The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69807 Message #1187366
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
17-May-04 - 02:46 PM
Thread Name: Rolling of the stone - origin?
Subject: RE: Rolling of the stone - origin?
"Wandering Minstrel"'s stanza has had its spelling altered to make it appear Scottish, but it isn't. The form of the song "Pavane" asks about is American, as are almost all the examples with tunes in Bronson (a few from Scotland, recorded by the School of Scottish Studies in the 1950s/1960s, appear in the appendix).
The song has been discussed here before; there is no need to post either the verses that the Young Tradition got from Oscar Brand (I don't know where he found them) or the longer set; I have already posted text and tune as noted from tradition, and what appears to be an edited and/or collated set is in the DT. See Two Brothers (Rolling of the Stones), where I gave some specifics (and a couple of guesses).
The line in this particular variant that people have taken to imply an incestuous subtext appears to be a modern interpolation; it is clear that Susie or Susanne, when she appears, is not the sister but the "truelove" of the dead brother. There may be other factors in other variants which might perhaps imply something of the sort (there's at least one recent study that I haven't read so far), though for what it's worth, I am not yet convinced.