The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3602   Message #3651084
Posted By: GUEST,Anne Neilson
14-Aug-14 - 07:50 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Barring of the Door
Subject: RE: Origins: Barring of the Door
I've sung this song since the mid-1960s (with the Weel Weel chorus) and always loved it for the triumph of the wife's will -- but with hindsight, I despair for the relationship!

My take on the story was that the knock at the door was ignored by the wife because she was busy with housewifely stuff/hussifskip, and that the intruders were travellers of a very forward nature. (Extraneous detail such as being Border Reivers never occurred to me.)

Anyway, I've enjoyed singing it for over 50 years and there is a recording of it on the Kist o Riches website -- just enter my name and you'll find it in a tape from 1993 in a Muckle Sangs concert at the Edinburgh Folk Festival.

Apologies for my inadequacy in posting clicky links -- perhaps a Joe Clone might oblige?


Search the site for "Anne Neilson" and click through to the bottom of page two. --mudelf