Found these lyrics today as I was looking for songs about King Arthur for another thread. Thought I'd add 'em here, but do try to go to the Web site where I got the lyrics for many footnotes and insights on alternate lyric possibilities and esoteric minutiae. I didn't lift those since they're under the site owner's copyright. The notes included here were from an e-mail that he received, so presumably not under his copyright. At any rate he is to be greatly praised for having the patience to tackle documenting this lyric!

You'll find Mr. Johnson's page here.

THE HUNTING SONG

Transcribed from Pentangle's "Early Classics"
by Doug Johnson, October 2002

As I did travel all on a journey
Over the wayside and under a dark moon
Hanging above a mountain

I spied a young man riding a fine horse
Chasing a white hart and all through the woodland
Head of a hunting party

And there followed after ten kings and queens
Laughing and joking, the white hart they'd seen
Bloodied running into the bushes

A plume to his helmet, a quiver and a bow
There's nowhere to run now, there's no place to go
The hunt is cast and ready

Still farther I journeyed through the hills and the valleys
Until upon the verge of despair I sat and rested
And there did pass a princely knight poursuite by a lady
And this she did say:

"Oh may I ask you kind sir where you are going?
And pray tell unto me sir why you do hurry
Strange that I should meet you here, come sit by me.

"I have here a magic horn to deliver
And one drop from this silver and gold horn I hold, sir
Shall prove all to be false, lovers beware!"

"The gift that you bear for your brother the king
I gladly would carry to the banquet this even'
What fair sport this would be for the maidens at court."

Wearily I crossed the stream to the castle
Where I found shelter from the cold wintry wind
And food did I have and plenty
But the Lord and Lady seemed so sad
For these words they did say unto each other:

"My good lord, all off to war in thy armor
Leaving me here alone to weep and to worry
Take care lest misadventure
Shall overcome thy kindly heart
My good lord, all off to war in thy armor."

"My lady, you have no need for to worry
I'll return victorious and true unto thee
Take care, lest misadventure
Shall stain your heart and lead to woe
My fair lady you have no need for to worry."

. . . la la la . . .

While underneath the spreading oak
A knight with white device
Upon a shield of black,
And deep in grief and sorrow sings
His unrequited love

"Young noblewoman riding by,
Pray tell me have you seen
Queen Azelda the fairest maid,
In company she rides
For I swear to have revenge."

A thousand days have come and passed,
The Lord returns this night
The victor from the bloody wars
Proven his fearsome might
As ever he would claim

But fate has played its wanton game,
The circle come full turn
The magic horn has done its work,
Cried "Falseness is found out!"
The sorrowed quest is over.

~ ~ ~

As I understand from the LP jacket, the song was based on the story of the journey of the magic horn prepared by Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's sorceress half-sister. The horn could not be drunk from by an adulteress without spilling wine therefrom. She sent one of her knights with the horn to Camelot where she hoped to lay a trap for Queen Guinnevere (cheating with Sir Lancelot), but the horn was side-tracked by Sir Lamarok to King Mark's Cornish court where it was drunk from by Queen Isolde (who had been two-timing with Sir Tristram) and all the other ladies at court (few passed the test). The Book of Sir Tristram of Lyoness in Le Morte d'Arthur has the tale. Knights of the Round Table kind of stuff. Fake traditional, but effective.

The La-La part is a wordless version of a traditional round known at one time... in the eastern U.S. and probably of English origin.

Also, the song is hard to figure out because the values of courtly love and martial behavior have been suppressed by cultural changes in the last 40 years. People tend to divorce rather than kill adulterers.