The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62948   Message #3230146
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
27-Sep-11 - 04:41 PM
Thread Name: Origins: The Rosabella
Subject: RE: Origins: The Rosabella
Tangential question:
Is there any fascination with the name "Rosabella" for vessels? I recently learned the Swedish sailor song (claimed as a shanty) "Rosabella Fredolin". I would not have thunk anything of it, but after poking into the origins, I found it was a revamp of the Italian song "O pescator dell'onda" (O fisherman of the waves). The latter has a nonsense (??) refrain of "fidolin". I'm no expert on the song, but it looks to me that when the song was adapted (either through translation or with entirely new lyrical theme) into German and Swedish, the refrain became "Rosabella Fridolin." I was struck by the addition of "Rosabella."

Any thoughts on why "Rosabella"? Again, this is just a little thread drift, sorry.
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Also, incidentally, any ideas on the origin of Hugill's "Arabella"? Would it just be "folk processed" form of Rosabella, or is "Arabella" a legit name? I wonder too, if this might have been a song where it was pretty common to use the name of any vessel (as in Charlie and Roll & Go's instance, above). Just rambling...