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Hmmm. You'd think we'd have more versions of this. Jean, please post what you have if it's different from what we have. I found this version on a CD I picked up recently. Any others?
-Joe Offer-
TWA MAGICIANS
She looked out of the window
As white as any milk
He looked out of the window
As black as any silk
Refrain
"Hello, hello, hello, hello
You coal black smith
You have done me no harm
You never shall have me maidenhead
That I have kept so long
I'd rather die a maid-o,"
And then she said,
"And be buried all in me grave,
Than to have such a nasty,
Husky, dusty, fussy, musty
Coal black smith!
A maiden I shall die!"
She became a hare,
A hare all on the plain,
And he became a good greyhound
And fetched her back again.
Refrain
She became a duck,
A duck all on the stream
And he became a water-dog
And fetched her back again
Refrain
She became a fly
A fly all in the air
And he became a spider
And carried her to his lair
Refrain
She became a dove
A dove all in the air
And he became another dove
And they flew pair in pair
Refrain
She became a plaid
A plaid all on the bed
And he became a coverlet
And gained her maidenhead
Refrain
As recorded by Nancy Thym on "If I Had Wings Like Noah's Dove," Thym's notes say her version came from the singing of a blacksmith named Mr. Sparks, Minehead, Somerset, August 8, 1904.
Child #44^^
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:
Twa Magicians, The [Child 44]
DESCRIPTION: A (blacksmith) sees a girl who pleases him, and sets out to sleep with her. She tries to foil him with magic transformations, but he proves as sorcerous as she, and gains her maidenhead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1828 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: magic seduction rape shape-changing
FOUND IN: Britain(England,(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Child 44, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Bronson 44, "The Twa Magicians" (1 version plus 11 versions of "Hares on the Mountain")
GreigDuncan2 334, "The Twa Magicians" (1 fragment)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 442-445, "The Two Magicians" (notes plus a copy of Buchan's text and a stanza of "Hares on the Mountain")
Leach, pp. 152-154, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
PBB 25, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 20, "The Two Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DBuchan 47, "The Twa Magicians" (1 text)
DT 44, MAGICN2*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, p. 40, "The Two Magicians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1350
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Two Magicians" (on Lloyd3, BirdBush1, BirdBush2) [tune by Lloyd]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain" (theme)
cf. "Les Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses)" (theme)
NOTES: Sharp bowdlerizes "gain my maidenhead" to "change my maiden name" (!) -PJS
Bronson believes that the ballad "Hares on the Mountain" is a very-much-worn-down version of this piece. This is, at best, currently beyond proof; personally, I don't believe it.
The idea of gaining a lover who is changing shape has ancient roots. We find it in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," where Peleus (the father of Achilles) finds Thetis in a cave and attempts to couple with her. To defeat him, she turns into a bird, a tree, and a tigress. The latter scares him off, but eventually he catches her while asleep (XI.225ff.). And Zeus, of course, used myriad guises to gain access to women. For other examples, see Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p. 138.
Bob Stewart, p. 41, proposes an alternate explanation, that the song derives from early Christian legends of saints combatting shape-changing priests. In medieval Catholic England, it is true that these stories would likely have been better-known than Ovid. But the parallels are less close. In any case, it seems to me there are plenty of shape-changing tales in folklore which might provide the root of this song!
Lyle, p. 81, suggests that this is a "levelling" ballad, with the low-status blacksmith pursuing a member of (presumably) the gentry or even the nobility. Unfortunately, with so few substantial British texts to work from, I think this has to remain speculation. She also suggests (p. 82) that the song is a "conception story"-- that is, a tale of how some significant figure came to be born. I agree that it has many of the hallmarks of such a tale, but of course the drawback is that there is no hint in the extant versions that the lady becomes pregnant, let alone bears a noteworthy child. - RBW
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