Lyr Req: Golden Cradle / The Fairy Nurse

Subject: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: GUEST,nonmember
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 01:43 PM

Trying to find the original source tune/lyrics for the Irish traditional lullaby, "The golden Cradle". I am familiar with the Emmy Lou Harris version, but want to track down the source. Who can help me out?
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 03:36 PM

On her "Christmas Album, Light of the Stable," 1992.

Not lullabys, but-
A verse from Child, "The Carnal and the Crane", 55:5-6

Where is the golden cradle
That Christ was rocked in?
Where are the silken sheets
That Christ was wrapped in?

A manger was the cradle
That Christ was rocked in:
The provender the asses left
So sweetly he slept on

In the Kalevala-

On the very hem of heaven,
On a cloud the virgin rocked it,
Rocked the fire and swung the light,
Swung it in a golden cradle,
Swaying it on straps of silver,
So the silver straps were swaying.
And the golden cradle creaking;
Clouds were scudding, sky was screaming,
As the lid of heaven tilted
With the rocking of the fire,
With the swinging of the light.
...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Jun 06 - 12:16 AM

The song can be found deep in this thread: Mudcat Campfire, where it is called THE FAIRY NURSE and attributed to Edward Walsh.

I don't know how this compares to Emmylou Harris' version, though.

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Thread #12472   Message #170138
Posted By: Big Mick
23-Jul-99 - 09:46 AM
Thread Name: Mudcat Campfire
Subject: Lyr Add: THE FAIRY NURSE (Edward Walsh)

Oh, hi Alice, how are you? Mind if The Fair One and I have a seat? What? Oh, I have some catching up to do, eh? Well a couple things come to mind. Seeing this setting, and with this wee woman, reminds me of a poem by Yeats, the refrain goes:

Come away! O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand

Kind of makes me feel like your mountain and woods are a refuge from the madness. Huh? Another? Damn, you know I have been sipping the dark stuff in the tavern. How about "THE FAIRY NURSE" by Edward Walsh?

Sweet babe! a golden cradle holds thee,
And soft the snow-white fleece enfolds thee;
In an airy bower I'll watch thy sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

When mothers languish broken-hearted,
When young wives are from husbands parted,
Ah! little think the keeners lonely,
They weep some time-worn fairy only.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

Within our magic halls of brightness,
Trips many a foot of snowy whiteness;
Stolen maidens, queens of fairy,
And kings and chiefs a sluagh-shee airy,
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

Rest thee, babe! I love thee dearly,
And as thy mortal mother nearly;
Ours is the swiftest steed and proudest,
That moves where the tramp of the host is loudest.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

Rest thee, babe! for soon thy slumbers
Shall flee at the magic Ceól-sidhe's numbers;
In airy bower I'll watch sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

There ya go...huh, a song? Rick, hand me that Guild 12...Hey, did you swipe Rib's 12? How do I know it's not mine? Cause I locked mine in the closet at the Tavern...hahahahaha...Old Rib is going to be upset. Here ya go...I will sing "Dublin in the Rare Aul Times" for ya. Sounds great around the fire...but then its into the creek to clean up, cause I am going to have to get to work.

Raised on songs and stoooories, Heroes of renown,
The passing tales and glories, that once were Dublin town...."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Jun 06 - 06:04 PM

Edward Walsh- 1805-1850. If this poem found by Jim Dixon is the one, it has a bit of age on it.

Subject: Lyr Add: GOLDEN CRADLE (from Emmylou Harris)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 08:27 AM

Here are the lyrics sung by Emmylou Harris, copied from The LP Discography:

GOLDEN CRADLE
(Nancy Ahern)
« © '80 Happy Sack Music, ASCAP »

Sweet babe, a golden cradle holds thee.
Soft thy mother's arms enfold thee.
Fairest flowers are strewn before thee.
Sweet birds warble over thee.

So sleep, my babe, and dream away sorrow.
Peace until you wake tomorrow.
I will guard thine infant slumber.
Angels watch thy number.

[This song has only the first line in common with Edward Walsh's FAIRY NURSE. And "angels watch thy number"? What could this mean?]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 12:19 PM

It's really a lovely song. Glad to see it being discussed. The other nice song that sounds Trad but isn't on that album is "Light of the Stable".

Subject: Lyr Add: THE CRADLE SONG
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 12:22 AM

This page says it's in "Walton's New Treasury of Irish Songs and Ballads."

This version is sung by Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh on the album "Seal Maiden: A Celtic Musical," by Karan Casey & Friends, 2000:

THE CRADLE SONG

Sweet babe, a golden cradle holds thee.
Soft a snow-white fleece enfolds thee.
Fairest flower all strewn before thee.
Birds warble o'er thee.
Seoithín seo ló, seoithín seo lú la ló.

Oh, who is this a-lying here
Gently at the door of my heart?
To and fro like clouds at night,
I softly rock your cradle.
Seoithín seo ló, seoithín seo lú la ló

A yellow moon lies in the sky,
Streaming, falling over the earth.
Hush, a leanna, hush, be still.
The world is silent and sleeping.
Seoithín seo ló, seoithín seo lú la ló.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 02:34 PM

Walton's part 1, part 2 are dated 1966 for one edition. Don't know if this is the first.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Golden Cradle - original lyrics
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 10:40 AM

How bizarre, I just posted to this thread but the response went nowhere but to thin air. hmmm.

I said:

Jim Dixon, The Nancy Ahern credited on Golden Gradle on Emmylou harris' recording is also credited on another very Trad sounding song she recorded called 'Root Like a Rose' that was included as a bmous track on a remastered release of her album CIMARRON. Now, I could simply be ignorant and it could be a Trad song.. I dunno. In any event it's a lovely song and it's lyrics are:

Root Like a Rose
(written or arrnaged (not sure) by nancy Ahern)

There's a green, green place
Where you lift your face
To the sound of the waves and the wind
Down by the shore
Where my soul does endure
Where the mother sea ends and begins.

Take me home
To the sand and the foam
Where my dreams walk in the mist
I'll fall to the earth and root like a rose
In the salt land
That gave me my verse.

Though I wander afar
The same sea, the same stars
Still shine to the tears in my eyes
They take me home to a land
That my soul understands
Where the heart of the rose never dies.

Take me home
To the sand and the foam
Where my dreams walk in the mist
I'll fall to the earth and root like a rose
In the salt land
That gave me my verse...

Subject: ADD Version: Golden Cradle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 03:33 AM

Sweet Babe, a Golden Cradle Holds Thee

Sweet babe, a golden cradle holds thee.
Soft a snow-white fleece enfolds thee.
Fairest flowers are strewn before thee.
Sweet birds warble o'er thee,
Shoheen, sho lo; lu, lu, lo, lo!

Oh, sleep, my baby, free from sorrow,
Bright thou'lt open thine eyes to-morrow,
Sleep, while o'er thy smiling slumbers
Angels chant their numbers,
Shoheen, sho lo; lu, lu, lo, lo!

Oh, baby, sleep, and o'er thy slumbers,
Angels bright shall chant their numbers,
Thro' the trees the breeze is sweeping,
Baby dear is sleeping,
Shoheen, sho lo; lu, lu, lo, lo!

from Walton's New Treasury of Irish Songs and Ballads (1968), Part 1, page 180

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This book has lots of great songs, but no tunes and no background or source information. And for some reason, part 2 is dated 1966...

Subject: ADD: Ancient Lullaby
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 04:18 PM

ANCIENT LULLABY (No. 109)
Edward Walsh (arr. for music by Dr. Joyce)
Luinneach (Hush Song)
With music, 6/8

Sweet babe, a golden cradle holds thee,
Soft a snow-white fleece enfolds thee,
Fairest flowers are strewn before thee,
Sweet birds warble o'er thee.
Shoheen sho lo! lu, lu lo!

Oh sleep my baby, free from sorrow
Bright thou'lt ope thine eyes to-morrow;
Sleep, while o'er thy smiling slumbers
Angels chant their numbers.
Shoheen sho lo! lu lu lo!

Walsh greatly expanded the song in his "The Fairn Nurse."

Alfred Percival Graves, 1895, "The Irish Song Book," 212 pp., publisher P. J. Kennedy, copy donated by Iona College to the project, "Publishing in Irish America," 1820-1922, CUNY, Institute for Irish-American Studies.
An important book of 119 authentic Irish songs with sheet music.

www.lehman.edu/lehman/irishamericanstudies/music1.html and click on Graves.
Other important song books also available at this website.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FAIRY NURSE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 10:13 PM

From The Book of Irish Ballads edited by Denis Florence MacCarthy, 1846. The remarks in brackets are apparently the editor's. For the spelling of the Irish phrases and footnotes, I made use of a different edition.

THE FAIRY NURSE
(by Edward Walsh)

[A girl is supposed to be led into the fairy fort of Lisroe, where she sees her little brother, who had died about a week before, laid in a rich cradle, and a young woman singing as she rocks him to sleep. The author has not stated whether there be any meaning in the refrain "Shuheen sho, lulo lo!" which he has introduced after every line. And as there is no Dictionary of the fairy language yet published, I am unable to satisfy myself or the public on that point. I have taken the liberty to omit it, except at the end of each stanza.]

SWEET babe! a golden cradle holds thee,
And soft the snow-white fleece enfolds thee;
In airy bower I'll watch thy sleeping,
Where branching boughs to the winds are sweeping.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

When mothers languish broken-hearted,
When young wives are from husbands parted,
Ah! little think the keeners lonely
They weep some time-worn fairy only.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

Within our magic halls of brightness
Trips many a foot of snowy whiteness;
Stolen maidens, queens of fairy--
And kings and chiefs a sleagh shie,* airy.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

Rest thee, babe! I love thee dearly,
And as thy mortal mother nearly;
Ours is the swiftest steed and proudest,
That moves where the tramp of the host is loudest.
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

Rest thee, babe! for soon thy slumbers
Shall flee at the magic keol shie's** numbers;
In airy bower I'll watch thy sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping
Shuheen sho, lulo lo!

* Sleagh shie, fairy host.
** Keol shie, fairy music.