The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #91036   Message #1731351
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
01-May-06 - 02:24 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Geordie Gill (from Anni Fentiman)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Geordie Gill (from Anni Fentiman)
The song was written, as Gwordie Gill, by Robert Anderson round about 1804; it appeared in his Cumberland Ballads. The tune intended for it was Andrew wi' his Cutty Gun. Page images of the book can be seen at  The Farne Archive, but items can't be linked to directly. Use their search engine to find "Gwordie Gill".

The set discussed here seems to be an arrangement of one printed in Roy Palmer's Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, comprising a tune found in oral currency by RVW (no detailed source information survives), and set to Palmer's own adaptation of Anderson's (much longer and heavily dialectal) text.

I would imagine that Anni Fentiman credited her source on Together Solo. It's always helpful to tell us what you already know when asking a question, as it tends to save time and effort. Dave may have a copy of Palmer's book, for one thing. At all events, Dave's transcription is very close to Roy Palmer's text, though it's worth mentioning a couple of points:

I see or know

when the filly flung...