The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7985   Message #48563
Posted By: Johannes Grob
08-Dec-98 - 10:35 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Siul a Ruin
Subject: Lyrics: Suil a Ruin
Hello,

I am looking for the lyrics of "Suil a Ruin" everywhere but cannot find them.
If you have them, would you please mail them to me?
My email-adress is: Johannes.Grob@FH-Fulda.de

Thank you.

Johannes Grob

Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)

DESCRIPTION: The girl laments for her love, sent (to France) as a soldier. She says she will cry till "every tear would turn a mill." She will sell her spinning wheel to arm him. She will dye her clothes red and "round the world... beg for bread" till he returns
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892
KEYWORDS: loneliness separation foreignlanguage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Belden, pp. 281-282, "Shule Aroon" (1 text)
Randolph 107, "Shule, Shule" (3 texts, 1 tune, though "A" is mixed with "Ease that Trouble in the Mind" or "The Swapping Boy" or some such, "B" is a nonsense fragment, and "C" is largely floating material); also probably the "A" fragment of 455, "When I Get on Yonder Hill" (2 texts)
Eddy 40, "Putnam's Hill" (3 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes)
BrownII 127, "Shule Aroon" (1 fragment, so short that it might just be nonsense though it is probably this song)
Hudson 130, pp. 275-276, "Shule Aron" (1 text, short and even more damaged than usual, to which is prefixed the rhyme "Snail, snail, come out of your hole, Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal.")
Scott-BoA, pp. 32-35, "Siubhal a Gradh (Come, My Love, Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FSUSA 35, "Johnny Has Gone far a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 20, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 298-299, "Shoo, Shoo, Shoo-lye" (1 text, 1 tune)
BBI, ZN199 "As from Newcastle I did pass" (listed as "Traditional? Ancestor of Scots 'Dicky Macphalion' and Irish 'Shule Aroon'")
Silber-FSWB, p. 280, "Buttermilk Hill" (1 text)
DT, SHULARN1* (SHULARN2*) SHULARN3 SHULARN4
Roud #911
RECORDINGS:
Pearl Jacobs Borusky, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" (AFS, 1940; on LC55)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Shule Aroon" (on FSB1)
Chubby Parker, "Bib-A-Lollie-Boo" (Gennett 6077/Silvertone 5012, 1927) (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" (on PeteSeeger31)
Art Thieme, "Bibble-a-la-doo" (on Thieme04)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Song of the Pinewoods" (floating lyrics)
Notes: In its earliest forms this song seems to have been simply a girl's lament for her departed lover. In many American versions (Randolph's 107 A and C, Eddy's D) we find unrelated stanzas about the girl's "very cross" father.
Scott (following Joyce) theorizes that the song arises out of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Irish supported James II, and were defeated at the Boyne. William III, who defeated James, offered forgiveness to the rebels who would swear loyalty to him, but many preferred exile. The only evidence for this theory, at least in English versions, seems to be the lines "But now my love has gone to France, To try his fortune to advance...."
It's hard to tell how much of this song was originally Gaelic. Although there are Gaelic choruses (e.g. from Barry, in JAFL XXII 15; Connie Dover's modern recording is as close to this as makes no difference), I've never heard a truly traditional Gaelic verse, and even the chorus is usually only a mangled imitation of Gaelic. (Of course, it doesn't help that Gaelic spelling is far from standardized.) - RBW
The Thieme recording retains only the tune, chorus and two verses of "Shule Agra"; otherwise, it's humorous floaters. - PJS
File: R107

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And the entry from folktrax.org: