To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=166432
30 messages

Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'

22 Jul 19 - 08:29 AM (#4001541)
Subject: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Rev Bayes

Well, this amused me, anyway. From a US forensic investigator training manual:

https://imgur.com/a/l9xzVFR

22 Jul 19 - 08:52 AM (#4001545)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Mrrzy

Wait, where was her apron?

22 Jul 19 - 11:35 AM (#4001567)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Stilly River Sage

Is this referring to a song?

22 Jul 19 - 11:43 AM (#4001568)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST

Possibly Polly Vaughn etc.

22 Jul 19 - 11:54 AM (#4001573)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Derrick

SRS,The reference is to an English trad song.
The song is about a young man on trial for murder.
He goes out hunting and shoots what he thinks is a swan.
The swan turns out to be his lover.
In his defence he claims that she had her white apron on and he mistook
her for a swan.
If you google Polly Vaugh or Polly Von (both spellings are used)you should find the lyrics

22 Jul 19 - 11:58 AM (#4001574)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Derrick

Guest at 11.43am beat me to it.
That is the song

22 Jul 19 - 12:29 PM (#4001580)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Starship

Is this the one where forensics got the case tossed out of court because the defendant was firing .22 short rifle?

22 Jul 19 - 01:37 PM (#4001588)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Georgiansilver

Polly Von/ Vaughn.

22 Jul 19 - 01:39 PM (#4001589)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,keberoxu

I thought it was called Molly Ban.

22 Jul 19 - 01:41 PM (#4001591)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Starship

keberoxu: . . . and Bawn.

22 Jul 19 - 03:09 PM (#4001610)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: r.padgett

Should have gone to Specsavers (English joke sorry)

Yea an old traditional song ~ Molly Bawn and similar names ~I mistook her for a SWan

Ray

22 Jul 19 - 04:40 PM (#4001621)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Mrrzy

Mom always thought that was a closet murder ballad. Swan, indeed.

22 Jul 19 - 05:22 PM (#4001625)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: meself

Because so few murder ballads dare to speak their name. Closet murder ballad, indeed.

22 Jul 19 - 08:23 PM (#4001641)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Hagman

I thought it was going to be an updated version, starring Dick Cheney...

23 Jul 19 - 04:34 AM (#4001671)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel

We used to sing a version of "Polly Vaughn" with a local community choir. There is a pub in the town called "The Swan" and my wife and I reckoned the song was about the young man catching his fiancee in flagrante - "And he shot his own true love (sic) in a room at the Swan".

I seem to remember the Oyster Band did a good version of this as "Molly Bond".

23 Jul 19 - 08:39 AM (#4001715)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan

The great Con Fada O Drisceoil has a version in which the short-sighted fowler tries to report his crime to the local Sergeant - who refuses to believe a word!

Regards

23 Jul 19 - 09:25 AM (#4001719)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: r.padgett

Ban pronunciation = Bawn btw ~ hence rimes with Vaughan

Ray

24 Jul 19 - 11:02 AM (#4001883)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Severn

Seeing as how swans over in the UK are under royal protection, I would think they wou!d be quite tasty. Has anyone in here ever tasted swan?

Seriously. None of this traditional, Well, it tastes a bit like chicken" safe answer nonsense. Tasting your own sweetheart is your own business, so I Won't ask......

Nor will I bother with any "Take me to your Leda" or, "Swannee, How I Love Ya" references, either......

24 Jul 19 - 12:04 PM (#4001892)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Jerry

I always thought this was an American song, because no one would plead they mistook her for a swan in England, without confessing to a treasonable offence..

24 Jul 19 - 12:05 PM (#4001893)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Mrrzy

I thought all swans *belong* to the Queen, rather than being Under royal protection. Or is that what you meant? I still find tjat both lovely and hysterical. What happened to whoever jumped on the back of a swan and wrung its neck?

24 Jul 19 - 01:25 PM (#4001904)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,keberoxu

This song was absent from my childhood.

What I did grow up with was
the Kingston Trio
and
the Weavers
singing "The Keeper did a-hunting go,"

and that one has always given me the creeps,
no matter how thoroughly the words were whitewashed.

24 Jul 19 - 01:27 PM (#4001906)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: EBarnacle

I find the issue of protection curious as swans are very territorial and dangerous. When a pair set up a nest on our club's dock we had to hire a service to have them removed--for our safety. They are pretty but you'd better keep your distance.

24 Jul 19 - 10:17 PM (#4001940)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Mrrzy

One killed a dog recently...

25 Jul 19 - 01:40 PM (#4002039)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: The Sandman

both irish and english, bawn means white skinned or almost alobino in ireland, so i understand,i suspect it was originally irish

25 Jul 19 - 04:08 PM (#4002059)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: EBarnacle

I have been thinking about the issues the song presents.

First, and foremost, the effective accurate range of smoothbore firearms in the era the song was written was relatively short.

As such, he would have had to be fairly close to be sure of hitting her.

Why was Molly out there? Did he take her out there and say something like "Wait for me here, dear, I'll be back soon with some game we can enjoy?"

What was their relationship like? Was she showing signs of future nastiness? Did he want out?

He may not be as innocent as he claims.

25 Jul 19 - 04:22 PM (#4002061)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Vic Smith

In the version that I sing, learned from the singing of Harry Cox there are a couple of lines that run:-
... and he shot his own Polly
In the room of a swan.


... but the song doesn't tell us whether it is The Swan at Falmer or The Swan at Southover, which are two lovely old pubs within four miles of where I live in Lewes.

Perhaps I should explain that in some parts of England "in The room of" means "mistaking him/her/it for".)

26 Jul 19 - 09:30 AM (#4002137)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Severn

Mistaking her for a duck could lead to some interesting rhymes, though.....

26 Jul 19 - 11:35 AM (#4002159)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Gordon Jackson

I too sing the Harry Cox version. He called The Fowler.

26 Jul 19 - 11:33 PM (#4002227)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: GUEST,Julia L

Some early versions of this song have him mistaking her for a fawn. Here in Maine this is actually plausible as the white-tailed deer flash their tails as they run, making them a target. People are admonished not to wear white during hunting season and more than one tragedy has resulted from a hunter mistaking white clothing for the flash of a deer's tail
Julia

27 Jul 19 - 05:09 AM (#4002246)
Subject: RE: Folklore: 'I mistook her for a duck, honestly'
From: Gordon Jackson

It's thought by many, from Roy Palmer to Martin Carthy, that the young lady was a 'swan maiden', a supernatural being, symbolically slain, perhaps to release her from enchantment. So not mistaken identity at all.