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John Nolan Lyr Req: songs by James Hogg 'the Ettrick Shepherd (15) RE: Lyr Req: Songtexts online -James Hogg-Ettr.Sh 30 Jan 00


My favorite, sung at Hawick Common Riding each year, is Teribus ye teri Odin. It starts off, as I remember:

Scotland felt thine ire O Odin,
On the bloody field of Flodden,
Where our fathers fell with honor,
Round their king and country's banner,

Chorus: Teribus ye teri Odin
Sons of heroes slain at Flodden,
Imitating Border bowmen,
Aye defend your rights and common.

After Flodden was decided,
Surrey and his troops divided,
Set them loose to storm and plunder,
Heaven just, why slept thy thunder?

Teribus etc.

Far they spread their wild disorder,
Over Scotia's alpine border,
From the banks of Tweed and Teviot
To the slopes of lofty Cheviot.

In subsequent verses, they go on to sack the town of Hawick, up the Teviot valley, at which point in 1514, a group of teen-agers, too young for Flodden, take up arms and fall on a raiding party, winning a morale-boosting victory. In gratitude, the Duke of Buccleuch (I think)gifted a large tract of land to the people for common grazing. Three centuries later, much of this land had been grabbed back by the despicable landed gentry that, to this day, make Scotland the most feudal country in Europe. Hogg, a good man and brave, in this song, tried to shame the rich landowners into keeping their thieving hands off what remained of the common land.
Magistrates be faithful trustees,
Equal poise the scales of justice,
See our common fairly guided,
Quirky lairds nae mair divide.
Land theft by the rich, however, has continued apace, and this song, which I learned as a school lad in Hawick, is mouthed ritualistically, but the circumstances never explored in classrooms.


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