The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #113369   Message #2500815
Posted By: Nerd
24-Nov-08 - 07:13 PM
Thread Name: Any info about the green man?
Subject: RE: Any info about the green man?
Update on two issues.

1) I have checked the Lady Raglan article, and she doesn't mention "Green George." So Johnson didn't get that from her. Either he had read Frazer's Golden Bough, or one of his other sources, such as Grigson, discusses "Green George."

2) Leeneia: Yes, interestingly, while listening to field recordings of a sailor born in the 1860s, I realized that he pronounced the word "wind" (as in "wind and weather") with a long i, to rhyme with "mind." He did this not only in songs, but in regular speech. He was born either in Maine or in Nova Scotia, but spent most of his life in British colonies such as Sudan, Rhodesia and India, so I don't know exactly where he picked up this pronunciation. But it was apparently normal for some people as late as the late 19th century.