by David Thomson, recently reprinted by Canongate, Edinburgh.

Sheena Wellington sang The Great Silkie o’ Sule Skerrie in a concert at Nitten (Newtongrange) Folk Club, Scotland, that was published in 1995 on her Greentrax CD Strong Women. She commented in her liner notes:

Stories and sangs of the silkies or seal-people and their dealings with humankind are found widely in both Norse and Celtic tradition but Francis James Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads has only one short version of this ballad and, of course, no melody. This stark tune and the fuller story were recorded in the thirties from John Sinclair of Flotta in the Orkney Islands. In some versions it is the Silkie who offers marriage the second time but while collating my text from various sources I decided that it was likely that the woman would see marriage as the only way to keep her child.

The Clutha sang The Silkie o’ Sule Skerry in 1996 on their CD On the Braes.

Nancy Kerr sang The Great Silkie to John Sinclair’s tune in 1996 on her and her mother Sandra Kerr’s Fellside CD Neat and Complete. Sandra Kerr commented in the liner notes:

As a small child Nancy was sung this at night in the hope that its undulating melody and imagery of mothers singing lullabies to seal babies might send her to sleep. Recently she confessed that the ballad terrified her and that for years she was puzzled as to why the visiting seal/man should have been “grumbly”.

Maddy Prior sang Great Silkie of Sules Skerry in 1999 on her album Ravenchild; this track was later included on the Park Records anthology Women in Folk and on the Maddy Prior anthology Collections: A Very Best of 1995 to 2005. Maddy Prior commented in the original album’s notes:

This eerie ballad from the Shetland isles harks back to the land’s Scandinavian roots. It is a shape-shifting story of a seal / man whose fate is told with great simplicity and grace.

Elspeth Cowie sang The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry on her 2000 CD Naked Voice.

Barbara Dickson sang Sule Skerry in 2001 on her anthology For the Record.

Hector Gilchrist and Liz Thompson sang The Selkie as the title track of their 2003 WildGoose album Selkie. This track was also included in 2007 on the WildGoose anthology Songs of Witchcraft and Magic.

Hannah James learned The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry from Mary Macmaster at the Folkworks Summer School 1999 and recorded it with Kerfuffle in 2004 for their second album, K2. She returned to it with Lady Maisery when they recorded The Grey Selkie for their 2013 album Mayday. They commented:

Many of the songs on this album deal with issues of gender and power. The Grey Selkie is an example of how folklore might have been used to justify situations which were perceived as socially unacceptable. Selkies are creatures that only make contact with one human for a brief period before they must return to the sea for seven years, which may have provided an explanation for an absent father or a child born out of wedlock. In this tragic song, the woman is largely at the mercy of others throughout, whether it is society, the selkie, the gunner or ultimately, fate. Hazel [Askew] wrote the new Lydian tune and collated the text from various versions of the ballad.

This video shows Lady Maisery at Folk East 2012:

June Tabor sang The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry in 2011 on her Topic album Ashore. She commented

Seals were once far more common in the seas around these islands than they are today. There was a strong belief in the Northern Isles in the existence of a third race, the Selkies, who lived in a realm below the waves, passing through the ocean as seals but assuming human shape on land. Like the Swan Children of Lir with their cloaks of feathers, for Selkies the sealskin was essential to the act of transformation; its loss or withholding imprisoned them in human form. That fine storyteller the late Duncan Williamson had many tales of the frequently uneasy relationship between Selkies and the men (and women) of the Highlands and Islands. The theme continues to fascinate modern film-makers, artists and writers; for me, of particular relevance are the work of Maria Hayes, and Robin Robertson’s poem At Roane Head.
This version of The Great Selkie was first collected in 1938 from John Sinclair of Flotta in the Orkneys.

Marc Block sang Sule Skerry in 2014 on his CD The Hawthorn Spring. He commented in his liner notes:

My parents used to sing a French version of this song, which is in fact from Orkney, and as a child I was fascinated by the notion of the man diving into the sea and turning into a seal. It seems most versions of The Great Silkie are merely a fragment of a much longer ballad. I found the 93 verses of Lady Odivere on Mudcat, and condensed it down to this version.

Maz O’Connor sang The Grey Selkie on her 2014 CD This Willowed Light. She performed it at Cecil Sharp House in this 2014 video:

Lyrics

Alison McMorland sings The Silkie of Sule Skerry
In Norway land there lived a maid,
“Hush, baloo lilllie,” this maid began,
“I know not whaur ma bairn’s faither is
By land or sea does he travel in.”
It happened on a certain day
When this fair maid lay fast asleep
That in cam a grey silkie
And sat him doon at her bed feet.
Saying, “Awak’ awak’ ma fair pretty maid
For oh how sound as thou dost sleep,
I’ll tell thee whaur yer bain’s faither is
He’s lyin’ close at your bed feet.”
“I pray come tell tae me yer name
And tell me whaur yer dwelling is?”
“My name it is guid Hein Mailer
I earn ma livin’ oot o the sea.
“I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie in the sea.
An when I’m far fae every strand
Ma dwelling t’is in Sule Skerry.”
“Alas, alas this woeful fate
This weary fate that’s been laid on me,
That a man should come frae the West o’ Hoy
Tae the Noraway lands tae hae a bairn by me.”
He said, “Ye’ll nurse ma little wee son
For seiven lang years upon yer knee,
An at the end o’ seiven lang years
I’ll come back again an pay the nouris fee.”
And she has nursed her little wee son
For seiven lang years upon her knee,
An at the end of seiven lang years
He’s cam back again wi’ white monie.
He said, “I’ll pit a chain roon his neck
An a gey gowd chain o it will be,
An if ever he comes tae the Noraway lands
Ye’ll hae a guid guess on who is he.”
And he said, “Ye’ll wed a gunner guid,
And a gay guid gunner it will be,
And he’ll gae oot on a May mornin
He’ll shoot your son and the grey silkie.”
Oh she has wed a gunner guid
And a gay guid gunner it was he,
And he gaed oot on a May mornin
He shot the son and the grey silkie.
“Alas, alas this woeful fate
This weary fate that’s been laid on me,”
She sobbed and sighed and bitter cried
Her tender heart did brak in three.
Sandra and Nancy Kerr sing The Great Silkie Maddy Prior sings Great Silkie of Sules Skerry
In Noroway there lived a maid,
“Bye-loo my baby,” she begins,
“Oh know not I my babe’s father
Or if land or sea he’s living in.”		 An earthly nourris sits and sings
And aye she sings, “Ba lily wain
And little ken I my bairn’s father
Far less the land that he dwells in.”
Then there arose at her bedfeet,
And a grummlie guest I’m sure was he,
Saying, “Here am I thy babe’s father
Although I be not comely.		 Then one arose at her bedfoot,
And a grumbly guest I’m sure was he,
Saying, “ Here am I, thy bairn’s father
Although I be not comely.
“I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie in the sea,
But when I’m in my own coutrie
My dwelling is in Sule Skerry.”		 “I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie on the sea,
And when I’m far and far frae land
My home it is in Sules Skerry.”
Then he has taken a purse of gold
And he has put it upon her knee,
Saying, “Give to me my little wee son
And take thee up thy nurse’s fee.		 And he has ta’en a purse of gold
And he has placed it upon her knee,
Saying, “Give to me my little young son
And take thee up thy nurse’s fee.
“And it shall pass on a summer’s day
When the sun shines hot on every stone,
That I shall take my little wee son
And teach him for to swim in the foam.		 “And it shall come tae pass on a summer’s day
When the sun shines bright on every stone,
I’ll come and fetch my little young son
And teach him how to swim the foam.
“And you shall marry a gunner good,
And a proud good gunner I’m sure he’ll be,
And he’ll go out on a May morning
And kill both my young son and me.”		 “And you, you shall marry a pround gunner,
And a proud gunner I’m sure he’ll be,
But the very first shot that e’er he shoots
He’ll kill both my young son and me.”
And she did marry a gunner good,
And a proud good gunner I’m sure ’twas he,
And the very first shot he ever did shoot
He killed the son and the great silkie.
In Noroway there lived a maid,
“Bye-loo my baby,” she begins,
“Oh know not I my babe’s father
Or if land or sea he’s living in.”
“I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie in the sea,
And when I’m in my own coutrie
My dwelling is in Sule Skerry.”

Links

See also the Mudcat Café thread Origins: The Great Silkie.

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The Storm of Fallibility

by | October 29, 2017 | Journal | 0 Comments

       One good cigar is better than two bad cigars, or so it seems right now. It is a beautiful and stormy night--pouring rain and howling wind, and I thought a good smoke would be a fitting end to a busy and over-booked week. As it goes, I bought a couple of cheap...
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A Monday Ramble

by | August 25, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

There is always a hard shift for me at the end of the summer, and today is that day for me. I miss the freedom of last week: I'd wake in the morning, come out to the deck to write poetry or work on my novel--but now today, I feel like I should be preparing for school,...
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The Most Unoriginal Teacher

by | February 5, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Yes, that's me. I am a fraudster, thief, and plagiarizer of the worst magnitude. I copy the very styles of classic poets; I steal from Noble Laureate novelists, and I copy words from every and any source I can. And even worse, I steal from myself. If you even dare to...
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Get Back in the Game

by | January 16, 2022 | Journal | 0 Comments

Out on the back porch, not as cold as earlier today, waiting for the storm to arrive in a few hours--curious if I will get that call at 2:00 AM to head out and plow the Concord streets. Most of me hopes for the call; another side of me wants a day stuck at home,...
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If you don’t stand, you cower…

by | July 19, 2019 | Journal | 0 Comments

     Maybe it is time to be less forgiving. I have rarely agreed with our president, but I held on to the shreds of truth that shore up his arguments: we can’t welcome every immigrant who makes it to our border; we cannot bow to the audacity of corrupt governments in...
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Hallows Lake

by | August 2, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

Foreward Thanks for taking a look at this "work in progress. It originally started out as an experimental one-man play. Maybe it still will be. Later I thought of making it into a novel, but it's hard to see it happening as there is (intentionally) no real plot, and...
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Goathouse

by | May 23, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

Goat house In reaching for the scythe I’m reminded of the whetstone and the few quick strokes by which it was tested-- the hardness of hot August; the burning of ticks off dog backs. It’s winter now in this garage made barn, and the animals seem only curious that I’d...
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A Hard Sell

by | November 13, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

     As a teacher, I am tired of the word blog, probably because the word “blogging” is incredibly limiting and myopic, especially for someone whose teaching is centered around an online curriculum with blogs front and center on my academic table. I sat through a...
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The Litter in Concord

by | July 12, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

I have been following a Facebook thread about the movement in my beloved hometown of Concord to ban plastic water bottles, plastic bags and styrofoam cups. I am trying to discern whether or not my initial responses are pure and true and not simply reactionary and...
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The Right Side of the Inevitable

by | July 27, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

  Like birds of a feather, we gather together, 'Cuz they're feeling exactly like you... ~John Prine   I am not afraid of being a white minority. I had lunch today with a Jamaican drummer, a Ugandan farmer, and a Senagalese potter. I don’t say this out of...
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Crows & Swallows Release

by | October 21, 2017 | Journal | 0 Comments

There is seldom a red-carpet celebration when a book of poetry is released, so I will keep this a quiet and humble affair. My newest book of poetry, “Crows & Swallows” is now on iBooks, so fresh you can almost smell the ink. My business model is unchanged: It is a...
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Diesel Lullaby

by | July 5, 2019 | Journal | 0 Comments

I've been spending a lot of time lately writing sketches of songs—some more complete than others. I have found that it takes time for a song to evolve into its final form, so what I have posted here is more the end of the beginning, not the end. Denise gave me the...
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Joshua Sawyer

by | August 11, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Poetry | 0 Comments

I doubt I’d ever have taken this road
had I known how fallen it really was
to disrepair: driving comically,
skirting ruts and high boulders, grimacing
at every bang on the oil pan.
I tell you it’s the old road to Wendell —
that they don’t make them like this anymore.

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Redemption

by | October 3, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Finally, the tall green pines standing sentinel around this cold and black New Hampshire pond are framed in a sky of blue. After a month of steady rains, foggy nights, and misty days, I am reborn into a newly created world—a world that finally answered my prayers: no...
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Kampuchea

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I stutter for normality across the river from black men fishing for kibbers and horned pout. Barefoot children rounded bellies curled navels stalk the turtle sunning on a log. lonely in the field grass lonely on the curbstones I stutter for normality. Not a mother...
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Concord

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

The people, the music filledness of rush hour traffic skirting puddles work crews packing in laughswearingmudyellowed slickers lighting candle bombs. My sadness the euphoric detachment. I love this town. It breathes me.
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Weeds

by | August 8, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

  Somewhere locked in this choke of weeds spread like a mangy carpet is the hardened vine of Pipo’s Concord Grape he planted in an eager spring three years ago. Gasping for air and sun and water perhaps it has found some way to hide from my flailing hoe and the...
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The Farmer, The Weaver & the Space Traveler

by | June 26, 2020 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

     Words matter. Words carefully crafted and artfully expressed  matter infinitely more. There is something compelling in a turn of phrase well-timed, arresting image juxtaposed on arresting images; broad ideas distilled into clear, lucid singular thought. For the...
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Yesterday did not become a poem

by | July 9, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

Nothing became something else; No thoughts filled my head With wonder or wisdom. Listless sky. Jumbled frames. Fleeting images: Chattering squirrels, Distant rumbling Of rush hour traffic. Today I am more determined, But all that is left Is the promise Of...
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Many Miles To Go

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I see it in your eyes
and in the ways you try to smile;
in the ways you whisper—I don’t know—
and put it all off for a while;
then you keep on keeping on
in the only way you know:
you’re scared of where you’re going
and who’ll catch you down below.

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Me & God

by | April 9, 2018 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

        I am not done with God, nor God with me. I remain obsessed with the notion of the unmoved mover who set the pattern of creation into its initial motion. I stubbornly try to trace my existence back to some infinite beginning—so much so that I loathe the...
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Going Google?

by | July 1, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

When you find yourself in the majority, it's time to join the minority ~Mark Twain I have to admit, Google is pretty impressive. The whole set of features that are offered to the public and to educators for free is pretty astounding: email, document creation and...
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Ring of Fire: The Power of Simplicity

by | March 28, 2017 | Journal, Songs, Teaching, The American Folk Experience | 0 Comments

In fifth grade my mother finally let me go to the Concord Music store and buy a "45" single.  I bought Johnny Cash’s version of “Ring of Fire” written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore, a noted country songwriter of his day. There was no doubt in my...
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The Threshing

by | July 11, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I trace her charging through the cornfield shaking the timbers of the ready crop startling up the blackbirds, and surprisingly, a jay. It’s the jay who startles me—
who with two quick pulls wrests itself from the transient green, screaming back from its familiar scrub...
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Let It Snow, Let It Snow…

by | February 2, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

You can't kill time without wounding eternity. ~Henry David Thoreau       Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...but don't let it totally define your day. Most of us see a snow day as an unexpected vacation day, though really what it is could be called "a day of...
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Raccoon

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I’ve stopped the chinks with newspaper and rags wedged tightly against the wind blowing cold three days now. I feed the fire and curse its hissing and steaming mixing green oak with sticks of dried pine calling myself Raccoon grown fat in the suburbs sleeping in...
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The Inn

by | November 21, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Every Thursday, for some thirty years, I have been spending this same time each week wrapping up the loose ends of the day before heading down to the inn to play to whomever and whatever shows up. Tonight looks like a fun night: Maroghini will be with me for his last...
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Quit Your Whining

by | January 31, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Anything worth succeeding in is worth failing in~Ben Franklin     "Quit your whining and complaining" is probably a clause that can easily be translated into every language in every culture on earth, for, from what I know and have seen in the world, bitching about...
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A New Paradigm

by | November 17, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

     Sometimes, like right now, I long for a pile of papers on my lap that I could speed through, grade with a series of checks and circles, a few scribbled lines of praise or condemnation, and drop into a shoebox on my desk and say, "Here are your essays!" But I...
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What a Picture Tells

by | May 6, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"Zou Ma Guan Hua" You can't ride a horse and smell the flowers ~Chinese Proverb Sometimes I love just browsing through old folders of pictures of my kids when they were just kids in every sense of the word. Just seeing the pictures is a visceral experience for me as I...
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Wisdom

by | May 13, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Wisdom starts in non-action… The doing and non-doing are the equal balance. Without the luxury of contemplation there would not be a prioritizing of need versus want. Wisdom balances physical reality… Wisdom does not shuffle tasks out of view but finds a way to...
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A Late Night Metacognition

by | April 13, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after ~Henry David Thoreau           When you need something done, find a busy person to help you get it done. My mother loved repeating that to me all the way to her dying day,...
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Shane

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

It’s been too long feeling sorry for myself.
It’s been too long with my life up on the shelf.
Sometimes wish that I was Shane—
shoot Jack Palance, and disappear again;
don’t have no one
don’t want no one
don’t miss no one:
living lonely with a saddle and a gun.

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Writing Iambic Dimeter Poetry

by | February 19, 2018 | Journal, Poetry, Teaching | 0 Comments

I am sitting here realizing how hard it is to ask you--a bunch of fifteen-year-old boys--to write iambic dimeter poetry, a form of poetry that is more or less ignored nowadays. I (literally) played around for a couple of hours penning these poems, which are at least...
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No Dad To Come Home To

by | August 26, 2014 | Dawghouse, Songs | 0 Comments

Rain’s falling outside of Boston—
Thank God I’m not working tonight.
I’ve got six of my own,
And a stepdaughter at home,
And a momma keeping things right.
I wonder if they’re at the table
With their puzzles, their papers and pens?
When I get off the highway
And pull in that driveway,
Will they run to the window again?

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Ghetto of Your Eye

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I wrote this song back in the winter of 1989, in the dining car of a steam driven train, somewhere along the Trans-Siberian railway, after meeting a group of Russian soldiers fresh from battle in Afghanistan—that poor country that has been a battleground for way too long.

We stare together hours the snow whipped Russian plain—
rolling in the ghetto of your eye.
We share a quart of vodka
and some cold meat on the train—
you know too much to even wonder why;
I see it in the ghetto of your eye.

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A Priori

by | May 24, 2016 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

How do I know what I know? The sharp angles of this simple cottage perfected  in every board sawn, shingle split and beam hewn into place goes together placed, splined, slid together, bound more by intuition than knowing.
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No Dad To Come Home To

by | August 12, 2014 | Dawghouse, Songs | 0 Comments

Rain’s falling outside of Boston—
Thank God I’m not working tonight.
I’ve got six of my own,
And a stepdaughter at home,
And a momma keeping things right.
I wonder if they’re at the table
With their puzzles, their papers and pens?
When I get off the highway
And pull in that driveway,
Will they run to the window again?

Read More

The Teacher’s Couch

by | October 11, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

It’s not just a couch; it’s a sofa, too ~Fitz           I remember my first year teaching at Fenn—and it was really my first stint as a true worker with responsibilities outside of what I already had in my wheelhouse—and on this day, some twenty something years ago, I...
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Redefining Literacy

by | August 8, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

 My life is the poem I could have writ, But I could not both live and utter it ~Henry David Thoreau    The common man goes to an orchard to taste the fruit. The rich man man learns how to plant his own orchard. The poet, however,  grows an even better fruit and gives...
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Contact John Fitzsimmons...and thanks!

Tam Lin

Tam Lin

by | Mar 7, 2017

The Ancient Ballads

Tam Lin

The American Folk Experience

Tam Lin

by John Fitzsimmons | The American Folk Experience

Child Ballad #39
Marg’ret sat in her empty bower
Sewing her silken seam
And longed for the woods of Carterhough
Among the roses green (1)

Marg’ret watched from her lonely bower
Sewing her silken thread
And longed for the woods of Carterhough
Among the roses red (2)

She let the seam fall to the floor,
The needle to her toe
And off she’s gone to Carterhough
As fast as she could go (3)

She rolled her Kirtle to her knee;
She brode her yellow hair;
She ran on towards Carterhough,
Foe young Tam Lin was there. (4)

When she got to the woods of Carterhough
Tam Lin was at the well.
She found his good steed standing there,
Though away he was himself (5)

She hadn’t pulled a rose, a rose,
A rose but sure not two
When then appeared Tam Lin, and said,
“Fair girl what do you do?” (6)

“What makes you pull the rose, the rose?
What makes you climb the tree?
What makes you come to Carterhough
Without the ask of me? (7)

I’ll pull the flowers as I please;
I’ll climb on any tree.
There are roses, roses, roses here
And I need not ask of thee. (8)

He took by her milk-white hand
And by her grass green sleeve
He laid her down among the flowers,
Among the roses green (9)

He took by her milk-white hand—
And laid her down to bed;
He laid her down among the flowers
Among the roses red. (10)

Marg’ret back from Carterhough
Hid her secret shame
From four and twenty ladies fair
Who bade her avoid Tam Lin, (11)

There’s four and twenty ladies fair
Weaving threads of silk
And Marg’ret goes among them all,
Her face as pale as milk (12)

There’s four and twenty gentlemen
A playing on the grass
And Marg’ret goes among them all
As green as any glass. (13)

Now sternly spoke an auld grey knight:
“You bring the castle shame,”
And says, “Alas fair Marg’ret,
For this babe, we’ll all be blamed.” (14)

Hold your tongue you old-faced knight,
Some ill death may ye’ die.
I’ll father my boy with whom I will
But never you and I.” (15)

Then up and spoke her father clear;
Well-spoken meek and mild:
“Alas this day, my Marg’ret dear,
I fear you go withchild.” (16)

“And is it to a man of might
Or to a man of means
Or who among my gentlemen
Shall give the babe his name?” (17)

“Oh, father, if I go with child
This much to you I’ll tell
There’s none among your gentlemen
That I would treat so well. (18)

And, father, if I go with child
Then I must bear the blame;
There’s none among your gentlemen
Shall give the babe his name. (19)

The steed my lover rides upon
Is lighter than the wind,
With silver he is shod before,
With gold he’s shod behind. (20)

If he were to an earthly knight
As he’s an elfin grey,
I’d never give my own true love
For any lord you have. (21)

If he were to a gentleman
And not a wild shade,
I’d rock him all the winter’s night
And all the summer’s day” (22)

She let the seam fall to the floor,
The needle to her toe,
And off she’s gone to Carterhough
As fast as she could go (23)

She rolled her Kirtle to her knee
And brode her yellow hair,
And on she ran towards Carterhough
For she knew Tam Lin was there. (24)

She hadn’t pulled a rose, a rose,
A rose but sure not two,
When then appeared young Tam Lin
“Fair girl what do you do? (25)

What makes you pull the poison rose?
What makes you climb the tree?
To kill the bonny babe, the babe,
That we have got between?” (26)

“Oh I’ll pull the poison rose, Tamlin,
Oh, I will break the tree,
But I’ll not bear the little babe
That you have got with me. (27)

If our babe were to a gentleman
And not a wild shade,
I’d rock him all the winter’s night
And all the summer’s day” (28)

Marg’ret’s skin blushed rowan red
And she did feel great shame
And said, “If you are a gentleman
You will tell me now your name.” (29)

“First they called me Jack,” he said,
“Then called me John, the same,
But since I’ve lived in the Faerie’s Court
Tam Lin has been my name. (30)

So do not pluck the poison rose,
That has these pimples gray;
They would destroy our bonny babe,
That we’ve got in our play.” (31)

“Then tell me, Tamlin,” Marg’ret said,
“Pray tell as soon you can.
Were you ever at the good church door?
Are you a Christian man?” (32)

“Oh, I have been at the good church door,
And I am a Christian man.
I was born Roxbrough’s eldest son,
And heir of all this land. (33)

But it fell upon me once a day,
As a’ hunting I did ride,
As I rode east and west yon hill
There woe did me betide. (34)

O drowsy, drowsy I did ride!
She poured sleep upon me bones;
Then the Queen of Faeries pulled me down,
And took me as her own. (35)

Now pleasant is the fairy land,
Where I’m condemned to dwell;
I am fairy, lythe and limb,
Dear Marg’ret view me well. (36)

The Elfins is a pretty place,
In which I love to dwell,
But when seven years comes to end
The last here goes to hell. (37)

And as I am made of flesh and blood,
I’ll be the tithe they’ll pay to hell.
As I am made of flesh and blood
They’ll sacrifice myself. (38)

Now tonight, Marg’ret is Hallow’s Eve
The morn is Hallow’s day,
Then win me, win me, if you will,
or in this Elfin world I’ll stay. (39)

Tonight at the dark and midnight hour
the faerie folk will ride;
And if any maiden wins her man,
Then true she’ll be his bride.” (40)

“But how, Tam Lin, shall I see you clear,
How shall your true-love know,
Among so many Elfin knights,
With whom you’ll riding go?” (41)

“First let by the sleek black mare,
And then let by the brown;
Then grab me from the milk-white steed,
And pull me to the ground. (42)

My right hand will be gloved, lady,
My left hand will be bare,
and cocked up shall my bonnet be,
And combed down shall be my hair. (43)

But the Faerie Queen will not be pleased,
her rage will dark and swell;
She’ll try her magic to win me back
and now these to ye’ I tell: (44)

“She’ll turn me in your arms, Marg’ret
into a monstrous snake,
But hold me fast me fast; don’t let me go,
or me from you she’ll take. (45)

She’ll turn me in your arms, Marg’ret
into a bear so bold,
But hold me fast; don’t let me go,
As soon the babe we’ll know. (46)

She’ll turn me in your arms, Marg’ret
Into a lion fierce and wild,
But hold me fast; don’t let me go,
I’m the father of your child. (47)

She ‘ll turn me in your arms, Marg’ret,
Into red-hot rod of iron;
But hold me fast; don’t let me go,
I’ll ne’er do you harm. (48)

And last they’ll turn me in your arms
Into a burning gleed of coal,
Then sprinkle me with well water,
To save my dying soul. (49)

Then I’ll be your own true-love,
And I’ll turn a naked knight,
Then cover me with your green mantle,
And hide me out of sight.” (50)

Gloomy, gloomy, was the night,
And eerie was the path,
As Marg’ret, in her green mantle,
To Miles Cross came at last. (51)

At the midnight hour of Halloween
She heard the bridles ring.
And Marg’ret was as g1ad of that
As any earthly thing. (52)

And first went by the sleek black mare,
And then went by the brown;
But fast she leapt on the milk-white steed,
And pulled young Tam Lin down. (53)

Marg’ret held fast to Tamlin
As they laid there on the ground;
The Faerie Queen raised a cry,
“Who pulled young Tam Lin down?” (54)

She turned him to a monstrous snake
that coiled Marg’ret round,
But she held him fast and did not let go
As they rolled upon the ground (55)

She turned him to a bear so bold
Then to a lion wild,
But she held him fast and did not let go
The father of his child. (56)

She turned him into a red hot iron
Then to a glowing gleed of coal
Then dipped him in the well water,
The husband she would know. (57)

The Faerie Queen gave in at last
and once more Tam Lin changed:
She turned him to a naked man,
And in dear Marg’ret’s arms he lay. (58)

“Now I am your true-love,
A true and naked knight,
But cover me with your green mantle,
And hide me out of sight.” (59)

Upspake the Queen of Faeries,
Out of a bush of broom:
“She that’s borrowed young Tam Lin
Has now a stately groom.” (60)

Upspake the Queen of Faeries,
Out of a bush of rye:
“She’s taken away the bonniest knight
I’ve had in all my life.” (61)

“Had I known, Tam Lin,” she says,
“A lady would borrow thee,
I’d have pulled out your two blue eyes,
And put them in a tree.” (62)

“Had I known, Tam Lin,” she says,
“Before ye came from home,
I would have pulled out your heart of flesh,
And put in a heart of stone. (63)

Had I known on Hallow’s Eve
What I now know today,
I’d have sent you on your way to hell
Before you’d been won away.” (64)

There’s four and twenty maidens fair
and one of them did cry,
A Knight and Marg’ret on a milk-white steed
Together they do ride. (65)

There’s four and twenty gentlemen
playing on the grass:
One loudly cried that Roxbrough’s son
Is a’ coming home at last. (66)

Then up spoke Marg’ret’s father,
Spoken meek and mild,
“No happier man than me today
for my daughter with her child.” (67)

Come all you who long for Carterhough,
Who wear gold in your hair,
Heed my song of young Tam Lin
Before ye think of going there. (68)

Aye, I would wager many times
Five hundred merk or more:
A maiden goes to Carterhough,
A maiden is no more. (69)

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment.

Thanks for stopping by the site!

~John Fitz

I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music. 

I share their research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite their work accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  Thanks!

Source: Wikipedia

Tam Lin
Illustration by John D. Batten for Tamlane in More English Fairy Tales.[1]
AuthorAnonymous
TranslatorRobert Burns
IllustratorJohn D. Batten
Cover artistPamela Dean
LanguageClassical Scottish
Series1
GenreBallad
PublisherScots Musical Museum
Publication date
1796
Publication place Scotland
Published in English
1796
Pages1

Tam Lin, also known as Tamas-Lin, Tamlane, Tamlene, Tamlin, Tambling, Tomlin, Tam-Lien, Tam-a-Line, Tam-Lyn or Tam-Lane, is a character in the legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders.

History

The story of Tam Lin [təm˧˧:ləŋ˧˧] revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the Queen of the Fairies. The motif of winning a person (or subduing an enemy) by holding him through all forms of transformation is found throughout Europe in folktales.[2][3]

The story has been adapted into numerous stories, songs, and films. It is also associated with a reel of the same name, which is also known as the Glasgow Reel.

Tam Lin is listed as the 39th Child Ballad and number 35 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Synopsis

Carterhaugh, near the confluence of the Yarrow Water and the Ettrick Water[4]

Most variants begin with the warning that Tam Lin collects either a possession or the virginity of any maiden who passes through the forest of Carterhaugh. When a young woman, usually called Janet or Margaret, goes to Carterhaugh and plucks a double rose, Tam appears and asks her why she has come without his leave and taken what is his. She states that she owns Carterhaugh because her father has given it to her.[5]

In most variants, Janet then goes home and discovers that she is pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point. When asked about her condition, she declares that her baby's father is an elf whom she will not forsake. In some versions, she is informed of a herb that will induce abortion; in all the variants, when she returns to Carterhaugh and picks a plant, either the same roses as on her earlier visit or the herb, Tam reappears and challenges her action.[2]

She asks him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance or, in some versions, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her pregnancy. Tam Lin reveals that, though he was once a mortal man, he was imprisoned in Carterhaugh by the Queen of Faeries after she kidnapped him by catching him when he fell from his horse.[6] He goes on to tell Janet that the fairies give one of their people as a teind (tithe) to Hell at midnight on every seventh Hallowe'en. He asks Janet for her help in freeing him, and receives her agreement; he then instructs her to come to the forest at the time of the tithe, during which he'll be in the company of numerous faerie knights -- he tells her that she'll recognize him by his white horse. Janet must pull him down from his horse, thus making her the one to "catch" him this time, and hold him tightly: he warns her that the fairies will attempt to make her drop him by turning him into all manner of beasts (see Proteus), but states that none of these forms will actually cause her harm. Tam Lin will eventually take the shape of burning coal; when this occurs, Janet is to throw him into a well, whereupon he will reappear as a naked mortal man whom Janet must hide. She does as she is asked and wins her knight; though her success angers the Queen of Faeries, the latter accepts her defeat.[2][5]

In different variations, Tam Lin is reportedly the grandson of the Laird of Roxburgh, the Laird of Foulis, the Earl of Forbes, or the Earl of Murray. His name also varies between versions (Tam Lin being the most common) as Tom Line, Tomlin, Young Tambling, Tam-a-line and Tamlane.[7][1]

Robert Burns' Tam Lin, printed in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (1796).

Early versions

The ballad dates to at least as early as 1549 (the publication date of The Complaynt of Scotland that mentions "The Tayl of the Ȝong Tamlene" ('The Tale of the Young Tamelene') among a long list of medieval romances).[2][8] Michael Drayton's narrative poem Nimphidia (1627) includes a character called Tomalin who is a vassal and kinsman of Oberon, King of the Fairies. Robert Burns wrote a version of Tam Lin based on older versions of the ballad, which was printed in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (1796).[9]

The story featured in several nineteenth century books of fairy tales under different titles :

Francis James Child collected fourteen traditional variants in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads in the nineteenth century.[2] (Another Child ballad, Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane, has no connection with this ballad except for the similarity of the heroes' names.)

Motifs

Child took the threat to take out Tam Lin's eyes as a common folklore precaution against mortals who could see fairies, in the tales of fairy ointment. Joseph Jacobs interpreted it as rather a reversal of the usual practice; the Queen of Faeries would have kept him from seeing the human woman who rescued him.[1]

In some variants, "Hind Etin" has verses identical to this for the first meeting between the hero and the heroine.[2]: 340 

Influences

Field recordings

The ballad has been recorded several times from Scottish and Northern Irish people who learned it in the oral tradition. Eddie Butcher of Magilligan, County Londonderry knew a fragment of the ballad which can be heard via the Irish Traditional Music Archive,[10] and Paddy Tunney of Mollybreen, County Fermanagh sang a version to Hugh Shields in 1968.[11] In Scotland, Duncan Williamson of Auchtermuchty, Fifeshire,[12] William Whyte of Aberdeen[13] and Betsy Johnston of Glasgow[14] all had traditional versions recorded, the latter two by Hamish Henderson.

Following are some of the notable recordings of the ballad, including their artists, titles, albums, and years:

Artist Title Album Year
Frankie Armstrong "Tam Lin" I Heard a Woman Singing 1984
Anne Briggs "Young Tambling" Anne Briggs 1971
Current 93 "Tamlin" Tamlin 1994
Daniel Dutton "Tam Lin" Twelve Ballads 2006
Fairport Convention "Tam Lin" Liege & Lief 1969
Archie Fisher "Tam Lin" Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition 2017
Bob Hay "Tam Lin" Tam Lin and More Songs by Robert Burns 2006
The Imagined Village (Benjamin Zephaniah, Eliza Carthy, et al.) "Tam Lyn Retold" The Imagined Village 2007
Bill Jones "Tale of Tam Lin" Panchpuran 2001
Alastair McDonald "Tam Lin" Heroes & Legends of Scotland 2007
Mediæval Bæbes "Tam Lin" Mirabilis 2005
Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer Tam Lin (Child 39)[15] Child Ballads 2013
Pete Morton "Tamlyn" Frivolous Love 1984
Mrs. Ackroyd Band "Tam Lin" Gnus & Roses 1995
Ian Page "Tam Lin" Folk Music of Scotland 2008
Pentangle "Tam Lin" The Time Has Come 2007
Steeleye Span "Tam Lin" Tonight's the Night, Live! 1992
Tempest "Tam Lin" Serrated Edge 1992
Tricky Pixie (Betsy Tinney, S. J. Tucker, Alexander James Adams) "Tam Lin" Mythcreants 2009
Mike Waterson "Tam Lyn" For Pence and Spicy Ale (reissue) 1993
Kathleen Yearwood "Tam Lin" Book of Hate 1994
Faun "Tamlin" Pagan 2022

Benjamin Zephaniah was awarded Best Original Song in the Hancocks 2008, Talkawhile Awards for Folk Music (as voted by members of Talkawhile.co.uk[16]) for Tam Lyn Retold. He collected the award at The Cambridge Folk Festival on 2 August 2008.[17]

Following are some of the notable instrumental recordings, including their artists, titles, albums, and years:

Artist Title Album Year
Davey Arthur (with Three Fingered Jack) "Tam Lin" (with 2 other reels) Bigger Than You Think 2010
Séamus Egan "Tamlin" (with 2 other reels) In Your Ear 1998
Elephant Revival "Tam Lin Set" It's Alive 2012
Tania Elizabeth "Tam Lynn's" This Side Up 2000
Fiddler's Green "Tam Lin" Wall of Folk 2011
Joe Jewell "Tam Lin" Bluebells of Scotland 1997
King Chiaullee "Tam Lin" (with 3 other reels) Reel: Ode 2003
Jeremy Kittel "Tamlin" Celtic Fiddle 2003
Catriona MacDonald & Ian Lowthian "Tam Lin" (with 2 other reels) Opus Blue 1993
Trent Wagler & The Steel Wheels "Tam Lin" Blue Heaven 2006

Adaptations

Thomas Canty's cover art for Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

Prose

Theatre

  • The Thyme of the Season by Duncan Pflaster (incorporates elements and allusions to the story)
  • Tamlane by Edwin Stiven[18]

Film

Novels

Comic books

  • Tam-Lin, a closet drama written by Elaine Lee and illustrated by Charles Vess, appears in The Book of Ballads and Sagas, Vess's collection of adaptations of traditional songs, mostly into comics form.[20]
  • In the Vertigo comic book, Fables, Tam Lin died in the defence of the last stronghold of the Fables against the forces of the Adversary. He is claimed to be the knight loved by the queen of the faeries, who had a reputation of a scoundrel, but gave up his chance of freedom to his page.
  • In the Vertigo comic book series, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, the notion that Faerie pays a sacrificial tithe to Hell is mentioned in the storyline "Season of Mists".
  • In the Vertigo comic book series The Books of Magic, The Names of Magic, and The Books of Faerie, Tamlin is the father of the protagonist Timothy Hunter, potentially the greatest sorcerer in the world. In The Books of Faerie: The Widow's Tale, the story of Tamlin's romance with Queen Titania of Faerie is revealed.[21]

Other

  • In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, Tam Lin are used to refer to Fairy Knights in the English Translation of the game.
  • In the Shin Megami Tensei series of video games, Tam Lin is a recurring demon that can often be recruited relatively early and is one of the very few demons whose design share an exact model with another demon – its brother model being another northern European mythological hero, Cu Chulainn.
  • This ballad was one of 25 traditional works included in Ballads Weird and Wonderful (1912) and illustrated by Vernon Hill.
  • The Rose,[22] The Knight,[23] and The Faery Host[24] are paintings by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law depicting various parts of the Tam Lin legend.
  • The Choose Your Own Adventure book Enchanted Kingdom has an ending in which the reader/player's character is rescued from the fairies by a girl whom the character has befriended, who has to hold onto the character through three transformations.
  • In Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, the poem is both spoken and referenced over the course of the series, and Janet is a character in some of the later books. The events of the poem occurred in universe.
  • Alastair White's fashion-opera WOAD adapts the ballad to explore the implications of multiverse theory.[25]

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ The full text of Elphin Irving, the Fairies' Cupbearer at Wikisource
  2. ^ The full text of Wild Robin at Wikisource

References

  1. ^ a b c Jacobs, Joseph; Batten, John D. (1894). "Tamlane". More English Fairy Tales (2nd ed.). London: David Nutt. pp. 159–62 & notes : 238. ISBN 0-370-01023-X. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Child, Francis James, ed. (1890). "Tam Lin". English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. I Part 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company. pp. 335–358. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Tam Lin". The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Internet Sacred Text Archive. 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  4. ^ Ayto, J.; Crofton, I; Cavill, P., eds. (2005). "Carterhaugh". Brewer's Britain and Ireland. Chambers Harrap.
  5. ^ a b Waltz, Robert B.; Engle, David G. (2012). "Tam Lin". Folklore The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. California State University, Fresno. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  6. ^ Achland, A. (1997). "What is Tam Lin?". Tam Lin Baladry. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  7. ^ Chope, R.P. (1911). "Tamlane". Ballads Weird and Wonderful. Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. pp. 53–60. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  8. ^ The Complaynt of Scotland, c. vi., ed. J. A. H. Murray, E.E.T.S., p.68 (excerpted in: Ker, W. P. (1922). Epic and romance: essays on medieval literature. Macmillan. p. 389.)
  9. ^ "BBC - Robert Burns - Tam Lin". BBC. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  10. ^ Archive, Irish Traditional Music (9 March 2021). "Saturday night is Halloween night, song / Eddie Butcher". ITMA. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Saturday Night is Hallowe'en Night (Roud Folksong Index S251048)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  12. ^ "Tam Lin (Roud Folksong Index S336896)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  13. ^ "Tam Lin (Roud Folksong Index S332203)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  14. ^ "Tam Lin (Roud Folksong Index S162763)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  15. ^ Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer (2013). "Tam Lin (Child 39)". Folk Alley Sessions. FreshGrass Foundation. Video on YouTube
  16. ^ "TalkAwhile UK Acoustic music forum". Talkawhile.co.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  17. ^ "Best Original Song". Talkawhile.co.uk. 3 August 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  18. ^ "Obituary: Charles Nowosielski, visionary director behind Theatre Alba". The Scotsman. 3 June 2020.
  19. ^ An Old Ballad (1988 animated film) on YouTube
  20. ^ Gaiman, Neil; Yolan, Jane; McCrumb, Sharyn; Snyder, Midori; De Lint, Charles (2018). The Book of Ballads and Sagas. Illustrated by Charles Vess. Titan Comics. ISBN 978-1782763321.
  21. ^ Irvine, Alex (2008). "The Books of Faerie". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-0-7566-4122-1. OCLC 213309015.
  22. ^ "The Rose". Shadowscapes.com. Archived from the original on 28 November 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  23. ^ "Stephanie Pui-Mun Law". Shadowscapes. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  24. ^ "The Faery Host". Shadowscapes.com. Archived from the original on 28 November 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  25. ^ "Alastair White: WOAD". Classical Music. Retrieved 29 April 2022.

Further reading

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_Lin

Source: Mainly Norfolk

 

Tam Lin

[ Roud 35 ; Child 39 ; G/D 2:330 ; Ballad Index C039 ; trad.]

For much more information about this ballad than can be shown here, see Abigail Acland’s comprehensive Tam Lin web pages.

This is a truly magical ballad. It was first mentioned in The Complaynt of Scotland in 1549 but no words were published until Herd put a fragment into hisAncient and Modern Scots Songs in 1769. It never seems to have been collected outside Scotland, though a possible relative of Tam’s, Brian O’Lynn (who may be a burlesqued son of the Irish god-mother Danu) crops up in comic songs in Ireland, Scotland and America, and the first printed version of Brian’s song in 1568, called him Tom a Lin.

Janet is a puzzle; on the one hand she is clearly a virgin, by virtue of the gold she wears in her hair, and the threat in the first verse is like the warning to the maiden in the analogous Broomfield Wager. But like that maiden, she may have had magical powers herself to deal with the Fairy Queen, for more than half the convicted witches in Scotland in 1590 and 1697 were called Janet.

Carterhaugh is near Selkirk in Scotland, and it is said the three rings where grass will not grow mark the spot where three containers of magic milk or water stood, into which, in one old version of the ballad, Janet dipped her protean lover to change him back to human shape.

Betsy Johnson of Glasgow and Willie Whyte of Aberdeen sang Tam Lin in field recordings made by Hamish Henderson in 1956 on the anthology The Muckle Sangs (Scottish Tradition 5; Tangent 1975; Greentrax 1992).

Eddie Butcher of Magilligan, Co. Londonderry, sang The Bride Stolen by Fairies (Tam Lin) on July 6, 1968 to Hugh Shields. This recording was included in 1975 on the Leader album of Folk Ballads from Donegal and Derry collected by Shields.

Fairport Convention recorded Tam Lin with Sandy Denny singing on October 29, 1968. The band play rhythm games on this song, which is mainly in 3/4 time, with the odd bar of 4/4 appearing now and then. The recording originally appeared on Liege and Lief, and made later appearances on the double CD compilation Meet on the Ledge: The Classic Years 1967-1975, on the famous anthology The Electric Muse, and on the Sandy Denny compilationsWho Knows Where the Time Goes?, The Best of Sandy Denny, and A Boxful of Treasures.

An early version, taken at a quicker pace, was recorded by Fairport live on September 23, 1969 in in Studio 4, Maida Vale, for the Top Gear / John Peel radio show and broadcast on September 27, 1969 with a repeat on December 13, 1969. This version is much closer to the way the band would have performed the song live. For ten years, this recording was available on the 1992 semi-bootleg From Past Archives only, but then in 2002, it was suddenly reissued three (!) times: on Ashley Hutchings’ CD 5 from the Guv’nor series, on the Island CD re-release of Heyday and on the Fairport unConventioNal 4CD set.

More live versions: Dave Swarbrick sang Tam Lin on Fairport’s Stockholm gig in 1971; this was included in the Dave Swarbrick anthology Swarb! in 2003. Tam Lin also appears on Fairport’s cassette The Boot: 1983 Fairport Reunion and, with the near-original lineup (Vikki Clayton replaces Sandy Denny), on their CD 25th Anniversary Concert. This video shows them at Cropredy 2007 in their original 1969 line-up with Chris While filling in for Sandy Denny:

Dave and Tony Arthur sang Tam Lin in 1970 on their Trailer album Hearken to the Witches Rune.

In 1971, Anne Briggs sang this ballad as Young Tambling unaccompanied on her first solo album Anne Briggs. This recording was reissued on her Fellside and Topic compilation CDs, Classic Anne Briggs and A Collection. A.L. Lloyd wrote in the original album’s sleeve notes:

Better known through Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads as Tam Lin. It was thought to have disappeared from tradition but of recent years a number of versions, mostly fragmentary, have turned up among country singers, particularly Scottish travelling people. I cobbled this set together, in part from Child, in part from recent collection; the tune is derived from one used for this ballad by travellers. Many consider it the best of all English-language ballad stories.

A.L. Lloyd sang Tamlyn (Young Tambling) live at the Top Lock Folk Club, Runcorn, on November 5, 1972. This recording is on his anthology Classic A.L. Lloyd and on the 2010 CD An Evening with A.L. Lloyd.

Mike Waterson sang Tamlyn unaccompanied on his 1977 album Mike Waterson. It was added to the Watersons’ 1993 CD reissue of For Pence and Spicy Ale and in 2004 to the Watersons’ 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original recording’s sleeve notes:

We haven’t all that many fairy ballads, and this is by far the finest. It’s fairly venerable, it was already printed on a broadside in 1558, and it wasn’t new then. It seems to be uniquely Scottish, though there are international folk tales that come near its story; a Greek tale considerably more than two thousand years old tells how Peleus, wanting to marry the sea-nymph Thetis, lay in wait for her in a cave and seized here as she came riding in naked on a harnessed dolphin. She turned herself successively into fire, water, a lion, a snake, even to an ink-squirting cuttlefish, but Peleus “held her tight and feared not”, and in the end she gave in and the Olympian gods all came to the wedding. Tamlyn is a long ballad but the story moves swiftly. Mike says that he got his version “from A. L. Lloyd and Child”. So be it.

Steeleye Span recorded Tam Lin live during their 1991 tour. This recording was released on their CD Tonight’s the Night… Live. Another live recording from St. David’s Hall, Cardiff on December 6, 1994 was included on the video 25 Live: The Classic Twenty Fifth Anniversary Tour Concert.

A reel of this name, Tam Lin, which was written by Davey Arthur, can be found on Steeleye Span’s album Time.

Frankie Armstrong’s several version of Tam Lin can be found on the 1976 LP Here’s a Health to the Man and the Maid, on her 1984 albums I Heard a Woman Singing and Tam Lin, and in 1997 on the Fellside anthology Ballads. Paul Adams commented in the latter album’s notes:

Tam Lin has been Frankie’s tour-de-force for several years now. Her stunning performance here, full of passion and drama, clearly illustrates why she is a ballad singer par excellence. This is the classic “Elfland” ballad and contains a considerable amount of ancient folklore: Tam Lin is a human abducted by the elves and when he returns to the human world at the end the Elf Queen’s wish that she had “put out his eyes” is not borne out of vindictiveness, but because he has seen the secrets of Elfland and will take them to the human world.

Frankie notes: “Given that I’ve sung this more than any other ballad, that it is the most requested and consistently touches me to the core, it’s strange that I find it difficult to know what to say about it. There are scholarly things that can be said—they are interesting but do not illuminate the story or its effect. At its heart there is a mystery and I have no desire to analyse this away—even were it possible—I simply know that its power lies somewhere in the glorious weaving of words, images, story and tune an in something magical about tales of transformation. This song has lived with me for thirty years now and inspired the song-cycle based on the themes and characters that I devised and recorded with Brian Person in the early eighties. Singing it still thrills me.”

Kirsten Easdale sang Oh I Forbid You in 2002 on the anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 11.

Geordie McIntyre sang Tam Lin in 2003 on Alison McMorland’s and his Tradition Bearers CD Ballad Tree.

Benjamin Zephaniah and Eliza Carthy sang Tam Lyn Retold in 2007 on The Imagined Village.

Jon Boden sang Tam Lin quite close to Anne Briggs’ version in October 2010 as the Halloween entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

James Findlay sang Tam Lin in 2011 on his Fellside CD Sport and Play.

Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer sang Tam Lin in 2013 oh their CD Child Ballads. This video shows them at Folk Alliance International in Toronto, Ontario, in February 2013:

Lyrics

Fairport Convention sing Tam Lin

[The words are different from the original (Child) version but this is a very close approximation of the song as performed by Sandy Denny.]

  1. “I forbid you maidens all that wear gold in your hair
    To travel to Carterhaugh, for young Tam Lin is there
  2. None that go by Carterhaugh but they leave him a pledge
    Either their mantles of green or else their maidenhead”
  3. Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
    And she’s gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she
  4. She’d not pulled a double rose, a rose but only two
    When up then came young Tam Lin, says,“Lady, pull no more”
  5. “And why come you to Carterhaugh without command from me?”
    “I’ll come and go,” young Janet said, “and ask no leave of thee”
  6. Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
    And she’s gone to her father as fast as go can she
  7. Well, up then spoke her father dear and he spoke meek and mild
    “Oh, and alas, Janet,” he said, “I think you go with child”
  8. “Well, if that be so,” Janet said, “myself shall bear the blame
    There’s not a knight in all your hall shall get the baby’s name
  9. For if my love were an earthly knight, as he is an elfin grey
    I’d not change my own true love for any knight you have”
  10. So Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
    And she’s gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she
  11. “Oh, tell to me, Tam Lin,” she said, “why came you here to dwell?”
    “The Queen of Fairies caught me when from my horse I fell
  12. And at the end of seven years she pays a tithe to hell
    I so fair and full of flesh and fear it be myself
  13. But tonight is Halloween and the fairy folk ride
    Those that would let true love win at Mile’s Cross they must bide
  14. So first let pass the horses black and then let pass the brown
    Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down
  15. For I’ll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town
    For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown
  16. Oh, they will turn me in your arms to a newt or a snake
    But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby’s father
  17. And they will turn me in your arms into a lion bold
    But hold me tight and fear not and you will love your child
  18. And they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight
    But cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight”
  19. In the middle of the night she heard the bridle ring
    She heeded what he did say and young Tam Lin did win
  20. Then up spoke the Fairy Queen, an angry queen was she
    Woe betide her ill-far’d face, an ill death may she die
  21. “Oh, had I known, Tam Lin,” she said, “what this night I did see
    I’d have looked him in the eyes and turned him to a tree”

Dave & Toni Arthur sing Tam Lin

  1. Fair Margaret ran in the merry green wood
    And pulled a flower but one
    When at her side stood young Tam-a-Lin,
    Saying, “Margaret, leave it alone.
  2. “How dare you pull my flowers, madam?
    How dare you break my tree?
    How dare you run in these green woods
    Without the leave of me?”
  3. “Oh this green wood it is my own,
    My father gave it me.
    And I can pluck myself a flower
    Without the leave of thee.”
  4. He took her by the milk-white hand
    And by the grass-green sleeve
    And laid her low down on the flowers
    And asked of her no leave.
  5. And when he’d had his will of her
    Young Margaret she felt shame,
    Says, “If you are a gentleman
    Pray tell to me your name.”
  6. “Oh Tam-a-Lin is the name,” he said,
    “The Elf Queen gave to me.
    And long I’ve haunted these green woods
    All for your fair body.
  7. “So do not pluck that herb, Margaret,
    That herb that grows so grey,
    For that would kill the little babe
    That we’ve got in our play.
  8. ”When I was a boy just turned of nine
    My uncle sent for me
    To hunt and hawk and ride with him
    And keep him company.
  9. “Oh drowsy, drowsy as I was,
    Dead sleep upon me fell,
    And the Queen of Elfin she rode by
    And took me for herself.
  10. “Tonight it is good Hallowe’en,
    The Elfin court will ride.
    And they that would their true love win
    At the crossroads they must hide.
  11. “The second court that comes along
    Is clad in robes of green.
    It is the head court of them all
    For in it rides the Queen
  12. “And I upon a milk-white steed
    With a gold star in my crown,
    And I do ride beside the Queen
    And you must pull me down.
  13. “Then I will grow in your two arms
    Like a savage creature wild.
    But hold me fast, let me not go,
    I’m the father of your child.”
  14. She took her petticoats in her hand,
    Her mantle on her arm,
    Unto the crossroads she’s away
    As fast as she could run.
  15. The first court it came riding by,
    She heard the bridles ring.
    And the second court all dressed in green
    And Tam Lin like a king.
  16. She pulled him from his milk-white steed,
    He on the ground did lay.
    And the Elf Queen gave a shrieking cry,
    ”Young Tam-a-Lin’s away, my boys!
    Young Tam-a-Lin’s away!”
  17. And then they turned him in her arms
    To a wolf and to an adder.
    She held him fast in every shape
    To be her baby’s father.
  18. They shaped him in her arms at last
    A mother-naked man.
    She wrapped him in her mantle green
    And saw her true love won.
  19. Out then cried the Elfin Queen
    And an angry woman was she,
    Said, “You’ve stolen away the very best knight
    In all my company.
  20. “Oh had I known, Tam-a-Lin,” she says,
    “What now this night I see,
    I would have burned out your two grey eyes
    And put in two from a tree, Tam-a-Lin,
    And put in two from a tree.”

Anne Briggs sings Young Tambling

  1. Lady Margaret, Lady Margaret, was sewing at her seam
    And she’s all dressed in black.
    And the thought come in her head to run in the wood
    to pull flowers to flower her hat, me boys,
    to pull flowers to flower her hat.
  2. So she hoisted up her petticoats a bit above the knee
    And so nimbly she’d run o’er the ground.
    And when she come in the merry greenwood,
    Well, she pulled them branches down, me boys,
    Well, she pulled them branches down.
  3. Suddenly she spied a fine young man,
    He’s standing by a tree.
    He says, “How dare you pull them branches down
    Without the leave of me, my dear,
    Without the leave of me?”
  4. Well, she says, “This little wood, oh, it is me very own,
    Me father gave it to me.
    I can pull these branches down
    Without the leave of thee, young man,
    Oh, without the leave of thee.”
  5. And he took her by the milk-white hand
    And by the grass-green sleeve,
    He pulled her down at the foot of a bush,
    And he never once asked her leave, me boys,
    No, he never once asked her leave.
  6. And when it was done she twist about
    To ask her true-love’s name.
    But she nothing heard and she nothing saw
    And all the woods grew dim, grew dim,
    And all the woods grew dim.
  7. There’s four and twenty ladies all in the land
    and they’re all playing at chess.
    Except it was the Lady Margaret
    And she’s green as any glass, me boys,
    Oh, she’s green as any glass.
  8. And there’s four and twenty ladies all in the land
    Grow as red as any rose.
    Except it was the Lady Margaret,
    She’s pale and wan, me boys,
    Oh, pale and wan she goes.
  9. Up then spoke the little servant girl,
    She lift her hand and smiled,
    Says, “I think my lady has loved too long
    And now she goes with child, me dears,
    Oh, and now she goes with child.”
  10. Up then spoke the second serving girl
    “Oh, ever and alas,” said she,
    “But I think I know a herb in the merry greenwood,
    It’ll twine thy baby from thee, madam,
    It’ll twine thy baby from thee.”
  11. So Lady Margaret she got her silver comb,
    Made haste to comb her hair,
    And then she’s away to the merry greenwood
    As fast as she can tear, me boys,
    Oh, as fast as she can tear.
  12. And she hadn’t pulled in the merry greenwood
    A herb but barely one
    When by her stood the young Tambling,
    He says, “Margaret, leave it alone,
    Oh Margaret, leave it alone.”
  13. “Why d’you pull that bitter little herb,
    The herb that grows so grey,
    For to destroy that fine young babe
    That we got in our play, my dear,
    That we got in our play?”
  14. “Well, come tell me now, young Tambling,” she says,
    “If an earthly man you be.”
    “I’ll tell you no lies,” says young Tambling,
    “I was christened as good as thee, me dear,
    I was christened as good as thee.”
  15. “But as I rode a-hunting on a bitter, bitter night,
    It was from my horse I fell,
    And the Queen of Elfland she caught me
    In yonder green hill to dwell, to dwell,
    Oh, in yonder green hill to dwell.”
  16. “But tonight is Halloween, lady,
    The Elven Court will ride.
    And if you would your true love win,
    By the mill bridge you must hide, me dear,
    By the mill bridge you must hide.”
  17. “And first will run the black horse and then will run the brown,
    And then race by the white.
    You hold him fast and you fear him not,
    For he’s the father of your child, my love,
    Oh, he’s the father of your child.”
  18. “They’ll turn me all in your arms, lady,
    Into many’s the beasts so wild.
    But you’ll hold on fast and you fear no ill,
    For it’s the father of your child, my love,
    It’s the father of your child.”
  19. So Lady Margaret she got her silver comb,
    She made haste to comb her hair.
    Then she’s away to the old mill-bridge
    As fast as she could tear, me boys,
    Oh, as fast as she could tear.
  20. And about the dead hour of the night
    She heard the bridles ring.
    And oh, me boys, it chilled her heart
    More than any earthly thing it did,
    More than any earthly thing.
  21. And first run the black horse and then run the brown
    And then race by the white.
    Well, she hold it fast and feared it not,
    For it’s the father of her child,
    Oh, it’s the father of her child.
  22. The thunder rolled across the sky,
    The stars blazed bright as day.
    The Queen of Elven gave a thrilling cry,
    “Young Tambling’s away, brave boys,
    Young Tambling’s away.”
  23. And the very first thing they turned him into
    Was a lion that runs so wild.
    But she held him fast, she feared him not,
    For he’s the father of her child, me boys,
    Oh, he’s father of her child.
  24. And the very next thing they turned him into,
    It was a loathsome snake.
    He says, “Hold me fast and fear me not,
    For I’m one of God’s own make, my love,
    Oh, I’m one one of God’s own make.”
  25. And again they changed him all in her arms
    To a red hot bar of iron.
    But she held it fast, she feared it not,
    And it did to her no harm, no harm,
    And it did to her no harm.
  26. And the very last thing they changed him into
    Was like any naked man.
    She flung her mantle over him,
    She cried, “Me love I’ve won, I’ve won,”
    Oh, she cried, “Me love I’ve won.”
  27. And the Queen of Elven she called from a bush,
    She’s red as any blood.
    “I should have tore out your eyes, Tambling,
    And put in two eyes of wood, of wood,
    And put in two eyes of wood.”

Mike Waterson sings Tamlyn

  1. Come all you maids, and you very pretty maids
    And a warning take by me
    Don’t go down to the Chaser’s wood
    If a maid you want to return and return
    If a maid you want to return.
  2. Lady Margaret, Lady Margaret, she was sitting in her bower
    She was red as any rose
    But she longed to go the Chaser’s woods
    To pull them flowers that grows and grows
    Oh, to pull the flowers that grows
  3. And she taken out her silver comb
    Made in haste to comb her hair
    Then she away to the Chaser’s wood
    As fast as she could tear and could tear
    Aye, as fast as she could tear
  4. And she hadn’t pulled but the one red rose
    The rose that grows there in the green
    When a voice said, “Lady, how dare you pull a rose
    Without no leave of me, and of me,
    Aye, without no leave of me?”
  5. “This little wood,” she says “it is me very own
    Me father he given it to me.
    I will pull, pluck, break, I’ll bend the branch
    And I won’t ask leave of thee, and of thee,
    No I won’t ask leave of thee.”
  6. Oh, he’s taken her by the middle so small
    Down to where the grass it grows so green
    And what they’ve done, well I just couldn’t say
    Oh, the green grass grew between and between
    Aye, the green grass grew between
  7. Aye, he’s taken her by the lily-white hand
    Down to where the grass it grows so green
    And it’s what they done, well I just couldn’t say
    But he never once asked her leave, her leave
    No he never once asked her leave.
  8. It’s four and twenty ladies, they’re all sitting in the hall
    Playing at the chess
    All except for young Margaret
    She’s green as any grass, any grass,
    And she’s green as any grass.
  9. Aye, there’s four and twenty ladies, they’re all sitting in the hall
    All as red as the rose
    All except for young Margaret
    And pale and wan she goes, and she goes
    Aye, pale and wan she goes.
  10. Up there spake one of them little girls
    And on her face there was a smile
    She says, “I think my lady’s loved a little long
    And now she goes with child, and with child
    Aye, and now she goes with child.”
  11. Up there spake another of them girls
    A pretty little girl was she
    She says, “I know a herb growing in the Chaser’s woods
    As’ll twine the babe from thee, and from thee
    As’ll twine the babe from thee.”
  12. Lady Margaret, she picked up her silver comb
    Made in haste to comb her hair
    Then she away to the Chaser’s wood
    As fast as she could tear, and could tear
    Aye, as fast as she could tear.
  13. And she hadn’t pulled but the one bit of herb
    The herb that grows there in the loam
    When up there spake young Tam o’ the Lyn
    Saying, “Margaret, leave it alone
    Oh, sweetheart, Margaret, leave it alone.”
  14. “Why do you want that bitter, bitter herb
    The herb that grows so grey
    Except for to twine away the pretty little baby
    We got in our play, our play,
    Mark, we got in our play.”
  15. “Oh tell me this, young Tam-‘o-Lyn,” she says
    “If a mortal man you be.”
    “Well, I’ll tell you truth without a word of a lie
    I got christened as good as thee, as thee
    I got christened as good as thee.”
  16. “But as I rode out on a bitter, bitter day
    ‘Twas from me horse I fell
    And the Queen of the Elvens did take me
    In yonder greenwood for to dwell, and to dwell
    Aye, in yonder greenwood for to dwell.”
  17. “And it’s every seventh seventh year
    We pay a toll to hell
    And the last one here is the first to go.
    And I fear the toll, it’s meself, it’s meself
    Aye, I fear the toll’s meself.”
  18. “Oh, tonight it is the Halloween
    When the Elven Court shall ride
    If you would your true lover save
    By the old mill-bridge you must hide, you must hide
    By the old mill bridge you must hide.”
  19. “And it’s first there’ll come this black horse
    And it’s then there’ll come the brown
    And they’re both raced by the white
    You must throw your arms up around my neck
    And I will not you afright, and afright
    No, I will not you afright.”
  20. “And they’ll change me then, and it’s all in your arms
    Into many’s the beast so wild
    You must hold me tight, you must fear me not
    I’m the father of your child,
    Oh you know that I’m the father of your child.”
  21. And the woods grew dark, and the woods grew dim
    Tam o’ the Lyn was gone.
    She picked up her lily-white feet
    And to the mill-bridge run, now she run
    Aye, and to the mill-bridge run.
  22. She looked high, and she looked low
    She encompassed all around
    But she nothing saw, she nothing heard
    She heard no mortal sound, no sound
    No, she heard no mortal sound.
  23. Till about the dead hour of the night
    She heard them bridles ring
    It chilled her heart, it’s given her a start
    More than any mortal thing, any thing
    More than any mortal thing.
  24. Then it’s first there come this black horse,
    and it’s then there come the brown
    They both raced by the white
    And she’s thrown her arms up ’round his neck
    And he didn’t her afright, and afright
    No, he didn’t her afright.
  25. And the thunder roared across the sky
    And the stars they burned as bright as day
    And the Queen of the Elvens give a stunning ? cry,
    Saying, “Young Tam-a-Lyn is away, is away
    Aye, Young Tam-a-Lyn is away.”
  26. And they changed him then—it were all in her arms
    To a lion roaring so wild
    But she held him tight and she feared him not
    He was the father of her child, oh she knew he was
    The father of her child.
  27. Soon they changed him again—it were all in her arms
    To a big black hissing snake
    But she held him tight and she feared him not
    He was one of God’s own make, oh she knew that he
    Was one of God’s own make.
  28. And they changed him again—it were all in her arms
    To a big black dog to bite
    But she held him tight and she feared him not
    He didn’t her afright, and afright
    No, he didn’t her afright.
  29. So they changed him again—it were all in her arms
    To a white-hot bar of iron
    But she held him tight and she feared him not
    He’d done to her no harm, no harm
    No, he’d done to her no harm.
  30. Then they changed him again—it were all in her arms
    To a mother-naked man
    And she throwed her cloak up around his shoulders,
    Saying, “Tam o’ the Lyn, we’ve won, oh, we’ve won,”
    Saying, “Tam o’ the Lyn, we’ve won.”
  31. Then the Queen of the Elvens, how she cursed young Tambalyn
    Oh, well she cursed him good
    She said, “I should have torn out your eyes young Tam-a-Lyn
    I should have put in two eyes of wood, of wood
    I should have put in two eyes of wood.”
  32. “And it’s curses on you, Tam-a-Lyn,” she says
    “You once was my very own.
    And when you was, I should have torn out your heart
    And put in a heart of stone, cold stone
    I should have put in a heart of stone.”

Steeleye Span’s Tam Lin

  1. Oh, I forbid you maidens all
    That wear gold in your hair
    To come or go by Carterhaugh
    For young Tam Lin is there.
  2. If you go by Carterhaugh
    You must leave him a ward:
    Either your rings or green mantle
    Or else your maidenhead.
  3. She’s away o’er gravel green
    And o’er the gravel brown;
    She’s away to Carterhaugh
    To flower herself a gown.
  4. She had not pulled a rosy rose,
    A rose but barely one,
    When by came this brisk young man,
    Says, “Lady, let alone.
  5. How dare you pull my rose, Madam?
    How dare you break my tree?
    How dare you come to Carterhaugh
    Without the leave of me?”
  6. “Well may I pull the rose,” she said,
    “Well may I break the tree.
    For Carterhaugh it my father’s,
    I’ll ask no leave of thee.”Oh, in Carterhaugh, in Carterhaugh
    Oh, in Carterhaugh, in Carterhaugh
  7. He’s taken her by the milk-white hand
    And there he’s laid her down,
    And there he asked no leave of her
    As she lay on the ground.
  8. “Oh tell me, tell me,” then she said,
    “Oh tell me who art thee?”
    “My name it is Tam Lin,” he said,
    “And this is my story:
  9. As it fell out upon a day,
    A-hunting I did ride;
    There came a wind out of the north
    And woe it did betide.
  10. And drowsy, drowsy as I was,
    The sleep upon me fell;
    The Queen of Fairies she was there,
    And took me to herself.Oh, in Carterhaugh, in Carterhaugh
    Oh, in Carterhaugh, in Carterhaugh
  11. At the end of every seven years
    They pay a tithe to Hell;
    And I’m so fain and full of flesh,
    I fear ‘t will be myself.
  12. Tonight it is good Halloween,
    The fairy court will ride;
    And if you would your true love win,
    At Mile’s Cross, you must bide.”Oh, in Carterhaugh, in Carterhaugh
    Oh, in Carterhaugh, in Carterhaugh
  13. Gloomy was the night
    And eerie was the way;
    This lady in her green mantle
    To Mile’s Cross she did go.
  14. With the holy water in her hand
    She cast the compass round;
    At twelve o’clock the fairy court
    Came riding o’er the bound.
  15. First came by the black steed
    And then came by the brown,
    Then Tam Lin on a milk-white steed
    With a gold star in his crown.
  16. She’s pulled him down into her arms
    And let the bridle fall;
    The Queen of Fairies she cried out,
    “Young Tam Lin is awa.”
  17. They’ve shaped him in her arms,
    An adder or a snake;
    She’s held him fast and feared him not
    To be her earthly mate.
  18. They’ve shaped him in her arms again
    To fire burning bold;
    She’s held him fast and feared him not
    Till he was iron cold.
  19. They’ve shaped him in her arms
    To a wood black dog so wild;
    She’s held him fast and feared him not,
    The father of her child.
  20. They’ve shaped him in her arms at last
    Into a naked man;
    She’s wrapped him in the green mantle
    And knew that she had him won.
  21. The Queen of Fairies she cried out,
    “Young Tam Lin is awa.
  22. Had I known, had I known, Tam Lin,
    Long before, long before you came from home,
    Had I known, I would have taken out your heart
    And put in a heart of stone.
  23. Had I known, had I known, Tam Lin,
    That a lady, a lady would steal thee,
    Had I known, I would have taken out your eyes
    And put in two from a tree.
  24. Had I known, had I known, Tam Lin,
    That I would lose, that I would lose the day,
    Had I known, I would have paid my tithe to hell
    Before you’d been won away.”

Jon Boden sings Tam Lin

  1. Lady Margaret, Lady Margaret, was sewing of her seam
    And she’s all dressed in black.
    When a thought came to her head to go into the wood
    To pull flowers to flower her hat, my boys,
    To pull flowers to flower her hat.
  2. And she hoisted up her petticoat a bit above her knee
    And so nimbly she’s tripped o’er the plain.
    Until when she came in the merry greenwood,
    And she pulled those branches down,
    She has pulled those branches down.
  3. And suddenly she spied a fine young man,
    Stood underneath a tree.
    Saying, “How dare you pull those branches down
    Without the leave of me, lady,
    Without the leave of me?”
  4. Well, she says, “This little wood, it is my very own,
    My father gave it me.
    And I can pull those branches down
    Without the leave of thee, young man,
    Without the leave of thee.”
  5. Well, he’s taken her by the lily-white hand
    And by the grass-green sleeve,
    And he has laid her down at the foot of an oak,
    And he’s never once asked her leave, my boys,
    He has never once asked her leave.
  6. And when it was done she has turned herself about
    For to ask her true-love’s name.
    But she nothing saw and nothing heard
    And all the woods grew dim, my boys,
    And all the woods grew dim.
  7. Well there’s four and twenty ladies all playing at the ball
    Grown red as any rose.
    Excepting for Lady Margaret,
    As green as glass she goes, she goes,
    As green as glass she goes.
  8. Oh up and then spoke the first serving maid,
    She lifted her head and smiled,
    She said, “I think our lady has loved too long
    And now she goes with child, with child,
    And now she goes with child.”
  9. Oh up and then spoke the second serving maid,
    “Oh, ever and alas,” cried she,
    “But I think I know a herb in the merry greenwood,
    That’ll twine thy babe from thee, lady,
    That will twine thy babe from thee.”
  10. Lady Margaret’s taken out her silver comb,
    She’s made haste to comb her hair,
    And then she’s away to the merry greenwood
    As fast as she could tear, my boys,
    As fast as she could tear.
  11. But she hadn’t pulled a herb in the merry greenwood
    A herb but barely one
    When up and spoke Young Tambling,
    He says, “Margaret, leave it alone, alone,”
    He says, “Margaret, leave it alone.”
  12. “Oh how can you pull that bitter little herb,
    That herb that grows so grey,
    For to take away that young baby
    That we got in our play, lady,
    That we got in our play?”
  13. “Oh, tell me true, young Tambling,” she said,
    “If a mortal man you be.”
    “Well, I’ll tell you no lies, Lady Margaret,
    I was christened as same as thee, lady,
    I was christened as same as thee.”
  14. “But as I rode out on a cold and bitter night,
    From off my horse I fell,
    And the Queen of Elfland she took me
    Into yonder hill to dwell, to dwell,
    Into yonder hill to dwell.”
  15. “And this night it is the Hallowe’en
    And the Elven Court shall ride.
    And if you would your true love gain,
    By the old mill bridge you must bide, my love,
    By the old mill bridge you must bide.”
  16. “And first will run the black horse and then will run the brown,
    And then chase by the white.
    You must hold them fast and fear them not,
    And they will not you afright, my love,
    They will not you afright.”
  17. “And they will change me all in your arms
    Into many a beast so wild.
    You must hold me fast and fear me not,
    I’m the father of your child, you know,
    I am the father of your child.”
  18. Lady Margaret’s taken out her silver comb,
    She’s made haste to comb her hair.
    And then she’s away to the old mill bridge
    As fast as she could tear, my boys,
    As fast as she could tear.
  19. And in the dead hour of the night
    She’s heard the harness ring.
    And oh, my boys, it chilled her heart
    More than any a mortal thing it did,
    More than any a mortal thing.
  20. And first rode by the black horse and then rode by the brown,
    And then chased by the white.
    And she hold them fast and she feared them not,
    They did not her afright, my boys,
    They did not her afright.
  21. And the thunder rolled across the sky
    And the stars shone bright as day.
    And the Queen of Elfland she gave a thrilling cry,
    “Young Tam Lin is away, away!
    Young Tam Lin is away!”
  22. And then they have changed him all in her arms
    Into a lion that roars so wild.
    And she held him fast and she feared him not,
    He was the father of her child, she knew,
    He was the father of her child.
  23. And next they’ve changed him all in her arms
    Into a poisonous snake.
    But she held him fast and she feared him not,
    He was one of God’s own make, she knew,
    He was one of God’s own make.
  24. And next they have changed him all in her arms
    To a red hot bar of iron.
    But she held him fast and she feared him not,
    And he did to her no harm, my boys,
    He did to her no harm.
  25. And last they have changed him all in her arms
    ‘Twas into a naked man.
    And she threw her mantle over him,
    Crying, “Oh, my love I’ve won, I’ve won,”
    Crying, “Oh, my love I’ve won.”
  26. And up and then spoke the Queen of Elfin Land
    From the bush wherein she stood,
    Saying, “I should have taken out your eyes, Tam Lin,
    And put in two eyes of wood, of wood,
    And put in two eyes of wood.”

Music Transcription

Fairport Convention: Tam Lin

Transcription by Dino Agate.

This song is based on two parts: a little instrumental bridge (in 3/4 time, usually two measures long) and a verse (whose eight measures are 3/4 3/4 4/4 3/4 and again the same time progression); this “pattern” (bridge+verse) is repeated throughout the song (except for three instrumental solos).

Bridges’ chords are Em and D, while guitar’s lines, although very alike, are almost all different, so I wrote the tablature for each. All these “bridges” could be useful to some bands; a single guitar player would probably repeat the first or second bridge or play the following to join chords and melody:

E --0--------!-------------
B --0--3--0--!-----0--2----
G --0--------!--2----------
D --2--------!--0----------
A --2--------!-------------
E --0--------!-------------

The verse’s chord progression is very simple, but the guitar strummings are very peculiar. There are three kinds of guitar strummings and the main one is the following (related to the movement’s measures of the verse):

1   2   3     1   2   3     1   2   3   4     1   2   3
Em            D             G   Em            D

The second strumming has the same accents as the first, but each chord is doubled (each strum is a quaver of the same movement) and it is played in verses 5 and 14:

1   2   3     1   2   3     1   2   3   4     1   2   3
Em/           D/            G/  Em/           D/

Last strumming is played only in verse 18:

1   2   3     1   2   3     1   2   3   4     1   2   3
Em            D       D     G   Em      Em    D       D

1   2   3     1   2   3     1   2   3   4     1   2   3
Em      Em    D       D     G/  Em/           D/

If the song is played with a guitar only, it will of course sound better if some more strumming is added to these main accents. In verses 12 and 13, a guitar plays a melody instead of playing chords (tablatures are under those verses).

Three guitars are played on this song (as far as I can hear): a clean electric guitar on the left channel (the violin is on the left channel too, starting from the 6thverse), a distorted and an acoustic guitar on the right.

The clean guitar (left) plays the following bridge (except where otherwise indicated):

E ------------!-------------
B ------------!-------------
G ------------!-------------
D ---2--0-----!-------------
A ---------2--!--0----------
E ------------!-----3--2----

All right channel guitar’s bridges are shown after each verse.

Besides this, the guitars play “sharp” or “loose” (I mean the strings are stopped soon after they’ve been strum or they vibrate until the other chord is played) or “stopped” (only the lower strings are strum, almost muted). As each guitar plays differently, I indicated the “mood” that mainly stands out in each verse.

No panic, please. All you need to know to play this song is written above; the other details I wrote about are in the following lines.

It is interesting to notice how arrangements turns delicate or hard according to the meaning of the verse’s words. H and P in the tablature are for hammer on and pull off.

Intro (repeat twice)

E--------------!-------------
B--------------!-------------
G--------------!-------------
D---2--2P0-----!----------0--
A-----------2--!--0--0H2-----
E--------------!-------------

1. “I forbid you maidens all that wear gold in your hair
To travel to Carterhaugh for young Tam Lin is there.

RHYTHM GUITAR SHARP

Bridge as Intro

2. None that go by Carterhaugh but they leave him a pledge
Either their mantles of green or else their maidenhead.”

SHARP

E------------!-------------
B---5--3-----!----------3--
G---------4--!--2--2P4-----
D------------!-------------
A------------!-------------
E------------!-------------

3. Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
And she’s gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she.

LOOSE

E------------!-------------
B------------!-------------
G---------0--!--2--2P0-----
D---2--4-----!----------4--
A------------!-------------
E------------!-------------

4. She’d not pulled a double rose, a rose but only two
When up then came young Tam Lin says “Lady pull no more”

STOPPED

(muted notes):                        Left guitar bridge:

E-----------------!----------------   E-----------!-----------
B-----------------!----------------   B-----------!--------3--
G-----------------!----------------   G-----------!--2--4-----
D-----------------!----------------   D--2--4--5--!-----------
A-----------------!----------------   A-----------!-----------
E--0-0--0-0--0-0--!--0-0--0-0--0-0-   E-----------!-----------

5. “And why come you to Carterhaugh without command from me?”
“I’ll come and go,” young Janet said “And ask no leave of thee”.

SHARP (double chords)

Guitar solo – 16 measures in 3/4 time (rhythm guitar Em7 – EM6):

E-------------!---------------!--------!---------------!---------------!
B-------------!---------------!--------!---------------!---------------!
G-------------!---------------!--------!--4--4P2--0H2--!--2P0----------!
D--2--2P0-----!----------0H2--!--2--2--!---------------!-------4--0H2--!
A----------2--!--0--0H2-------!--------!---------------!---------------!
E-------------!---------------!--------!---------------!---------------!


E---------!----0------------2P0--!--------------------!--------------------!
B------3-3P2------3P2P0--2-------!--3--2H3P2P0--2-----!--------------------!
G---------!----------------------!-----------------2--!--2--0--------------!
D--2------!----------------------!--------------------!--------4--0--2--4--!
A---------!----------------------!--------------------!--------------------!
E---------!----------------------!--------------------!--------------------!


E-----------!-----------------!--------------------!-----------!
B-----------!-----------------!--------------------!-----------!
G-----------!-----------------!--------------------!-----------!
D-----------!-----------------!--------------------!-----------!
A--2--2--0--!-----------------!-----0--2--0-----0--!--2--2--0--!
E-----------!--3--0--0--0--2--!--3-----------3-----!-----------!


E--------------------!-------------!-----------------!-------------!
B--------------------!-------------!-----------------!-------------!
G--------------------!-------------!-----------------!-------------!
D-----------------0--!-------------!--0H2--2H4--2H4--!--2--0--0H2--!
A--2--4--0--2--4-----!--2--0--0H2--!-----------------!-------------!
E--------------------!-------------!-----------------!-------------!


E-----------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!
B-----------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!
G-------2P0-------!-------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!
D--2H4-------2H4--!--2--2P0-----!----------0--!--0H2--0-----!----------0--!
A-----------------!----------2--!--0--0H2-----!----------2--!--0--0H2-----!
E-----------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!-------------!

6. Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
And she’s gone to her father as fast as go can she.

SHARP

Bridge as Intro

7. Well up then spoke her father dear and he spoke meek and mild
“Oh and alas Janet” he said “I think you go with child.”

SHARP

E------------!-------------
B---5--3-----!-------------
G---------4--!--4P2--0-----
D------------!----------4--
A------------!-------------
E------------!-------------

8. “Well if that be so” Janet said “Myself shall bear the blame
There’s not a knight in all your hall shall get the baby’s name.

SHARP

Bridge as Intro

9. For if my love were an earthly knight as he is an elfin grey
I’d not change my own true love for any knight you have.”

LOOSE

E--------------!-------------
B--------------!-------------
G------4--4P2--!--2P0--------
D---2----------!-------4--0--
A--------------!-------------
E--------------!-------------

(Violin solo – 12 measures in 3/4 time)

E--------------!---------------!-------------!----------
B--------------!---------------!-------------!----------
G--------------!---------------!-------------!----------
D---2--2P0-----!------------0--!--2--2P0-----!----------
A-----------2--!--2H0--0H2-----!----------2--!--0-------
E--------------!---------------!-------------!-----3--2-

Left guitar bridge:

E------------!-----------!-----------!------------
B------------!-----------!-----------!--------3---
G------------!-----------!-----------!--2--4------
D---2--0-----!--------0--!--2--4--5--!------------
A---------2--!--0--2-----!-----------!------------
E------------!-----------!-----------!------------

10. So Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
And she’s gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she.

LOOSE

Bridge as 4-5. (Left guitar bridge: standard)

11. “Oh tell to me Tam Lin” she said “Why came you here to dwell?”
“The Queen of Fairies caught me when from my horse I fell

STOPPED

E-------------!---------------!
B-------------!---------------!
G-------------!---------------!
D--2--2P0-----!----------0H2--!
A----------2--!--0--0H2-------!
E-------------!---------------!

12. And at the end of seven years she pays a tithe to hell
I so fair and full of flesh and feared it be myself

SHARP

Right guitar plays the following twice:

E-----!-------------!-----------------!---------------!
B-----!-------------!-----------------!---------------!
G-----!-------------!-----------------!---------------!
D-----!-------------!-----------------!-------0--2H4--!
A--2--!--4H5--4--0--!--0H2--0H2--0H2--!--0H2----------!
E-----!-------------!-----------------!---------------!

Bridge as the last one

13. But tonight is Halloween and the fairy folk ride,
Those that would their true love win at Mile’s Cross they must bide.

LOOSE

Right guitar plays the same melody as last verse.

Bridge as Intro

14. First let pass the horses black and then let pass the brown
Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down,

SHARP (double chords)

E------------------!-----------------
B------------------!-----------------
G------------------!-----------------
D---2-2--2-2--2-2--!--2-2--2-2--2-2--
A------------------!-----------------
E------------------!-----------------

15. For I’ll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town
For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown.

SHARP

E--------------!-----------------
B--------------!-----------------
G---4--4P2--0--!-----2P0---------
D--------------!--4-------4P2P0--
A--------------!-----------------
E--------------!-----------------

16. Oh they will turn me in your arms to a newt or a snake
But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby’s father.

LOOSE

Right guitar doesn’t play this bridge

17. And they will turn me in your arms into a lion bold
But hold me tight and fear not and you will love your child,

SHARP

E---------------!----------------------
B------3--------!--3--3P0--------------
G---4-----4--4--!----------2P0---------
D---------------!---------------4P2P0--
A---------------!----------------------
E---------------!----------------------

18. And they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight
But cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight”.

STOPPED (other strumming)

Bridge as 2-3

(Guitar-violin solo – 16 measures in 3/4 time)

Bridge as before verse 10

Left guitar bridge:

E------------!-----------!-----------!----------
B------------!-----------!-----------!----------
G------------!-----------!-----------!----------
D---2--0-----!--------0--!--2--0-----!----------
A---------2--!--0--2-----!--------2--!--0-------
E------------!-----------!-----------!-----3--2-

19. In the middle of the night she heard the bridle ring
She heeded what he did say and young Tam Lin did win.

SHARP

Bridge: guitar strums on Em.

Left guitar bridge:

E------------!-----------
B------------!-----------
G------------!-----0--2--
D---2--0-----!--4--------
A---------2--!-----------
E------------!-----------

20. Then up spoke the Fairy Queen, an angry Queen was she
“Woe betide her ill-fared face, an ill death may she die

SHARP

Bridge as Intro

21. Oh had I known, Tam Lin” she said “What this night I did see
I’d have looked him in the eyes and turned him to a tree.”

LOOSE

Ending

E--------------!-------------!-----------!-------------!
B--------------!-------------!-----------!-------------!
G--------------!-------------!--------0--!--2--2P0-----!
D---2--2P0-----!----------0--!--2--4-----!----------4--!
A-----------2--!--0--0H2-----!-----------!-------------!
E--------------!-------------!-----------!-------------!


E----------------------!----------------------!
B---3--3P0-------------!----------------------!
G-----------2--0--2P0--!-----0-----------2P0--!
D----------------------!--4-----0--2--4-------!
A----------------------!----------------------!
E----------------------!----------------------!


E------------!----------------------!-----------!-----------!--0-
B------------!----------------------!-----------!-----------!--0-
G------------!----------------0--2--!-----------!-----------!--0-
D---2--0-----!-------0--2--4--------!--2--0-----!--------0--!--2-
A---------2--!--0P2-----------------!--------2--!--0--2-----!--2-
E------------!----------------------!-----------!-----------!--0-

Acknowledgements and Links

Garry Gillard thanks Jesse Kirchner for the Mike Waterson transcription. Tamlyn’s name is spelt differently on this page in an attempt to represent the different ways Mike Waterson sings it on his recording, not out of carelessness (I hope).

See also the Mudcat Café thread Tam Lyn: any ‘source singer’ recordings?.

Performances, Workshops,
Resources & Recordings

The American Folk Experience is dedicated to collecting and curating the most enduring songs from our musical heritage.  Every performance and workshop is a celebration and exploration of the timeless songs and stories that have shaped and formed the musical history of America. John Fitzsimmons has been singing and performing these gems of the past for the past forty years, and he brings a folksy warmth, humor and massive repertoire of songs to any occasion. 

Festivals & Celebrations
Coffeehouses
School Assemblies
Library Presentations
Songwriting Workshops
Artist in Residence
House Concerts
Pub Singing
Irish & Celtic Performances
Poetry Readings
Campfires
Music Lessons
Senior Centers
Voiceovers & Recording

““Beneath the friendly charisma is the heart of a purist gently leading us from the songs of our lives to the timeless traditional songs he knows so well…”

 

Globe Magazine

Join Fitz
at The Colonial Inn

“The Nobel Laureate of New England Pub Music…”

Scott Alaric

Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground

On the Green, in Concord, MA
Every Thursday Night
for over thirty years…

“A Song Singing, Word Slinging, Story Swapping,
Ballad Mongering, Folksinger, Teacher, & Poet…”

Theo Rogue

Songcatcher Rag

Fitz’s Recordings

& Writings

Songs, poems, essays, reflections and ramblings of a folksinger, traveler, teacher, poet and thinker…

Download for free from the iTunes Bookstore

Now Available on iTunes!

“A Master of Folk…”

The Boston Globe

Fitz’s now classic recording of original songs and poetry…

Download from the iTunes Music Store

Now Available on iTunes!

“A Masterful weaver of song whose deep, resonant voice rivals the best of his genre…”

Spirit of Change Magazine

 

“2003: Best Children’s Music Recording of the Year…”

Boston Parent's Paper

Fitz & The Salty Dawgs
Amazing music, good times and good friends…

Listen here

TheCraftedWord.org

Writing help

when you need it…

“When the eyes rest on the soul…that’s Fitzy…”

Lenny Megliola

WEEI Radio

Reflecting on Literature

by | March 27, 2017 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

I am constantly asking my students (and myself) to reflect on the literature they, and I, read. As I have grown older—and not necessarily wiser—I find myself only reading literature that I am sure will prod me out of my intellectual and emotional torpor, like a lizard...
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How To Be Human

by | July 24, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Mark Twain once wrote that it is good to be a good person, but it is better to tell people how to be good--"and a damn sight easier!" So much of my life is lived in response to the moment and not in a practiced and cultivated wisdom. I sat here this morning looking...
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by | August 21, 2014 | Out of the Forge, Songs | 0 Comments

Jesse calls up this morning—
“You can come downstairs now;
You see the grapefruit bowl?
Well, I fixed it all;
I fixed everything for you.”

Everything’s for you…

“Let me help you make the coffee,
Momma says you drink it too.
I can’t reach the stove,
But I can pour it, though—
What’s it like living alone?”

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by | December 4, 2013 | Poetry | 0 Comments

Moaning like a lost whale the thin ice bellowed behind us then cracked and rang as if spit from a whip. The sharp steel of my over-sized skates etched unspeakable joy into the slate-grey, reptilian skin of Walden Pond. Our mismatched hands gripped together in the...
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by | July 7, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

The day sometimes slip away from me, a huge pine half-bucked in the backyard, the kids old tree fort cut into slabs, a ton of coal waiting to be moved in a train of buckets to the bin. Sipping cold water on the back deck I hear Emma rustling for soccer cleats and...
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by | November 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

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Joshua Sawyer Podcast

by | November 11, 2017 | Fitz Podcasts, Journal | 0 Comments

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Guns, Me, and Rural America

by | February 27, 2018 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

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It has certainly been a long time since wisdom ruled the day. I did get up and run in the rain, and now I am preparing to do some “wrenching” on my motorcycle. I am trying to temper my eagerness to ride with my desire to get everything “right” on the bike--without...
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Grandma’s Words

by | April 24, 2018 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

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The Nagging Thing

by | November 19, 2015 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Not many more nights like this, warm enough to sit outside on the back porch. The kids and Denise long asleep. Usually, during the school year, this is my "time" to catch up on schoolwork--grading, posting the assignments for the week and playing the general catchup...
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If you don’t stand, you cower…

by | July 19, 2019 | Journal | 0 Comments

     Maybe it is time to be less forgiving. I have rarely agreed with our president, but I held on to the shreds of truth that shore up his arguments: we can’t welcome every immigrant who makes it to our border; we cannot bow to the audacity of corrupt governments in...
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Ghetto of Your Eye

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I wrote this song back in the winter of 1989, in the dining car of a steam driven train, somewhere along the Trans-Siberian railway, after meeting a group of Russian soldiers fresh from battle in Afghanistan—that poor country that has been a battleground for way too long.

We stare together hours the snow whipped Russian plain—
rolling in the ghetto of your eye.
We share a quart of vodka
and some cold meat on the train—
you know too much to even wonder why;
I see it in the ghetto of your eye.

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Paris: 11/13/15

by | November 14, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

It is a sad day for humanity. Another sad day on top of many others happening every day--many in places we hear about only obliquley and sometimes not at all. Paris is that much closer to home for most of us here and in Europe, but freedom and tolerance has to...
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In Reply To Einstein

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

*God casts the die, not the dice. ~Alfred Einstein I am cold down the neck, turtling my head to showers of ice that fall dancing and skidding on skins of crusted snow. I hold my breath when I step, inflating hopes of a weightlessness, and so be undetected
to the play...
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Get Back in the Game

by | January 16, 2022 | Journal | 0 Comments

Out on the back porch, not as cold as earlier today, waiting for the storm to arrive in a few hours--curious if I will get that call at 2:00 AM to head out and plow the Concord streets. Most of me hopes for the call; another side of me wants a day stuck at home,...
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The Shapes of Stories

by | July 9, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

While I have always been a storyteller of sorts, I am not much of a writer of stories--but I have always been intrigued by the relative simplicity at the core design level of most books and movies. A lot of it is tied to my love for Joseph Campbell's work on the...
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Nurture Passion

by | December 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

How about we all take the bull by the horns and make this blog thing work! Your job this week is to do something with your blog that is powered by the passion that is in you. Passion is the one thing you have some control over. There are plenty of smarter, more...
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A Priori

by | May 24, 2016 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

How do I know what I know? The sharp angles of this simple cottage perfected  in every board sawn, shingle split and beam hewn into place goes together placed, splined, slid together, bound more by intuition than knowing.
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Why Trump Is Not Flipping Me Out

by | March 18, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

I wonder why Trump is not flipping me out? I wonder if there is some bigoted, ignorant and right-wing element that lurks inside this folk-singing, poem writing, neo-socialist shell of mine. Maybe it is not that hard for me to make the empathetic reach to feel at least...
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The Litter in Concord

by | July 12, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

I have been following a Facebook thread about the movement in my beloved hometown of Concord to ban plastic water bottles, plastic bags and styrofoam cups. I am trying to discern whether or not my initial responses are pure and true and not simply reactionary and...
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This new spring begs attention

by | March 22, 2019 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

And shivers its literal timbers. Cold, wet and pleading, Scarred by winter winds And pasty snows, My small field and patch of woods Is now a monument To aging neglect. Shorn limbs and branches Hang high and tangled in the Sugar maples (Widow makers we called them Back...
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by | July 30, 2014 | Poetry | 0 Comments

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by | August 12, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land... ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden I’ve...
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Zenmo Yang Ni

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I lost the time I hardly knew you,
half-assed calling:
“How you doing?
Laughing at my hanging hay field;
I never knew the time
that tomorrow’d bring,
until it brung to me.

Yuan lai jui shuo: “Zenmoyang ni?”
Xianzai chang shu: “Dou hai keyi”;
Xiexie nimen, dou hen shang ni.
Xiwang wo men dou hen leyi
Dou hen leyi

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by | August 2, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

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by | February 11, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

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by | February 21, 2017 | Journal | 0 Comments

Time for a change. Feeling it in a lot of ways. After months of steady workouts, I’ve been finding too many convenient ways to let the day slip by. Still feel better than I have in years, but the days seem to have got the best of me. Excuses, procrastination and...
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Mum…

by | May 8, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Very jealous today of all the folks I see spending time with their respective moms--and sad for those who can't and for those whose wives were taken from their families too early in life... This is my remmebrance of my "mum" who died several years ago.       I ran...
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by | December 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

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by | July 9, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

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by | July 12, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

Welcome
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Contact John Fitzsimmons...and thanks!

The Elfin Knight

The Elfin Knight

by | Mar 7, 2017

The Ancient Ballads

The Elfin Knight

The American Folk Experience

The Elfin Knight

by John Fitzsimmons | The American Folk Experience

Child Ballad #2
(Also known as “Scarborough Fair)

Are you going to Scarborough fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one that lives there
For once she was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Without any seam or fine needlework
And then she’ll be a true love of mine

Tell her to wash it in yonder dry well
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
When water ne’er sprung nor drop of rain fell
And then she’ll be a true love of mine

Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born
And then she’ll be a true love of mine

O will you find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Between the sea foam and the salt sea sand
Or never be a true love of mine

O will you plough it with a ram’s horn
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
And sow it all over with one peppercorn?
And then she’ll be a true love of mine

O will you reap it with a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
And tie it all up with a peacock’s feather?
And then she’ll be a true love of mine

And when you are done and finished your work
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Then come to me for your cambric shirt
And you shall be a true love of mine

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment. Thanks for stopping by the site! ~John Fitz
I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music.  I share their research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite their work accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  Thanks!

Source: Wikipedia

"Scarborough Fair" (Roud 12, Child 2) is a traditional English ballad.[1] The song lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The "Scarborough/Whittingham Fair" variant was most common in Yorkshire and Northumbria, where it was sung to various melodies, often using Dorian mode, with refrains resembling "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" and "Then she'll be a true love of mine."[2] It appears in Traditional Tunes (1891) by Frank Kidson, who claims to have collected it from Whitby.[3]

The famous melody was collected from Mark Anderson (1874–1953), a retired lead miner from Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, England, by Ewan MacColl in 1947. This version was recorded by a number of musicians in the 20th century, including the iconic 1968 arrangement in counterpoint by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, who learned the ballad from Martin Carthy. A slightly different rendition of the ballad (referred to as "The Cambric Shirt", or "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme") had been recorded by John Lomax in 1939 in the United States.

History

The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with a Scottish ballad titled "The Elfin Knight",[4] collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad #2,[5] which has been traced as far back as 1670. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand").

Dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century. A number of older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, "twixt Berwik and Lyne", etc. Many versions do not mention a place name and are often generically titled ("The Lovers' Tasks", "My Father Gave Me an Acre of Land", etc.).[citation needed]

The references to the traditional English gathering "Scarborough Fair", and the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme", date to 19th-century versions, and may have been borrowed from the ballad Riddles Wisely Expounded (Child Ballad #1), which has a similar plot.[citation needed]

Lyrics

The lyrics, as published by Frank Kidson in 1891,[4] begin:

"O, where are you going?" "To Scarborough fair,"
    Savoury, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
"Remember me to a lass who lives there,
    For once she was a true love of mine.

"And tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
    Savoury, sage, rosemary, and thyme,
Without any seam or needlework,
    And then she shall be a true love of mine.

"And tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
    Savoury, sage, rosemary, and thyme,
Where no water sprung, nor a drop of rain fell,
    And then she shall be a true love of mine."[6]

— Stanzas 1–3

Alternative refrains

The oldest versions of "The Elfin Knight" (circa 1650) contain the refrain "my plaid away, my plaid away, the wind shall not blow my plaid away." Slightly more recent versions often contain one of a group of related refrains:

  • "Sober and grave grows merry in time"
  • "Every rose grows merry with time"
  • "There's never a rose grows fairer with time"
  • "Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine"[note 1][7]

These are usually paired with "Once (s)he was a true love of mine" or some variant. "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" may simply be an alternate rhyming refrain to the original based on a corruption of "grows merry in time" into "rosemary and thyme."[citation needed]

Recordings

Field recordings

Early audio field recordings of the ballad include the following examples:

Commercial recordings

1950s

The earliest commercial recording of the ballad was made by actors and singers Gordon Heath and Lee Payant, Americans who ran a café and nightclub, L'Abbaye, on the Rive Gauche in Paris. The recording appeared on the 1955 Elektra album Encores from the Abbaye.[12] The song was also included on the 1956 album The English and Scottish Popular Ballads vol IV by A. L. Lloyd and Ewan MacColl, using Kidson's melody.[13]

The first recorded version using the best-known melody was performed by Audrey Coppard on the 1956 album English Folk Songs.[14] A decade after collecting the song, MacColl released his own version, accompanied by Peggy Seeger on guitar, on the 1957 LP Matching Songs of the British Isles and America[15] and an a capella rendition another decade later on The Long Harvest (1967).[16]

1960s

The version using the melody later used by Simon & Garfunkel in "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" was sung to Ewan MacColl in 1947 by Mark Anderson (1874–1953), a retired lead miner from Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, England.[17][18][19] No audio recording of Anderson's version was ever made, although Alan Lomax recorded Anderson singing other songs in 1951.[20] MacColl printed the lyrics and melody in a book of Teesdale folk songs, and later included it on his and Peggy Seeger's The Singing Island in 1960.[18]

In 1965, Martin Carthy sang "Scarborough Fair" on his eponymous debut album after having picked up the tune from the songbook by MacColl and Seeger.[21]

Marianne Faithfull recorded the song for her second American studio album Go Away From My World, released in December 1965.[22]

"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" appeared as the lead track on the 1966 Simon & Garfunkel album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme in counterpoint with "Canticle", a reworking of the lyrics from Simon's 1963 anti-war song "The Side of a Hill".[23] The duo learned their arrangement of the song from Martin Carthy, but did not credit him as the arranger. They later made a "pretty substantial" monetary settlement with Carthy's publisher when asked, but unbeknownst to them, Carthy himself did not receive anything from it.[24]

Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 scored a U.S. #16 hit (#2 AC) with their light jazz/samba/pop version in 1968, which was used in the 1973 animated film Heavy Traffic.[citation needed]

In 1969, Vicky Leandros recorded the song in several versions for release throughout Europe, Canada and Japan, singing in English, German, French ("Chèvrefeuille que tu es loin") and Greek ("Νά Θυμάσαι Πώς Μ' αγαπάς").[citation needed]

1980s

Hong Kong singer Danny Chan recorded a Cantonese version with name "Unemployed Student" (Chinese: 失業生) and released in 1980.[25][clarification needed]

American folk punk band Cordelia's Dad recorded a version for their 1989 self-titled debut album.[26]

The Stone Roses set their own words to the melody for "Elizabeth My Dear", a track on their eponymous debut album (1989).[citation needed]

1990s

Queensrÿche included a version as the B-side of their single "Anybody Listening?" in 1992.[27] It was later included as a bonus track on the 2003 reissue of their album Empire.

2000s

Celtic Woman recorded a version of the song for their third album A New Journey, released in January 2007.[28]

The English death-doom metal band My Dying Bride recorded a version with two additional stanzas by its lead singer Aaron Stainthorpe, which appears on its 2009 EP Bring Me Victory.[29]

German/Norwegian symphonic metal band Leaves' Eyes recorded a version of this song on their 2009 album Njord.)[30]

2010s

Nox Arcana recorded a ghost-story version with all original lyrics by Joseph Vargo for the 2012 album Winter's Majesty.[31][32]

In 2017, Aurora recorded the song for the Brazilian telenovela Deus Salve o Rei along with a opening sequence for it.[33]

2020s

In 2020, Dan Avidan collaborated with musical group Super Guitar Bros to record the Simon & Garfunkel version of the song, including the "Canticle" counterpoint, for the album Dan Avidan & Super Guitar Bros that was released in April of that year.[34]

Simon & Garfunkel version

"Scarborough Fair/Canticle"
Side-A label of the 1968 US vinyl single
Single by Simon & Garfunkel
from the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
B-side"April Come She Will"
ReleasedFebruary 1968 (1968-02)
Recorded26 July 1966
Genre
Length
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Bob Johnston
Simon & Garfunkel singles chronology
"Fakin' It"
(1967) 		"Scarborough Fair/Canticle"
(1968) 		"Mrs. Robinson"
(1968)
Music video
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (audio) on YouTube

In London in 1965, Paul Simon learned the song from Martin Carthy,[35][36] who had picked up the song from the songbook by MacColl and Seeger[37] and included it on his eponymous 1965 album. Simon & Garfunkel set it in counterpoint with "Canticle", a reworking of the lyrics from Simon's 1963 anti-war song "The Side of a Hill";[38] they used the same tune as Carthy had for the traditional lyrics, while Simon's anti-war lyrics were set to a new melody composed mainly by Art Garfunkel.[37][39] "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" appeared as the lead track on the 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and was released as a single after it had been featured on the soundtrack to The Graduate in 1968.[37] The copyright credited only Simon and Garfunkel as the authors, which upset Carthy, who felt that the "traditional" source should have been credited.[37] The rift persisted until Simon invited Carthy to perform the song with him as a duet in a concert at London's Hammersmith Apollo in October 2000.[37][40] Simon performed the song with the Muppets when he guest-starred on season 5, episode 11 of The Muppet Show (October 18, 1980).

Before Simon learned the song, Bob Dylan had borrowed the melody and several lines of lyrics from Carthy's arrangement to create his song "Girl from the North Country",[41] which is featured on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Nashville Skyline (1969) (with Johnny Cash), Real Live (1984) and The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (1993).

Charts

Chart performance for "Scarborough Fair/Canticle"
Chart (1968) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report) 49
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[42] 5
US Billboard Hot 100[43] 11

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[44] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Soundtrack recordings

The Simon and Garfunkel version of the song was featured on the soundtrack to The Graduate in 1968.[37]

Instrumental versions of Scarborough Fair were arranged by Geoff Knorr for use in the video game Civilization VI as the main theme of the English civilization.[45][46] As the themes of each civilization are played as different variations of the same song as the game progresses, four different variations of the song are included in the game's soundtrack, with Phill Boucher assisting Knorr in the arrangement of the Atomic Era version of the song.[47][48]

Notes

  1. ^ For "antine", see the French word antienne ('chant' or 'refrain').

References

  1. ^ "The Elfin Knight / Scarborough Fair / Whittingham Fair". Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Search: Scarborough Fair RN12". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
  3. ^ Kidson, Frank (1891). "Scarborough Fair". Traditional tunes. Oxford: Chas. Taphouse & Son. pp. 42–44. hdl:2027/umn.31951001728562y. OCLC 47625906 – via HathiTrust. Republished in 1999: ISBN 9781861430816
  4. ^ a b Kidson, Frank (1891). Traditional Tunes : a collection of ballad airs, chiefly obtained in Yorkshire and the south of Scotland; together with their appropriate words from broadsides and from oral tradition. Oxford, UK: Chas. Taphouse & Son. pp. 42–44. OCLC 866568452 – via HathiTrust.
  5. ^ Child, Francis James (1894). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Part 9. Vol. 9. Boston / Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin and company / The Riverside Press. p. 206.
  6. ^ Kidson, Frank (1891). Traditional Tunes. Oxford: Chas. Taphouse & Son. p. 46.
  7. ^ Baring-Gould, Sabine (1892). "Riddles". Strange Survivals. London: Methuen & Co. p. 226.
  8. ^ "The Cambric Shirt (Roud Folksong Index S230643)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Rosemary and Thyme (child No. 2) (Roud Folksong Index S407682)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Every Rose Grows Merry in Time (Roud Folksong Index S204527)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  11. ^ "Rosemary Lane (Roud Folksong Index S189118)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  12. ^ Heath, Gordon. "Encores from the Abbaye". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  13. ^ LLoyd, A.L. "Ewan MacColl's Discography". ewan-maccoll.Info. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  14. ^ "Scarborough Fair". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  15. ^ "Matching Songs of the British Isles and America : Ewan MacColl at theBalladeers". www.theballadeers.com. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  16. ^ totsie. "The Long Harvest traditional English and Scottish ballads sung by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl". www.peggyseeger.com. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Famous song has roots in Dale folk". The Northern Echo. 3 December 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  18. ^ a b "Scarborough Fair (Roud Folksong Index S160453)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  19. ^ Harvey, Todd (2001). The Formative Dylan: Transmission and Stylistic Influences, 1961–1963. Scarecrow Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8108-4115-4.
  20. ^ "Mark Anderson". The Lomax Digital Archive. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  21. ^ Humphries, Patrick (2003). "Sold on Song – Song Library – Scarborough Fair". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  22. ^ "Go Away From My World by Marianne Faithfull". Discogs. 31 January 2025. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  23. ^ "Song and Lyrics, Scarborough Fair/Canticle". PaulSimon.com. Sony Music Entertainment. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  24. ^ "The story behind Simon & Garfunkel's song 'Scarborough Fair'". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 1 March 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  25. ^ "1980 - Work without tiredness". Tumblr. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  26. ^ "Cordelia's Dad, by Cordelia's Dad". Cordelia's Dad. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  27. ^ Honigmann, David (9 August 2020). "Scarborough Fair — the ancient ballad that sparked a modern-day grudge". FT.com. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  28. ^ Digital, Granite. "Celtic Woman Story". www.celticwoman.com.
  29. ^ "My Dying Bride Completes Recording New EP, "Bring Me Victory"". Metal Underground. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  30. ^ Moffitt, Greg (2009). "Leaves' Eyes Njord review". BBC Music. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
  31. ^ "Scarborough Fair by Nox Arcana with original lyrics". 29 November 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2022 – via YouTube.
  32. ^ "Winter's Majesty by Nox Arcana". Discogs. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  33. ^ "Aurora, cantora norueguesa, grava clipe da música de abertura de 'Deus Salve o Rei' nos Estúdios Globo". Gshow (in Brazilian Portuguese). 23 October 2017. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  34. ^ "Scarborough Fair by Dan Avidan & Super Guitar Bros". YouTube. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  35. ^ "Sold on Song - Song Library - Scarborough Fair". bbc.co.uk/radio2. BBC. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  36. ^ "Simon & Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair (Chords)" – via tabs.ultimate-guitar.com.
  37. ^ a b c d e f Humphries, Patrick (2003). "Scarborough Fair". Sold on Song. BBC. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
  38. ^ "Song and Lyrics, Scarborough Fair/Canticle". PaulSimon.com. Sony Music Entertainment. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  39. ^ Bennighof, James (2007). The Words and Music of Paul Simon. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 21–24. ISBN 9780275991630. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  40. ^ "Paul Simon Setlist at Hammersmith Apollo, London". setlist.fm.
  41. ^ JK. ""...She Once Was A True Love of Mine" - Some Notes About Bob Dylan's "Girl From The North Country"". www.justanothertune.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  42. ^ "RPM Top 100 - April 27, 1968" (PDF).
  43. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955–2012. Record Research. p. 767.
  44. ^ "British single certifications – Simon & Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair Canticle". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  45. ^ England Theme - Industrial (Civilization 6 OST) | Scarborough Fair, 31 October 2016, retrieved 4 August 2022
  46. ^ "Civilization VI to feature an orchestral soundtrack led by Knorr and Tin". VGMO -Video Game Music Online-. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  47. ^ Tom Marks (30 September 2016). "Civ 6's music evolves alongside your cities, and it's one of its best features". PC Gamer. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  48. ^ CIVILIZATION VI Official Game Soundtrack, 23 October 2016, retrieved 4 August 2022


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Fair_(ballad)

Source: Mainly Norfolk

The Elfin Knight / Scarborough Fair / Whittingham Fair / Rosemary Lane

[ Roud 12 ; Child 2 ; G/D 2:329 ; Ballad Index C002 ; trad.]

Martha Reid of Blairgowrie, Perthshire, sang The Elfin Knight in 1955 to Maurice Fleming. This field recording was included in 2011 on the Greentrax CDSongs and Ballads from Perthshire (Scottish Tradition 24). Further versions of her can be found on Peter Shepheard’s Springthyme Records page of The Elfin Knight.

A.L. Lloyd sang Scarborough Fair in 1956 on his and Ewan MacColl’s Riverside anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume IV. All of his ballads from this series were reissued in 2011 on his Fellside CDs Bramble Briars and Beams of the Sun.

Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger sang The Elfin Knight in 1956 on their Tradition album Classic Scots Ballads. He commented in the sleeve notes:

A universal theme of both folk tale and ballad is that of impossible tasks. In this ballad, the form it takes is that of the courtship, with on flirtatious lover setting a series of tasks and his companion meeting the challenge by setting an equally difficult series. In early forms of the ballad, an elfin knight posed the tasks, to be answered by a maiden who remains free by devising tasks of no less difficulty which must be answered first. Modern folk have made both characters mortal enough. Child had nineteen versions of this ballad, which he traced in his affinities through many languages of Europe and Asia. It is well known in England and America. This version was learned from Greig’s Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs.

He also sang The Elfin Knight on his 1964 Folkways album The English and Scottish Popular Ballads: Vol. 3—Child Ballads.

Both Bob and Ron Copper of Rottingdean and Thomas Moran of Mohill, Co. Leitram, sang The Elfin Knight in a medley on the anthology The Child Ballads 1 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 4; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970).

Shirley Collins sang Scarborough Fair unaccompanied in 1960 on her second album, False True Lovers. She commented in the album’s sleeve notes:

Derived by MacColl from Cecil Sharp’s English Folk Songs, [this] is a fragment of an extremely ancient ballad (Child No. 2, The Elfin Knight), common in all areas of Britain and North America. In the original song a girl hears the far-off blast of the elfin knight’s horn and wishes he were in her bedroom. He straightaway appears, but will not consent to be her lover until she answers a series of riddles. This trait of test-by-riddle is a heritage from remote antiquity. The survival of this ancient piece of folklore is assured by the fact that all the couplets in this song contain gentle, but evocative erotic symbols.

Martin Carthy sang Scarborough Fair in 1965 on his first album Martin Carthy, and it was included on the compilations The Big Folk, Shades of Folk, and Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock, and in 1999 on Martin Carthy: A Collection. He sang a slightly different version on Wood Wilson Carthy, and yet another together with Bert Jansch on Acoustic Routes under the title The Elfin Knight. These two versions were both included as starting and closing track of the 4 CD anthology The Carthy Chronicles. Carthy commented in his first album’s sleeve notes:

Folklorists and students of plant mythology are well aware that certain herbs were held to have magical significance—that they were used by sorcerers in their spells and conversely as counter-spells by those that wished to outwit them. The herbs mentioned in the refrain of Scarborough Fair (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) are all known to have been closely associated with death and also as charms against the evil eye. The characters in the Elfin Knight (of which Scarborough Fair is a version) are a demon and a maid. The demon sets impossible tasks and on the maid’s replies depends whether she will fall into his clutches or not. Child believed that elf to be an interloper from another ballad (Lady Isobel and the Elf Knight) and that he should rightly be mortal, but as Ann Gilchrist points out “why the use of the herb refrain except as an indication of something more than mortal combat?” Sir Walter Scott in his notes to Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border recalled hearing a ballad of “a fiend …paying his addresses to a maid but being disconcerted by the holy herbs she wore in her bosom” and Lucy Broadwood goes as far as to suggest that the refrain might be the survival of an incantation against such a suitor.

This video shows Martin Carthy with members of the Aurora Orchestra on BBC Radio 3 In Tune on February 24, 2012:

In 1966, Paul Simon had a big hit with this song in Martin Carthy’s arrangement as title track of his album Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme. He also sang Scarborough Fair in episode 5/11 of The Muppet Show:

Cyril Tawney sang this ballad with the tile The Tasks in 1969 on his Polydor album The Outlandish Knight: Traditional Ballads from Devon and Cornwall. He commented in his sleeve notes:

A composite version of The Elfin Knight taken from the Baring-Gould manuscripts. With the exception of two verses from John Hext of Postbridge, Devon (October 1890), all the ‘ingredients’ come from West of the Tamar. An unknown source from the Camelford district supplied Baring-Gould with all the other verses and I have used the refrain sung to him by Joseph Dyer of Mawgan-in-Pyder, together with Dyer’s tune. Baring-Gould was told that in Cornwall this used to be sung as a sort of game in farm-houses, between a young man who went outside the room, a girl who sat on a chair and a chorus of farm lads and lasses. The man re-entered and addressed the girl with the first half of the ballad and she replied with the second half. Known as Whittingham Fair in Northumberland and Scarborough Fair in Yorkshire, a chocolate-boxy version of the latter being very popular with modern folk-singers.

Robin and Barry Dransfield sang Scarborough Fair in 1970 on their Trailer album The Rout of the Blues. A live recording of Robin Dransfield at the Medway Folk Centre in November 1972 was included in 2008 on his CD A Lighter Touch.

Liz Jefferies sang this song, with the unusual title Rosemary Lane, to Barry and Chris Morgan in their own home in Bristol in September 1976. This recording can be found on the anthology As Me and My Love Sat Courting (The Voice of the People Series Volume 15; Topic 1998).

Nancy Kerr sang Whittingham Fair in 1993 on her and Eliza Carthy’s eponymous album Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr and on their compilation CD On Reflection. Nancy commented in the original album’s sleeve notes:

Whittingham Fair is from Folk Songs of the North Countrie by Frank Kidson and Alfred Moat, under the title Scarborough Fair. The “Northumbrianised” version is from my mother and the tune can be found in Kidson’s Traditional Tunes.

and Eliza added:

[The tune] For Whittingham Fair was a flash of inspiration while I was learning the song in my bedroom. Original title, isn’t it?

Brian Peters sang Scarborough Fair in 1994 on his CD Squeezing Out Sparks.

Sue Brown and Lorraine Irwing sang Scarborough Fair in 1997 on their WildGoose CD Call & Cry.

Lucky Bags sang Whittingham Fair in 1998 on their Fellside CD Delight in Disorder. They commented in their liner notes:

The text of this version is from Songs of Northern England (Stokoe) and has the same pedigree as its better known cousin, Scarborough Fair, both originating from Child Ballad no. 2 The Elfin Knight. The setting of impossible tasks seems to have been a very popular way of whiling away the time in many different parts of Britain. (Producer’s note: c.f. recording Lucky Bags!)

Tim van Eyken sang The Cambric Shirt in 2003 on Dr Faustus’ Fellside CD The First Cut.

Chris Wood sang Scarborough Fair in 2010 on The Imagined Village’s album Empire and Love.

Jon Boden sang Scarborough Fair as the March 14, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Emily Smith sang this ballad as Sweet Lover of Mine in 2011 on her CD Traiveller’s Joy. This track was also included on the CD BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012. She also sang it in a bonus session of the DVD Cambridge Folk Festival 2011.

Mike and Ali Vass sang The Elfin Knight in 2011 on their CD Waiting to Fly.

Compare to this the related title An Acre of Land sung by John Kirkpatrick on Brass Monkey’s album Sound and Rumour. And Jim Copper recorded An Acre of Land for the BBC in 1952.

Bellowhead recorded Rosemary Lane in 2014 for their Island record Revival. They commented in their booklet notes:

Taken from a singer called Liz Jefferies (the original being available on the Voice of the People CD series issued by Topic Records), almost everyone will be aware of the underlying story in that it’s a version of Scarborough Fair, known the world over via Simon & Garfunkel. It’s a song where a suitor is set a number of impossible tasks in order to satisfy the demands of their prospective lover. The narrative is so strong that it’s survived down the generations, like many a fable of fairy tale, albeit in subtly changed versions. But in true trad style, all these versions are actually themselves a much abridged version of an even older folk song called The Elfin Knight. Incidentally, Paul Simon’s version was borrowed from a legendary figure in English folk, Martin Carthy.

Kim Edgar learned The Elfin Knight from Gavin Grieg’s Last Leaves of Traditional Ballads and Ballad Airs (Aberdeen, 1925) and sang it on Cara’s 2016 CD Yet We Sing. The album’s liner notes commented:

[…] Kim was immediately drawn to this song’s themes: enchantment, desire, the supernatural, and relationships that aren’t destined to be. It’s been previously recorded by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger on their [1956] album, Classic Scots Ballads, amongst others—but for this version we’ve made a new arrangement.

Lyrics

Martha Reid sings The Elfin Knight
O fetch to me aye a Holland shirt,
Aye thout either needle or needle work.
For you’ll wash it in to yon draw well
Where there never was water nor one drop o dew fell.For you’ll hing it oer yon Thornhaugh bush,
Where there never was thorns since Adam was born.
And it’s ho, ho the wind’ll blow.For you’ll fetch to me two acres of land
Between thon salt sea and thon salt sea strand.
For you’ll ploo it up with a devil tup’s horn,
You will sew it ower with one grain of corn,
And it’s ho, ho the wind’ll blow.

For you will ripen it up with one blink o sand,
You’ll cut it down with a pea-hen’s feather.
You’ll stook it up by the stung of a nettle,
And it’s ho, ho the wind’ll blow.

For you’ll yoke two sparrows in a matchbox,
An cart it home to your own farm yard,
And it’s ho, ho the wind’ll blow.

For surely when you put such task on me,
I’ll surely put aye as hard on you.
You’ll, how many ships sails in thy forest?
How many strawberries grows on the salt sea?
And it’s ho, ho the wind’ll blow.
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger sing The Elfin Knight Kim Edgar sings The Elfin Knight
There stands three trumpeters on yon hill
Blaw, blaw, blaw winds, blaw,
And they blaw their trumpets sae loud and shrill
And the wind it blaws aye my plaid awa’.		 The Elfin Knight stands on yon hill
ba, ba, ba lily ba,
And he blows his horn baith loud and shrill,
And the wind has blown my plaid awa’.
Gin I’d his trumpet in my kist
And was in the lad’s airms that I like best		 If I had yon horn in my kist,
ba, ba, ba lily ba,
And were in the lad’s arms that I love best
And the wind would blow my plaid awa’.
Gin ye would be wed wi’ me
There’s ae thing ye maun dae for me		 Gin ye would be wed tae me,
ba, ba, ba lily ba,
There’s ae thing ye maun to me dee,
And the wind shall blow my plaid awa’.
Ye maun mak’ me a linen sark
Withoot a stitch o’ needlewark		 I maun hae a fine linen sark,
ba, ba, ba lily ba,
Withoot a stitch o’ needlework,
And the wind shall blow my plaid awa’.
Ye maun wash it in yon dry well
Where water never sprang nor fell		 Ye maun wash it in yonder well
Where water never sprang nor fell
Ye maun dry’t on yon hawthorn
That hasna seen blossom since man was born		 Ye maun dry it upon a thorn
That hasna bloomed since man was born
And gin I mak a sark for thee
There’s something you maun dae for me		 Gin I mak a sark for thee
There’s something you maun dee for me
My faither has an acre o’ land
Ye maun ploo it wi’ your ae hand		 My father has an acre o’ land
And ye maun ploo it wi’ your hand
Ye maun sow it wantin’ corn
And roll it wi’ a sheep’s shank bone		 Ye maun sow it wantin’ corn
And roll it all wi’ a sheep’s shank bone
Ye maun shear it wi’ a scythe o’ leather
And bind it wi’ a peacock’s feather
Ye maun stook it in the sea
And bring the wheat sheaf dry tae me		 Ye maun stook it in the sea
And bring the wheat sheaf dry to me
And gin you wark noo all this wark
Come to me and you’ll get your sark		 When you’ve done and finished your work
You’ll come to me, love, and get your sark
Blow winds, blow …
Martin Carthy sings Scarborough Fair Shirley Collins sings Scarborough Fair
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.		 Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
For once he was a true love of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without no seam nor needlework,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.		 Tell him to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without a seam or needlework,
And he shall be a true love of mine.Tell him to wash it in yonder dry well,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Where water ne’er sprang nor drop of rain fell,
And he shall be a true love of mine.Tell him to hang it on yonder thorn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
And he shall be a true love of mine.
Tell her to find me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.		 Oh can you find me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the sea foam and the sea sand,
And you shall be a true love of mine.
Tell her to plough it with a lamb’s horn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And to sow it all o’er with one peppercorn,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And to thrash it all out with a bunch of heather,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.
Nancy Kerr sings Whittingham Fair Martin Carthy sings Scarborough Fair
Are you going to Whittingham* Fair?
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
She once was a true lover of mine.		 Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without any stitches or needlework,
Then she’ll be a true lover of mine.		 Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Without no seam nor needlework,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.
Tell her to wash it in yonder dry well,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Where water ne’er sprung nor a drop of rain fell,
Then she’ll be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to hang it on yonder thorn,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
That never bore blossom since Adam was born,
Then she’ll be a true lover of mine.
Now he has asked me questions three,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
I hope that he’ll answer as many for me,
Then he’ll be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to find me an acre of land,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Betwixt the salt water and the sea sand,
Then he’ll be a true lover of mine.		 Tell her to find me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.
Tell him to plough it with a ram’s horn,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
Then he’ll be a true lover of mine.		 Tell her to plough it with a lamb’s horn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And to sow it all o’er with one peppercorn,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.
Tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And tie it all up with a peacock’s feather,
Then he’ll be a true lover of mine.		 Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather,
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
And to thrash it all out with a bunch of heather,
And then she’ll be a true love of mine.
When he has done and finished his work,
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Well, tell him to come and tear up his shirt,
And he’ll be a true lover of mine.
Note: Nancy Kerr quite clearly sings “Whittingt-ham” — however spelled — with a “T” sound, not “Whittingham”. Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to one who lives there,
For once she was a true love of mine.
Liz Jefferies sings Rosemary Lane Bellowhead sing Rosemary Lane
As you will go down Rosemary Lane,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, you’ll pick me out the finest girl there,
And I will make her a true lover of mine.		 If you will go down to Rosemary Lane,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, you’ll pick me out the finest girl there,
And I will make her a true love of mine.
Oh, tell her to get me a camberic shirt,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
To be done without needle or needle’s work,
And then she will be a true lover of mine.		 Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
To be done without needle or needlework,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.
And tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
Where water ne’er sprung nor rain never fall,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.		 And tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Where water ne’er sprung and rain never fell,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.
And tell her to dry it on yonder sharp thorn,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
For one of her rose since Adam was born,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.		 Tell her to dry it on yonder green thorn,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Where bloom never grew since Adam was born,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.
When she is finished all of her work,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, tell her I’ll got her camberic shirt,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.		 And when she has finished all of her work,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, tell her I’ll call for my cambric shirt,
Then she will be a true lover of mine.
And as you will go down Rosemary Lane,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, you’ll pick me out the finest boy there,
And I will make him a true lover of mine.		 If you will go down to Rosemary Lane,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, you’ll pick me out the finest boy there,
And I will make him a true love of mine.
Tell him to get me an acre of land,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
Between the salt sea and the salt-sea sand,
And then he will be a true lover of mine.		 Tell him to get me an acre of land,
Where very rose grows merry and fine,
Between the salt sea and the salt-sea strand,
Then he will be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to plough it with a ram’s horn,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
And sow it all over with one ben of corn,
Then he will be a true lover of mine.		 Tell him to plough it with a ram’s horn,
Where very rose grows merry and fine,
And sow it all over with one grain of corn,
And then he will be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to reap it with a cock’s feather,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
And bind it all over with strappings of leather,
Then he will be a true lover of mine.		 Tell him to reap it with a cock’s feather,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
And bind it all over with strappings of leather,
Then he will be a true lover of mine.
And tell him to drive home on a snail,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
And thrash it all over with a mouse’s tail,
And then he will be a true lover of mine.		 And tell him to draw it home on a snail,
Where every rose grows merry and fine,
Thrash it all over with an ox’s tail,
Then he will be a true lover of mine.
And when he has finished all of his work,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
Oh, tell him to call for his camberic shirt,
And then he will be a true lover of mine.		 Every rose grows merry and fine

Acknowledgements and Links

See also Just Another Tune’s study …Tell Her to Make Me a Cambric Shirt — From the Elfin Knight to Scarborough Fair and the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Req: The Elfin Knight (from Mary O’Hara, #2).

Martin Carthy’s version transcribed by Garry Gillard with corrections from Kira White. Thanks to both of you!

Performances, Workshops, Resources & Recordings

The American Folk Experience is dedicated to collecting and curating the most enduring songs from our musical heritage.  Every performance and workshop is a celebration and exploration of the timeless songs and stories that have shaped and formed the musical history of America. John Fitzsimmons has been singing and performing these gems of the past for the past forty years, and he brings a folksy warmth, humor and massive repertoire of songs to any occasion. 

Festivals & Celebrations Coffeehouses School Assemblies Library Presentations Songwriting Workshops Artist in Residence House Concerts Pub Singing Irish & Celtic Performances Poetry Readings Campfires Music Lessons Senior Centers Voiceovers & Recording

““Beneath the friendly charisma is the heart of a purist gently leading us from the songs of our lives to the timeless traditional songs he knows so well…”

 

Globe Magazine

Join Fitz at The Colonial Inn

“The Nobel Laureate of New England Pub Music…”

Scott Alaric

Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground

On the Green, in Concord, MA Every Thursday Night for over thirty years…

“A Song Singing, Word Slinging, Story Swapping, Ballad Mongering, Folksinger, Teacher, & Poet…”

Theo Rogue

Songcatcher Rag

Fitz’s Recordings

& Writings

Songs, poems, essays, reflections and ramblings of a folksinger, traveler, teacher, poet and thinker…

Download for free from the iTunes Bookstore

Now Available on iTunes!

“A Master of Folk…”

The Boston Globe

Fitz’s now classic recording of original songs and poetry…

Download from the iTunes Music Store

Now Available on iTunes!

“A Masterful weaver of song whose deep, resonant voice rivals the best of his genre…”

Spirit of Change Magazine

“2003: Best Children’s Music Recording of the Year…”

Boston Parent's Paper

Fitz & The Salty Dawgs Amazing music, good times and good friends…

Listen here

TheCraftedWord.org

Writing help

when you need it…

“When the eyes rest on the soul…that’s Fitzy…”

Lenny Megliola

WEEI Radio

No Dad To Come Home To

by | August 12, 2014 | Dawghouse, Songs | 0 Comments

Rain’s falling outside of Boston—
Thank God I’m not working tonight.
I’ve got six of my own,
And a stepdaughter at home,
And a momma keeping things right.
I wonder if they’re at the table
With their puzzles, their papers and pens?
When I get off the highway
And pull in that driveway,
Will they run to the window again?

Read More

Out of the Forge: March 30, 2017

by | March 31, 2017 | Journal, Out of the Forge | 0 Comments

Every Thursday Night at The Colonial Inn On the Green, in Concord, Massachusetts This is my first attempt at trying to record a night at the inn, so please forgive my engineering errors as a producer. I simply used the Bose Tonematch into Garageband and called it good...
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Calvary

by | August 23, 2014 | Out of the Forge, Songs | 0 Comments

It seems like it ain’t been a long time,
But I’m damn pleased your coming by again.
It’s been a while since we sat down and rambled
About this and that and why and who and then
You said that you had to get a move on,
Move on and leave a space behind.
So I spent a while hitting all those old roads:
Old friends and kicking down the wine.

Read More

Out of the Forge: April 6, 2017

by | April 11, 2017 | Journal, Out of the Forge | 0 Comments

Some nights I feel like I am singing in a mall. Tonight--in a fun way--it felt a bit like I walked into the Natick mall at Christmas time and pulled out my guitar in front of the Apple store and started to play, but like every night down at the inn it evolved into a...
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The Enigma

by | August 11, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

Black Pond is not as deepas it is dark, dammedsome century agobetween ledges of granite and an outcropping of leaning fir, huckleberry, and white pine. For years I have paddled and trolled;swam, fished, sailed and sometimessimply tread water in the night trying to...
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The Emperor’s New Clothes

by | February 8, 2019 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn't there at...
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Ready. Set. Go.

by | April 7, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Who forgets to rinse his hair? Me, I guess, for that was the start of my day. I smelled something like coconut oil on my way to school, and then I realized, dang, my hair is still pretty wet. Wet with hair conditioner. And then I get sot school all coconutty smelling...
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Thanksgiving

by | July 30, 2014 | Poetry | 0 Comments

I am surprised sometimesby the suddenness of November:beauty abruptly shedto a common nakedness--grasses deadenedby hoarfrost,persistent memoriesof people I’ve lost.It is left to those of us dressed in the hard barky skin of experienceto insist on a decorumthat rises...
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Dealing with Ether

by | August 12, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

Trying to only see what is in front of me my eyes are continually drawn away from this page and the work left to be done— my labored words etched and scratched away like fleeting mosaics in dry sand. I need a windowless cell to work the alchemy that shapes the...
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In Reply To Einstein

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

*God casts the die, not the dice. ~Alfred Einstein I am cold down the neck, turtling my head to showers of ice that fall dancing and skidding on skins of crusted snow. I hold my breath when I step, inflating hopes of a weightlessness, and so be undetected
to the play...
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The Threshing

by | July 11, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I trace her charging through the cornfield shaking the timbers of the ready crop startling up the blackbirds, and surprisingly, a jay. It’s the jay who startles me—
who with two quick pulls wrests itself from the transient green, screaming back from its familiar scrub...
Read More

Life Outside the Curriculum

by | July 25, 2019 | Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

“My teachers could have written with Jesse James for all time they stole from us...” ~Richard Brautigan, “Trout Fishing in America”        My classroom is often a bit of a mess—a mass of sprawled bodies scattered around like casualties of battle, ensconced in various...
Read More

Chores

by | May 15, 2016 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

The day sometimes slip away from me, a huge pine half-bucked in the backyard, the kids old tree fort cut into slabs, a ton of coal waiting to be moved in a train of buckets to the bin. Sipping cold water on the back deck, sharpening the dulled teeth of a worn...
Read More

How do I know

by | July 8, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

what I know? The sharp angles of this simple cottage perfected in every board sawn, shingle split and beam hewn into place goes together placed, splined, slid together, bound more by intuition than knowing.
Read More

Life Ain’t Hard; Its Just a Waterfall

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

You say, hey,
who are you to say that you’re the one
to go telling me just where I’m coming from.
You can have your cake
but don’t frost me ‘til I’m done.
I can’t be fixed and I can’t afford to stall;
because life ain’t hard it’s just a waterfall.

Read More

The Late and Lazy Teacher

by | May 1, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

I guess this is a good thing. I showed up five minutes late for class, and my classroom was empty. I walked the hallways of the school and could not find any of them. I sheepishly asked the assistant headmaster if he "happened to see a class of wandering boys?"No, he...
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How To Be Human

by | July 24, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Mark Twain once wrote that it is good to be a good person, but it is better to tell people how to be good--"and a damn sight easier!" So much of my life is lived in response to the moment and not in a practiced and cultivated wisdom. I sat here this morning looking...
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Wrenching Day

by | July 13, 2017 | Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

It has certainly been a long time since wisdom ruled the day. I did get up and run in the rain, and now I am preparing to do some “wrenching” on my motorcycle. I am trying to temper my eagerness to ride with my desire to get everything “right” on the bike--without...
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A New Paradigm

by | November 17, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

     Sometimes, like right now, I long for a pile of papers on my lap that I could speed through, grade with a series of checks and circles, a few scribbled lines of praise or condemnation, and drop into a shoebox on my desk and say, "Here are your essays!" But I...
Read More

The Next Time Around

by | April 16, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

        I wonder what the years have really taught me about writing and music. I have gotten so used to preaching and teaching that I am a bit looped by the thought of writing—as in how I wrote before (or how I will claim I wrote) before settling into this somewhat...
Read More

Nurture Passion

by | December 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

How about we all take the bull by the horns and make this blog thing work! Your job this week is to do something with your blog that is powered by the passion that is in you. Passion is the one thing you have some control over. There are plenty of smarter, more...
Read More

Supermoon

by | August 10, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

Last night the August supermoon reminded me of the fickleness of time and how substance becomes shadow and memories begin to etch themselves immutably into the hardness of what is already lost.
Read More

Goathouse

by | July 12, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

In reaching for the scythe I’m reminded of the whetstone and the few quick strokes by which it was tested— the hardness of hot August; the burning of ticks off dog backs. It’s winter now in this garage made barn, and the animals seem only curious that I’d be here so...
Read More

Joshua Sawyer Podcast

by | November 11, 2017 | Fitz Podcasts, Journal | 0 Comments

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Moby Dick: Chapters 42-51

by | March 1, 2015 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

A literary reflection to my students... The lowering for whales, the appearance of Fedallah's crew, the vivid descriptions of the first chase in a sudden and unrelenting gale, the fatalistic joy of resigning oneself to fate, the awesome poetic intensity of Melville's...
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If you don’t stand, you cower…

by | July 19, 2019 | Journal | 0 Comments

     Maybe it is time to be less forgiving. I have rarely agreed with our president, but I held on to the shreds of truth that shore up his arguments: we can’t welcome every immigrant who makes it to our border; we cannot bow to the audacity of corrupt governments in...
Read More

In the unfolding chores

by | July 7, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

The day sometimes slip away from me, a huge pine half-bucked in the backyard, the kids old tree fort cut into slabs, a ton of coal waiting to be moved in a train of buckets to the bin. Sipping cold water on the back deck I hear Emma rustling for soccer cleats and...
Read More

Ghetto of Your Eye

by | November 11, 2015 | Fires in the Belly, Journal, Songs | 0 Comments

A Veteran's Day Remembrance I wrote this song back in the winter of 1989 in the dining car of a steam driven train, somewhere along the Trans-Siberian railway, after meeting a group of Russian soldiers fresh from battle in Afghanistan—that poor country that has been a...
Read More

Ring of Fire: The Power of Simplicity

by | March 28, 2017 | Journal, Songs, Teaching, The American Folk Experience | 0 Comments

In fifth grade my mother finally let me go to the Concord Music store and buy a "45" single.  I bought Johnny Cash’s version of “Ring of Fire” written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore, a noted country songwriter of his day. There was no doubt in my...
Read More

The Tide

by | August 31, 2014 | Poetry | 0 Comments

They are building a world and the plastic is fading: Margaret and Eddie's buckets are split, pouring out the warm Atlantic as they race along the tidal flat, filling pools connected by frantically dug canals. Tommy squats naked and screams in guttural joy at the...
Read More

Know Thyself…

by | September 29, 2017 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Writing a Metacognition Know Thyself… Explore, Assess, Reflect & Rethink If we don’t learn from what we do, we learn little of real value. If we don’t make the time to explore, reflect and rethink our ways of doing things we will never grow, evolve and reach our...
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To a teacher

by | November 14, 2019 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

This shift from fall to winterIs the cruelest month:Long days and nightsIn a blather of responsibility’s I hoist from a murky holeAnd sort and siftOn a messy desk. I pity my students who trembleMy red pen of vengeance;Who wait with fetid thoughtsFreighted by what they...
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Marriage & Magnanimity

by | September 6, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

If we want to have the freedom to marry whom we want to marry, why is it so important that the state (government) recognise that marriage? Is it simply the expediency of dispensing the entitlements of a marriage certificate: tax benefits, employment benefits, or the...
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A Hard Sell

by | November 13, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

     As a teacher, I am tired of the word blog, probably because the word “blogging” is incredibly limiting and myopic, especially for someone whose teaching is centered around an online curriculum with blogs front and center on my academic table. I sat through a...
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Presenting…

by | February 3, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"Anything worth succeeding in, is worth failing in."~by Edison?      A contractor friend showed up at my house a few weeks ago just after I finished making the hearth and installing my new wood/coal stove. He complimented me on how "awesome" it looked. I then lamented...
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Busy…

by | September 17, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

The start of the school year, and I have literally spent every free moment working on what is ostensibly pretty cool stuff, methinks...but it is work in every sense of the word, so I do miss those long summer mornings when  could literally write to my heart and heads...
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There is in an easiness

by | June 8, 2018 | Journal | 0 Comments

When I begin to think of myself. My girded shell squeezing Oysters in a jar; My oily viscera Jammed and joggled Into impossible places. My pancreas Is never where it should be; My esophagus cut cleanly Swirls in a diaspora. My tongue is a trapped In a tangle of...
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Molting

by | July 10, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I am always molting; leaving my hollowed skin in awkward places, scaring people and making them jump. They touch me and think I’m real; then laugh and say things like “What a riot.” I’m tired of this changing of skins. I’d rather stumble on myself and be fooled; and...
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Once Burned. Twice Shy.

by | April 6, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Just because no one understands you,  it doesn’t mean you are an artist ~Bumper Sticker        I sometimes wonder why when you give a group of teenagers a video camera, the first impulse is to shoot something stupid. It’s as if there is some jackass switch...
Read More

Ghetto of Your Eye

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I wrote this song back in the winter of 1989, in the dining car of a steam driven train, somewhere along the Trans-Siberian railway, after meeting a group of Russian soldiers fresh from battle in Afghanistan—that poor country that has been a battleground for way too long.

We stare together hours the snow whipped Russian plain—
rolling in the ghetto of your eye.
We share a quart of vodka
and some cold meat on the train—
you know too much to even wonder why;
I see it in the ghetto of your eye.

Read More

Contact John Fitzsimmons...and thanks!

The Golden Vanity

The Golden Vanity

by | Mar 7, 2017

The Ancient Ballads

The Golden Vanity

The American Folk Experience

The Golden Vanity

by John Fitzsimmons | The American Folk Experience

Child Ballad #286

There was a ship that sailed 
all on the Lowland Sea, 
and the name of our ship 
it was the Golden Vanity,
and we feared she would be taken
by the Spanish enemy 
as she sailed in the Lowland, 
the Lowland, low 
as she sailed in the Lowland sea.
 
Then up stepped our cabin boy
and boldly outspoke he
and he said to our captain
“what would you give to me
If I would swim along side
of the Spanish enemy
and sink her in the Lowland,
Lowland, low
and sink her in the Lowland, sea
 
“Oh, I would give you silver
and gold I’ll give to thee
And my own fair daughter
your bonny bride shall be,
If you will swim along side
of the Spanish enemy
and sink her in the Lowland,
Lowland low
And sink her in the Lowland sea.
 
The boy he made him promise
And overboard sprang he
and he swam alongside
of the Spanish enemy
And with his brace and auger
in her side he bored holes three,
And he sunk her in the Lowland,
Lowland Low,
And he sunk her in the Lowland Sea.
 
Then quickly he swam back
to the cheering of the crew
But the captain would not heed him
for his promise he did rue,
who scorned his poor entreatings
when the cabin boy did sue,
And he left him in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
And he left him in the Lowland Sea.
 
Then quickly he swam round
’til he made the larboard side,
And up to his messmates
full bitterly he cried,
“Oh, messmates, draw me up,
for I’m drifting with the tide,
And I’m sinking in the Lowland,
Lowland, Low
I’m sinking in the lowland sea.”
 
Then his messmates drew him up,
But on the deck he died,
And they stitched him in his hammock
Which was so fair and wide,
And they lowered him overboard
And he drifted with the tide,
And he sank in the Lowland,
Lowland, low
And he sank in the Lowland sea.

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment. Thanks for stopping by the site!

~John Fitz

I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music.  I share their research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite their work accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  Thanks!

Source: Wikipedia

Add links
For other uses, see The Golden Vanity.
Golden Vanity
One variant of "The Sweet Trinity", American traditional, closest to Child's version C.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"The Sweet Trinity" (Roud 122, Child 286), also known as "The Golden Vanity", "The Golden Willow Tree" or "The Turkish Revelry" is an English folk song or sea shanty. The first surviving version, dated to 1635, was "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing In The Lowlands (Shewing how the famous Ship called the Sweet Trinity was taken by a false Gally & how it was again restored by the craft of a little Sea-boy, who sunk the Gally)".

Synopsis

A captain of a ship (the Sweet Trinity or Golden Vanity or Golden Willow Tree of the title) laments the danger it is in; Sir Walter Raleigh complains that it was captured by a galley, but the more common complaint is that it is in danger from another ship, which may be French, Turkish, Spanish, or (especially in American variants) British. A cabin boy offers to solve the problem. The captain promises him rich rewards, which vary between versions, but often contain land, and the promise that the boy may marry the captain's daughter. The boy swims to the enemy ship, bores holes in its hull with an auger, and sinks it.

He swims back to his ship. Usually, the captain declares that he will not rescue the boy out of the water, let alone reward him. In some variants, the boy extorts the rescue and reward by sinking (or threatening to sink) his ship as well, but usually the boy drowns (sometimes after saying he would sink the ship if it weren't for the crew). In other versions, the crew rescues him, but he dies on the deck. In the variant with Raleigh, Raleigh is willing to keep some of his promises, but not to marry him to his daughter, and the cabin boy scorns him. In the New England version recorded by John Roberts (see below), he sinks both ships but is rescued by another one, thus explaining how the story could have been passed on.

Printings

Recordings

  • The Carter Family recorded it in 1935 under the title "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea".
  • Alan Lomax recorded Justus Begley performing "The Golden Willow Tree" in 1937.[1]
  • The Almanac Singers (Pete Seeger on lead vocal) recorded it on Deep Sea Chanteys and Whaling Ballads (1941).
  • A.L. Lloyd on The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume III (1956).
  • Paul Clayton recorded a version entitled "The Turkish Revelee", on Whaling and Sailing Songs from the Days of Moby Dick (1956).
  • Burl Ives released a recording as "The Golden Vanity" on his 1956 Down to the Sea in Ships.
  • Richard Dyer-Bennet recorded a version entitled "The Golden Vanity" for his "Richard Dyer-Bennet 5" LP which was released in 1958.
  • The Brothers Four recorded the song in 1960 as "The Gallant Argosy".
  • Scottish Skifle artist Lonnie Donegan recorded the song as 'The Golden Vanity' for the B-side of his UK number 1 single My Old Man's a Dustman in 1960.
  • Barbara Dane recorded a version as "Turkey Reveille" in 1962.
  • The New Lost City Ramblers recorded it (as "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea", after the Carter Family version) on Gone to the Country (1963, Folkways FA2491).
  • Odetta recorded it as "The Golden Vanity" and it appeared on her second recording for RCA, Odetta Sings Folk Songs (1963, RCA LSP2643)
  • The Chad Mitchell Trio recorded it (as "The Golden Vanity") on At the Bitter End (1964).
  • Martin Simpson on the album Golden Vanity (1976).
  • Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir, and Ed Trickett recorded it in 1978 on their second album, The Ways of Man.
  • Rory Block on the album Rhinestones & Steel Strings (1984).
  • The baritone Bruce Hubbard, recorded it as "The Golden Willow Tree" in 1989 for his album For You, For Me, with Dennis Russell Davies and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. It is on Angel/EMI Records.
  • Tom Paxton recorded it (as "The Golden Vanity") for a tape called A Folksong Festival in 1986.
  • Peter, Paul and Mary recorded the tune as "The Golden Vanity" for their 1990 album Flowers and Stones.
  • In 1992 Bob Dylan performed it at a concert. This later appeared as a bootleg album called Golden Vanity (recordings made 1988–1992).[2]
  • Steeleye Span recorded it in 1995 for the album Time, but it appeared instead on an anthology The Best of British Folk Rock.
  • The Friends of Fiddler's Green on This Side of the Ocean (1997).
  • Mike Seeger recorded a banjo version called "The Golden Willow Tree" on his 2003 album True Vine.
  • John Roberts recorded a New England version, entitled "The Weeping Willow Tree", on his 2003 album Sea Fever.
  • Bruce Molsky recorded a version in the clawhammer style on his album Soon Be Time (2006).
  • Loudon Wainwright III recorded a version under the name "Turkish Revelry" on Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006).
  • The Askew Sisters recorded a version called "The Old Virginia Lowlands" for their 2008 album All in a Garden Green.
  • Brian Peters recorded it as "The Golden Vanity" on his album Songs of Trial & Triumph (2008).
  • Crooked Still recorded the song as "The Golden Vanity" on their Live album (2009) and on Some Strange Country (2011).
  • Andy the Doorbum recorded the song as "The Reveille" on the album "The Man Killed The Bird, And With The Bird He Killed The Song, And With The Song, Himself" (2011). [3]
  • Accordionist Doug Lacy recorded a version for the 2014 soundtrack to the television series Black Sails.
  • Gabriella Lewis and Shay Tochner recorded the song "The Golden Vanity" on the traditional album "Wild Rovin' No More" released in 2015
  • Alasdair Roberts recorded a version called "The Golden Vanity" on his album Too Long in This Condition
  • Lankum recorded a version called "The Turkish Reveille" on the album "Between the Earth and Sky" (2017)
  • Michigan-IO recorded a version called “Lowlands” in the album Michigan-IO (2019).
  • Jake Xerxes Fussell recorded a version called "The Golden Willow Tree" on the album "Good and Green Again" (2022)
  • Fisherman's Friends recorded a version called "The Golden Vanity" on the album "All Aboard"(2024)

Variants

  • Aaron Copland used it as one of the songs in his Old American Songs sets.
  • Dutch singer Boudewijn de Groot included a Dutch retelling of the song, called "Noordzee" ("North Sea"), on his self-titled 1965 debut album. The translation was written by his close companion Lennaert Nijgh. Dutch singer Geke van der Sloot reworked the lyrics in 2019 and turned "Noordzee" into a protest song against plans to build large wind farms in the North Sea.
  • In 1966, Benjamin Britten set an arrangement of the song for boys' voices and piano, as The Golden Vanity (his Op. 78)
  • June Carter Cash includes a corrupted version entitled "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea" in her 2003 album Wildwood Flower.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Golden Willow Tree (part 1)". The Lomax Kentucky Recordings. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  2. ^ See Dylan bootlegs
  3. ^ "The Reveille, by Andy the Doorbum".
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sweet_Trinity

Source: Mainly Norfolk

The Golden Vanity / The Old Virginia Lowlands

[ Roud 122 ; Child 286 ; G/D 1:37 ; Ballad Index C286 ; Bodleian Roud 122 ; Wiltshire Roud 122 ; trad.]
From W. Bolton, Southport, Lancashire; noted in 1906 by Ann Gilchrist. In some versions of this widespread and well-known ballad with many versions, the enemy is Turkish, Spanish or French. Fundamentally, it is a story of betrayal and rarely does it have a happy ending. Sometimes the boy drowns and his ghost returns to sink his own ship. Mr Bolton explained that the “black bear skin” was the cabin boy’s covering at night; he wished to wear it as a disguise in the water. Version have been reported from Wiltshire and Cornwall, some cite the hero as being Sir Walter Raleigh.

The ballad was also collected by F.J. Child and sung by A.L. Lloyd in 1956 on Volume III of his and Ewan MacColl’s anthology of Child ballads, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Lloyd also later included it in his Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Ewan MacColl sang the ballad as The Sweet Kumadie in 1964 on his and A.L. Lloyd’s Topic album English and Scottish Folk Ballads. This track was included in 2003 on his anthology The Definitive Collection.

Dodie Chalmers of Turriff, Aberdeenshire, sang The Golden Victory to Seamus Ennis on July 16, 1952. This BBC recording was included in 2012 on the anthology Good People, Take Warning (The Voice of the People Volume 23).

Bill Cameron of St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly, sang The Golden Vanity to Peter Kennedy on November 21, 1956. This BBC recording was included on the anthologyThe Child Ballads 2 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 5; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968).

Paddy Bell sang The Golden Vanity, accompanied by Martin Carthy on guitar, in 1965 on her album Paddie Herself. The album’s liner notes commented:

The cabin boy of The Golden Vanity ranks alongside John Henry as one of the indestructible folk heroes. This is a very early ballad, known originally as Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing in the Lowlands, and, as such it was collected by Samuel Pepys. Paddie ignores the Scottish version of the song which gives the boy a happy ending.

The Halliard sang Sailing for the Lowlands Low in 1967 on their Saga album It’s the Irish in Me.

Tony Rose recorded The Golden Vanitee in 1970 for his first album, Young Hunting. He sang a slightly shorter version live at Eagle Tavern, New York, in 1981, leaving out the last but one verse. This recording was included in 2008 on his posthumous CD Exe. Tony Rose commented in the original album’s sleeve notes:

This version of the Golden Vanitee, as taken from Stan Hugill’s Shanties from the Seven Seas, is a particularly detailed one, with perhaps an unexpected element of humour here and there.

Martin Simpson sang Golden Vanity in 1976 as the title track of his Trailer album, Golden Vanity.

Johnny Doughty sang The Golden Vanity at home in Brighton, Sussex, in Summer 1976 to Mike Yates. This recording was published a year later on his 1977 Topic album of traditional songs from the Sussex Coast, Round Rye Bay for More, and in 1996 on the Topic anthology Hidden English: A Celebration of English Traditional Music. Mike Yates commented in the original album’s notes:

Sir Walter Rawleigh has built a ship in the Netherlands,
Sir Walter Rawleigh has built a ship in the Netherlands,
And it is called the Sweet Trinity,
And was taken by the false gallaly,
Sailing in the Lowlands.

So begins a blackletter broadside, “shewing how the famous ship called the Sweet Trinity was taken by a false Gally, and how it was again restored by the craft of a little sea-boy, who sunk the Gally,” that was printed during the period 1682-85 by Joshua Conyers, “at the Black-Raven, the 1st shop in Fetter-lane, next Holborn.”

The history books appear to have missed this particular episode in Raleigh’s life—no doubt because it was a flight of Conyers’, or some other unknown printer’s, imagination; a simple attempt to increase sales by the addition of a romantic and well-known name to an otherwise commonplace tale. Whatever the origin, the ballad certainly caught the popular imagination with the result that more than a hundred sets have been collected throughout England, Scotland, America and Australia. Johnny’s final couplet is, to my knowledge, unique to his version.

Ian Manuel sang The Sweet Kumadie on his 1977 Topic album of Scots traditional songs, The Dales of Caledonia.

The Packmen sang Golden Vanity on their 1978 Fellside album The Packmen’s Blue Record.

Lizzie Higgins sang The Golden Victory on a bonus track of the digital download reissue of her 1985 Lismor album What a Voice.

Cyril Tawney sang The Merry Golden Tree in 1992 on his Neptune Tapes cassette Little Boy Billee. This track was also included in 2007 on his anthologyThe Song Goes On.

Jez Lowe (vocals, guitar) and Linda Adams (concertina) recorded The Golden Vanity in 1993 or 1994 for the Fellside CD A Selection from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

Steeleye Span recorded The Golden Vanity in 1995 during the Time recording sessions. However, it did not appear on this album but was later released on the two Park Records samplers The Best of British Folk Rock and A Stroll Through the Park, and in 2015 on Catch Up—The Essential Steeleye Span.

Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick sang this song as The Old Virginia Lowlands in 1998 on Brass Monkey’s third album Sound and Rumour. Martin Carthy commented in the record’s sleeve notes:

The Old Virginia Lowlands is from one of Stan Hugill’s books. It’s a version of The Golden Vanity from Stan’s family, and must be one of the few versions which is not just a historical curiosity, but a real live, feet-on-the-ground story of real betrayal of real people.

Sandra Kerr, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan sang Sir Walter Raleigh (The Golden Vanity) in 1999 oh their Fellside album Scalene.

Brian Peters & Gordon Tyrrall sang The Green Willow Tree in 2000 on their CD The Moving Moon. In 2008, Brian Peters sang The Golden Vanity on his CDSongs of Trial and Triumph. In 2013 he and Jeff Davis sang The Green Willow Tree, a version collected by Cecil Sharp from Polly Patrick of Manchester, Clay Co., KY, on August 24, 1917, on their CD Sharp’s Appalachian Harvest. Brian Peters commented in his second album’s notes:

There are dozens of versions of The Golden Vanity, with predictable variations in the names of the two ships (in the North American set I recorded with Gordon Tyrrall, for instance, the Turkish Revelry is attacker and Green Willow Tree the victim of unprovoked aggression). This one was collected in1928 by James Madison Carpenter, whose search for ballads, shanties, mummers plays and what-have-you took him the length of Britain in his jalopy. In Cardiff docks he met a seaman, Richard Warner, who sang him this version of the ballad—I’ve not tampered with it, and particularly liked the line “Oh no you foolish youngster”, which may be unique to this version. I’m not sure what “dazzled out her lights” means, come to that.

Bill Whaley and Dave Fletcher sang an English version of The Golden Vanity and Martyn Wyndham-Read an Australian version on the Fellside album of English traditional songs and their Australian variants, Song Links.

John Roberts sang The Golden Vanity in 2004 at the 25th Annual Sea Music Festival at Mystic Seaport.

Emma Williamson sang The Golden Vanity in 2004 at “Folk on the Pier” which celebrated 200 years of Cromer’s lifeboats. It was issued on their CD Someone Was Calling.

Bob Fox sang Golden Vanity in 2006 on his Topic CD The Blast.

Loudon Wainwright III sang Turkish Revelry in 2006 on Hal Willner’s album of pirate ballads, sea songs and chanteys, Rogue’s Gallery.

The Askew Sisters sang The Old Virginia Lowlands in 2007 on their WildGoose CD All in a Garden Green. They commented in their liner notes:

This version of The Golden Vanity is originally from Stan Hugill’s great book Shanties from the Seven Seas where it’s called the Five Gallon Jar. We first heard it from the singing of Brass Monkey. It is rumoured to have been based on a ballad from the seventeenth century about the conduct of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was less popular in his time than modern legend portrays.

Faustus sang The Green Willow Tree in 2008 on their eponymous Navigator CD, Faustus.

Lori Watson and Rule of Three sang Golden Vanity in 2009 on her CD Pleasure’s Coin.

The Outside Track sang The Turkish Revery in 2010 on their CD Curious Things Given Wings. They commented in their liner notes:

We added this pirate song to “arrrh” repertoire after Norah [Rendell] learned it from guitarist and singer, Dáithí Sproule, who found it in his mother’s Burl Ives LP.

Alasdair Roberts sang The Golden Vanity in 2010 on his CD Too Long in This Condition.

Sara Grey sang The Merry Willow Tree in 2013 on her CD Down in Old Dolores. She commented in her liner notes:

Also known as The Sweet Trinity, The Lowlands Low and The Golden Vanity. Recorded by John Quincy Wolf, Jr. and is in the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas. This is one of my favourite versions from the singing of Almeda Riddle of Timbo, AR.

A broadside of 1682-85, in which Sir Walter Raleigh plays the ungrateful captain, seems to have been the ultimate ancestor of the abundant traditional copies of this ballad found in the British Isles and America. Sir Walter has dropped out entirely; the ship’s name now appears variously as Golden Tree, Golden China Tree, Golden Willow Tree, Golden Erilee. Most traditional versions persist with the melancholy ending in which the cabin boy is cheated of his earned reward, but many American singers sentimentalise the conclusion, bestowing the captain’s daughter, wealth and other honours on the hero.

Andy Turner learned The Golden Vanity from Everyman’s Book of British Ballads, edited by Roy Palmer. He sang Johnny Doughty’s version of this song as the July 25, 2015 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Matt Quinn learned The Golden Vanity from the singing of Johnny Doughty and recorded it for his 2017 CD The Brighton Line. He commented:

Mike Yates recorded this song in 1976 in Johnny’s home. Versions of this song appear all over the world, sometimes called The Old Virginia Lowlands or The Sweet Trinity.

Lyrics

Tony Rose sings The Golden Vanitee

And there once was a captain who was boasting on the quay:
“Oh I have a ship and a gallant ship is she.
Of all the ships I know she is the best for me
And she’s sailing in the lowlands low.”

Chorus (after each verse; repeating its last line):
In the lowlands, lowlands,
She’s sailing in the lowlands low

“Well I had her built in the North Country
And I had her christened the Golden Vanitee.
I armed her and I manned her and I sent her off to sea
And she’s sailing in the lowlands low.”

Oh well then up stepped a sailor who has just returned from sea:
“Oh I was aboard of the Golden Vanitee
When we was held in chase by a Spanish piratee
And we sank ’em in the lowlands low.”

Oh well, we had aboard us a little cabin boy
Who said, “What will you give me if the galley I destroy?”
“I’ll give to you my daughter, she is my pride and joy,
If you sink them in the lowlands low.”

So the boy bared his breast and he plunged into the tide.
He swam until he came to the rascal pirate’s side;
He climbed on board, he went below, by none was he espied,
And he sank ’em in the lowlands low.”

Oh well he bore her with his auger, he bore her once or twice,
And some was playing cards and some was playing dice.
But when he let the water in, it dazzled at their eyes
And he sank ’em in the lowlands low.”

Oh yes, some was playing cards and some was playing dice,
And some was in their hammocks a-sportin’ with their wives.
But when he let the water in, it pulled out all their lives,
And he sank them in the lowlands low.

So then the cabin boy he swam unto the larboard side
Saying, “Captain, take me up for I am drowning in the tide.”
“I’ll shoot you and I’ll kill you if you claim my child as bride,
And I’ll sink you in the lowlands low.”

So then the cabin boy he swam unto the starboard side
Saying, “Messmates, take me up for I am drifting with the tide.”
They took him up so quickly but when on deck, he died,
And they buried him in the lowlands low.

Oh yes, they took him up so quickly but when on deck, he died,
And they sewed him in his hammock that was so strong and wide.
They said a short prayer over him and dropped him in the tide
And they sailed from the lowlands low.

Well here’s a curse onto the Captain wherever he may be
For taking that poor cabin boy so far away to sea;
For taking that poor cabin boy so far away to sea
And to leave him in the lowlands low.

Johnny Doughty sings The Golden Vanity

A fair ship is mine called the Golden Vanity
And she sails just now by the north country.
But I fear that she’ll be taken by a Spanish gallalee
As we sailed by the lowlands low.

Chorus (after each verse; repeating its last line):
By the lowlands low,
As we sailed by the lowlands low.

“What will you give to me?” asked the little cabin boy,
“If I venture to that Spanish ship, the ship that doth annoy?
I will wreck the gallalee, you may peace of mind enjoy
As we sail by the lowlands low.”

The Captain said, “Now with you my lad I’ll share
All my treasure and my wealth, you shall have my daughter fair,
If this Spanish ship you nobly sink and ease me of my care
As we sail by the lowlands low.”

Then boldly the lad did he leap into the sea
And an auger very sharp and thin he carried carefully.
And he swam the mighty billows ’til he reached the gallalee
Where she sank by the lowlands low.

Then back to the ship the little hero hied
And he begged the crew to haul him up upon the larboard side.
“You can sink for me, you little dog!” the ungrateful Captain cried
As we sail by the lowlands low.

Was there ever half a tale so sad
As this tale of the sea
Where we sailed by the lowlands low?

Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick sing The Old Virginia Lowlands

Once there was a skipper, he was boasting on the quay,
Saying: “I have a ship, and a gallant ship is she,
Oh I have a ship, and a gallant ship is she.
Of all the ships that I do know she’s far the best to me.”

In the old Virginia Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

“Oh I had her built in the north country
And I had her christened the Golden Vanity,
Oh I had her christened the Golden Vanity,
I armed her and I manned her and I sent her off to sea.”

In the old Virginia Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

Then up spoke a sailor who had just returned from sea:
Oh I served on board of the Golden Vanity,
Oh I served on board of the Golden Vanity,
When she was held in chase by a Spanish piratee.”

In the old Virginia Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

“And we had on board of us a little cabin boy,
Who said: “ What will you give me if the galleon I destroy
Oh what will you give me if the galleon I destroy?”
“Oh you will get my daughter, she is my pride and joy.”

If you sink them in the Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

So the boy bared his breast and he plunged into the tide,
And he swam and he swam to the rascal pirate’s side,
He swam and he swam to the rascal pirate’s side,
And he climbed on deck and he went below and none did him espy.

And he sank them in the Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

He bore with his auger, he bore once and twice,
And some were playing cards and some were playing dice,
The water it flowed in and it dazzled their eyes,
The water it flowed in and it pulled out all their lives.

And he sank them in the Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

Well he swam and he swam all to the starboard side,
Saying: “Captain take me up, I am drifting with the tide,
Oh Captain take me up,” but so loud the Captain cried:
“I will shoot you, I will kill you, you shall not have your bride.”

I will sink you in the Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

The shipmates took him up and on the deck he died,
They sewed him in his hammock which was so strong and wide,
They sewed him in his hammock it was so strong and wide,
They prayed for him, they sang for him, they sunk him in the tide.

In the old Virginia Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

My curse be on you, Captain, wherever you may be,
My curse be on the captain of the Golden Vanity,
In waking and in sleeping, until your dying day,
For you gave your oath to him and you did him betray.

In the old Virginia Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

In the old Virginia Lowlands
Lowlands low
In the old Virginia Lowlands low

Jez Lowe sings The Golden Vanity Steeleye Span sing The Golden Vanity
It’s I’ve got a ship in the north country,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And I fear she may be took by the Spanish enemy,
As she sails in the Lowland sea,
As she sails in the Lowland low.		 I know a ship in the north country
Down in the Lowlands low,
And I fear she may be took by the Spanish enemy,
Down in the Lowland sea
And up then stepped a little cabin boy,
Down in the Lowlands low,
Saying: “What will you give me if I do them destroy
And sink them in the Lowland sea
And sink them in the Lowlands low?”		 Up on the deck stepped a little cabin boy,
Down in the Lowlands low,
Saying: “What will you give me if I do them destroy
And sink them in the Lowland sea?”
“Oh, I’ll give you silver and likewise gold,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And my only daughter for to be your bride,
If you’ll sink them in the Lowland sea,
If you’ll sink them in the Lowlands low.”		 “Oh, I’ll give you silver and I will give you gold,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And my only daughter for to be your bride,
If you sink them in the Lowland sea,
Sink them in the Lowlands low.”

Chorus
Lowlands low,
Lowland sea
“Oh wrap me up in my black bear skin,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And heave me overboard for to sink or to swim,
And I’ll sink them in the Lowland sea
I’ll sink them in the Lowlands low.”		 “Oh wrap me up in my black bear skin,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And throw me overboard for to sink or to swim,
Down in the Lowland sea.”
Now some were playing cards and others playing dice,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And the boy he had an auger, bored two holes at once,
And he sunk them in the Lowland sea,
And he sunk them in the Lowlands low.”		 Now some were playing cards and others playing dice,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And the boy he had an auger and he bored two holes at once,
And he sunk them in the Lowland sea.
He leaned upon his breast and he swam back again,
Down in the Lowlands low,
Saying “Master, take me up, for I’m sure I will be slain,
And I’ve sunk them in the Lowland sea,
And I’ve sunk them in the Lowlands low.”		 He leaned upon his breast and he swam back again,
Down in the Lowlands low,
Saying “Master, take me up, for I fear I will be slain,
And I sunk them in the Lowlands low,
I sunk them in the Lowland sea.”

Chorus
“Oh, I’ll not take you up,” the master he cried,
Down in the Lowlands low,
“But I’ll shoot you and I’ll kill you and send you with the tide,
And I’ll drown you in the Lowland sea,
And I’ll drown you in the Lowlands low.”		 “Oh, I’ll not take you up,” the master he cried,
Down in the Lowlands low,
“But I’ll shoot you and I’ll kill you and I’ll send you with the tide,
And I’ll drown you in the Lowland sea”
He leaned upon his breast and swam round the larboard side,
Down in the Lowlands low,
“Oh messmates, take me up for I fear I will been slain,
And I’ve sunk her in the Lowland sea,
And I’ve sunk her in the Lowlands low.”		 He leaned upon his breast and he swam to the larboard side,
Down in the Lowlands low,
Saying: “Messmates, take me up for I fear I have been slain,
And I sunk them in the Lowland sea”
His messmates took him up, and on the deck he died,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And they wrapped him up in an old cow’s hide,
And they sunk him in the Lowland sea,
And sunk him in the Lowlands low.		 They took him up, and on the deck he died,
Down in the Lowlands low,
And they wrapped him up in an old cow’s hide,
And they sunk him in the Lowland sea,
They sunk him in the Lowlands low.

Chorus

Brian Peters sings The Golden Vanity

Now there was a bonny ship in the North country,
The name that she went under was the Golden Vanity.
I fear she will be taken by the Turkish privateer
As she sails along the lowlands low,
As she sails along the lowlands low.

Chorus (after each verse):
In the lowlands, in the lowlands,
As she sails along the lowlands low

Now the first that come on deck was the little cabin boy,
“Captain what’ll you give to me if I do them destroy?”
“I’ll give you gold and silver, my daughter for your bride
If you’ll sink them in the Lowlands low,
If you’ll sink them in the Lowlands low.”

So the captain held the keel light, and overboard he goes.
He swam ‘til he came to the Turkish privateer,
He’s let the water in and he’s dazzled out her lights
And he sank her in the lowands low,
And he sank her in the lowands low.

So it’s back to the ship so quickly he swam,
“Captain, captain, pick me up my work I’ve bravely done.
Captain, pick me up, for I’m sinking in the sea,
I’m sinking in the lowlands low,
And I’m sinking in the lowlands low.”

“Pick you up, pick you up?” the captain said he,
“Oh no, you foolish youngster, that will never be.
For I’m going to send you after the Turkish Ivory
And I’ll sink you in the lowlands low,
And I’ll sink you in the lowlands low.”

So he swam around the ship all to the starboard side,
“Shipmates, shipmate, pick me up, I’m sinking in the tide.
Shipmates, pick me up, for I’m sinking in the sea,
I’m sinking in the lowlands low,
And I’m sinking in the lowlands low.”

So his shipmates picked him up, and on the deck he died.
They sewed him in his hammock, which was both long and wide;
They sewed him in his hammock and they threw him o’er the side
And they sank him in the lowlands low,
And they sank him in the lowlands low.

Acknowledgements and Links

See also the Mudcat Café thread Golden Vanity Variants.

The words of Jez Lowe’s and Steeleye Span’s versions are from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, eds Ralph Vaughan Williams & A.L. Lloyd, Penguin, 1959. The variations in the actual singing were transcribed by Reinhard Zierke with thanks for help to Garry Gillard.

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You can't kill time without wounding eternity. ~Henry David Thoreau       Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...but don't let it totally define your day. Most of us see a snow day as an unexpected vacation day, though really what it is could be called "a day of...
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The Mystery in the Cradle

by | December 25, 2013 | Journal | 0 Comments

This picture is from Christmas eleven years ago when Tommy was only two weeks old, and now all of them—and Gio and Pipo--are playing charades or some such game in the dining room, shouting and laughing at each other's miscues and fortifying another enduring memory...
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Wrenching Day

by | July 13, 2017 | Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

It has certainly been a long time since wisdom ruled the day. I did get up and run in the rain, and now I am preparing to do some “wrenching” on my motorcycle. I am trying to temper my eagerness to ride with my desire to get everything “right” on the bike--without...
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Weeds

by | August 8, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

  Somewhere locked in this choke of weeds spread like a mangy carpet is the hardened vine of Pipo’s Concord Grape he planted in an eager spring three years ago. Gasping for air and sun and water perhaps it has found some way to hide from my flailing hoe and the...
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Calvary

by | August 23, 2014 | Out of the Forge, Songs | 0 Comments

It seems like it ain’t been a long time,
But I’m damn pleased your coming by again.
It’s been a while since we sat down and rambled
About this and that and why and who and then
You said that you had to get a move on,
Move on and leave a space behind.
So I spent a while hitting all those old roads:
Old friends and kicking down the wine.

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Kampuchea

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I stutter for normality across the river from black men fishing for kibbers and horned pout. Barefoot children rounded bellies curled navels stalk the turtle sunning on a log. lonely in the field grass lonely on the curbstones I stutter for normality. Not a mother...
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The Value of a Classic

by | November 24, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

“Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read.” ~Mark Twain A note to my 8th grade class:      All of you are supposedly reading a classic book, but what Twain says is true: few of us go thirsty to the well and willingly read the greatest works of literature...
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Denise

by | August 14, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

There is something about coming hometo this empty house, yesterday'sheavy downpours scouringclean the alreadyweathered deckwhere I sitwishing for,wanting,you.
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Paris: 11/13/15

by | November 14, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

It is a sad day for humanity. Another sad day on top of many others happening every day--many in places we hear about only obliquley and sometimes not at all. Paris is that much closer to home for most of us here and in Europe, but freedom and tolerance has to...
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Superman

by | August 12, 2014 | Dawghouse, Songs | 0 Comments

There’s a little blonde boy in a superman cape
Racing around the back yard;
Sayin’, “Daddy don’t you know I can fly to the moon;
I’m gonna bring you back some stars.
And after that I’m gonna save the world”
Cause I’m superman today.”
I scoop that boy right into my arms,
And this is what I say:

You don’t need a cape to be a hero
You’ve got all the special powers that you need
Your smile’s enough to save the world from evil
And you’ll always be superman to me

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What Are We Afraid Of?

by | March 28, 2022 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Good intentions are easily hobbled by inaction. There has always been a murky and muddied No Mans Land in every war where the evil and the righteous trade the moral high ground. This is not the case in Ukraine. Putin’s actions are evil--pure, unmitigated, unprovoked...
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Grandma’s Words

by | April 24, 2018 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

In the beginning was the word... ~Genesis       We do not live in Grandma’s world of words, and neither did grandma live in her grandma’s world of words and on and on and so on in a downwards devolution through untold millennia. From primal grunts, whistles and...
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The Emperor’s New Clothes

by | February 8, 2019 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn't there at...
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The Philanthropy of Maynard

by | December 13, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

 I woke up today with chores on my mind. My buddy Josh LoPresti lent me his woodsplitter, and I had dreams of a mindless day splitting wood and heaving it into a pile for my kids to stack along the fence. But the dryer was broken, and it needed to be fixed. Margret's...
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Garden Woman

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I woke today and had my tea
and at the window spent the morning:
the same scene I’ve seen so many times
is each day freshly born;
from the ground I turn each spring and fall
come the flowers sweetly blooming;
you disappear among the weeds—
you are the garden woman.

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Dallas: 7/7/2016

by | July 8, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

I woke up this morning almost too fearful to read the news. I stayed up late into the night just watching for the breaking stories and updates. Now, I am simplyconfused about how to act. I feel incredibly small and pointless, unsure of where I stand and how to move...
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Searching for an Alibi

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

Here I am out on the road again
and it feels longer than it was back then;
when I was younger, man, it saw me through—
now it don’t do
what I want it to—

Too ra loo ra loo ra lady I—
I’m just out searching for an alibi
Too ra loo ra loo ra lady I
I’m just out searching for an alibi.

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What’s in a Song

by | May 4, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. ~Plato         Writing a song is not just an exercise in seeking some kind of future fame. It is...
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Know Thyself…

by | September 29, 2017 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Writing a Metacognition Know Thyself… Explore, Assess, Reflect & Rethink If we don’t learn from what we do, we learn little of real value. If we don’t make the time to explore, reflect and rethink our ways of doing things we will never grow, evolve and reach our...
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Reflecting on Literature

by | March 27, 2017 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

I am constantly asking my students (and myself) to reflect on the literature they, and I, read. As I have grown older—and not necessarily wiser—I find myself only reading literature that I am sure will prod me out of my intellectual and emotional torpor, like a lizard...
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Redemption

by | October 3, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Finally, the tall green pines standing sentinel around this cold and black New Hampshire pond are framed in a sky of blue. After a month of steady rains, foggy nights, and misty days, I am reborn into a newly created world—a world that finally answered my prayers: no...
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A Redemptive Moment

by | November 15, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

I see the clock ticking towards 7:00. The kids are deep in their weekday world of homework, juggling soccer balls around the house, watching TV, but I am in my “got to rally” and get to the inn mode that happens very Thursday. Tonight I am tired. I’ll admit it, but...
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The Inn

by | November 21, 2013 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Every Thursday, for some thirty years, I have been spending this same time each week wrapping up the loose ends of the day before heading down to the inn to play to whomever and whatever shows up. Tonight looks like a fun night: Maroghini will be with me for his last...
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Shane

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

It’s been too long feeling sorry for myself.
It’s been too long with my life up on the shelf.
Sometimes wish that I was Shane—
shoot Jack Palance, and disappear again;
don’t have no one
don’t want no one
don’t miss no one:
living lonely with a saddle and a gun.

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Canobie lake

by | June 3, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Going to Canobie Lake is always the turning point of the year for me. It is like some primal signal that It is time to turn away from the school year and towards the future.  Obviously, it is my hope that you learned some useful skills this year, but, more...
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Goathouse

by | July 12, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

In reaching for the scythe I’m reminded of the whetstone and the few quick strokes by which it was tested— the hardness of hot August; the burning of ticks off dog backs. It’s winter now in this garage made barn, and the animals seem only curious that I’d be here so...
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Another Wednesday

by | April 20, 2016 | Journal | 0 Comments

        It is a good night for meatballs. The same meal we have cooked every Wednesday night for thirteen years and counting. Tonight is a beautiful and warm night of vacation week, so more than likely we will have a big crowd joining us—but we never know who. The...
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Ring of Fire: The Power of Simplicity

by | March 28, 2017 | Journal, Songs, Teaching, The American Folk Experience | 0 Comments

In fifth grade my mother finally let me go to the Concord Music store and buy a "45" single.  I bought Johnny Cash’s version of “Ring of Fire” written by his future wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore, a noted country songwriter of his day. There was no doubt in my...
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A Late Night Metacognition

by | April 13, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after ~Henry David Thoreau           When you need something done, find a busy person to help you get it done. My mother loved repeating that to me all the way to her dying day,...
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What a Picture Tells

by | May 6, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"Zou Ma Guan Hua" You can't ride a horse and smell the flowers ~Chinese Proverb Sometimes I love just browsing through old folders of pictures of my kids when they were just kids in every sense of the word. Just seeing the pictures is a visceral experience for me as I...
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Contact John Fitzsimmons...and thanks!

Lord Randal

Lord Randal

by | Mar 7, 2017

The Ancient Ballads

Lord Randal

The American Folk Experience

Lord Randal

by John Fitzsimmons | The American Folk Experience

Child Ballad #12

Oh, where have you been, Lord Randal, my son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I have been with my sweetheart, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son?
And what did she give you, my darling young one?
Eels boiled in brew, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

What’s become of your bloodhounds, Lord Randal, my son?
What’s become of your bloodhounds, my darling young one?
Oh they swelled and they died, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

Oh, I fear you are poisoned, Lord Randal, my son
Oh, I fear you are poisoned, my darling young one.
Oh, yes I am poisoned, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

Oh, what will you leave your brother, Lord Randal my son?
Oh, what will you leave your brother, my darling young one?
My horse and the saddle, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

What will you leave your sister, Lord Randal, my son?
What will you leave your sister, my darling young one?

My gold box and rings, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

What will you leave your true love, Lord Randal, my son?
What will you leave your true love, my darling young one?
The tow and the halter to hang on yon tree
And let her hang there for the poisoning of me.

If you have any more information to share about this song or helpful links, please post as a comment. Thanks for stopping by the site! ~John Fitz

I am indebted to the many friends who share my love of traditional songs and to the many scholars whose works are too many to include here. I am also incredibly grateful to the collector’s curators and collators of Wikipedia, Mudcat.org, MainlyNorfolk.info, and TheContemplator.com for their wise, thorough and informative contributions to the study of folk music. 

I share their research on my site with humility, thanks, and gratitude. Please cite their work accordingly with your own research. If you have any research or sites you would like to share on this site, please post in the comment box.  Thanks!

Source: Wikipedia

For other uses, see Lord Randall (disambiguation).

"Lord Randall"
Illustration by Arthur Rackham in Some British Ballads, ca. 1919
Song
Written17th century (earliest known)
GenreBorder ballad, folk song
Songwriter(s)Unknown

"Lord Randall", or "Lord Randal", (Roud 10, Child 12) is an Anglo-Scottish border ballad[1] consisting of dialogue between a young Lord and his mother.[2] Similar ballads can be found across Europe in many languages, including Danish, German, Magyar, Irish, Swedish, and Wendish.[3] [4] Italian variants are usually titled "L'avvelenato [it]" ("The Poisoned Man") or "Il testamento dell'avvelenato" ("The Poisoned Man's Will"), the earliest known version being a 1629 setting by Camillo il Bianchino, in Verona.[5] Under the title "Croodlin Doo" Robert Chambers published a version in his "Scottish Ballads" (1829) page 324.[6][7]

Summary

Lord Randall returns home to his mother after visiting his lover. Randall explains that his lover gave him a dinner of eels boiled in broo and that his hunting dogs died after eating the scraps of the meal, leading his mother to realize that he has been poisoned.[8][9] In some variants, Randall dictates his last will and testament in readiness for his impending death, dividing his possessions among family members and wishing damnation on his lover. Her motive for poisoning him is never discussed.[9]

Traditional recordings

Many traditional versions of the ballad survived long enough to be recorded by folklorists and ethnomusicologists.

Most traditional English versions are called "Henry, My Son". Dorset traveller Caroline Hughes sang a version to Peter Kennedy in 1968[10] and another to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in the early 1960s which can be heard online on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[11] Fred Jordan of Ludlow, Shropshire also sang "Henry, My Son" to Mike Yates in 1964[12] and Gwilym Davies in 1994.[13] Louisa Hooper of Somerset, England (sister of the traditional singer Lucy White) was recorded singing a version entitled "Lord Rendal" by the BBC and Douglas Cleverdon in 1942.[14]

James Madison Carpenter recorded many Scottish versions between 1929 and 1935, which can also be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.[15][16][17][18] Russian tenor Vladimir Rosing recorded "Lord Rendal", the Somerset version arranged by Cecil Sharp, on Vocalion A-0167 in the early 1920s. Scottish singer Betsy Miller sang her traditional version with her famous son Ewan MacColl to Alan Lomax in 1953[19] and on the 1960 album A Garland Of Scots Folksong.[20][21] Scottish traveller Jeannie Robertson had her version entitled "Lord Donald" recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1953[22] and again by the BBC in 1963,[23] and her nephew Stanley Robertson was later recorded singing the same version,[24][25] the audio of which is available on the Tobar an Dualchais website.[26]

The Irish traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin was recorded several times singing a version called Lord Rendal.[27][28][29] The Irish sean nós singer Joe Heaney sang an Irish language version titled Amhrán na hEascainne (Song of the Eel).[30]

Several Appalachian musicians recorded the ballad; Jean Ritchie sang the Ritchie family version on the album Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition,[31] whilst Frank Proffitt was recorded singing another traditional version in 1961.[32] The ballad was also collected extensively throughout the rest of America.[33]

Modern traditional artists continue to tell the Lord Randall story. Examples include Martin Carthy, Steeleye Span and June Tabor,[34] and Faun included a traditional version on their 2022 album Pagan.[35]

Cultural uses

Dorothy L. Sayers' 1930 novel Strong Poison uses part of the ballad for a title, and has it as epigraph.

In 1962, Bob Dylan modeled his song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" on "Lord Randall", introducing each verse with variants of the introductory lines to each verse of "Lord Randall". Dylan's ballad is often interpreted as a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Dylan himself disclaimed this as an oversimplification, and in reality, Dylan first publicly performed the song a month before the crisis.[36][37]

The song features prominently in The Proof of My Innocence, a novel by Jonathan Coe published in 2024.[38]

See also

References

  1. ^ Border Ballads By William Beattie, Compiled by William Beattie, Published by Penguin Books, 1952, p. 17
  2. ^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Lord Randal"
  3. ^ Leonhardt, Luise (1968). "Spin Magazine article on Finding Folk Songs". Spin Magazine. 6 (4): 17.
  4. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v. 1, pp. 153–55, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  5. ^ Alessandro D'Ancona, La poesia popolare italiana Livorno, 1878, cf. L'avvelenato [it]
  6. ^ Vaugan Williams, Ralph. "Mr". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Cecil Sharp House. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  7. ^ Matteson jnr, Richard. "Mr". Bluegrassmessengers. www.bluegrassmessengers. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  8. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v. 1, p. 153, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  9. ^ a b Hallissy, Margaret (1987). Venomous woman: fear of the female in literature. New York: Greenwood Press. p. 24. ISBN 0313259194. OCLC 15790392.
  10. ^ "Henry My Son (Roud Folksong Index S208024)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Henry My Son (Roud Folksong Index S370306)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  12. ^ "Henry My Son (Roud Folksong Index S302186)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Henry My Son (Roud Folksong Index S237686)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  14. ^ "Lord Rendal (Roud Folksong Index S182618)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Lord Randal (VWML Song Index SN17894)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  16. ^ "Lord Randle (VWML Song Index SN17099)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  17. ^ "Lord Roland (VWML Song Index SN19385)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  18. ^ "Lord Randle (VWML Song Index SN17133)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  19. ^ "Lord Randall (Roud Folksong Index S341570)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Lord Randal (Roud Folksong Index S346064)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  21. ^ "Betsy Miller and Ewan MacColl - A Garland Of Scots Folksong". ewan-maccoll.info. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  22. ^ "Lord Donald (Roud Folksong Index S213594)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  23. ^ "Lord Donald (Roud Folksong Index S182538)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  24. ^ "Lord Donald (Roud Folksong Index S433874)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  25. ^ "Lord Donald (Roud Folksong Index S433873)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  26. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais Kist O Riches". www.tobarandualchais.co.uk. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  27. ^ "Lord Rendal (Roud Folksong Index S182619)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  28. ^ "Lord Randal (Roud Folksong Index S448301)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  29. ^ "Lord Randal (Roud Folksong Index S243505)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  30. ^ "Bluegrass Messengers - the Song of the Eel- Heaney (Ireland) pre-1964".
  31. ^ "Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  32. ^ "Lord Randall (Roud Folksong Index S213866)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  33. ^ "Search: RN10 sound USA". www.vwml.org. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  34. ^ "Lord Randall / Henry My Son / What Had You for Supper / Buried in Kilkenny". Mainly Norfolk. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
  35. ^ "Faun – Pagan (2022) – Review". Rock Music Raider. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  36. ^ Marqusee, Mike (2005). Wicked messenger: Bob Dylan and the 1960s. Seven Stories Press. pp. 64ff. ISBN 978-1583226865.
  37. ^ Shelton, Robert (2003). No direction home: the life and music of Bob Dylan. Da Capo Press. p. 152. ISBN 978-0140102963.
  38. ^ Jordan, Justine (8 November 2024). "The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe review – ingenious cosy crime spoof". The Guardian.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Randall

Source: Mainly Norfolk

Lord Randall / What Had You for Supper / Buried in Kilkenny / The Wild, Wild Berry

[ Roud 10 ; Child 12 ; G/D 2:209 ; Ballad Index C012 ; Wiltshire 1149 ; trad.]

Lord Randall is an Anglo-Scottish border ballad built in the form of a dialogue. The different versions follow the same general lines, the primary character (in this case Randall, but varying by location) is poisoned, usually by his sweetheart. This is revealed through a conversation where he reports on the events and the poisoner. Variants of this ballad are found all over Europe.

Ewan MacColl’s singing of Lord Randall is the very first track of the massive eight-record Riverside series of Child ballads, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, first published in 1956.

A medley of Jeannie Robertson, Aberdeen, Elizabeth Cronin, Macroom, Co. Cork, Thomas Moran, Mohill, Co. Leitrim, Colm McDonagh, Carna, Galway, and Eirlys and Eddis Thomas, Glamorgan, South Wales singing Lord Randal was included on the anthology The Child Ballads 2 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 4; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968).

The Elliotts of Birtley sang Henry My Son in 1961 on their eponymous Folkways album, The Elliotts of Birtley.

Frank Proffitt sang Lord Randall on the 1962 Folk-Legacy album Traditional Songs and Ballads of Appalachia that was reissued in 1966 as the Topic album North Carolina Songs and Ballads.

Joe Heaney sang An Tighearna Randal (Lord Randal) on his 1963 Topic album Irish Traditional Songs in Gaelic & English.

Frank Harte sang Henry My Son in 1967 on his Topic album Dublin Street Songs.

Cyril Tawney sang this song as Jacky My Son in 1969 on his Polydor album of traditional ballads from Devon and Cornwall, The Outlandish Knight.

George Dunn sang Henry My Son in a recording made by Roy Palmer on September 21, 1971 that was included in 2002 on his Musical Traditions anthologyChainmaker. Another recording made by Bill Leader on December 4-5, 1971 was published in 1975 on the Leader album George Dunn.

Martin Carthy sang Lord Randall on his 1972 album, Shearwater; this recording was also included on his anthology Carthy Chronicles. He recorded a different version in 1979 for his album Because It’s There which was reissued in 1993 on The Collection. Martin Carthy commented in the first album’s sleeve notes:

Lord Randall and John Blunt must be among the more widespread story-ideas in the folk consciousness, the stories remaining more or less the same and varying according to locale and-or the individual imagination of whoever sings them. […] I have to thank Phil and Sid of Edinburgh for the original idea which led me recasting the tune sung to Lord Randall, known as My Wee Croodlin’ Doo.

Steve Winick commented in the sleeve notes of The Collection:

Lord Randall is one of the most widely-known ballads in the English-speaking world, and indeed the plot is common to much of western Europe. This version, which Martin learned “virtually by accident”, comes originally from Sonny Ryan and is a rather compressed one in which the unfortunate boy knows his fate from the beginning, rendering unnecessary the song’s usual progress through various clues to a dark revelation. It is a superb example of Martin’s passionate unaccompanied singing of the old ballads.

George Spicer sang Henry My Son in a recording made at home in 1972-74 by Mike Yates on his Topic album Blackberry Fold: Traditional Songs and Ballads. This track was also included in 2001 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from the Mike Yates Collection, Up in the North and Down in the South.

John MacDonald sang Lord Ronald in a recording made by Tony Engle and Tony Russell in the singer’s caravan, Pitgaveny, Elgin, Morayshire, in November 1974. This recording was published in 1975 on his album The Singing Molecatcher of Morayshire and in 1998 on the Topic anthology O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Volume 3). A recording of Mary Delaney singing Buried in Kilkenny at home in Hackney London on October 14, 1977 was published in Volume 17 of the same series, It Fell on a Day, a Bonny Summer Day.

Tony Rose sang this ballad as Lord Rendal on his 1976 LP On Banks of Green Willow. He commented in the album notes:

Lord Rendal is the classic food-poisoning balled, dedicated here to the crisp eaters of Britain’s folk clubs. This version is from Mrs. Louie Hooper of Hambridge, Somerset, via Cecil Sharp, neither of whom had that particular problem to contend with.

Dick Gaughan sang Lord Randal on his 1977 Trailer album Kist o’ Gold.

Peter Bellamy recorded Lord Randall in 1985 for his album Second Wind. According to his sleeve notes he learned it from a Ewan MacColl recording:

The search for authentic blues recordings—not too easy in Norfolk around 1959—brought me my first contact with British Isles traditional music. An American anthology LP was borrowed from a school mate because it contained a track by Reverend Gary Davis, but there with it was Something Completely Different: someone called Ewan MacColl was singing Lord Randall, learned from his mother, Betsy Miller. A new world opened up; the high drama of the performance of this dark mediaeval tale grabbed me, literally by the throat, and never let me go. A pilgrimage to the Singers’ Club in 1962 or ’63 brought me face to face with the man himself, and I can’t deny that the impression he made has been a major influence on my approach to performance unto the present.

Lizzie Higgins sang Lord Donald at the Blairgowrie Folk Festival in between 1986 and 1995. This recording was included in 2000 on the festival anthology The Blair Tapes.

Ray Driscoll of Dulwich, London, sang a variant of this story, called The Wild, Wild Berry, to Mike Yates on April 5, 1989. This recording was included in 1998 on the EFDSS anthology A Century of Song. Another recording made by Gwilym Davies is the title track of Driscoll’s 2008 CD Wild, Wild Berry. Gwilym Davies commented in the album notes:

The gem of Ray’s repertoire and unique to him. Ray learnt this song, as The Death of Queen Jane, from the itinerant farm labourer Harry Civil in Shropshire. The story is clearly the same as Lord Randal but reworked. It is not clear whether the song is a old revival or is the product of 19thCentury re-working. Whatever the truth, the song has struck a chord with many revival folk singers on both sides of the Atlantic who are now performing it.

Bram Taylor sang Lord Randal in 1992 on the Fellside anthology of English traditional songs, Voices. Paul Adams commented in the liner notes:

One of the most widespread and indestructible of the “big” ballads. The story has cropped up all over Europe and the Scandinavian countries. It is No. 12 in Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads and it can be seen to share some similarities with other ballads, notably Edward(Child 13) and The Two Brothers (Child 49). It has also spawned some less epic versions in the form of Henry My Son and a comic version of Henry My Son (sometimes called Green & Yellow). Bram’s is a particular fine example, possessing a superb melody and was collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs. Louie Hooper of Hambridge, Somerset.

The Clutha sang Lord Ronald in 1996 on their CD On the Braes.

Bob Johnson collated and adapted the words of Lord Randall and sang it on Steeleye Span’s album of 1998, Horkstow Grange. He commented in the sleeve notes:

The entire song consists of a tense dialogue between Lord Randall and his mother, during which dawns the awful realisation that he has been poisoned by his lover and is going to die. But why did she poison him? Why is his mother’s questioning so quick and skillful at reaching the diagnosis? Did she collude with his girlfriend? Why is Lord Randall so ready to give up and die? Is it the knowledge of the betrayal that has removed his will to live? We don’t know; Lord Randall doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. He is sick to the heart and he just wants to lie down.

The Witches of Elswick sang Lord Randal—with verses starting quite similar to Tony Rose’s—in 2003 on their first album, Out of Bed, and they drily commented:

Bry convinced our friend Colin that this was a true story about someone she knew called “Lord Randal”, even down to the exploding bloodhound (that doesn’t appear in our version). It is, in fact, one of the Child ballads learnt from the singing of Bram Taylor.

Paddy Reilly sang Buried in Kilkenny on the 2003 Musical Traditions anthology From Puck to Appleby: Songs of Irish Travellers in England.

Fred Jordan sang Henry My Son on the 2004 Musical Traditions anthology of songs from the Mike Yates Collection, The Birds Upon the Tree.

John Kirkpatrick sang The Wild, Wild Berry in 2007 on his Fledg’ling CD Make No Bones. He also recorded it as Lord Randal in 2012 for his CD of Shropshire folk music, Every Mortal Place. He commented in the latter album’s liner notes:

Another song based in the singing of Ray Driscoll—this time one that he really did pick up while he was living in Shropshire. Versions of this tale have been sung all over Europe for hundreds of years, and in the long winter evenings of times gone by the number of verses could run into the hundreds too! The order of the verses in Ray’s version implies a slightly unusual and more engaging way for the story to unfold, and I’ve emphasised this by picking appropriate lines from the million other variants available.

Cara recorded the ballad under the title Poisoned Peas in 2007 for their second album, In Between Times, and later performed it live at the Arsenaal Theater in Vlissingen, Netherlands, on their 2008 DVD In Full Swing—Live. In the CD notes they cite Martin Carthy’s arrangement from Shearwater in 7/8 as their inspiration and they use nearly the same lyrics as he does. This video shows Cara at a Cooldog Concert in August 2007:

Brian Peters sang Lord Randal in 2008 on his CD of Child ballads, Songs of Trial and Triumph.

Jon Boden sang Lord Randal as the August 27, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Emily Smith sang Lord Donald in 2011 on her CD Traiveller’s Joy.

Stephanie Hladowski learned The Wild Wild Berry from Mike Yates recording of Ray Driscoll [see above] and chose it for the title track of her and Chris Joynes’ 2012 album The Wild Wild Berry.

Former Witch of Elswick (see above), Bryony Griffith sang The Wild, Wild Berry in 2014 on her CD Nightshade. She noted:

This unique version of Lord Randal was poached from the lovely Lancashire singer Heather Dunn, who got it from John Kirkpatrick’s album Make No Bones. John got it from the singing of the late Shropshire singer Ray Driscoll, whose repertoire of rare songs was recorded by Gwylim Davies. In this version, Lord Randal dies after being fed the poisonous berries of the Woody Nightshade.

Lucy Ward learned Lord Randall from Peter Bellamy’s album and sang it in 2015 on her CD I Dreamt I Was a Bird.

Compare to all these versions Maddy Prior’s song What Had You for Supper? with “modernised” lyrics in 1993 on her album Year. She commented in her liner notes:

I’ve altered the lyrics of this attractive Irish version of Lord Randall to give it an extra kick of relevance. Poison in small quantities can be healing, in gross mass is dangerous stuff.

I heard this version of Lord Randall from the singing of Paddy Reilly and he called it Buried in Kilkenny.

Maddy Prior and June Tabor sang the just mentioned Buried in Kilkenny at Burnley Mechanics in October 1988. A live recording of it was included in 2005 on the first CD of June Tabor’s anthology Always.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy sings Lord Randall on Shearwater

“Where have ye been all the day, my own dear darling boy?
Where have ye been all the day, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“I have been to my stepmother, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What did she give you for your supper, my own dear darling boy?”
What did she give you for your supper, my own dear comfort and joy?
“I got fish and I got broth, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“Where did she get the fish that she give you, my own dear darling boy?”
Where did she get the fish that she give you, my own dear comfort and joy?
“Hedges sought ’em and ditches caught’em , make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What did you do with your fishbones, my own dear darling boy?”
What did you do with your fishbones, my own dear comfort and joy?
“I gave them to my greyhound, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“Tell me what did your greyhound do, my own dear darling boy?”
Tell me what did your greyhound do, my own dear comfort and joy?
“There he swelled and there he died, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“I fear that she does you deadly wrong, my own dear darling boy.”
I fear that she does you deadly wrong, my own dear comfort and joy.
“She took me in and she did me slay, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What will you leave to your mother, my own dear darling boy?”
What will you leave to your mother, my own dear comfort and joy?
“I’ll leave her my house and my land, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“Tell me, what will you leave your stepmother, my own dear darling boy?
Tell me, what will you leave your stepmother, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“Bind her with rope and there let her hang with the halter that hangs on the tree
For poisoning of me.”

Martin Carthy sings Lord Randall on Because It’s There

“Where’ve you been all the day now, my own dear darling boy?
Where’ve you been all the day now, my dear comfort and my joy?”
“I have been to my sweetheart, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I want to lie down.”

“What’d she give you for supper, my own dear darling boy?
What’d she give you for supper, my dear comfort and my joy?”
“I got eels and strong poison, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I want to lie down.”

“What happened to your two dogs, my own dear darling boy?
What happened to your two dogs, my dear comfort and my joy?”
“Oh they cried and they died there, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I want to lie down.”

“What’ll you leave your mother, my own dear darling boy?
What’ll you leave your mother, my dear comfort and my joy?”
“All my gold and my silver, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I want to lie down.”

“What’ll you do with your farmlands, my own dear darling boy?
What’ll you do with your farmlands, my dear comfort and my joy?”
“I will leave them to the wild things, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I want to lie down.”

“What’ll you give your sweetheart, my own dear darling boy?
What’ll you give your sweetheart, my dear comfort and my joy?”
“Oh the rope and the halter that do hang on yonder tree
And there let her hang for the poisoning of me.”

Tony Rose sings Lord Rendal

“Where have you been, Rendal my son?
Where have you been, my sweet pretty one?”
“I’ve been to my sweetheart’s, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“What did she give you, Rendal my son?
What did she give you, my sweet pretty one?”
“She gave me some eels, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“What colour were they, Rendal my son?
What colour were they, my sweet pretty one?”
“All spickled and speckled, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“Where did she get them, Rendal my son?
Where did she get them, my sweet pretty one?”
From hedges, from ditches, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“Where are your greyhounds, Rendal my son?
Where are your greyhounds, my sweet pretty one?”
They swelled and they died, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“I fear you were poisoned, Rendal my son?
I fear you were poisoned, my sweet pretty one.”
Yes I am poisoned, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

Peter Bellamy sings Lord Randall

“Oh where have you been, Lord Randall, my son?
Oh where have you been, my bonny young man?”
“Oh I’ve been to the wild wood, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and fain would lie down.”

“What happened in the wild wood, Lord Randall, my son?
What happened in the wild wood, my bonny young man?”
“Oh I dined with my true love, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and fain would lie down.”

“What happened to your bloodhounds, Lord Randall, my son?
What happened to your bloodhounds, my bonny young man?”
“Oh they swelled and they died, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and I fain would lie down.”

“What had you for your supper, Lord Randall, my son?
What had you for your supper, my bonny young man?”
“I had eels boiled in broth, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and fain would lie down.”

“Oh I fear that you are poisoned, Lord Randall, my son,
I fear that you are poisoned, my bonny young man.”
“Oh yes, I am poisoned, mother, make my bed soon,
‘Cause I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“What will you leave your brother, Lord Randall, my son?
What will you leave your brother, my bonny young man?”
“The horse and the saddle that stand in yon stable,
‘Cause I’m sick to my heart and fain would lie down.”

“What will you leave your true love, Lord Randall, my son?
What will you leave your true love, my bonny young man?”
“The rope and the halter that hangs on yonder tree,
And it’s there let her hang for poisoning of me.”

Steeleye Span sing Lord Randall

“O where have you been, Lord Randall, my son?
Where have you been, my handsome young man?”

“I’ve been to the wild wood, mother, and I want to lie down.
I met with my true love, mother, make my bed soon.”
“And what did she give you?”
“She gave me some supper and I’m –

Chorus
Sick, sick, weary and tired,
Sick to the heart and I want to lie down”.

“O what did you eat, Lord Randall, my son?
What did you eat, my handsome young man?”

“She gave me some eels, mother, fried in a pan,
They were streaked and striped, mother, make my bed soon.”
“And where did they come from?”
“They came from the ditches.”
“And what got your leavings?”
“My hawks and my greyhounds.”
“And what did they do then?”
“They laid down and died and I’m –

Chorus

“O what will you do, Lord Randall, my son?
What will you do, my handsome young man?”

“I fear I am poisoned, mother, make my bed soon.
Down in the churchyard, mother, and lay me down easy,
For I’ve been to the wild wood and I met with my true love.”
“And what did you eat there?”
“Eels in a pan.”
“And what was their colour?”
“All streaked and striped.”
“And where did they come from?”
“My father’s black ditches.”
“And what got the leavings?”
“My hawks and my greyhounds.”
“And what did they do then?”
“They laid down and died.”
“Oh, I fear you are poisoned.”
“Make my bed soon.”
“And where shall I make it?”
“Down in the churchyard.”
“Down in the churchyard.”
“And lay me down easy for I’m –

The Witches of Elswick sing Lord Randal

“Oh, where have you been, Randal, my son?
Oh, where have you been, my sweet pretty one?”
“I’ve been to my sweetheart’s, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

“Oh, what did she give you, Randal, my son?
Oh, what did she give you, my sweet pretty one?”
“She gave me some eels, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

“Oh, where did she get them, Randal, my son?
Oh, where did she get them, my sweet pretty one?”
“From the hedges and ditches, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

“Oh, what colour were they, Randal, my son?
Oh, what colour were they, my sweet pretty one?”
“They were spickled and speckled, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

“Oh, they were strong poison, Randal, my son,
Oh, they were strong poison, my sweet pretty one.
You’ll die, you’ll die, Randal, my son,
You will die, you will die, my sweet little one.”

“What will you leave your father, Randal, my son?
What will you leave your father, my sweet pretty one?”
“My land and my houses, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

“What will you leave your mother, Randal, my son?
What will you leave your mother, my sweet pretty one?”
“My gold and my silver, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

“What will you leave your lover, Randal, my son?
What will you leave your lover, my sweet pretty one?”
“A rope for to hang her, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down,
For I’m sick to my heart and fain would like down.”

Cara sing Poisoned Peas

“Where have you been to all the day, my own dear darling boy?
Where have you been to all the day, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“I have been to my stepmother, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What did you get for your supper, my own dear darling boy?
What did you get for your supper, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“I got fish and I got broth, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“Where did she get the fish she gave you, my own dear darling boy?
Where did she get the fish she gave you, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“Hedges sought them, ditches caught them, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What did you do with your fishbones, my own dear darling boy?
What did you do with your fishbones, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“I gave them to my greyhound, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“Tell me, what did your greyhound do, my own dear darling boy?
Tell me, what did your greyhound do, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“There he swelled and there he died, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“I fear that she did you deadly wrong, my own dear darling boy!
I fear that she did you deadly wrong, my own dear comfort and joy!”
“She took me in, she did me slay, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What would you leave to your mother, my own dear darling boy?
What would you leave to your mother, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“I’ll leave her my house and land, make my bed mummy do,
Make my bed mummy do.”

“What would you leave to your stepmother, my own dear darling boy?
What would you leave to your stepmother, my own dear comfort and joy?”
“Let her hang all on a tree for poisoning of me,
Poisoning of me!”

Maddy Prior and June Tabor sing Buried in Kilkenny

“What had you for your dinner now, my own darling boy?
Oh, what had you for your dinner, my comfort and my joy?”
“I had bread, beef, and cold poison, mother, dress my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart and wouldn’t I long to lie down.”

“What will you leave your father, my own darling boy?
Oh, what will you leave your father, my comfort and my joy?”
“I will leave him a coach and four horses, mother, dress my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart and wouldn’t I long to lie down.”

“What will you leave your mother, my own darling boy?
Oh, what will you leave your mother, my comfort and my joy?”
“I will leave her the keys of all treasure, mother, dress my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart and wouldn’t I long to lie down.”

“What will you leave your children, my own darling boy?
Oh, what will you leave your children, my comfort and my joy?”
“They can follow their mother, mother, dress my bed soon,
I have a pain in my heart and wouldn’t I long to lie down.”

“Where will you be buried now, my own darling boy?”
Oh, where will you now be buried, my comfort and my joy?”
“I will be buried in Kilkenny, there I’ll take a long, nice sleep,
With a stone to my head and a scraith to my feet.”

Maddy Prior sings What Had You for Supper?

“What had you for your supper, my own darling boy?
What had you for your supper, my comfort and my joy?”
“I had fish all from the Irish sea, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.”

“What will you leave your wife, my own darling boy?
What will you leave your wife, my comfort and my joy?”
“I will leave her with compensation, she can fight for it when I’m gone,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.”

“What will you leave your son, my own darling boy?
What will you leave your son, my comfort and my joy?”
“I will leave him my job at Sellafield so that he won’t need to sign on,
For I’m sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.”

Bryony Griffith sings The Wild, Wild Berry

Young man came from hunting faint and weary,
“What does ail my love, my dearie?”
“O Mother dear, let my bed be made,
For I feel the gripe of the woody nightshade.”

Chorus (after each verse):
Lie low, sweet Randall.
Come all you young men that do eat full well,
And them that sups right merry:
‘Tis far better, I entreat, to eat toads for your meat
Than to eat of the wild, wild berry.

This young man, well, he died fair soon
By the light of the hunters’ moon.
‘Twas not by bolt, nor yet by blade
But the leaves and the berries of the woody nightshade.

This lord’s false love, well, they hanged her high,
For ’twas by her deeds that her lord should die.
Within her locks they entwined a braid
Of the leaves and the berries of the woody nightshade.

Lucy Ward sings Lord Randall

“Oh where have you been, Lord Randall, my son?
Oh where have you been, my handsome young man?”
“I have been to the wild wood, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and I fain would lie down.”

“What where you doing in the wild wood, Lord Randall, my son?
What where you doing in the wild wood, my bonny young man?”
“Oh I dined with my true love, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and I fain would lie down.”

“Oh what had you for your dinner, Lord Randall, my son?
Oh what had you for your dinner, my bonny young man?”
“I had eels fried in a pan, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m weary with hunting and I fain would lie down.”

“Oh what happened to your hounds, Lord Randall, my son?
Oh what happened to your hounds, my handsome young man?”
“Oh they swelled and they died, oh they swelled and they died,
Oh they swelled and they died, and I fain would lie down.”

Links and Acknowledgements

See also the Mudcat Café threads Lyr Req: Lord Randall and Lyr Req: The Wild Wild Berry .

Transcribed from Martin Carthy’s singing by Garry Gillard. The lyrics to Buried in Kilkenny were transcribed by me first but later compared to what Paddy Reilly sings on the Musical Traditions CD From Puck to Appleby.

Source: Traditional Songfacts

  • “The Unquiet Grave” is both a poem and a song. Intensely sad, and written in the first person singular, the mourner laments the love of his life sitting weeping at her graveside for a year and a day, at which point her ghost rises up and asks who will not allow her to sleep. He identifies himself and asks for “one kiss of your clay-cold lips”. She disavows him of that notion, and tells him to put his grief behind him and enjoy the rest of his life “Till God calls you away”.
  • Like most traditional songs there are many variations, of the title as well as the lyrics in this case. Extensive research on its origin and development can be found in Volume II of The Traditional Tunes Of The Child Ballads With Their Texts, according to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America, by Bertrand Harris Bronson, which was published by Princeton University Press in 1962. According to this book, none of the extant texts of the ballad is older than the early 19th Century but it probably dates from about the end of the 15th. A version was recorded by [ie sung to] musicologist Cecil Sharp on January 23, 1907 by Mrs Ware of Eley Over Stowey. The same day, Sharp recorded “Cold Blows The Wind” by James Chedgey of Bincombe Over Stowey. Sabine Baring-Gould (who is best known for writing the lyrics to “Onward Christian Soldiers”) collected a version, from J. Woodrich, a blacksmith of Wollacot Moor, Thrushleton, in 1889. Probably the earliest recorded version is “Cold Blows The Wind” which was sung by Elizabeth Doidge, a nurse of Brentnor, and collected by Mrs Gibbons, the daughter of W.L.Trelawney, Bart, c1830. This version had the tune usually associated with “Childe The Hunter”.There is also “How Cold The Winds Do Blow”, sung by Mrs Rugman of Dunsfold, Surrey, 1896; “Cold Blows The Wind To-night, Sweetheart”, sung by Mrs Bowker, of Sunderland Point, Lancashire, in September 1909, and further afield, “The Auld Song From Cow Head” sung by the Reverend Mr Gibbs Bull of Newfoundland in 1929.
  • Another musicologist who researched “The Unquiet Grave” in some depth was the aforementioned Cecil Sharp. Volume I of the 1994 Oxford University Press edition of his …Collection Of English Folk Songs, Edited by Maud Karpeles records no less than seventeen different versions, the oldest of which was sung to him by Mrs Ree at Hambridge, Somerset, on April 4, 1904.
  • “The Unquiet Grave” has been recorded by many artists, including Joan Baez and Karen Mall (suitably amended for gender) and by Luke Kelly. >>

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The American Folk Experience is dedicated to collecting and curating the most enduring songs from our musical heritage.  Every performance and workshop is a celebration and exploration of the timeless songs and stories that have shaped and formed the musical history of America. John Fitzsimmons has been singing and performing these gems of the past for the past forty years, and he brings a folksy warmth, humor and massive repertoire of songs to any occasion. 

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Stories are a communal currency of humanity. ― Tahir Shah, In Arabian Nights The most powerful and enduring connection we share as a human race is our desire and need to share stories. We engage in the art of storytelling more than most of us ever realize; whether we...
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The Value of a Classic

by | November 24, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

“Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read.” ~Mark Twain A note to my 8th grade class:      All of you are supposedly reading a classic book, but what Twain says is true: few of us go thirsty to the well and willingly read the greatest works of literature...
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Mum…

by | May 8, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Very jealous today of all the folks I see spending time with their respective moms--and sad for those who can't and for those whose wives were taken from their families too early in life... This is my remmebrance of my "mum" who died several years ago.       I ran...
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Hallows Lake

by | August 2, 2014 | Journal | 0 Comments

Foreward Thanks for taking a look at this "work in progress. It originally started out as an experimental one-man play. Maybe it still will be. Later I thought of making it into a novel, but it's hard to see it happening as there is (intentionally) no real plot, and...
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Chores

by | May 15, 2016 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

The day sometimes slip away from me, a huge pine half-bucked in the backyard, the kids old tree fort cut into slabs, a ton of coal waiting to be moved in a train of buckets to the bin. Sipping cold water on the back deck, sharpening the dulled teeth of a worn...
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What’s in a Song

by | May 4, 2014 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. ~Plato         Writing a song is not just an exercise in seeking some kind of future fame. It is...
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Life Ain’t Hard; Its Just a Waterfall

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

You say, hey,
who are you to say that you’re the one
to go telling me just where I’m coming from.
You can have your cake
but don’t frost me ‘til I’m done.
I can’t be fixed and I can’t afford to stall;
because life ain’t hard it’s just a waterfall.

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Guns, Me, and Rural America

by | February 27, 2018 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

     Sometimes I start writing without knowing where I stand—unsure of even where I stand. I have to trust some innate wisdom or audacity will cull through the bullshit we are all heir to in what Hamlet laments is “this earthly coil” we are forced to face when we wake...
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The Fisher

by | July 14, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

To cast far is to cast well. I’ve always believed that the biggest fish are just beyond my range and lie in dark water I could never swim to. But experience is the wisdom that has me now casting closer to shore, nearest the reeds and overgrowth — a subtleness geared...
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Evolution

by | August 19, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

The coyotes and fisher cats seem intent on striking some new deal with each other to toy with our fears in this gentleman's wilderness— patches of dense woods dotted with overgrown fields, riven and intersected by highways, powerlines and quiet, suburban...
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If you don’t stand, you cower…

by | July 19, 2019 | Journal | 0 Comments

     Maybe it is time to be less forgiving. I have rarely agreed with our president, but I held on to the shreds of truth that shore up his arguments: we can’t welcome every immigrant who makes it to our border; we cannot bow to the audacity of corrupt governments in...
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Goathouse

by | May 23, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

Goat house In reaching for the scythe I’m reminded of the whetstone and the few quick strokes by which it was tested-- the hardness of hot August; the burning of ticks off dog backs. It’s winter now in this garage made barn, and the animals seem only curious that I’d...
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Finally…

by | December 10, 2013 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

Just closed the lid, so to speak, on what seems to be weeks of school-related paperwork. I am excited to go to my classes tomorrow with only those classes on my mind--not the letters home to parents, the secondary school recs, the grades and comments to homeroom...
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Paris: 11/13/15

by | November 14, 2015 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

It is a sad day for humanity. Another sad day on top of many others happening every day--many in places we hear about only obliquley and sometimes not at all. Paris is that much closer to home for most of us here and in Europe, but freedom and tolerance has to...
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Superman

by | August 12, 2014 | Dawghouse, Songs | 0 Comments

There’s a little blonde boy in a superman cape
Racing around the back yard;
Sayin’, “Daddy don’t you know I can fly to the moon;
I’m gonna bring you back some stars.
And after that I’m gonna save the world”
Cause I’m superman today.”
I scoop that boy right into my arms,
And this is what I say:

You don’t need a cape to be a hero
You’ve got all the special powers that you need
Your smile’s enough to save the world from evil
And you’ll always be superman to me

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The Street I Never Go Down

by | November 18, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

As is often the case, I sit here with good intent to write my end-of-term comments--a dry litany of repeated phrases dulled by. obligation--and find myself instead writing poetry, the stuff I would rather share with my students who already know that I care dearly...
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The Mystery in the Cradle

by | December 25, 2013 | Journal | 0 Comments

This picture is from Christmas eleven years ago when Tommy was only two weeks old, and now all of them—and Gio and Pipo--are playing charades or some such game in the dining room, shouting and laughing at each other's miscues and fortifying another enduring memory...
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The Emperor’s New Clothes

by | February 8, 2019 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"But he hasn't got anything on!" the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, "This procession has got to go on." So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn't there at...
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Eighteen Years

by | August 24, 2014 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

At midnight I hear the cuckoo clock chiming from it’s perch in a cluttered kitchen locked in cadence with the tower bell gonging this old mill town at midnight to a deeper sleep, like a call to prayer reminding me that this new day, starting in the dark of a hallowed...
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What a Picture Tells

by | May 6, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

"Zou Ma Guan Hua" You can't ride a horse and smell the flowers ~Chinese Proverb Sometimes I love just browsing through old folders of pictures of my kids when they were just kids in every sense of the word. Just seeing the pictures is a visceral experience for me as I...
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Ghetto of Your Eye

by | August 12, 2014 | Fires in the Belly, Songs | 0 Comments

I wrote this song back in the winter of 1989, in the dining car of a steam driven train, somewhere along the Trans-Siberian railway, after meeting a group of Russian soldiers fresh from battle in Afghanistan—that poor country that has been a battleground for way too long.

We stare together hours the snow whipped Russian plain—
rolling in the ghetto of your eye.
We share a quart of vodka
and some cold meat on the train—
you know too much to even wonder why;
I see it in the ghetto of your eye.

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How do I know

by | July 8, 2017 | Journal, Poetry | 0 Comments

what I know? The sharp angles of this simple cottage perfected in every board sawn, shingle split and beam hewn into place goes together placed, splined, slid together, bound more by intuition than knowing.
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Why Trump Is Not Flipping Me Out

by | March 18, 2016 | Essays, Journal | 0 Comments

I wonder why Trump is not flipping me out? I wonder if there is some bigoted, ignorant and right-wing element that lurks inside this folk-singing, poem writing, neo-socialist shell of mine. Maybe it is not that hard for me to make the empathetic reach to feel at least...
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The Threshing

by | July 11, 2014 | Poetry, Raccoon | 0 Comments

I trace her charging through the cornfield shaking the timbers of the ready crop startling up the blackbirds, and surprisingly, a jay. It’s the jay who startles me—
who with two quick pulls wrests itself from the transient green, screaming back from its familiar scrub...
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Doing What Needs To Be Done

by | February 16, 2014 | Essays, Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

The rain falls;The grass grows:Nothing is done.Nothing is left undone~Buddha        Sometimes you just do what you got to do, and that never changes from the first time you take out the trash as a kid until the time in life where you are taking care of little chores...
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Wrenching Day

by | July 13, 2017 | Journal, Teaching | 0 Comments

It has certainly been a long time since wisdom ruled the day. I did get up and run in the rain, and now I am preparing to do some “wrenching” on my motorcycle. I am trying to temper my eagerness to ride with my desire to get everything “right” on the bike--without...
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