The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #139458 Message #3199882
Posted By: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
01-Aug-11 - 02:16 PM
Thread Name: Obit: John Barleycorn
Subject: RE: Obit: John Barleycorn
In the sequence of the usual song they actually pronounce him dead after they've buried him rather than at the point of the harvest which is only the beginning of his passion. At this time of year I generally sing Raymond Greenoaken's setting of the George Mackay Brown poem which kills him right off thus:
One day they brought a cruel knife Oh I am weary and forlorn, And they struck him at his golden prayer And killed my priest John Barleycorn
The rest is just gratuitous corpse-bothering by way of threshing, brewing, baking which all serves for the ultimate end of getting the girl. So is the harvest the end or simply a means to an end? It's all things to all people, Pagans and Poets alike, and us lesser souls for who can't through that lovely old Gnostic hymn We Plough the Fields and Scatter for blubbing.