Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song

Subject: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 08:29 AM

The Death of the Wren.
^^ Breton Cradle-Song

One day I went out for a ranble,

And what did I catch but a wren!

When he was caught he was properly caught;
He was put in the cowhouse to fatten,

And there he grew fatter and fatter,

Till they sent for the butcher to kill him.
The butcher and all his assistants

Cried out at the tops of their voices,
They were simply unable to hold him

When he saw the lad come with the knife!
Four carts upon iron-shod wheels

Have carried his feathers to Nantes,
And enough are still left in the house.

To Furnish four fine feather-beds!.....

-sung at Loguivy-Plou on 11th November 1863.

-Gill, Walter, W., A Second Manx Scrapbook.,, London, 1932.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: GUEST,Wren King Songs
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 06:19 PM

I know this is a very old post that I am adding to, but I just want to mention that I have managed to get together a page of wren songs, at http://pierce.yolasite.com/wrenkingsongs , or just pierce.yolasite.com/wrenkingsongs most of which are already listed on DT. But they do link to printed music where I could find it, and recordings of the songs. You might be interested in the related pages, Hunting the Wren, which gives an explanation of the sorts of verses (if that isn't too much of a wet blanket, humor doesn't bear much analysis) and the page about How Lleu Got His Name, which probably explains the connection between the Winter Solstice (birth of Sun) and Hunting Wrens.

Slag310

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: GUEST,julia L
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 09:10 PM

Thanks so much for putting this all together!

Just in time for St Stephen's day

best- Julia

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 24 Dec 10 - 09:48 PM

The St. Stephen's day wren song complex puts me in mind of the Derby Ram. In the wren myth, something tiny is treated as something large. In the ram yarn, something large is treated as something gigantic. Both involve the ritual slaying of the beast in question.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: Mick Tems
Date: 25 Dec 10 - 05:05 AM

Not just Derbyshire, but all over England, Ireland and in Wales, too. In Welsh-speaking parts of Pembrokeshire, The villagers would build a wren-house; six men would groan under the weight of this tiny bird, and they would sing a ceremonial song in Welsh, "Hela'r Dryw Bach" (Hunting the Little Wren.) In English-speaking Pembrokeshire, The King (the wren) used to be the ceremonial song:

"Joy, health, love and peace
By all here in this place
By your leave we will sing
Concerning our King..."

Nadolig Llawen / Happy Christmas!

Mick Tems

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 12:57 PM

This song and many others are quoted in:

Hunting the Wren: Transformation of Bird to Symbol: A Study in Human-Animal Relationships by Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997), page 88.

Follow the link to WorldCat.org, which might show you where to find the book in a library near you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: GUEST,slag310
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 05:21 PM

This message is to update wren king songs information. I have just updated my Wren King songs page, and I know there is a lot more information about it various places, but I was able to find some nice recordings and also where the music is published which was not available to me before. Also my website has migrated to a new domain that actually works (Yola was hacked and they could never salvage their servers). So here is the newly updated and completely expanded page at
Wren King Songs or just
http://piereligion.org/wrenkingsongs.html
and I am giving the link in two different forms because I am not sure which will work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Breton Cradle Wren song
From: topical tom
Date: 19 Dec 14 - 04:36 PM

This is the song that I mentioned in the threashttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77V_X00XwVU